How did we get from this staid English hymn writer
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| Philip Doddridge (1702-1751) Hymn writer & Congregationalist minister |
to "O Happy Day" by the Edwin Hawkins Singers,
international hit in 1969?
Listen, my children, and you shall hear.
Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), an English
Nonconformist minister and hymnwriter,
composed a hymn
titled "O happy day that fixed my choice"
based on Acts 8:26-40, in which a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
hears the good news of Jesus from the apostle Philip.
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| The South African Youth Choir in 2010 |
In 1755 Doddridge's words were set to a 1704 melody by J.A. Freylinghausen, a German priest and director of orphanages, who wrote 44 hymns and published hymn books. His most popular collection, known as Freylinghausen's Songbook, included "O happy day that fixed my choice."
A century and a half later, an English organist of French Huguenot descent Edward F. Rimbault, wrote a new melody for the song and added a chorus. His version published in 1854 became popular, especially at baptisms and confirmations.
In 1967 the gospel musician Edwin Hawkins recorded a new gospel-style arrangement of "Oh Happy Day," which with lead singer Dorothy Morrison became an international hit in 1969.
And that, my children, is how an English hymn from 1755 came to be introduced as "an American traditional song" when sung by 27,000 people in Riga, Latvia, in 2014 at the World Choir Games, the world's largest choir competition.
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