The sermon transcribed by Susan ends with a short version of the song "Everybody don´t know who Jesus is". Many New Orleans style Jazz bands (including ours) play this theme combined with "He´s the Lily of the Valley", first recorded by Paul Barbarin in 1951. There are no recordings of "Everybody don´t know" between McGee´s version in 1930 and Barbarin´s in 1951, but the tune was obviously played between those dates and maybe also before 1930 - the trumpet player of the McGee recording is a jazz musician who seems to be quite familiar with the tune. I have found 195 recordings of the tune, with several different versions of the lyrics.

In the fifties there was a poular song called "Everybody ought to know who Jesus is" with the chorus "He´s the Lily of the Valley". Composer credits to Harry Dixon Loes, but another source says Otis Deaton. The melody of "Everybody DON´T know" is almost the same as the original version of "Oh Happy Day"."Everybody OUGHT TO know" is a little different: The first bars are the same as Dixon Loes´ "Every Moment of the Day", published in 1917!

The chorus "He´s the Lily of the Valley" in the "OUGHT TO know" song has the same melody as "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". The "DON´T know" version is almost the same but the chords of the 4-8 bars are reversed. I don´t know if Rev. McGee also sang the "Lily" theme and which melody he used. The question about the origin of the song remains!

This version of "Lily of the Valley" is not the same as the more common one by Charles Fry and William S. Hays (melody: Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane...)

There are many other songs / tunes with the same title - I have found around 30 different, from Tchaikovskij to Queen...

Ingemar Wågerman
Gota River Jazzmen
Gothenburg, Sweden
http://listen.to/gotariver