Do You Hear What I Hear

The next time you hear the Christmas carol, “Do You Hear What I Hear,” listen carefully to the words. This popular and beautiful song has a backstory that’s nothing short of fascinating. Its message is a reminder of the true spirit of the season. It’s a reminder that is heartwarming, timeless, and boundless. 

The song was written and first recorded in 1962.  It was the product of a collaboration between the husband-and-wife team of Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne. Noel provided the lyrics that were then set to music by Gloria. The first recording of the song was by the Harry Simeone Chorale. When it was released for the 1962 Christmas season, it gained immediate popularity. However, it was the 1963 recording by Bing Crosby that made it an international hit selling millions of copies. Almost immediately it became a Christmas classic, and it remains a staple of the holiday season yet today. 

Noel Regney, a French-born musician, was forced to serve in the German army following the occupation of France by Hitler’s German troops. While serving in the German army, Regney became a member of the French underground, providing valuable intelligence to French resistance fighters and the Allied Forces. In one particularly difficult instance, he led a group of German soldiers into a crossfire trap. Regney was intentionally wounded in that action, so as to protect his cover. Shortly after that incident, he deserted from the German army. For the remainder of the war, he lived underground and continued his work with the French resistance.

In 1952, Noel Regney came to the United States and settled in Manhattan. He found work as a musician, composing music for commercials and television programs. At the same time, he continued his work as an independent musical composer and song writer. It was during this time period that he married an American musician named Gloria Shayne. Although their marriage did not last, their friendship continued for life. 

Regney’s experience during World War II and the harsh brutality he witnessed, had a lingering impact on him. Those unpleasant memories were profoundly reawakened in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The horrors of war he had experienced firsthand were once again a frightening and sobering possibility.

In early October of 1962, an American U-2 spy plane returned from a mission over Cuba with clear photographic intelligence that the Soviet Union was creating missile sites on that island.  Situated less than 100 miles from the United States, those sites could easily launch an attack on the American mainland.  In response, President John Kennedy ordered a naval blockade to halt any further shipments of nuclear equipment and missiles into Cuba. Such a military buildup was a clear and present threat to maintaining the tenuous peace between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War era. The threat of a nuclear confrontation was very real.  For 13 tense days, the world held its breath, as two nuclear superpowers worked their way through difficult negotiations, that ended the standoff peacefully. Unfortunately, the Cold War and the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union continued.

That October, Regney’s haunting memories of WWII coupled with the fear and anxious uncertainty brought on by the Cuban Missile Crisis, left him is despair. The life he had built for himself and his family in the United States seemed to be threatened. A record produced had requested that Noel write a holiday song. One night, while walking home he saw two mothers walking their babies in strollers. That vision inspired him, as he imagined those babies to “little lambs.”  In the lyrics, which he wrote as soon as he got home, he referenced that encounter with the words, “Said the night wind to the little lamb.” 

The song goes on to reference the birth of Christ and events surrounding that miracle.  It closes with a call to “Pray for peace, people everywhere” and a reminder that “The [Christ] Child, . . .sleeping in the night. . .will bring us goodness and light!” Although there have been more than a hundred iterations of the original song, its message of hope and its call for prayers for peace ring true in each of them. 

Although the Cold War that inspired this song may long be over, the world will always be in need of messages of hope and prayers for peace everywhere. So, as you gather with family and friends this holiday season, consider the words, the music, and the sentiments behind the song written and composed by Regney and Shayne.  And in that same time, recall the promise of that Child and a hope for continued goodness and light in the world!

Merry Christmas!