Back Then Larry Chabot

Illustration by Mike McKinney

Peace song goes awry

by Larry Chabot

We've always had songs associated with our country's wars. During the Civil War, it was "Battle Hymn of the Republic," for Word War I, the country sang "Over There," while World War II produced thousands to choose from--"We'll Meet Again" being one of the best and saddest.

During the Cold War, the long and edgy standoff between the United States and USSR, a song of peace morphed into one of the most popular Christmas songs ever. The peace piece spiraled up the wrong charts, as it begat hundreds of artist versions and sold tens of millions of copies.

The wayward song is "Do You Hear What I Hear?" with these famous opening lines:

Said the night wind to the little lamb,

Do you see what I see?

Way up in the sky, little lamb,

Do you see what I see?

Do you hear what I hear?

How did this happen? In New York, Noel Regney and his wife Gloria Shayne Baker were struggling with a holiday song without enthusiasm, until a scene witnessed by Regney got them to thinking about the Cold War and how a peace song was suggested by a scene that Regney observed on the streets of the city:

"I saw two mothers with their babies in strollers. The babies were looking at each other and smiling." A glimpse of these babies filled Regney's heart with poetry, reminding him of newborn lambs. So the song's beginning grew out of his recollection: from that: ‘Said the night wind to the little lamb…’”

So who was this Regney? He was a Frenchman drafted into the German army in World War II after the Germans had occupied his homeland. He got back at his oppressors by stealing German secrets and delivering them to the Allies, thus becoming a double agent.

After being wounded in combat, he fled to the United States where he began a musical career by composing the runaway hit “Dominique,” recorded by The Singing Nun.

He partnered talents with Gloria Shayne, who he soon married; Regney wrote the words and Shayne the music.

Beginning in 1962, they composed a string of popular melodies before struggling with a Christmas song. Instead Regney, nervous about the Cold War and recalling the baby strollers on the city streets, was inspired to begin writing lyrics of peace, and thus began the need for a song of peace.

“Said the night wind to the little lamb, ‘Do you see what I see?’”… Pray for peace. The enormous tensions generated by the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 made it difficult for them to even perform the song.

“Our little song broke us up,” Regney said. “You must realize there was a threat of war at the time.”

Their song of peace drew the attention of the Harry Simone Chorale, popularizers of “The Little Drummer Boy,” who put it out as a 45 rpm Christmas single. It sold 250,000 copies the first week.

Along came crooner Bing Crosby to record his own version, which sold over a million records. Literally hundreds of other artists got on the bandwagon: Perry Como, Mahalia Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Johnny Mathis, Johnny Cash, Pat Boone, Robert Goulet (Regney’s reluctant favorite version), and the wildly popular, stunning version by Whitney Houston on the “Tonight” show. It was even performed at Regney’s funeral in 2002. “Do You Hear?” has since been voted one of the most beloved Christmas songs of all times.

Critics soon began praising (or hating) the tune. The Deb Simmons website asked, “Didn’t you assume that this Christmas carol was along the lines of an old folk song? I certainly did, at least partly because the words don’t make a lot of sense—to me, anyway... It isn’t an old folk song at all, but one written in 1962 at the height of the Cuban missile crisis... (when) the world hovered on the brink of destruction for several days in October, as the standoff between the USSR and the US continued over...missiles in Cuba. In the end, the USSR backed down and removed the missiles...The world breathed a little easier.”

Edgar Herwick of Boston PBS station WGBH-TV also mentioned the backstory: “In 1962, Bobby Vinton was climbing the popularity charts with his single, ‘Rain, Rain Go Away,’ composed by Regney and Shayne.”

He quoted their daughter Gabrielle: “They were always at the piano, composing. They were born to do this. It was in their blood. They existed for their music and for each other. That’s when they came alive,” she said.

Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri panned it as too repetitive.

“If you must repeat something you said [then maybe] you didn’t phrase it very well in the first place,” she wrote.

Both parents had music careers when they met in New York, their daughter said.

“He was on tour when he met my mother,” she said. “She was playing piano, I believe, at the Ritz. They were soulmates and married a few weeks later and began an incredible career together.”

Their works were recorded by some of the biggest stars of their day, like Jo Stafford, Eddie Fisher, Doris Day, Whitney Houston and Johnny Mathis.

She stressed that it was not meant to be a religious or Christmas song.

“My parents were not religious at all. It blows my mind to think about how the two of them wrote a very Christian song. They were making a political statement: a plea for peace, and a reminder of the ravages of war.”

“The biggest part for them was the ‘pray for peace’ line,” Gabrielle said. “That line was very big for both of them.”

MM

About the Author: Larry Chabot, an Ontonagon native, worked his way through Georgetown University and was then employed at White Pine Copper Company for 32 years, before moving to Marquette with his wife, Betty. He is a freelance writer who has written for several publications, including over 150 articles for Marquette Monthly.

Author’s Note: Until editor Joe Zyble suggested there was an intriguing story behind this song, Larry – like almost everyone else – assumed it was a holiday special, right up there with the old favorites. Musically challenged, Larry is in sync with his brother Peter, who once said “I couldn’t carry a tune if it had a handle on it.”