“Do you hear what I Hear?” is a popular very widely heard and remembered Christmas song. A song with a message more than the sounds of Christmas and with a context of the time it was written.
The song was composed by Gloria Shayne Baker and written by Noel Regney (which is honestly a great first name for someone writing a Christmas song) in 1962. Usually when these two did music it was the other way around with him composing and her writing the lyrics. October of 1962 timing means alot to the song’s message when the heat of the Cuban Missile crisis was on and there’s anguish and worry on if there could be a nuclear war at some point.
“Said the night wind to the little lamb” – the first line to the song was inspired by Regney seeing two mothers pushing a stroller in New York City.
“En route to my home, I saw two mothers with their babies in strollers. The little angels were looking at each other and smiling.” This inspired the first line of the song: “Said the night wind to the little lamb … ”
The song’s lyrical structure is built in such away where it seems to be a message being passed on from angels to a Shepard boy , to a ‘mighty king’ , and finally the king to people everywhere.
Said the king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say
Pray for peace people everywhere
“Pray for people people everywhere” again shows that hint to the cold war and the missile crisis that maybe there’s a plea for peace , and you pray for it.
The song was originally recorded by the Harry Simeone Chorale , who also were the group for the first recording of “The Little Drummer Boy”. It was released on Thanksgiving of 1962.
Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? , Do you know what I know? Each stanza has different appeal. Asking the lamb to look in the sky, the Shepard boy to listen , the king to know what the boy knows. But the king’s response stanza doesn’t ask a question , it commands – “Listen to what I say”.
more after the jump
While it’s lyrical context can also be said to be what you might assume the song to be, the Christmas story. “A star, a star Dancing in the night”, “Said the little lamb to the shepard boy” , ” A child, a child Shivers in the cold Let us bring him silver and gold Let us bring him silver and gold.”, and “The child, the child Sleeping in the night He will bring us goodness and light He will bring us goodness and light”. Pretty much a strong sense of the Christmas Story.
In October of 1963 , Bing Crosby’s version of the song made the song an international hit. The first version by the Harry Simeone Chorale is more acapella sounding that just happens to have instruments in the background. It starts off kind of “humble” when it starts with night wind to the lamb , kind of whisper feeling to the music and voices. Same when the lamb talks to the shepard. When the shepard talks to the the king it gets a little louder and the music gets higher. When the king is talking to the people everywhere the whisper tone is gone and the music and singing gets more grand to fit a king ,you could say. Crosby’s version starts with a “whisper” like tone with a chorus providing the repeating and the backing sound. On the “Voice as big as the sea” line the music does swell up a little higher — fitting a Voice as big as the sea. When it gets to the King’s part the music once again gets more dramatic and grand as Crosby and the chorus raise their voices more and more grand. Like a king would sound addressing subjects.
The song’s message of peace is there to say that cold war and even more the missile crisis that maybe we as people need to take the message of Christmas with “Peace on Earth ” as something that can be lived by all of us. The lyrics mentioning “people everywhere” points that out. Everywhere and everyone should pray for peace and tying it back to the Christmas story that a story of a humble birth on a peaceful night would bring “goodness and light”.
The song’s peace message is as timeless as being a Christmas message because you can in place it to any time where the world feels un peaceful and dangerous that it’s something that has yet to be done, a peaceful earth.
It’s been recorded by multiplier different artists who and it has mostly kept it’s feelings even if it’s not being sung in the same context as when missiles were being pointed at the country. It’s proven it’s staying power.
mychiller Extra 
Posted on December 2, 2017
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