| "Mary's Boy Child" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 German single sleeve | ||||
| Single byHarry Belafonte | ||||
| from the albumAn Evening with Belafonte | ||||
| B-side | "Venezuela" | |||
| Released | December 1956 | |||
| Recorded | July 1956[1] | |||
| Studio | Grand Ballroom,Webster Hall,New York City | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:20 (album version; UK single version)[4][5] 2:53 (US single version)[5] | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Songwriter | Jester Hairston | |||
| Harry Belafonte singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Mary's Boy Child", also known as "Mary's Little Boy Child", is a 1956Christmas song written byJester Hairston.[6] It is widely performed as aChristmas carol.
The song had its genesis when Hairston was sharing a room with a friend. The friend asked him to write a song for a birthday party.[7] Hairston wrote the song with acalypso rhythm because the people at the party would be mainlyWest Indians. The song's original title was "He Pone and Chocolate Tea", pone being a type ofcorn bread.[7] It was never recorded in this form.
Some time laterWalter Schumann, at the time conducting Schumann's Hollywood Choir, asked Hairston to write a new Christmas song for his choir. Hairston remembered the calypso rhythm from his old song and wrote new lyrics for it.[7]
Harry Belafonte heard the song being performed by the choir and sought permission to record it.[7] It was recorded in 1956[1] and released as a single that year.[5] Belafonte released it again the following year in 1957 on his albumAn Evening with Belafonte, using a different, longer take.[4][5] This longer version was also released in the UK as a single[8] (with a B-side of "Eden Was Just Like This"),[9] where it became the first UK number one to have a playing time of over four minutes.[10] It reached No. 1 on theUK Singles Chart in November 1957,[6][8][10] and has since sold over 1.19 million copies there.[11]
In 1962, the full-length version was also added to a re-issue of Belafonte's previously released albumTo Wish You a Merry Christmas. Belafonte re-recorded the song with the London Symphony Orchestra and the American Boy Choir for Hallmark'sThe Tradition of Christmas in 1991.
Similarly, the song was arranged for chorus and recorded by the conductorLeonard De Paur forColumbia Records on the albumCalypso Christmas in 1956 (Columbia, CL 923 Mono LP, 1956).[12]
One of the best-knowncover versions of the song is from the German-based disco-groupBoney M. from 1978, "Mary's Boy Child – Oh My Lord."[13] This version returned the song to the top of the UK chart.[6] It is one of the best-selling singles of all time in the UK, and has sold 1.87 million copies as of November 2015.[11]
When Hairston found out how well the Boney M version had done, he said: "God bless my soul. That's tremendous for an old fogey like me".[7] He was 78 at the time.
The song has been recorded twice byAndy Williams; once on his 1965 albumMerry Christmas and again on his 1997 albumWe Need A Little Christmas. It has also been recorded byThe Four Lads in 1956[14] andMahalia Jackson in the late 1950s,[15] and the Harry Simeone Chorale (1965) all three under the titleMary's Little Boy Chile. Other recordings include The Gospel Clefs in (1973),Evie (1977),Anne Murray,The Brothers Four, Greg MacDonald,The Lettermen (1966),The Merrymen,Jim Reeves (1963),Rolf Harris (1970),Roger Whittaker, TheLittle River Band,The Three Degrees, The Pete King Chorale,Nina & Frederik,Carola,Vikingarna,Kiri Te Kanawa (1984),José Mari Chan (1990),Al Bano and Romina Power (1991), De Nattergale (1991),Tom Jones (1993),Jose Feliciano,John Denver (1990), Cranberry Singers (1998), and the cast ofGlee (2013),RJ Jacinto (2015),Harry Connick Jr,Bryn Terfel,Connie Talbot and many others.The Bee Gees recorded the song as part of a medley with "Silent Night" for their 1968 albumHorizontal, although it was only officially released as a bonus track in 2006. The track is erroneously titled "Silent Night/Hark the Herald Angels Sing."[16]
The song was also included on the 1991 live concertA Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert, featuringKathleen Battle,Frederica von Stade andWynton Marsalis.[citation needed]
Additional covers include a version by Charlotte Church as the fifth track on her 2000 albumDream a Dream,[17]the Australian pop group Hi-5, released in 1998, a version byits American counterpart, released in 2005 but recorded in 2004,The Wiggles on their 2004 albumSanta's Rockin';Juice Newton's folk-rock version on her 2007The Gift of Christmas;Mandisa on her 2008 albumIt's Christmas;Paul Poulton's reggae version on his 2008 albumGrooves 4 Scrooge;Daniel O'Donnell on his 2010 albumO Holy Night; andJoe McElderry on his 2011 albumClassic Christmas.
In 2012, the Portuguese priest António Cartageno made a choral arrangement for the song.
Translated versions include"Hankien Joulu" recorded byGeorg Malmstén,"Kauan Sitten Beetlehem" recorded by Petri Laaksonen (fi),"Marian Poika" byTarja Turunen,"Varje människa har ett ljus" recorded byJan Malmsjö,[18]"...und Frieden für die Welt" byRolf Zuckowski,"Maria's Kind" byLa Esterella,"Bethlehem" byRob de Nijs,"Det hände sig för länge sen" recorded byKikki Danielsson on her 1987 Christmas albumMin barndoms jular,[19]"Det hände sig för länge sen" recorded byStefan Borsch on his 1981 Christmas albumI kväll jag tänder ett ljus,[20]"Himlens hemlighet" recorded byTommy Körberg and"Du är som en sommardag" by dance bandSchytts. The Schytts version was in the Swedish chartSvensktoppen for 10 weeks in 1979, where it peaked at No. 1.[21] "Ang Batang Hesus" by mayor_junneil (Filipino). TheSinhala translation is "Kalakata Pera e Bethleheme"Sinhala:"කලකට පෙර ඒ බෙත්ලෙහෙමේ".
The words and music featured on aminiature sheet issued with the 1983Christmas stamps of the Caribbean island ofSt Kitts,[22] while the adjacent island ofNevis issued a complementary sheet featuring the "Calypso Carol".
The tune is used as the basis for a widespreadchant used inBritish football usually referencing a particular team's closest rivals and the historical boxing dayderby games that took place until the 1980s.[23]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Mary's Boy Child (4:20). RCA-LPM-1402 'An Evening With Belafonte', Matrix Nos: G2PP-9882 / 9883, [recorded in:] 1956 [as a] 33 rpm LP. (Note about 'LPM' (33 rpm Long-Play Monaural Record): RCA assigned this prefix to their early LPs which were all monaural (or single channel) recordings... up until 1962)
Mary's Boy Child, 2:53, released in 1956, RCA Catogue number: 47-6735, RCA Matrix Number: G2PW-4902. (Note: [An] alternate take of Mary's Boy Child [was] chosen for release on single because of the shorter duration. The corresponding LP track was concert length.)
Title: Mary's Boy Child. Artist: Harry Belafonte. Label: RCA. RCA Record Catalogue Number: 1022. First charted: 07.11.1957. Chart run [at number one]: Weeks ending 1957/11/28 through 1958/01/09
...[it was] the first ever British #1 record to have a playing time of more than four minutes (4:12). This stayed at #1 in the UK for seven weeks before becoming the only song to drop from #1 straight out of Top 10 the following week (after Christmas, when it tumbled from #1 to #12). The song returned to the charts the next two years at Christmas, going to #10 in 1958 and #30 in 1959.
Mary's Boy Child has hit Christmas Number 1 twice by separate artists: Boney M's disco-lite version from 1978... with 1.89 million sales. Harry Belafonte's version is at 14, from 1957, on 1.19 million.
