Last week I shared a video of the Little Drummer Boy”- which I believe is regarded as not just a Christmas song, but as a Christmas carol. Apparently, the difference is that Christmas carols have Christian lyrics, while Christmas songs are secular.

I remember Crofton School Carol Services being held at Holy Rood and a favourite carol being “When a Child is Born.”

Here is some more information about this beautiful song which I hope you enjoy listening to via the video clip.

The original melody of “When a Child is Born” is “Soleado“, a tune from 1974 by Ciro Dammicco (alias Zacar), composer for Italy’s Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble, and Dario Baldan Bembo. The tune was based on Damicco’s earlier tune “Le rose blu” published in 1972. The English language lyrics were written a few years later by Fred Jay (Friedrich Alex Jacobson  who wrote many hits for Boney M, such as Rasputin and Ma Baker). Fred Jay’s lyrics have been sung by many artists, most successfully by Johnny Mathis in 1976, whose version was the Christmas number one in the UK.

Just out of interest you might like to know that Johnny Mathis is still alive aged 85 and that he was a star athlete at George Washington High School in San Francisco. He was a high jumper and hurdler, and he played on the basketball team. In 1954, he enrolled at San Francisco State College on an athletic scholarship, intending to become an English teacher and a physical education teacher. While there, Mathis set a high-jump record of 6′-5 1/2″ [1.97 m]. This is still one of the college’s top jump heights and was only 7 cm [two inches] short of the 1952 Olympic record of 2.04 m at the time.

Quote for the week

Whoever loves money never has money enough

Ecclesiastes 5:10

Steven Furtick