Included as part of the medley within
Perry's recording of "The First Christmas", believed
to have been
recorded at the Manhattan Center, New York City ( not confirmed ). Story adapted by
John A.
Richards Recording Time 7:00 ( approx. ) Told and Sung by Perry Como
and
recorded as
Part 1 and Part 2 ~ Perry Como tells the Complete Story of
the First Christmas and Sings beloved
Christmas songs With Chorus & Orchestra under the
direction of Mitchell Ayres
Notes: ~ This popular Christmas
carol was written by Phillips Brooks and Lewis H. Redner
in 1868. Brooks,
pastor of the Holy Trinity Church in
Philadelphia, visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem in December
1865.
Three years later the impressions of Bethlehem
remained clear in his mind. In early December 1868,
Brooks
wrote a five-stanza poem (modern hymnals omit the
third stanza) about Bethlehem. He asked his church
organist and Sunday school superintendent, Lewis Redner,
to write music to the poem. Redner wrote the
music on the
night of December 26-27, 1868. That Sunday morning (the
27th), "O Little Town of Bethlehem"
was sung
for the first time by a chorus composed of six Sunday
school teachers and thirty-six children.
Originally,
Brooks called his Christmas carol "St. Louis" -
a different spelling of Lewis Redner's first name.
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