For quite a while ~~ make that at least several years, I have been meaning to set the record a little straighter, but have never gotten around to it. So here is a start.

After a good bit of research, I found that the song commonly sung is actually Who Will Sing For Me? with lyrics and music by J. T. Ely, Stamps and Ely, owners. The particular version I have in my hand is No. 49 in Favorite Radio Songs Number Two, collected by Virgil O. Stamps, and published by (who else would it be?) Stamps-Baxter Music & Printing Co., Inc. Dallas, Texas -- Pangburn, Arkansas -- Chattanooga, Tenn, Copyright 1939. No doubt it has been collected in other Stamps-Baxter books as well.

Since Joe has the music for the more commonly printed Who'll Sing For Me by Thomas J. Farris and no doubt MANY recorded versions of Ely's Who Will Sing For Me?, I will send him a scan of Ely's music and the only recorded version that I have of Who'll Sing For Me? by the great a capella Gospel group, The Chestnut Grove Quartet.

Now the complete history of these two songs, which are very similar, and which one actually owes what to the other still eludes me. As I indicated in my opening paragraph, it is something that I somehow got sidetracked from a long time ago. The Ely version copyrighted in a 1939 book and the Farris copyright of 1944 though significant would not necessarily be the final word, as it seems to me that Stamps-Baxter and the other hymn book publishers of the times were notorious at slapping new copyrights on songs that were older.