Today I learned “How Great Thou Art”, one of the world’s most well known christian songs, has Swedish roots.
The original lyrics to the original song called “O store Gud” in Swedish, was written by one Carl Boberg after one can assume was a vivid experience of a thunderstorm in 1886. It was later translated into German (“Wie groß bist Du”) in 1907, into Russian in 1927, and that version was picked up and translated into English by a missionary in 1948.
It’s been performed by (among others) Johnny Cash, Whitney Houston, and perhaps most famously by Elvis. Oh, and Elvis never bought into the fact that it had Swedish roots, despite persuasion attempts by the Swedish pianist Per-Erik Hallin who worked with Elvis.
Now you know!