"I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling" | |
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Song by Bill Monroe from the album 'Blue Moon of Kentucky' | |
Released | 1947 |
Recorded | 1946 1956 |
Genre | Bluegrass |
Cover versions | |
Elvis Presley |
I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling is a song written and originally recorded by Bill Monroe, who sang lead and also added a tenor harmony to the chorus in his October 27, 1947 recording on the Columbia Records label.[1] It appears on his album Blue Moon of Kentucky.
Contents |
The song is about a dying girl who faces the sure prospect of going to heaven, with the opening lyrics; "Our little girl had taken sick one evening as she walked home from school and then her deathbed soon claimed her, it made us so sad and so blue.[2] As Robert Cantwell put it in his book Bluegrass breakdown: the making of the old southern sound, "the sick child leaves the world with a rebuke to her parents, whose tears imply that their faith has been shaken."[3] In the recording, Joe Val sang in falsetto on this song; he was a strong tenor on most songs.[4] Bluegrass Unlimited said "His songs were at once tragic and filled with a radiant life force, in music as heart-wrenchingly old-fashioned as "I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling".[5] Monroe has also performed it live with the Osborne Brothers and it was described "achingly beautiful yet electrically exciting music, ruefully outdated by time."[6]
Elvis Presley recorded a brief, rough version on 4 December, 1956 and had also recorded Monroe's other songs such as Blue Moon of Kentucky, Little Cabin on the Hill, Summertime Has Passed and Gone and Sweetheart, You Done Me Wrong.[7] Elvis was a major fan of bluegrass artist Monroe.[8] Elvis altered Monroe's original waltz time to a rocking 4/4 boogie beat and claimed that it was songs such as I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling which were of major importance in the development of rock and roll.[8]