In the 1950s and ’60s the doors of the churches were being rattled (and indeed some windows too) by the 20th-Century Church Light Music Group, who were rightly insisting that more than one style was suitable for church use and more than one instrument. They were on the whole writing new, popular-style tunes to old words, and they certainly denied any claim to be producing immortal masterpieces. Patrick Appleford, however, wrote his own words too. This hymn was written in 1958 when he was priest at All Saints Poplar, in London’s East End, being prompted by a song of the time ‘Living Doll’. It is his best-known hymn and possibly the best survivor of the movement. The tune has an engaging warmth, the words are strong, and the whole has a feeling that words and music truly belong together.
from notes by Alan Luff © 1999
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