| "Put Your Hand in the Hand" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Ocean | ||||
| from the album Put Your Hand in the Hand | ||||
| B-side | "Tear Down the Fences" | |||
| Released | February 1971[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1970 | |||
| Genre | Pop, gospel | |||
| Length | 2:52 3:53 – Remix 2006 | |||
| Label | Kama Sutra | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Gene MacLellan | |||
| Producer(s) | Greg Brown, Ocean | |||
| Ocean singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Audio | ||||
| "Put Your Hand in the Hand" (single edit) on YouTube | ||||
"Put Your Hand in the Hand" is a gospel pop song composed by Gene MacLellan and first recorded by Canadian singer Anne Murray from her third studio album Honey, Wheat and Laughter.
It became a hit single for the Canadian band Ocean, released as their debut single and title track to their debut album. The song peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, kept from No. 1 by "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night.[2] It remained in the top 10 for seven weeks,[3] and was ranked as the No. 33 song for 1971 according to Billboard. The song also reached No. 4 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[4] The band received fan mail for the song from religious figures such as Billy Graham and the Bishop of Toronto.[5]
After MacLellan's suicide in 1995, his friend and fellow Atlantic Canadian musician Ron Hynes wrote the song "Godspeed" as a tribute, the lyrics for which reference the title of this song.[6]
The song was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006.[7] A remix from the same year adds an instrumental, which occurs between the second chorus and the second verse, as well as a repeat of the chorus and a final instrumentalist chorus, that ends without the fade.[8]
- ^ "Ocean - Put Your Hand in the Hand".
- ^ "The Hot 100 Chart". Billboard.
- ^ "All US Top 40 Singles For 1971". Billboard.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 178.
- ^ "Casey Kasem's American Top 40 – The 70's - April 17, 1971". Internet Archive. 1971.
- ^ "Godspeed (Ron Hynes) tabs, videos". Wtv-zone.com. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
- ^ "Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame: Put Your Hand in the Hand". Retrieved 7 April 2019.
- ^ "Put Your Hand In The Hand (2009 CD Reissue)". Discogs. 2009.