MARY'S LITTLE BOY CHILD

Music and Text: Jester Hairston
Arrangement: Michael Davis

Sometime in the early 1950s, songwriter and choral conductor Jester Hairston was asked to provide a new Christmas carol for a concert by Walter Schumann’s Hollywood Choir. Hairston thought back to a song he had composed a few years earlier in which he used a calypso rhythm. He penned some new Christmas-themed lyrics for the melody and came up with “Mary’s Little Boy Child.”

Later, Harry Belafonte heard Schumann’s choir sing this song, and asked permission to record it for his 1956 album An Evening with Belafonte. The following year, “Mary’s Boy Child” was a number one hit single for Belafonte. Other performers have also enjoyed success with this upbeat Christmas song, and it has found its way into numerous hymnals around the world as a favorite internationally-flavored carol.