Joy to the World
Encyclopedia
"Joy to the World" is a Christian Christmas carol
.
The words are by English hymn writer Isaac Watts
, based on Psalm 98
in the Bible. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts' collection; The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship. Watts wrote the words of "Joy to the World" as a hymn glorifying Christ's triumphant return
at the end of the age, rather than a Christmas song celebrating his first coming as a babe born in a stable. Only the second half of Watts' lyrics are still used today.
The music was adapted and arranged to Watts' lyrics by Lowell Mason
in 1839 from an older melody which was then believed to have originated from Handel
, not least because the theme of the refrain (And heaven and nature sing...) appears in the orchestra opening and accompaniment of the recitative
Comfort ye from Handel's Messiah
, and the first four notes match the beginning of the choruses Lift up your heads and Glory to God from the same oratorio. However, Handel did not compose the entire tune. The name "Antioch" is generally used for the tune.
As of the late 20th century, "Joy to the World" was the most-published Christmas hymn in North America
.
. First recorded in 1954 on his "Music of Christmas" LP (Columbia CL 588), it was re-recorded in stereo in 1959 as Columbia 8176.
The popular European group Boney M. covered the song in 1984 which was internationally released in 1986 on their record The 20 Greatest Christmas Songs
.
John Rutter
arranged the carol in the style of Handel
and recorded this arrangement twice with the Cambridge Singers
, for their Christmas albums Christmas Star (1983) and Christmas with the Cambridge Singers (1989). His pseudo-Handelian arrangement has also been recorded by other choirs including those of St. Paul's Cathedral and King's College, Cambridge.
In 1965, The Supremes
recorded the song for their album Merry Christmas.
Andy Williams
recorded the tune in a medium-slow ballad style in his 1974 "Christmas Present" LP.
Mariah Carey
re-recorded this song for her 1994 album Merry Christmas
. Carey's version, done in a dance-pop
style, combined the chorus (with slightly altered lyrics) of the Hoyt Axton
song "Joy to the World
" (made popular by Three Dog Night
) with the traditional Christmas song. The Jonas Brothers recorded a version of this song called "Joyful Kings" for the 2008 Disney Channel Holiday album All Wrapped Up.
Whitney Houston
recorded the song for The Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack Album (1996), and also included it on One Wish: The Holiday Album
(2003).
Clay Aiken
recorded the song on his 2004 album Merry Christmas with Love
.
The Priests
recorded this on their 2010 album Noël.
Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Verse 2
Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
Verse 3
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
Verse 4
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
Note: In the first line of the first verse, "The Lord has come" might seem more natural, but "The Lord is come" is correct. In old English, verbs of movement such as "to go" and "to come" were used with the auxiliary verb "to be" and not the present day auxiliary verb "to have". Students of German will notice that the older forms of English are similar to modern-day German forms, where "I have come" (Ich bin gekommen) is directly translated as "I am come".
In the 1970s, a different song of the same title
, popularized by the pop group Three Dog Night
, resulted in occasional recordings in which the pop song's lyrics and melody were combined with that of the carol. Such mixtures have been recorded by Mariah Carey
as well as Chuck Negron
.
of this song.
Joy to the World, Saddam
is dead, a less popular parody.
In the sitcom Two and a Half Men
, Charlie Sheen
sang a parody of the song with sexual dialogue in 2007.
An album of punk rock
band The Vandals
, consisting of several Christmas themed songs, is called Oi To The World!
and was released in 1996.
"Death to the World", from the record A Very Scary Solstice
by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society
.
USA 5" CD-Single
USA 12" vinyl maxi-single
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...
.
The words are by English hymn writer Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
, based on Psalm 98
Psalm 98
Psalm 98 is one of the psalm in the biblical Book of Psalms. One of the Royal Psalms, Psalm 93-99, praising God as the King of His people.-Judaism:*Is the fourth paragraph of Kabbalat Shabbat....
in the Bible. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts' collection; The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship. Watts wrote the words of "Joy to the World" as a hymn glorifying Christ's triumphant return
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
at the end of the age, rather than a Christmas song celebrating his first coming as a babe born in a stable. Only the second half of Watts' lyrics are still used today.
The music was adapted and arranged to Watts' lyrics by Lowell Mason
Lowell Mason
Lowell Mason was a leading figure in American church music, the composer of over 1600 hymn tunes, many of which are often sung today. His most well-known tunes include Mary Had A Little Lamb and the arrangement of Joy to the World...
in 1839 from an older melody which was then believed to have originated from Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
, not least because the theme of the refrain (And heaven and nature sing...) appears in the orchestra opening and accompaniment of the recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
Comfort ye from Handel's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
, and the first four notes match the beginning of the choruses Lift up your heads and Glory to God from the same oratorio. However, Handel did not compose the entire tune. The name "Antioch" is generally used for the tune.
As of the late 20th century, "Joy to the World" was the most-published Christmas hymn in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Well-known recordings
Among the recordings well known in their day is an instrumental version of "Joy to the World" by conductor Percy FaithPercy Faith
Percy Faith was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and...
. First recorded in 1954 on his "Music of Christmas" LP (Columbia CL 588), it was re-recorded in stereo in 1959 as Columbia 8176.
The popular European group Boney M. covered the song in 1984 which was internationally released in 1986 on their record The 20 Greatest Christmas Songs
The 20 Greatest Christmas Songs
The 20 Greatest Christmas Songs is a compilation/remix album by Boney M.. In 1986 producer Frank Farian took the master tapes from 1981's Christmas Album, added six recordings by Liz Mitchell, Reggie Tsiboe and two session singers from 1984, remixed them and created Die 20 schönsten...
.
John Rutter
John Rutter
John Milford Rutter CBE is a British composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music.-Biography:Born in London, Rutter was educated at Highgate School, where a fellow pupil was John Tavener. He read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the...
arranged the carol in the style of Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
and recorded this arrangement twice with the Cambridge Singers
Cambridge Singers
Cambridge Singers is an English mixed voice chamber/choral group formed in 1981 by their director John Rutter with the primary purpose of making recordings under their own label "Collegium"....
, for their Christmas albums Christmas Star (1983) and Christmas with the Cambridge Singers (1989). His pseudo-Handelian arrangement has also been recorded by other choirs including those of St. Paul's Cathedral and King's College, Cambridge.
In 1965, The Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
recorded the song for their album Merry Christmas.
Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
recorded the tune in a medium-slow ballad style in his 1974 "Christmas Present" LP.
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
re-recorded this song for her 1994 album Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas (Mariah Carey album)
Merry Christmas is a holiday album and fourth studio album by American singer Mariah Carey. Released by Columbia Records on November 1, 1994, the album features both cover versions of popular Christmas tunes, including some original material...
. Carey's version, done in a dance-pop
Dance-pop
Dance-pop is dance-oriented pop music that originated in the early 1980s. Developing from post-disco, it is generally up-tempo music intended for clubs with the intention of being danceable or merely dancey...
style, combined the chorus (with slightly altered lyrics) of the Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Wayne Axton was an American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. As he matured, some of his songwriting efforts became well...
song "Joy to the World
Joy to the World (Hoyt Axton song)
"Joy to the World" is a song written by Hoyt Axton, and made famous by the band Three Dog Night. The song is also popularly known by its opening words, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog"...
" (made popular by Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night is an American rock band best known for their music from 1968 to 1975. During that time the band charted 21 Billboard top 40 hits in America, three of which reached Number One...
) with the traditional Christmas song. The Jonas Brothers recorded a version of this song called "Joyful Kings" for the 2008 Disney Channel Holiday album All Wrapped Up.
Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
recorded the song for The Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack Album (1996), and also included it on One Wish: The Holiday Album
One Wish: The Holiday Album
-Credits and personnel:Personnel*Whitney Houston – vocals, vocal arrangement*Julien Barber – viola*Sandra Billingslea – violin*Edie Lehmann Boddicker – background vocals*Joseph Bongiorno – upright bass*Alfred Brown – viola*Carmen Carter – background vocals...
(2003).
Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken
Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released...
recorded the song on his 2004 album Merry Christmas with Love
Merry Christmas with Love
Merry Christmas with Love is Clay Aiken's first Christmas album, released by RCA Records on November 16, 2004. It was certified platinum and was recognized by Billboard as the best-selling Christmas/holiday album of 2004 and the best-selling Christian album of 2005.The album was re-released on...
.
The Priests
The Priests
The Priests are a classical musical group made up of three Catholic priests all from Northern Ireland. Fr Eugene and his brother Fr Martin O'Hagan are originally from the village of Claudy, County Londonderry with the family now residing in Derry whilst Fr David Delargy is from Ballymena, County...
recorded this on their 2010 album Noël.
Lyrics
Verse 1Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Verse 2
Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
Verse 3
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
Verse 4
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
Note: In the first line of the first verse, "The Lord has come" might seem more natural, but "The Lord is come" is correct. In old English, verbs of movement such as "to go" and "to come" were used with the auxiliary verb "to be" and not the present day auxiliary verb "to have". Students of German will notice that the older forms of English are similar to modern-day German forms, where "I have come" (Ich bin gekommen) is directly translated as "I am come".
Lyric variants
- In the Latter-Day Saint hymnal, the refrain in the first verse is "And Saints and Angels Sing" (see Joy to the World (Phelps)Joy to the World (Phelps)"Joy to the World! The Lord Will Come" is an adaptation of the popular Christmas carol, Joy to the World. It was included in A Collection of Sacred Hymns , the first Latter Day Saint hymnal published in 1835 or 1836....
). - Modern recordings, including those aimed at children such as VeggieTalesVeggieTalesVeggieTales is an American series of children's computer animated films featuring anthropomorphic vegetables in stories conveying moral themes based on Christianity...
(part of
Joy to the World (Hoyt Axton song)
"Joy to the World" is a song written by Hoyt Axton, and made famous by the band Three Dog Night. The song is also popularly known by its opening words, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog"...
, popularized by the pop group Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night is an American rock band best known for their music from 1968 to 1975. During that time the band charted 21 Billboard top 40 hits in America, three of which reached Number One...
, resulted in occasional recordings in which the pop song's lyrics and melody were combined with that of the carol. Such mixtures have been recorded by Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
as well as Chuck Negron
Chuck Negron
Charles "Chuck" Negron is an American singer-songwriter, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night, which he helped to form in 1968.-Biography:...
.
Parodies
Joy to the World, Our Teacher's Dead is a schoolchildren's parodyParody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of this song.
Joy to the World, Saddam
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
is dead, a less popular parody.
In the sitcom Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
, Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....
sang a parody of the song with sexual dialogue in 2007.
An album of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band The Vandals
The Vandals
The Vandals are an American rock band established in 1980 in Huntington Beach, California. They have released ten full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour...
, consisting of several Christmas themed songs, is called Oi To The World!
Oi to the World!
Oi to the World! is a Christmas album by the southern California punk rock band The Vandals. It was released in 1996 by their label Kung Fu Records, who also re-released it in 2000 with altered artwork and a bonus track...
and was released in 1996.
"Death to the World", from the record A Very Scary Solstice
A Very Scary Solstice
A Very Scary Solstice is a parody album, mixing Christmas carols with the Cthulhu Mythos. It was produced and performed by members of the H. P...
by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society
H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society
The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society or HPLHS is the organization that hosts Cthulhu Lives!, a group of live-action roleplayers for the Cthulhu Live version of Call of Cthulhu. Founded in Colorado in 1984, it is now based in Glendale, California...
.
Mariah Carey version
"Joy To The World" was first released as a promo only in November 1994. A year later, it was released as a commercial single in Australia. There were several club mixes made of the song, and a remix video was shot.Formats and track listings
Australia 5" CD-Single- "Joy to the world" (LP Version)
- "Joy to the world" (Celebration Mix)
- "Joy to the world" (Flava Mix)
- "Joy to the world" (Club Mix)
- "All I want for Christmas is you"
USA 5" CD-Single
- "Joy to the world" (LP Version)
- "Joy to the world" (Celebration Mix Edit)
USA 12" vinyl maxi-single
- "Joy to the world" (Celebration Mix)
- "Joy to the world" (Flava Mix)
- "Joy to the world" (Club Mix)
- "Joy to the world" (Crash Dub Crash)
- "Joy to the world" (LP Version)
Peak positions
| Chart (1994) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Hot Dance Club Play | 16 |
| Chart (1995) | Peak position |
| Australian Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
33 |
External links
- Free sheet music of Joy to the World for SATB from Cantorion.org
- Sheet music on Wikifonia
- Joy to the World - Early New England Christmas Carol
- Joy to the World Played on a Hammond OrganHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...