STILLE NACHT, HEILIGE NACHT

Created on 31/08/2008
Latest update on 23/02/2024

Artist: Trompeter Quartett
Author: Joseph Mohr/Franz Gruber
Label: Berliner
Year: 1892

Written as a poem in 1818 by pastor Joseph Mohr of the St. Nicolaus Kirche in Oberndorf (Austria). His organist Franz Gruber wrote the music. Together they sang it during mass on Christmas eve, accompanied on guitar as the organ didn't function. For three years the song Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht was only heard in this tiny Tirolian place. Organ builder Karl Mauracher from Fügen was the first outstander who heard the song while fixing Gruber's pipe organ and he took the sheet music home. In 1831 Mauracher arranged it for choir. Four children of the Strasser family sang it in 1832 on the well visited Leipziger Messe. There they got an invitation to come and sing it in Vienna during next Christmas eve, attended by the royal family. That's how it got known all over. In 1839 another family choir sang it in New York.

Covers:

1901:

Betsy Schot [for Zonophone]

1902:

Hans Hoffmann [on Edison cylinder]

1905:

Haydn Quartet [for Victor]

1905:

Edison Male Quartette [oldest version in English; see also Jingle Bells]

1908:

Ernestine Schumann-Heink [both in German and English]

1912:

Elsie Baker [as Silent Night]

1926:

Duo Hofmann

1926:

Kees Pruis

1928:

Paul Whiteman [as Silent Night, Holy Night]

1934:

Albert de Booy

1940:

John McCormack [as Silent Night]

1942:

Bing Crosby [idem]

1945:

Frank Sinatra

1949:

Sister Rosetta Tharpe [idem]

1955:

Wiener Sängerknaben

1956:

Mario Lanza

1957:

Elvis Presley

1958:

Harry Belafonte

1958:

Johnny Mathis

1961:

Huey Piano Smith

1962:

Mahalia Jackson

1964:

Petula Clark

1966:

Simon & Garfunkel

1967:

Heintje

1968:

Willy & Willeke Alberti

1968:

Gert Timmerman

1969:

Percy Sledge

1972:

Johnny Cash

1973:

Julie Andrews

1975:

Cats

1976:

Can

1977:

André Hazes

1978:

Alfred Schnittke [dissonant violin and piano arrangement]

1979:

Emmylou Harris

1979:

Willie Nelson

1980:

Yobs [The Boys on a punk X-mas comp]

1981:

Electronica's

1982:

Joan Baez

1984:

Tom Waits

1987:

Stevie Nicks

1988:

Allen Toussaint

1988:

Enya [as Oicha Chiun]

1988:

Koos Alberts

1990:

Charles Brown

1990s:

Eva Cassidy [posthumous release in 2008]

1991:

Sinéad O'Connor

1992:

Garth Brooks

1992:

Charlie Musselwhite

1993:

Bruce Cockburn

1993:

Fats Domino

1995:

Jingle Cats

1996:

Michael Bolton

1998:

Babyface

1999:

Jewel

2001:

Destiny's Child

2003:

Blind Boys Of Alabama

2003:

Tish Hinojosa

2005:

Harry Connick Jr.

2006:

Sufjan Stevens

2008:

Aretha Franklin

2008:

Lonely Boys

2010:

Susan Boyle

2010:

Annie Lennox

2011:

Michael Bublé

2011:

Justin Bieber

2012:

Lady Antebellum

2017:

Gwen Stefani

2018:

Eric Clapton

2021:

Sharon Van Etten

Oberndorf (near Salzburg) has its own Stille Nacht Museum, while the church rightfully deserves to be called the Stille Nacht Kirche (see also: Jingle Bells).

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

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