It’s Good Friday and while in the car with my wife, the song by Elvis Presley, ‘It’s now or never’ came up and I asked her, isn’t this the tune of a hymn?
She said no, it’s an old song.
I said, it’s definitely a hymn. And I searched, realised it was ‘Down from His glory’ that shared the same melody as the Elvis Presley song, which was based on a very old Neapolitan (some kind of dialect of Italy though recognise almost as a distinct language) song, ‘O Sole Mio’ (written in 1898). The title translates to ‘My Sunshine’ and the original song was a bit of a love song that used ‘sun’ or ‘sunshine’ point to his subject of adoration.
Meanwhile, Down from His glory was written by William Booth-Clibborn in 1921. He is not to be confused with his own maternal grandfather, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. What I thought was interesting was how William Booth-Clibborn basically paid tribute to the source of the melody for which he composed his hymn with the lines in the chorus:
O how I love Him! How I adore Him!
My breath, my sunshine, my all in all.
What a wonderful way a love song had been directed towards the praise and adoration of the Lord! In contrast, ‘It’s now or never’, despite Elvis’ musical talents and brilliance in delivering this somewhat seductive song, becomes so superficial and pale in comparison to the depth of William Booth-Clibborn’s hymn.