The DU Lounge

This song was written by the husband and wife team Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne in October 1962. They were famous for writing pop songs. Regney was born in France but when France was overrun in World War II he was drafted into the German Army. He hated the Nazis and joined the French resistance while still in the German Army. The horrors of war scarred him. After the war he came to the US. In October 1962 Regney and Shayne were commissioned to write a Christmas song for the B-side of a single. It was the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Regney was really down with the thoughts of another war. Walking home in New York he passed two moms and their babies. The babies were smiling at each other and it changed Regney's mood completely. He wrote the lyrics when he got home. It was never intended to be either a religious song , but a song for peace, a political statement. It had bits and pieces of imagery that paralleled the Nativity story and people grabbed on to that. The little babies he saw became the lamb which was an often used symbol for peace. There was a shepherd but shepherds and sheep are not unique to the Nativity. The star with a tail as big as a kite was intended as a nuclear missile but most people turned that into the Bethlehem star. The line "A child, a child, shivers in the cold," was a reference to the real babies that inspired the song as well as a plea to the king in his warm castle to help the poor children.
The last verse brings brings the key message that Regney intended, "Pray for peace, every one." The song has been recorded over 130 times. The Harry Simeone Choral was the first in 1962 and sold a quarter million copies in one week. A year later Bing Crosby recorded it and sold over a million copies and a new Christmas classic was established. The song starts out quietly and builds up. Regney's favorite recording was by Robert Goulet because he almost shouted the line "Pray for peace, every one."