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"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" is a spiritual that made the popular song charts in a 1958 version by English singer Laurie London with the Geoff Love Orchestra, which went all the way to #1 of the Most Played by Jockeys song list in the USA and went to number three on the R&B charts [1]. It was the most successful record by a British male in the 50's in the USA.[2] The record reached #2 on Billboard's Best Sellers In Stores survey and #1 in Cashbox's Top 60. Mahalia Jackson's version made the Billboard top 100 singles chart, topping at number 67. To date, it is the only gospel song to hit #1 on a U.S. pop singles chart.
Other versions were recorded by Marian Anderson, Odetta, Perry Como, the Sandpipers (1970;"Come Saturday Morning" LP) and Nina Simone on And Her Friends (1959). The Sisters of Mercy played it at the Reading Festival in 1991. It is featured on the "The Good and the Bad and the Ugly" bootleg album.
In February 1978, English football team Nottingham Forest F.C. released "We've Got The Whole World In Our Hands" (Warner K17110) in conjunction with local band Paper Lace; the B side featured "The Forest March". The song has become a favourite in British football grounds, with the lyrics adapted in various ways; for instance, "We're the worst team in the League" has been heard at Rushden & Diamonds matches.[3]
In the 1982 film "Tootsie", Dorothy Michaels (Dustin Hoffman) sings a line of the song to her (his) agent George Fields (Sydney Pollack), changing the words to "I've got the whole world in my hands."
In the movie Con Air (1997), Steve Buscemi plays a serial killer who sings "He's got the whole world" with a little girl.
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See also
- Saint Pancras, whose name means "the one that holds everything".
External links
Notes and references
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 359.
- ^ http://www.music.us/biography/artist/536/laurie_london.html
- ^ Bremner, Jack (2004), Shit Ground No Fans, Bantam Press, ISBN 978-0593053768
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