Put Your Hand in the Hand

"Put Your Hand in the Hand"
Single by Ocean
from the album Put Your Hand in the Hand
B-side"Tear Down the Fences"
ReleasedFebruary 1971[1]
Recorded1970
GenrePop, gospel
Length2:52
3:53 – Remix 2006
LabelKama Sutra
Songwriter(s)Gene MacLellan
Producer(s)Greg Brown, Ocean
Ocean singles chronology
"Put Your Hand in the Hand"
(1971)
"Deep Enough for Me"
(1970)
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]

  1. ^ "Ocean - Put Your Hand in the Hand".
  2. ^ "The Hot 100 Chart". Billboard.
  3. ^ "All US Top 40 Singles For 1971". Billboard.
  4. ^ Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 178.
  5. ^ "Casey Kasem's American Top 40 – The 70's - April 17, 1971". Internet Archive. 1971.
  6. ^ "Godspeed (Ron Hynes) tabs, videos". Wtv-zone.com. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  7. ^ "Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame: Put Your Hand in the Hand". Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  8. ^ "Put Your Hand In The Hand (2009 CD Reissue)". Discogs. 2009.