How Sweet the Sound! - The Story Of Amazing Grace

 

From Milton Keynes to Manhattan - How a 250-Year-Old Hymn Became the Biggest Hit of 1972

by Stuart Penney

For a couple of years in the early 70s it seemed like you could hardly move without hearing “Amazing Grace.”  From Judy Collins to Aretha Franklin; Rod Stewart to Andy Williams; Elvis Presley to the Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, artists of all stripes tackled the venerable tune, leading to dozens of wildly different recordings.  So popular did it become that, between 1970 and 1972, two versions of the song spent a total of 94 weeks in the UK singles charts between them.

But why did a 250-year-old hymn suddenly become ubiquitous?  It’s a timeless, almost perfect melody, of course, and in America the song had long been linked with the Vietnam anti-war movement and civil rights in general.  But one of the key reasons we saw so many versions around the world in such a short period of time was a little less romantic.  It was because “Amazing Grace” was not protected by copyright.  

Any piece of music published before 1925 is now in the public domain and exclusive intellectual property rights (usually) do not apply.  That meant anyone could record “Amazing Grace” in any style they saw fit without paying composer or publishing royalties.  In addition, at a time when people still bought physical sheet music in great numbers, any publisher was free to print and sell their own arrangement of the words and music, and very many did.

A similar thing happened in 1973 when The Sting movie, set in 1936, revived interest in ragtime piano in general and the music of Scott Joplin in particular. Although Joplin's 44 ragtime works didn't enter the public domain until years later, the rush to cover his music began here.

Best of all, the arranger of a traditional piece (usually the performer) could then be credited and receive mechanical and performance royalties. This neat fiscal loophole occasionally proved contentious, however.  One notable example occurred in 1964 when the Animals recorded the traditional song “House of the Rising Sun,” turning it into the first worldwide folk-rock hit.  When the single was released the band were nonplussed to see the song credited “Trad. Arr. A. Price” on the label.  Without their knowledge keyboardist Alan Price had named himself as the arranger, thus receiving a higher royalty rate than the other members.  This caused huge resentment and within a year Price left the Animals to pursue a solo career. 

In the modern era (if we can refer to the 1970s as such), it was probably Judy Collins who prompted the scramble to record “Amazing Grace” with her ethereal 1971 hit single.  But before we examine just a few of the many and varied versions which followed Judy’s recording, we must travel back 250 years to the small English town of Olney in Buckinghamshire.

John Newton - engraving by Joseph Collyer

 

Located just a few miles from today’s modern city* of Milton Keynes, Olney was home to John Newton (1725-1807) a retired sea captain and, for much of his life, an active participant in the transatlantic slave trade.

*Editor's Note: the much-maligned Milton Keynes was finally awarded city status in 2022 as part of the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

In later years Newton turned to Christianity and was ordained as an Anglican cleric.  Seeing the error of his ways and wracked with guilt over the unspeakable human suffering he had profited from, he became a passionate campaigner for abolition, publishing the pamphlet Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade, copies of which were sent to every British member of parliament.  Newton also became a powerful ally of key abolitionist William Wilberforce and lived just long enough to see the passing of the Slave Trade Abolition Act of March 1807, the year of his death. 

John Newton's tomb in Olney

On New Year’s Day 1773 John Newton gave a sermon which ended with a hymn he had written titled “Faith’s Review and Expectation.”  The opening verse of the hymn read:

Amazing Grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind, but now I see

At that point the hymn most likely existed in text form only and was probably simply chanted by the congregation, or possibly even sung to the melody of another popular religious song.  It first appeared in print in 1779 in the collection Olney Hymns in Three Books, together with contributions from Newton’s friend and fellow Olney resident, poet and hymnwriter William Cowper (1731-1800).  The collection contained 67 hymns by Cowper, and 281 by Newton, including “Glorious Things Of Thee Are Spoken” and “How Sweet The Name Of Jesus Sounds.”

The well-known line “God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform” first appeared in Cowper’s poem “Light Shining Out of Darkness.”  He also coined other phrases which are still part of the language today such as “I am monarch of all I survey” and “Variety’s the very spice of life,” to name just a few.

The Olney Hymns Page 53 - Amazing Grace

  

And there it might have ended, with Newton’s hymn seemingly destined for noble obscurity in Britain.  But over in America it was a very different story and there the hymn took on a life of its own.  In 1789, just ten years after publication, the words appeared in a Reformed Dutch Church hymnal in New York.  Before the end of the 18th century Olney Hymns in Three Books had appeared in print in New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Virginia.  By now using the revised title “Amazing Grace” taken from the opening line, it became a hugely popular evangelical song in the Reform, Baptist, and Congregationalist churches where, over the following 20 years, it was published with added verses and a variety of melodies, including “Hephzibah” by John Jenkins Husband, which was used in 1808.  

John Newton wrote a total of six verses but only four are usually sung.  John P. Rees (1828-1900) is sometimes credited as the author of a seventh verse which begins “When we’ve been there ten thousand years,” but there is some debate as to whether Rees was the true author.  The verse became associated with “Amazing Grace” after Harriett Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) included two of Newton’s verses followed by the “When we’ve been there” verse in her 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  See below for the full lyrics.

By 1835 the words had been matched with an existing tune “New Britain” by composer William Walker (1809-1875), which is the melody we know and love today.  Walker published the words and music in a famous book of hymns entitled The Southern Harmony*.  This collection was reprinted four times during his lifetime, selling an estimated 600,000 copies.

The Cowper & Newton Museum in Olney

Ed. Note: The Black Crowes named their second album The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion after this song anthology.

Some claim that “New Britain,” based on the pentatonic scale and originally using only the five notes found on the black keys of the piano is, itself, a variation of a traditional Scottish folk melody which arrived in America during European settlement.  Other famous songs including “Danny Boy” have evolved in a similar way with the lyrics developing independently from the tune and the two coming together later.  By the time of the Civil War (1861-1885) “Amazing Grace” had become arguably the best-known Christian hymn in America. 

The first commercial recording is thought to be by the Original Sacred Harp Choir which appeared in 1922 as part of a series of recordings on the Brunswick label.  Hear it on YouTube here .

Other early recordings featured African American “singing preachers” as they were known, who often prefaced it with a short statement on the religious significance of the song.  Today, the US Library of Congress in Washington DC has an estimated 3,000 published performances of “Amazing Grace” in its collection, including literally dozens of field recordings captured in the 1930s and 40s, many of them unreleased until much later.  

During the 50s the song moved into black gospel music and became associated with funeral and memorial services.  Gospel queen Mahalia Jackson recorded a 1947 version which she performed in concert and on civil rights marches in the early 60s. Her recording proved so popular it’s often credited with moving the song out of the churches and into popular consciousness.  “Amazing Grace” is often referred to as “America’s spiritual national anthem,” an unofficial title which probably began with Mahalia’s powerful performances. 

Sam Cooke’s erstwhile group the Soul Stirrers recorded a jaunty, up-tempo shuffle version on their 1962 album Encore with The Soul Stirrers (SAR LPM 504), although Sam was long gone from the group by the time this was released. 

During the 60s “Amazing Grace” became a staple of the folk and blues revival.  In 1964 Pete Seeger recorded a live singalong version with 5 string banjo accompaniment and two years later Fred McDowell cut a wonderfully rustic gospel blues interpretation with the Hunter's Chapel Singers of Como, Mississippi.  This recording was released in 1969 on an LP titled, appropriately, Amazing Grace (Testament T2219).  

Then, as the 1960s ended, the song began to drift into the pop mainstream.  It captured the public consciousness like few devotional tunes before it and for much of the 70s “Amazing Grace” was permanently on the radio and in the record stores, or so it seemed.  From long-haired hippies to grandparents who seldom bought records and everyone in between, there was seemingly a version to suit all tastes and every demographic.  Many major artists felt the need to record the song, or at least perform it in concert.  There have been literally hundreds of versions of “Amazing Grace” over the decades, here are just a few of the landmark recordings we heard in the 1970s. 

UK Release

The Great Awakening (1969)

Those who attended the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival will possibly remember being roused from their tents in the early mornings by a mantra-like fuzz guitar version of “Amazing Grace.”  Blasted over the festival PA at regular intervals by DJ Jeff Dexter, this obscure instrumental 45 was the solitary release by a hitherto unknown outfit called The Great Awakening.  

It transpired they were a trio of LA session players led by guitarist David Cohen, who played on records by Nilsson, Joe Cocker, Bobby Darin, Tim Hardin and Frank Sinatra.  At the time Cohen was often confused with the Country Joe & the Fish guitarist/keyboard player of the same name, but the two are seemingly unconnected.  The other musicians on the record were Joe Osborn (bass) and Jimmy Gordon* (drums).  

*Ed. Note: Jimmy Gordon may or may not be the drummer Jim Gordon who later worked with Derek & the Dominos.

Perhaps because 150,000 festival goers were exposed to it several times a day for almost a week, The Great Awakening single reached #43 in the Melody Maker Top 50, despite failing to make a dent in the national charts.  

US Release

While the musicians may have been anonymous, the term “Great Awakening” was well known in devout circles.  It refers to several periods of religious revival in American Christian history.  The idea of an "awakening" implies a slumber or passivity during secular or less religious times.  More recently, the idea of "awakenings" in US history has become associated with conservative American evangelicals.

This track is not on Spotify, so check it out on YouTube here .

UK Release

Arlo Guthrie (1969)

Just after midnight on August 16, 1969, at the tail end of Day One of the Woodstock Festival, a clearly well-refreshed Arlo Guthrie closed his seven-song set with “Amazing Grace.”  Following his now famous blissed-out monologue - “Like, I was rappin’ to the Fuzz, can you dig it?  New York State Thruway is closed, man!  Can you dig it?” etc - the performance was a little ragged and he struggled to hit the high notes.  But, as happened with several other artists, Woodstock massively boosted Guthrie’s profile and his popularity peaked over the next couple of years. 

A month after Woodstock, “Amazing Grace” reappeared in loose a cappella form on the soundtrack of Guthrie’s September 1969 movie Alice’s Restaurant.  The film was based around the 18-minute title track of his October 1967 Reprise debut album of the same name, which took up the whole of side one of the record.  

This was the time of the Vietnam War, and - spoiler alert - the movie depicts how, thanks to a minor littering offence, Arlo’s character avoids the military draft.  The film grossed US$6,300,000 in the US, making it the 23rd highest-grossing film of 1969.

US Release

US Release - Version 2

The soundtrack album, released on United Artists, was available with three different sleeve designs, two for N. America and a different one again for the UK. 

Judy Collins (1970)

The modern renaissance of “Amazing Grace” really began with Judy Collins and her eighth studio album Whales and Nightingales (Elektra EKS 75010).  Released in the US on November 15, 1970, the record was a mixture of traditional, self-penned and contemporary material by Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Jacques Brel and others.  It made the top 20 album chart in both the US and UK, becoming Judy’s biggest seller after 1967’s Wildflowers.  One of the newest songs on the LP was Bob Dylan’s “Time Passes Slowly.”  So new, in fact, it had been released only weeks earlier on Bob’s New Morning album, suggesting Judy had early access to the song. 

Mark Abramson, who had produced all Judy’s records since her 1963 third LP also supervised Whales and Nightingales.  Joining Elektra in 1958, he produced albums by the Butterfield Blues Band and Love and also directed early promotional films for The Doors, including “The Unknown Soldier” and “Break on Through”.  Scott Joplin aficionado Joshua Rifkin received arranger and conductor credits on three tracks, while John Nagy arranged strings on the Dylan song.  

The album title sprang jointly from the tracks “Farewell to Tarwathie” (a traditional song on which Judy sang to the accompaniment of humpback whales) and “Nightingale I & II”.  The use of whale song on “Farewell to Tarwathie” came hot on the heels of the 1970 album Songs of The Humpback Whale (Capitol ST 620) by Dr. Roger Payne, a bio-acoustician and member of the New York Zoological Society.  Payne’s field recording went on to sell 100,000 copies and is credited with kick-starting the “Save The Whale” awareness movement of the 70s. 

But it’s the closing track on Whales and Nightingales which concerns us here.  It was on a 1964 civil rights march in Mississippi that Collins became reacquainted with “Amazing Grace,” and she re-visited the song in 1970 during a time of personal struggle (Judy finally won her decades long battle with alcohol in 1988).  

Recorded at St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City, Judy’s otherworldly recording was performed a capella, accompanied by a choir comprising a group of friends and family.  Among them were her brother Denver and the actor Stacy Keach, whom she was dating at the time.

US Promo Release

Clearly the song remains close to Judy’s heart.  Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 programme Soul Music in 2001, she said this about “Amazing Grace.”  “You can carry the song with you like a worry bead or a stone, or something precious that you like to hold with you.  It’s like a piece of magic, really.  I’ve heard a number of people lately talk about taking the air and making something out of it.  That’s what’s happening when we all sing “Amazing Grace.”  Out of thin air comes this almost magical, almost fabric, that connects us all.”

UK Release

Collins released “Amazing Grace” as a US single b/w “Nightingale I” in December 1970, reaching the US top 20 in January 1971 and peaking at #15.  Issued in the UK on November 20, 1970, backed with Dylan’s “I Pity the Poor Immigrant” the single did a little better, reaching #5.  It re-entered the UK singles charts no fewer than seven times over the next two years spending 67 weeks there, which is longer than any other single by a female artist.

Rod Stewart (1971)

You had to search to find it, but this version of “Amazing Grace” appeared in May 1971 on Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story album.  Hidden away, uncredited, on the end of Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “That’s All Right” it was what we would later call a “secret track.”  Featuring some tasteful bottleneck guitar from Sam Mitchell, Rod’s version was charmingly simple, if a little perfunctory.  Mitchell (1950 - 2006) was a respected, if underrated, blues bottleneck guitarist from Liverpool who had also played with Long John Baldry and is said to have taught Mark Knopfler to play slide. 

Ironically, considering it was not even listed on the sleeve or label of most pressings of Every Picture Tells a Story (nor is it searchable today on Spotify), this version of “Amazing Grace” probably sold more copies than almost any other, including the Judy Collins hit recording.  On release, Rod’s LP topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, going on to sell close to two million copies worldwide.  

Tip: if you want to hear Rod’s version of “Amazing Grace” on Spotify, first search for “That’s All Right” and scroll through to 3:59.  Or listen to the whole thing, if you prefer.

“Amazing Grace” reappeared in Rod’s discography in late 1973 on the Faces album Live / Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners.  Recorded at the Anaheim Convention Center in October 1973, it was tacked on the end of a marathon version of “Borstal Boy” featuring Ron Wood on slide.  The sleeve notes humorously credited the song to “Traditional-Arr. D.Throat,” which was presumably a cheeky Faces-style reference to the Linda Lovelace pornographic film Deep Throat released in mid-1972.  Rod had previously done something similar on the sleeve notes for Every Picture Tells a Story where Ray Jackson, who played an absolute blinder on “Maggie May,” was casually dismissed with a tongue-in-cheek credit reading “the mandolin was played by the mandolin player in Lindisfarne.  The name slips my mind.”

Live / Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners was the last Faces album to be released while the band were still together and the only one to feature bassist Tetsu Yamauchi who replaced Ronnie Lane in 1973.

The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (1972)

My dad was born in April 1926 (within just a few days of The Queen, as he never tired of reminding us) and while he grudgingly tolerated my obsession with records and all things pop music related, he had little time for what he liked to call “the long-haired layabouts” he saw pictured on my LP sleeves or sometimes glimpsed on Top of the Pops.  It was a world he just didn’t understand.  His own record collection, such as it was, amounted to a few albums by Jim Reeves and Nat King Cole, plus a marching band 10” LP on Woolworth’s budget Embassy label.  

But one day in 1972, much to everyone’s surprise, he took me aside and quietly asked if I would buy “that bagpipes record they’re always playing on the radio” for him next time I went to the record store.  He was talking about “Amazing Grace” by The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.  

If the Judy Collins record had seamlessly crossed the dividing line from folk to pop, attracting an entirely new audience in the process, then the Pipes and Drums (to use their preferred title abbreviation) took it a stage further, resulting in a buying frenzy by mums and dads who found the sound of bagpipes irresistible, especially when performing such a hummable tune.  

This was reflected in the sales figures.  Along with the Judy Collins single, this was the only other charting version of “Amazing Grace,” reaching #11 in America and topping the charts in seven other countries, including Canada, Australia and the UK, where it became the biggest-selling single of 1972,* earning the Pipes and Drums a platinum disc (along with eight gold ones) for worldwide sales in excess of seven million.  It also featured in a key scene in the 1978 remake of the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  

Just to give an idea how wonderfully eclectic the British charts were in 1972:  on April 15 “Amazing Grace” replaced Harry Nilsson’s “Without You” at #1 and it was not dislodged from the top slot until “Metal Guru” by T. Rex took over five weeks later, on May 20.

The biggest selling UK single of 1972

 In what was surely the longest artist credit ever seen on a 7” hit single, the label read:

The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers & Greys) Bandmaster W.O.I.C.I. Herbert, Pipe Major W.O.II. J. Pryde.  Unfortunately, due to some sloppy research, the composer credit on the label was incorrectly shown as, simply, “Collins.”  I’m sure Judy would have been more than pleased to receive this honour (not to mention the royalties), but presumably the mistake was rectified before too long.

It all started a year earlier with the LP Farewell to the Greys.  The title commemorates the July 1971 amalgamation of the Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons) and the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales’s Dragoon Guards) to form the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.  Formed in 1946 through the demobilisation of the Lothians & Border Yeomanry, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Pipes & Drums became one of the most famous pipe bands in the world.

The album cover shows the magnificent 1881 painting “Charge of the Royal Scots Greys at Waterloo in 1815,” known as “Scotland Forever,” by Elizabeth Southerden Thompson (later known as Lady Butler) (1846-1933).  This painting is regularly mistaken for an image of the Charge of the Light Brigade, but Waterloo took place nearly four decades before the catastrophic Light Brigade charge at Balaclava (25th October 1854) and had a very different outcome!  Today Lady Butler’s original painting hangs in Leeds Art Gallery in West Yorkshire.

Listed as a “Slow Air,” “Amazing Grace” is the last cut on Side One of Farewell to the Greys.  The track begins with the sound of an eerie, lone piper, just as the Judy Collins recording had started with her unaccompanied solo voice.  It is then joined by the massed band of bagpipes, horns and drums, whereas Judy was backed by an a cappella chorus of voices.

After the single became a hit, the album was repackaged several times, usually retitled, simply, Amazing Grace, with a range of sleeve designs.  This, in turn, opened the floodgates for the bagpipe craze of the 70s and we saw a veritable tsunami of Scottish military band cash-in releases, most of which probably ended up languishing in charity shops before the decade was over.  

Following the success of “Amazing Grace”, the Pipes and Drums recorded further albums including Highland Cathedral (1998) and Parallel Tracks (2002), the latter featuring Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler.  Both albums contained new recordings of “Amazing Grace.”  

Their records may have appealed to a mainly older demographic but, it must be said, the pipe bands themselves made an undeniably glorious noise which resonated across all generations.  This was taken to new heights in Michael Apted’s 2006 film Amazing Grace, where the Irish Guards Pipe Band and the Balmoral Pipes and Drums led by Pipe Major William Cochrane are seen performing the title tune over the closing credits.  Filmed from an overhead camera and featuring 100 or more musicians, this is an awe-inspiring spectacle and the perfect way to end a powerful movie.  Watch that scene here .

*Ed. Note:  In fact, the other big UK hit of 1972 “I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing” by the New Seekers sold more copies overall (990,000 in total), but the sales of that record were spread across December 1971 and into 1972.  “Amazing Grace” shifted 962,000 copies, all of them in 1972, making it the biggest UK seller of that year.

Elvis Presley (1972)

If anyone was likely to cover “Amazing Grace” it was Elvis.  Gospel music had always played a huge part in his life, and he recorded the song several times, starting with a version on the April 1972 album He Touched Me.  It was Presley’s 18th studio LP and his third collection of religious songs, the others being His Hand in Mine (1960) and How Great Thou Art (1967).  

Recorded in March 1971, He Touched Me came during Elvis’s early Las Vegas period and featured many of the crack musicians who backed him there over the years.  “Amazing Grace,” however, used a much simpler arrangement with just piano (played by either Charlie McCoy or David Briggs) and vocal backing by the country/gospel quartet the Nashville Edition.   Consisting of Hurshel Wiginton, Joe Babcock, Dolores Edgin and Ricki Page, the Nashville Edition were a fixture on the US TV show Hee Haw for years and it’s estimated they appeared on over 12,000 country records over three decades. 

By Presley’s standards He Touched Me was not a huge seller at the time, peaking at #79 in the US Billboard pop album charts and barely scraping into the UK top 40 at #38.  It did eventually go on to achieve platinum status in America, however.  With over eight million plays currently on Spotify, “Amazing Grace” is, by some margin, the most popular track on the album. 

In 2016 this version of “Amazing Grace” together with 16 other vintage Elvis recordings was overdubbed with strings by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and released as the album The Wonder of You. 

Fun Fact: A decade earlier vocal group the Jordanaires, who backed Elvis on many of his early records, recorded “Amazing Grace” on a 1961 US album titled To God Be the Glory (Capitol S/T15559).

Aretha Franklin (1972)

In January 1972 Aretha Franklin recorded a quite astonishing version of “Amazing Grace” on her double live gospel album of the same name.  Backed by the Southern California Community Choir and the Rev. James Cleveland on piano, it was the best-selling record of her career, selling over two million copies and winning Aretha a Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance in 1973.  It is also claimed to be the highest-selling live gospel music album of all time.

But while Aretha’s epic 11-minute version of “Amazing Grace” is beyond reproach, the documentary film shot during the recording sessions was dogged with lawsuits, delays and technical problems for decades.  Initially scheduled for release in 1972 it was held back due to difficulty in synchronising the audio with the visual print and ended up in a Warner Brothers vault until 2007, when producer Alan Elliott purchased the raw footage and attempted to correct it. 

The edited footage, 87 minutes in length, was then scheduled for a 2011 release.  At this point Aretha sued Elliott for appropriating her likeness without permission, and the film was shelved yet again.  In 2015 it was attempted to premiere the movie at film festivals in Toronto and Chicago, but again Franklin sued, this time for unspecified reasons.  After Aretha's death in 2018, her family agreed to release the film, also titled Amazing Grace, in April 2019 to widespread critical acclaim.

In 2020 Rolling Stone magazine ranked Aretha’s Amazing Grace album number 154 in their “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list.

The Groundhogs (1972)

To give some idea how ubiquitous “Amazing Grace” was in the early 70s, even Tony (T.S.) McPhee’s blues rock/prog outfit took a stab at it on their fifth album Who Will Save The World? The Mighty Groundhogs.  Released in March 1972, their heavily distorted guitar instrumental version with droning keyboard backing was presumably intended to be an approximation of Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” Woodstock performance.  It was a brave attempt but didn’t quite have the same impact as Jimi and the Groundhogs’ studio recording needed a little more “oomph” to really carry it off.

Andy Williams (1972)

Another one for the mums and dads, Andy Williams’ syrupy easy listening version was the closing track of his 1972 album Alone Again (Naturally).  Recorded partly in London the record featured several recent pop hits including “The Long and Winding Road,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Song Sung Blue” together with the Gilbert O’Sullivan-penned title track.  

1972 was O’Sullivan’s peak chart year and Andy Williams also performed his song “We Will” on his weekly TV show.  Some of the decidedly British lyrics didn’t translate too well across the Atlantic, however, and so Williams phoned Gilbert, asking if he could change the line “I bagsy being in goal” which made no sense at all in America. 

Glen Campbell (1973)

Campbell’s vocal delivery is a little overwrought here, but it does feature bagpipes which helps save this recording of “Amazing Grace” from country/gospel mawkishness.  From the album I Knew Jesus (Before He Was A Star). 

In 1976 the song appeared as the last track on the UK compilation LP Glen Campbell’s Twenty Golden Greats.  This proved to be Campbell’s biggest selling British album, reaching number one and staying in the charts for 17 weeks.

This release formed part of EMI’s newly created UK TV advertising division which proved enormously successful, with similar Twenty Golden Greats releases by the Beach Boys, the Shadows, Buddy Holly, Diana Ross & the Supremes, the Hollies and others all selling well.  

Glen Campbell later recorded several more versions of “Amazing Grace” most of them in concert backed with only with a piano.

Johnny Cash (1975) 

Johnny Cash Sings Precious Memories was Johnny’s fifth collection of gospel songs and his 50th album overall.  Containing material such as “The Old Rugged Cross” and “Rock of Ages,” however, it was perhaps a little too religious for most tastes and it failed to chart in any of the major world markets.  In fact, it may not have been given a UK release, with US copies shipped in to satisfy the meagre local demand.  

On “Amazing Grace” Cash is backed by the Carter Family on vocals and what sounds like a mournful church harmonium.  Johnny does his best against the odds (and some unusual chord changes), but it’s really just a dirge.

 

Much better was the limited-edition US single Cash recorded in July 1972 on the Ezra label.  “Amazing Grace” / “Praise the Lord” was credited to Johnny Cash and the Evangel Temple Choir (side A) and the Rev J. Snow and the Evangel Temple Choir (side B).  Ezra was Johnny’s own label, named after his father-in-law (June’s dad) Ezra J. “Pop” Carter. 

The Evangel Temple was known as "The Church of the Country Music Stars".  Members included Larry Gatlin, Connie Smith, Marty Stuart, Kris Kristofferson, plus Johnny and June Carter Cash, their children and grandchildren.

A 2007 one-hour radio special titled Amazing Grace hosted by Rodney Crowell covered Johnny's love of gospel music, his roots in the church, and the stories behind his great gospel recordings and performances.

Charlie Rich (1976)

Traditionally, the old school country artists tended to record gospel albums as a kind of penitence after they had flirted with the evils of rock and roll (among other things), and the deeply religious Charlie Rich was no exception.  Recorded in 1975 during his run of country pop hit singles, Silver Linings is one of the best gospel collections of its kind.  “Amazing Grace” is presented as a powerful, mid-tempo shuffle with Charlie’s pumping piano out front and spirited backing from vocal groups the Jordanaires and the Holladays.  You can’t help feeling Elvis should have recorded it exactly this way.   

Fun fact: Of his many albums, Charlie’s mother declared Silver Linings her absolute favourite. 

Joan Baez (1976)

“Good morning, children of the eighties.  This is your Woodstock, and it’s long overdue” enthused (some would say “gushed”) Joan Baez as she opened the US leg of Live Aid* in July 1985.  She then sang two unaccompanied verses of “Amazing Grace” before segueing into a solo version of the Live Aid hit single “We Are the World.”  Joan was no stranger to “Amazing Grace,” of course, having performed it many times on the civil rights marches of the 60s.  

She first committed the song to vinyl a decade earlier on her 1976 double live album From Every Stage.  Recorded in the summer of 1975, the album was divided equally into solo acoustic and electric material, the latter featuring an impressive line-up of musicians, including Larry Carlton (guitar), James Jamerson (bass) and Jim Gordon (drums).  Despite coming at the very end of the electric LP, “Amazing Grace” was a solo performance with Joan singing with the audience.  

The audience singalong was moving despite Joan’s distracting habit of prompting them with a garbled preview of the lyrics at the start of each line, much in the way Pete Seeger used to do when encouraging crowd participation. 

On November 3, 1991, a memorial concert for legendary rock promoter Bill Graham was held at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.  To close the event Joan led an a cappella rendition of "Amazing Grace," again calling out the words for the vast crowd (estimated at 300,000) to sing along with.

The song became a regular part of Baez’s live set and in 1993 a previously unreleased version turned up on her four CD box set Rare, Live & Classic.  Recorded solo in 1982 for the King Biscuit Hour, it again featured a lyric preview before every line.  But while the audience sang the top line of the melody Joan weaved a beautiful descant harmony around them to great effect.  As the song ended she signed off with “Jerry Falwell eat your heart out,” a reference to the conservative Christian and founder of the right-wing Moral Majority.

*Ed. Note: US Live Aid was actually opened by an enthusiastic amateur named Bernard Watson, who was allowed a 10-minute spot by promoter Bill Graham.  In his book “My Life Inside Rock and Out” Graham writes “The first person I put on that morning was a kid who had been living in the parking lot for ten days.  I said to the audience, “Someday, this might happen to you.  You know, we all have dreams."  He sang one song and he's been writing me ever since."

Willie Nelson (1976)

From the 1976 album The Sound in Your Mind, Willie’s studio version is a delight, topped off with a stunning piano solo from his sister Bobbie.  Nelson performed the song regularly in concert (including at the ill-fated Woodstock 99 festival) and it appears on several of his live albums.  In October 1995 he opened his set at Farm Aid with “Amazing Grace”. 

Yes - YesYears Box Set

Yes (1976) 

Recorded in November 1976 during the Going For The One album sessions, this instrumental bass solo by the late, great Chris Squire remained unreleased until 1991 when it appeared on the four CD box set YesYears.  It was later added to the 2003 reissue of Going For The One CD as a bonus track.

Epilogue: The President Sang Amazing Grace

On June 17, 2015, nine African Americans were killed in a mass shooting during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.  Founded in 1817 Mother Emanuel, as it is known, is one of the oldest black churches in the USA and has long been a centre for civil rights events.

Among the victims was the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, a South Carolina State Senator and a powerful civil rights advocate.  On June 26, nine days after the killings, President Barack Obama spoke at Rev. Pinckney’s funeral.  During the eulogy he paused and, seemingly unrehearsed, began to sing the opening lines of “Amazing Grace.”  Obama’s untrained voice was shaky and scarcely up to the task, but the choir and congregation quickly joined in and together they sang the famous hymn.  It was an incredibly emotional moment.  Watch it here:

The event prompted US (now resident in the UK) singer songwriter Zoe Mulford to write “The President Sang Amazing Grace.”  The song appeared on her 2017 independently released album Small Brown Birds and was widely played on independent folk radio shows across the US.  Joan Baez heard it on her car radio and later said “It's an amazing little tune.  When I first heard it, I had to pull the car over, because I started crying.  And then for the first two weeks of trying to figure it out on the guitar, I kept crying.  I was afraid that when I got in the studio, it wouldn't be over.  But I went into the studio, and then I just looked at the musicians and I said, "Let's go to church.””  Baez covered the song to great effect on her 2018 Grammy-nominated album, Whistle Down the Wind.

In 2018 “The President Sang Amazing Grace” was voted "Song of the Year" by Folk Alliance International (the world's largest gathering of the folk music industry and community), finding its way to new audiences with cover versions by artists such as the Kronos Quartet. 

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Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!

Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares,

I have already come;

‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,

His word my hope secures;

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease;

I shall possess, within the veil,

A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

The sun forbear to shine;

But God, who called me here below,

Will be forever mine.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we’d first begun.