This song started out as a hymn written in 1885 by the Rev. Carl Boberg, a Swedish evangelist, who set it to a Swedish folk melody. The hymn was translated into German, then Russian, and when an English missionary Stuart Hine working in the Ukraine heard a native congregation sing the Russian words, he produced an English version. The hymn didn't gain worldwide popularity until it was incorporated into the services of the Billy Graham Crusades in the 1950s.
Elvis won his first Grammy for this song: the 1967 Grammy for the Best Sacred, Religious or Inspirational Recording. Surprisingly, Elvis won only three Grammy Awards: this one, the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1970, and another Best Sacred, Religious or Inspirational Recording for his album, He Touched Me in 1972. The Grammy Awards were first given out in 1959, and for about eight years they were clearly biased against rock music, favoring artists like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.
In honor of the 87-year-old dobro player Brother Oswald, Vince Gill performed this with a dobro at the Grand Ole Opry in 1999.
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