A Beloved Hymn
Not all the music in the Knott’s record collection was for dancing. From 1920 we have a recording of two hymns produced by National Music Lovers Inc. They sold their records in sets of eight by mail. Now we have only this one. What happened to the other seven? Was the Knott’s collection once much larger or did this record come from some other collection, maybe as a gift?
In any case, the two hymns on the record, “Abide with me” and “Holy, Holy, Holy” must have been favorites. They turn up again in the Knott’s collection in 1946 as part of a four-record album, Familiar Hymns by the St. Luke’s Choristers. The Choristers made records and appeared in movies from the thirties onward.
Compare these two renditions of “Abide with Me”. Here is the 1920 gramophone version:
https://archive.org/details/78_abide-with-me_geo-lenore-chas-jackson_gbia0310836b
The 1946 version has more sensitive voicing:
This recording was also a member of a set. By the 1940’s, 78 RPM records were frequently sold as albums with several recordings bound like a book. There are remnants of several albums of show tunes and Christmas music in the Knott’s collection, but Familiar Hymns by the St. Luke’s Choristers is the only complete album with all four records and the original album cover.
George Lenore and Charles Jackson (1920)
B: Abide with Me
St. Luke’s Choristers (1946)
663-3A: Abide with Me
