by Uityyy » Sun Jul 05, 2020 9:03 pm
And now for commentary on some of the hymnals, particularly ones that do not yet have full indexes in Hymnary:
Pentecostal Praises, Pentecostal Publishing House, Hazelwood, MO, 1947
Still in print! 342 hymns, mostly Gospel Hymns and Southern Gospel. Index of titles only and a partial topical index. Copyright assigned to current publisher in 1950. Original publisher not listed.
Songs and Hymns Divine, S. N. Greene, Oklahoma City 6, Oklahoma, 1947
220 + 2 hymns, largely Southern Gospel. Unusual for being published in Oklahoma, which seems as a state to be mostly a consumer rather than a producer of Southern Gospel. Greene had Stamps-Baxter, which owned a lot of the songs anyway, print the book for him. The hymnal is unique in having TWO different hymn number 159s, as the original number has not been removed from whatever plate is reproduced on the inside front cover!
Christian Hymns Number Two, Gospel Advocate Co., Nashville, TN, 1948
452+1 hymns, mostly Gospel Hymns. This is Church of Christ hymnal edited by L. O. Sanderson. Some background on it can be found on a Church of Christ blog, but it hasn't been entered into Hymnary.org yet. Church of Christ hymnals, unlike those I have seen from any other denomination, almost universally include a silk bookmark of the kind found in many bibles, and I can see from this volume that they've been doing that for a long time.
Our Favorite Songs, Jubillee Publications, Nashville, TN, 1956
Paperback. Not dated inside. 182 hymns, mostly Southern Gospel, and some pictures of quartet groups. This was associated with the Gospel Singing Jubilee TV program.
Christian Songs and Choice Hymns, Stamps Quartet Music Company Inc., Dallas, TX, 1957
Paperback. 269 hymns, classics and Southern Gospel.
Free Will Baptist Hymn Book, National Association of Free Will Baptists, Nashville, TN, 1964
General Baptist Hymn Book, General Baptist Education and Publications Inc., Poplar Bluff, MO, 1965
415 hymns + responsive readings. These two books are virtually identical except for the church covenants and the "General Baptist" version referring to foot washing circuitously as "fellowship in condescension" in the topical index. I recall reading that the denomination joined the hymnal project the corporation had already started. The mix of Gospel Hymns and older classics here has a lot of overlap with Southern Baptist hymnals.
All Time Favorite Hymns, Jimmie Davis Music Co. Inc., Shreveport, LA, 1965
Paperback. 240 + 1 hymns + readings. This hymnal is unique in having TWO separate paperback covers, one inside the other. The outer cover is maroon paper with a faux-leather pattern and the title. The inner cover is glossy card-stock with a picture of a shockingly Anglo-Saxon looking Jesus rescuing a lost lamb above the title. I'm assuming the author is the same Jimmie Davis that recorded "You are my sunshine" and served as the pro-segregation (eew!!!!) governor of Louisiana just a year before this book was published.
The Great Christian Hymnal: Number Two, Brotherhood Press, Abilene, TX, 1965
480 + 1 hymns + a few unnumbered chants. Mainly gospel hymns. I'm in the process of creating a pages spreadsheet of this to go on Hymnary.org. The editor Tillit S. Teddlie was a major Church of Christ hymn writer and includes a lot of his own hymns in here. He wrote one of his most re-printed early hymns while pastoring a church in the same little town where I went to college, so there's some local interest behind me wanting to take the time to fully index this.
~ Timothy Gaskell