Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
round the virgin and her child:
holy infant so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace;
sleep in heavenly peace!

Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quail at the sight,
glory streams from heaven afar:
heavenly hosts sing ‘Alleluia,
Christ the Saviour is born,
Christ the Saviour is born!’

Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light:
radiant beams your holy face
with the dawn of saving grace,
Jesus, Lord, at your birth,
Jesus, Lord, at your birth.

J Mohr (1792-1848)

Readers of the 1972 Blue Peter Annual will be familiar with the story of the bellows-munching Austrian mouse and Franz Gruber’s hastily written carol that saved that organ-less Christmas day.

Unfortunately this story is a myth. The melody was indeed composed by Franz Gruber, but the lyrics were written some two years earlier by Fr Joseph Mohr the local priest at Obnerdorf.  Mohr brought them to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment which they first performed together during the mass on the night of 24 December 1818.

Bing Crosby’s 1935 recording is still the third best selling single of all time.