Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
Page from The Jubilee Singers (1873)
Song
Written	Prior to 1862
Genre	Negro spiritual
Writer(s)	Wallace Willis

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
Single by Eric Clapton
from the album There's One in Every Crowd
B-side	"Pretty Blue Eyes"
Released	May 1975 (1975-05)
Format	7" vinyl
Genre	Blues rock · Reggae
Length	3:33
Label	RSO
Writer(s)	Wallace Willis
Producer(s)	Tom Dowd
Eric Clapton chronology
"Willie and the Hand Jive" (1974) "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1975) "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (1975)

"Swing Low"
Single by UB40 featuring United Colours of Sound
from the album Homegrown
B-side	"Swing Low" (Stadium mix)
Released	27 October 2003
Genre	Reggae
Label	DEP International DEPDJ58
Writer(s)	Charlie Skarbek Traditional
Producer(s)	Charlie Skarbek
UB40 featuring United Colours of Sound singles chronology
"Cover Up" (2002) "Swing Low" (2003) "Kiss and Say Goodbye" (2005)

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
Single by Ella Eyre
Released	7 September 2015
Format	Digital download
Recorded	2014
Genre	Pop
Length	3:14
Label	Virgin EMI Records
Writer(s)	Wallace Willis
Producer(s)	Glyn Aikins Mojam
Ella Eyre singles chronology
"Good Times" (2015) "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (2015) "Best of My Love" (2015)

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is an American negro spiritual. The earliest known recording was in 1909, by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University. The song serves as the anthem of the England national rugby union team.

In 2002, the Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to be added to the National Recording Registry. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" may have been written by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma sometime after 1865. He may have been inspired by the Red River, which reminded him of the Jordan River and of the Prophet Elijah's being taken to heaven by a chariot (2 Kings 2:11). Some sources claim that this song and "Steal Away" (also sung by Willis) had lyrics that referred to the Underground Railroad, the freedom movement that helped black people escape from Southern slavery to the North and Canada.

Alexander Reid, a minister at the Old Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis singing these two songs and transcribed the words and melodies. He sent the music to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Jubilee Singers popularized the songs during a tour of the United States and Europe.

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Wikipedia