When The Saints Go Marching In: A Song History

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For a song nearly everyone knows, "When the Saints Go Marching In" has a surprisingly cloudy past; Bruce Raeburn, writing for 64 Parishes, calls its origins "as mysterious as its extreme popularity"[1]. It has long been linked to a gospel song of 1896, "When the Saints Are Marching In," with words by Katharine E. Purvis and music by James M. Black; according to James Fuld, Black deposited it on 17 June 1896[2], and it was printed in the 1898 hymnal Praise Hymns and Full Salvation Songs[3]. The link is doubtful: Raeburn notes that many scholars now consider the 1896 hymn a separate piece of music[1], and Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church observes that, apart from the line that gives the song its title, it has little in common in words or music with the song sung today[2]. Some collections classify the familiar song as an African American spiritual, and the earliest printing of it in its present form may be Edward Boatner's Spirituals Triumphant: Old and New (1927)[2].

Silver-plated rotary valve cornet made by Hall and Quinby of Boston in the 1870s

Hall & Quinby, Boston, Rotary Valve Cornet, silver-plated metal, 1870–75. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for the instrument only; it has no connection to the song.

Jubilee and gospel groups were singing it on record in the 1920s. Discipleship Ministries names a 1923 Paramount disc by the Paramount Jubilee Singers, issued as "When All the Saints Come Marching In," as the earliest known recording[2]; Raeburn cites a 1924 recording by the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Sisters and a 1925 performance by Atlanta's Wheat Street Female Quartet[1]; and the Pace Jubilee Singers recorded it in Chicago on 30 June 1928 for Victor (Victor 21582)[4]. Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra recorded it for Decca on 13 May 1938 as "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" (Decca 2230)[5], and Raeburn observes that many jazz listeners treat that record as the starting point of the song's story[1]. He cautions that Armstrong's claim to have recorded it first should not be read literally; it went on to become a jazz standard, with recordings ranging from Sidney Bechet to Albert Ayler[1].

Raeburn describes it as a favorite instrumental at traditional jazz funerals in the early 1900s, and Armstrong recalled playing it regularly, before 1922, as an upbeat tune for the return from New Orleans brass band funerals[1]. In that tradition the band opens with slow dirges and hymns as the procession sets out and switches to up-tempo music once the body has been buried[6]. For most New Orleanians, Raeburn writes, the song's meaning comes from the jazz funeral; the city's football team, the Saints, was named in its honor and uses it as a fight song[1], and Al Hirt, one of the team's owners, said when the name was announced that it came from the song[7].

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Sources

  1. 64 Parishes, Bruce Raeburn: "When the Saints Go Marching In".
  2. Discipleship Ministries, United Methodist Church: "History of Hymns: 'When the Saints Go Marching In'".
  3. Hymnary.org: "When the Saints Are Marching In" (Praise Hymns and Full Salvation Songs, 1898, No. 31).
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Victor matrix BVE-46035. When the saints go marching in / Pace Jubilee Singers".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Decca 2230 (10-in. double-faced)".
  6. 64 Parishes, Matt Sakakeeny: "Jazz Funerals and Second Line Parades".
  7. WAFB, Jeannine LeJeune: "Man who gave Saints their name reflects".