My stars, how hearing this brings me back! Michael Row the Boat Ashore, sung by the Highwaymen–1960. Requested by TheWhiteRabbit.
How popular was this song? In the summer of 1960, after the Highwaymen’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, you heard it everywhere. The song is still here–but what happened to the Highwaymen?
It doesn’t get more iconic than this! Louis Armstrong, national treasure; that wonderful old TV show by Ed Sullivan; and When the Saints Go Marching In–if you want to ask for anything more, you’re just being greedy.
Requested by Phoebe, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? I found this clip of Mahalia Jackson singing it on the old Ed Sullivan Show, in black-and-white. Ed introduced her as “one of our greatest stars.” Which she was.
If our country ever needed blessing, she needs it now, today. Pray for America.
Requested by Michele, God Bless America–and who better to sing it than Irving Berlin, the man who wrote it? Performed on the Ed Sullivan Show, 1968.