Bless This House

Words and Music by Helen Taylor and May H. Morgan ( a.k.a. Brahe ), 1927

 

With Mixed Chorus and Women's Choir

Conducted by Mitchell Ayres

with Organ Accompaniment by Charles Marie Courboin

 

Recorded at The Academy of Arts & Letters, New York City

Produced by Charles Grean

Recording Time 2:51

 

Recorded June 26th, 1950  ~  Matrix No. E0VB - 4938  Take 1

Recorded June 29th, 1950  ~  Matrix No. E0VB - 4938  Take 1A

Single release: RCA-78RPM-20-3850-A

RCA-45RPM 47-3850 ( 1950 )

Single Flip Side: "The Rosary"

 

Discos RCA Victor Argentina: RCA 63-0229

Single Flip Side: "The Rosary"

 

RCA Gold Standard Series  78/45-RPM-420/447-0104

Single Flip Side: "The Rosary"

 

Album issue: RCA-45RPM-EP "Favorite Songs of Worship" EPA-293 MONO 1952

Album issue: RCA-LP12 "I Believe" LPM-1172 MONO 1956

Album issue: RCA-45RPM EP  "I Believe" EPB-1172 MONO 1956

Album: RCA-AUSTRALIA EP GOLD STANDARD "Bless this House" RCA-20033 MONO

Album issue: RCA-45RPM EP  "Perry Como Highlighter" SPD-28 MONO 1957

Album reissue: RCA-LP12 "I Believe" LPE-1172 ELECTRONIC STEREO 1961

Album: RCA-UK EP "I Believe" RCX-161 MONO U/K

Album issue: Box Set "The Best of Perry Como" RD UK STEREO GBPC-6A 1971

Album re-issue: Pure Gold-LP12 "I Believe" ANL1- 1137 (e) ELECTRONIC STEREO 1975

Album issue: RCA-LP12 "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Forever" AYL1-4526 MONO 1982

 

 

 

 

'My oldest is 36', Perry noted recently, 'but when either of us enters or leaves a house, we hug and kiss. We all do. I think husbands and wives, parents and children, should always show their love for each other.' And more than any other song in this album, 'Bless This House' displays clearly the sincerity and depth of Perry's feelings about home and family life. It dates back to 1927, when two Englishwomen, poetess Helen Taylor and composer May H. Brae, published a hymn called 'Bless the House'. Irish tenor John McCormack heard their song , liked it, added it to his repertoire and started it on the road to popularity. But first he suggested that the title and words be changed to the way this favourite is sung today.

 

( notes from "The Incomparable Como" Readers Digest UK compilation 1975 )

 

Notes: ~ This spiritual song from England has had popular recordings by Risë Stevens on Columbia, Eileen Farrell on Decca and Mahalia Jackson on Apollo. This song has been a perennial favourite of Mr. Como, which was recorded for his 1952 45RPM Extended Play album "Perry Como Sings His Favorite Songs of Worship" and later included within the 1956 expanded version of "I Believe" re-released in the 12" long play format. The same recording was re-released thirty years later within his 1982 Christmas compilation "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Forever" first on vinyl and then on compact disc. He performed "Bless this House" several times on his television specials but most memorably on his 1980 Christmas Special filmed in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Galilee ( Christmas In the Holy Land ) with special guest Richard Chamberlain.

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