Lyr Add: Count Your Blessings - Thanksgiving hymn

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Count Your Blessings - Thanksgiving hymn
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Oct 10 - 04:42 PM

Here's one I added earlier this month, Genie: Count Your Blessings and Smile. Great song, imo!:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Count Your Blessings - Thanksgiving hymn
From: Genie
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 06:29 PM

Yeah, but it's a totally different song, so I'd put it in a different thread:
"Count Your Blessings (Irving Berlin)" :D

Subject: Lyr Add: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS INSTEAD OF SHEEP
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 05:16 PM

I prefer this one-

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS INSTEAD OF SHEEP
Irving Berlin, 1952

When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings.

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings.

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings.

Bing Crosby sang that one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Count Your Blessings - Thanksgiving hymn
From: Genie
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 04:59 PM

Maybe a mudelf will fix the formatting on that first verse?


About the songwriters


This song "Count your Blessings" has long been a well-loved thanksgiving song. Edwin Excell composed the tune for the poem/lyrics written by Johnson Oatman, Jr.
                
American Hymn-writer Johnson Oatman, Jr.
Rev. Johnson Oatman, Jr. (born in 1856 near Medford, NJ, was an important and prolific Gospel songwriter of the late 19th C. and early 20th C. His father, Johnson Oatman Sr,, was a talented singer and familiarized his son with many church hymns. The younger Oatman joined the Methodist Church at age 19 and years later was ordained to preach in local Methodist congregations. Though primary career was in marketing and business administration, he wrote the lyrics to over 5,000 hymns.


"American composer E.O. Excell
E. O. Excell, the composer, is well-known in early gospel hymnody. He was born in Stark County, Ohio [in] 1851. At 20, he became a singing teacher, traveling around the country establishing singing schools. For many years, Excell was associated with Sam Jones, a well-known Southern revivalist. In his time, he was one of the finest song leaders. In addition to writing and composing more than 2,000 gospel songs as well as publishing about 50 songbooks, Excell managed a successful music publishing business in Chicago. While assisting Gypsy Smith in an evangelistic campaign in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1921, he was suddenly stricken at the age of 70 and passed away."

Subject: Lyr Add: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS (Excell/Oarman)
From: Genie
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 04:43 PM

There seem to be several well-known songs with this title. This is the one usually found in the Methodist Hymnal and other hymnals, a Thanksgiving 'standard'.


COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
Music: Edwin Excell. Lyrics: Johnson Oarman, Jr. (based on I Thessalonians 5:18)
Published 1897 (Public Domain)

When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

CHORUS: Count your blessings; name them one by one.
Count your blessings; see what God hath done!
Count your blessings; name them one by one.
Count your many blessings; see what God hath done.*

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings; every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold.
Count your many blessings; wealth can never buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged; God is over all.
Count your many blessings; angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

[*Alternate line:
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.]

MIDI of the tune