Sunday morning gospel: Songs of Inspiration--The Harry Simeone Chorale (Mercury MG 20945; 1964)

For a while, I've been wanting to post some inspirational songs for my Sunday Morning Gospel series, which would seem to be what I've been doing all along.  But "inspirational" is a specific genre, even if precisely defining that genre is next to impossible.  "Inspirational" (which I'm using as a noun, a la Classical, easy, and "house") includes things like Climb Ev'ry Mountain (in this list), You'll Never Walk Alone (not in this list), He (in this list), and One God (not in this list, though I wish it was).  Inspirational numbers can be religious--or not.  They might simply feature lyrics about the power of hope, or the importance of not giving up hope.  They might be pop numbers of a religious type that simply don't have the right hymnal sound (too solo, not things for congregational singing).  Or numbers which don't fit into a gospel concert set, style-wise.  The 1868 classic Whispering Hope, which appears here, is a perfect example of an orphan/orphaned inspirational song.  Highly effective as a duet, but nothing a congregation would tackle, it's not to be found in many hymnals or sacred songbooks--nearly none, in my collecting experience.  It's more a sheet music staple.  And in modern churches, solos are likely to be of the "praise" type, and they're likely to have a solid beat.  Whispering Hope is a slow, slow waltz.  I suppose it's remotely possible the number was blacklisted in some fashion over the many decades because its composer, Septimus Winner, also wrote Listen to the Mocking Bird, but I'm getting silly.  (Getting?)  I think it's simply one of the many "off" numbers in the sacred playlist.  It doesn't fit in with the rest in a conventional way, and so it becomes an "inspirational" standard.  "Inspirational" is pretty much the "Other" file for sacred or almost-sacred music.

I'm trusting that made sense.

The track listing on this 1964 Harry Simeone Chorale album mostly passes muster, with two big exceptions.  The first: This Ole House.  That song is inspirational, how?  It's a country comedy number.  Sure, its composer, the highly gifted Stuart Hamblen, wrote any number of very good (if sometimes pretty corny) sacred numbers, but This Ole House?  The second: Battle Hymn of the Republic.  It's a hymn, and one hundred percent so, and not simply because it has "hymn" in its title.  So it's not "inspirational"--it's flat-out religious.  And, as the last track on side 1, it ruins the relaxed and thoughtful mood established up to that point.  It was probably programmed by the same guy who decided This Ole House was "inspirational."  But, despite these two glaring slip-ups, this collection succeeds quite well as an example of (Adjective-as-Noun Alert) inspirational.

Harry Simeone may not have been the exactly right person for an LP of (remember--we're using it as a noun) "inspirational," since this material is supposed to put one in the mood to contemplate deep spiritual matters, not to tap your toes, but I like the lively aspect.  Yes, there are some slow numbers here, but even those have the usual Simeone nervous energy.  This kind of material is easily tuned out when presented in too mellow a fashion, and Simeone was not someone to allow the listener that option.

Oh, and Harry did the usual trick of replacing the author/composer credit on the public domain numbers with "Adapted & arranged by Harry Simeone."  MY(P)WHAE frowns on that tactic.  I restored those credits in the track listing.  What Mercury puts on its own labels is its own business.




LINK:  Songs of Inspiration--Harry Simeone Chorale (1964)






(There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me) (Dorsey)
One Little Candle
No Man Is an Island
It Is No Secret (What God Can Do) (Hamblen)
Climb Ev'ry Mountain (Rodgers-Hammerstein II)
Battle Hymn of the Republic (Ward)
I Believe
Whispering Hope (Septimus Winner)
He
The Bells of St. Mary's
Walk Hand in Hand
This Ole House (Hamblen)

Songs of Inspiration--The Harry Simeone Chorale (Mercury MG 20945; 1964)


Lee