WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS

Created on 20/01/2004
Latest update on 26/10/2023

Artist: James F. Harrison
Author: Charles C. Converse/Joseph Scriven
Label: Edison cylinder
Year: 1898

Scriven wrote this hymn in 1857 in Canada to console his ill mother, left behind in Ireland. As he kept the poem secret, he didn't got credits until after its first publication in Ira D. Sankey's Gospel Hymns Number One collection. During World War I, Converse's tune was linked to the words When This Bloody War Is Over.

Covers:

1898:

Charles Taylor & his Two Daughters

1899:

J.J. Fisher [also for Edison]

1902:

Frank Stanley

1907:

Henry Burr & Frank Stanley

1915:

Henry Burr

1915:

Mr. & Mrs. Wheeler

1922:

Charles Hart

1947:

Southern Harps

1948:

Pilgrim Travelers

1950:

Blackwood Brothers

1951:

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

1952:

Famous World Singers

1953:

Caravans

1957:

Jordanaires

1957:

Pat Boone

1958:

Tennessee Ernie Ford

1958:

Stanley Brothers

1963:

Consolers

1963:

Mississippi John Hurt

1965:

Mahalia Jackson

1967:

Ella Fitzgerald

1968:

Sweet Inspirations

1968:

Elvis Presley [in documentary This Is Elvis]

1968:

Jimmie Davis

1968:

Cliff Richard

1972:

Aretha Franklin

1974:

Burl Ives

1982:

Al Green

1983:

Chris Barber & Dr. John

1983:

Sweet Honey In The Rock

1988:

Alan Price [melody in Changes]

1989:

Ruby Terry

1994:

Norbert Detaeye [as When This Blasted War Is Over, anonymous 'new' lyrics from WW I]

1997:

Campbell Brothers

2004:

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

2012:

Kenny Rogers

Also by Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard, Bobby Helms, Stonewall Jackson and The Winans.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

No Facebook No Twitter