OH HAPPY DAY
“Oh Happy Day” is a 1967 gospel music arrangement of an 18th-century hymn. Recorded by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, it became an international hit in 1969, reaching No. 4 on the US Singles Chart, No. 1 in France, Germany and the Netherlands, and No. 2 on both the UK singles chart and Irish Singles Chart. It has since become a gospel music standard. (More from Wikipedia)
The hit song from the George Harrison triple album All Things Must Pass is “My Sweet Lord”; it was the first #1 hit by an ex-Beatle and was also the biggest selling single in the UK in 1971. The song was addressed to the Hindu God Krishna, though American audiences at least could be forgiven for feeling that Harrison was singing to Jesus. The thrust of the song was calling for an end to sectarianism through the mixing of background chants of “Hare Krishna” with “Hallelujah”. While George Harrison said that the melody was adapted from a Christian hymn “Oh Happy Day” (whose copyright had expired), a court case brought by the writer of a song by the Chiffons called “He’s So Fine” found otherwise. I have written in more detail of this court case previously.
(September 2014)
