Amazing Grace to different tune

Subject: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: dulcimer42
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 06:24 PM

I used to know several tunes to which Amazing Grace could be sung. Or for that matter, different lyrics that could be sung to the tune of Amazing Grace.   How many can you come up with?

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: ClaireBear
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 06:45 PM

May I please add a related question?

As I recall, there was a version of Amazing Grace that became a mainstream radio hit in the late '60s or early '70s (no, not Scotch on the Rocks, nor yet Judy Collins). It was sung to the usual tune, but it had a much more interesting harmony than the one I'm stuck with on Sundays (from the Episcopal Hymnal). It was kind of bluesy. Can anybody point me to what it was?

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: dulcimer42
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 07:12 PM

Can't recall the one you speak of...   Sure hope some of you can help with similar songs/tunes..   Thanks so much.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: frogprince
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 07:25 PM

The variation I have heard the most, although it's not one of my favorite things, has been the substitution of the tune of "House of the Rising Sun". My wife has sung Amazing Grace to the tune "The Water is Wide" a few times; I takes just a little tweaking, as:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a drifting soul like me;
I once was lost, but now am found;
I once was blind, but now I see.

We added one home-made verse when doing that:
Though grace may grow familiar now,
Like any song, sung one old way,
Lord, touch my heart, lest I forget,
Thy grace is new, each breaking day.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Cstargazy
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 07:34 PM

you can sing 'Amazing Grace' to 'Jock O'Hazeldene' and 'Lord Yester' and both of them to 'Amazing Grace'

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Cstargazy
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 07:44 PM

And with a little ingenuity you can sing 'Amazing Grace' to 'The first time ever I saw your face' and vice versa. .....

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Cstargazy
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 08:05 PM

And then there's 'While Shepherds watched their flocks by night' in all its glorious versions...including 'Pentonville' in the Sheffield Carol Tradition.....

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 08:06 PM

There're related threads:

Melodies for Amazing Grace

Help: Amazing Grace/ House of the Rising Sun.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 08:14 PM

Thanks Masato.....I was going to link those. My favorite that we talked about back then was Amazing Grace to Gilligan's Island and vice versa.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: clueless don
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 08:42 AM

I rather enjoy singing Amazing Grace to the tune of Modern Major General.

Don

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 08:50 AM

Clueless - that is truly bizzare, but incredibly, it works!

I have a rather nice blues/Gospel version of it somewhere...

LTS

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 08:50 AM

I was going to say teddy Bears' Picnic...

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 09:43 AM

My wife can sing "Amazing Grace" to a beautiful tune she learned from her grandfather who was an Old Regular Baptist song leader. She learned it aurally and it is probably not notated anywhere.

Russ (Permanent GUEST)

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 09:44 AM

H of the RS has been mentioned- 5 Blind Boys of Alabama do a version. Probably said this already on one of the linked threads!

RtS

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,TomC
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 09:09 PM

You can also sing it to the Eagles's Peaceful Easy Feeling

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,highlandman
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 12:01 AM

The old hymnals didn't call that metric pattern "Common Meter" for nothing, did they?
8/6/8/6 iambic. Almost the entire Scottish Psalter is set to common meter tunes. Grab an old hymnbook and look through the "metrical index" and you'll have hundreds of choices.
-Glenn

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,Steve K
Date: 14 Nov 08 - 07:10 PM

How about the theme to Gilligans Island - a perfect fit.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: JennyO
Date: 14 Nov 08 - 07:25 PM

The Oz National Anthem, "Advance Australia Fair" is one of those that is interchangeable with Amazing Grace, House of the Rising Sun, Gilligan's Island etc. It's especially fun to sing either of the serious ones to Gilligan's Island.

*goes off singing*    Australians all let us rejoice
                              For we are young and free,
                              We've golden soil and wealth for toil
                              Our home is girt by sea, our home is girt by sea....

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Nov 08 - 08:45 PM

Seems to fit "La Cumparsita".

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: masato sakurai
Date: 14 Nov 08 - 08:45 PM

The same tune with a different set of words.

James Nicol's "The Lord's My Shepherd".

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Songster Bob
Date: 14 Nov 08 - 11:20 PM

I always liked singing AG to "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (you know --

"Oh, she jumped in bed and covered up her head,
And said I couldn't find her.
I knew damn well she lied like hell,
So I jumped in right behind her.")

(Well, those aren't the original words, but the best-known, I swan.)

Song Bob

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Nov 08 - 07:20 PM

How about 'Pinball Wizard'... Or 'My Old Man's a Dustman'?!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,peewee
Date: 14 May 10 - 04:42 PM

how about 'the coke theme song'

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Artful Codger
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 04:29 PM

Forgive my getting serious for a moment....

I did a (very) little research into tunes which actually were used for "Amazing Grace", according to hymnals. As mentioned above and elsewhere, many common meter tunes will work, metrically at least, but these are some which beyond question were used:

• Hephzibah - by John Jenkins Husband. This is the first known pairing of a tune to Newton's text, in A Companion to the Countess of Huntingdon's Hymns (London, 1808). I was unable to find a transcription of the tune, however.
  
• New Britian - composer unknown. The now standard tune, first paired with the text in William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835). The tune appears to be a combination of two tunes, "Gallaher" and "St. Mary", from Columbian Harmony by Charles H. Spilman and Benjamin Shaw (Cincinnati, 1829). "New Britain" itself appeared earlier in Vir­gin­ia Har­mo­ny, by James P. Car­rell & Da­vid S. Clay­ton (Win­ches­ter, Vir­gin­ia: 1831)
  
• Arlington - Thomas Arne, 1762. This tune is used for many hymns.
  
• Belmont - William Gardiner, Sacred Melodies, 1812.        Used for the hymn "By Cool Siloam's Shady Rill."
  
• Glas­gow - Moore's Psalm Sing­er's Pock­et Com­pan­ion, 1756. Used for "Behold! the Mountain of the Lord".
  
• Mar­tyr­dom, aka. Avon or Evening Twilight - Hugh Wil­son, 1800; arranged by Ralph E. Hud­son, cir­ca 1885. Used for multiple hymns.
  
• Pisgah - J.C. Lowry; can be found in Kentucky Harmony and Harmonia Sacra
  Primrose - see Sacred Harp, 47t, where it is used for "Salvation, Oh the Joyful Sound."
  
• Azmon, aka. Denfield - Carl G. Gläser, 1828; ar­ranged by Lowell Ma­son, Mo­dern Psalm­ist, 1839.
  
• Corinth - the tune name is ambiguous, and the likely suspects ("Benediction", "Tantum Ergo" or the "Corinths" in the Sacred Harp [32t] or the Hesperian Harp [43]) don't match the AG text well, having either six lines instead of four or the wrong meter.
  
• Mear - old Eng­lish mel­o­dy, ar­ranged by Aar­on Will­iams (1731-1776). Also in Sacred Harp, 49b.
  
• At the Cross (where I first saw the light) - music by Ralph E. Hudson, 1885, recorded to this tune by Fiddlin' John Carson. (But I think this one is better: At the Cross There's Room, music by Robert Lowry.)
  

Most of these tunes can be found at the Cyberhymnal site: go to the Tunes by Name page and click on the first letter of the tune name.

Other tunes for which I found names only: Lloyd, Evan, Noyes, New Bedford.

I have a recording of AG sung to a different tune by someone like (but not) Doc Watson or Ralph Stanley.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Janie
Date: 26 Jun 11 - 06:27 PM

Took my mother to her early church service today. It was my first live exposure to a Sunday service with a "praise band," complete with screen with the words on it

At the end of the service, the associate pastor invited all to stand and sing "Amazing Grace."
As I helped my mother rise to her feet she said, "You aren't going to like the way we sing "Amazing Grace."

They sang the verses to the Eagle's "Peaceful, Easy Feeling," using the same chorus the Eagle's sing, except they substitute "holy" for "solid" ground.

Ma knows her daughter's taste in music.

Don't get me wrong. The band is good.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Artful Codger
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 11:29 PM

FWIW, the recording I referred to at the tail of my previous message is on the Smithsonian Folkways album Classic Mountain Songs. The singer was Horton Barker.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 12:08 AM

Well there is the Welsh Hymn. Dod ar fy mhen dy sanctaidd law. We sang it like this in primary school:

X:1
M:3/4
L:1/4
K:Cmaj
G | GEG | FDF | EFE | D2
w:Dod ar_ fy mhen_ dy sa-nc-taidd law,
D | EFG | AFE | D2
w:O dy_ner Fab_ y Dyn;
G | AcA | GEG | AcA |G2
w:Mae ge_nnyt fen_dith i_ rai bach
G | AcA | GED | C2 |]
w:Fel yn_ dy oes_ dy hun.

but I have also known it sang to "Amazing Grace". I can't quite convince my self that the reverse (singing Amazing Grace to the above tune works well though)

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Elmore
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 01:58 PM

Debby McClatchy sang "Amazing Grace" to a tune she wrote, and recorded it on an album called " Chestnut Ridge". I heard her perform it live once. Lovely.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,Scott D
Date: 17 Apr 12 - 04:47 PM

The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Don't Worry Be Happy
Runaround by Blue Traveler
(Ghost) Riders in the sky

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Apr 12 - 02:34 PM

The old hymnals didn't call that metric pattern "Common Meter" for nothing, did they?
8/6/8/6 iambic. Almost the entire Scottish Psalter is set to common meter tunes.
.,,.,.
And think of all the ballads sung in that meter too. So you could sing AG to the tune of Sir Patrick Spens, or The Bitter Withy, or Little Musgrave & Lady Barnard, or........ or any of them to its tune, for that matter.

As I have frequently remarked on this forum, it is only a sort of convention that relates a particular tune to a particular ballad ~~ & then it doesn't always hold permanently: look e.g. how Fause Foudrage has got confused with Willie O Winsbury.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Duane D.
Date: 18 Apr 12 - 11:13 PM

The Blind Boys of Alabama sang to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun." I like using, "How Can I Keep From Singing?" I have also heard the tune from "Bark of Life" (Carter Family) used.

Do have a great day,
Duane.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: John P
Date: 19 Apr 12 - 01:03 AM

Stairway to Heaven . . .

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,BobL
Date: 19 Apr 12 - 03:47 AM

...
Auld Lang Syne
There Is A Green Hill Far Away
...

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST,BoKaye
Date: 17 Nov 13 - 02:31 PM

My favorite - except the original - is at Christmas. It fits perfectly to Joy to the World

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 18 Nov 13 - 03:33 AM

My favorite - except the original - is at Christmas. It fits perfectly to Joy to the World

Singing that one through in my head ...

A-mazing Grace, how sweet the sound.
That saved, a wretch, like me.
I o-nce wa-s lo-o-ost
But no-w a-m fou-ou-ound.
Was blind but now I see, wa-s blind but now I see.
Was Bli-ind, was bli-i-ind, but now I see.

Okay, I suppose it works.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 Nov 13 - 08:04 AM

I saw a version in Alan & John Lomax's seminal tome on American folksong and the song had a chorus. Dunno about the tune they documented.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST
Date: 24 May 19 - 11:33 AM

Love Gilligan's Island, Rising Sun, and Peaceful Easy Feeling.
A couple of others that work well -

Can't You See - Marshall Tucker Band- use their chorus except can't you see, what God's grace has done for me.

Seven Bridges Road - Eagles

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 May 19 - 12:27 AM

I merge Amazing Grace and House of the Rising Sun and end with the lines:
I'm going back to New Orleans,
My race is almost run;
I'll spend my nights a-seeking grace
In the House of the Rising Sun.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace to different tune
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Mar 20 - 11:58 AM

Gilligan's Island theme and am old Coca Cola ad- I'd like to teach the world to sing