“Sweet Little Jesus Boy” is a spiritual Christmas song composed by Robert MacGimsey and published in 1934 by Carl Fischer Music. Baritone Lawrence Tibbett was the first to record it. Robert Merrill recorded his version in 1947. MacGimsey wanted “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” to echo the sentiments of black Christians in the Civil War era. He once described his most famous song as more a meaning than a song: He pictured an aging black man whose life had been full of injustice “standing off in the middle of a field just giving his heart to Jesus in the stillness.
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
