Go Tell It on the Mountain: the story behind the carol

An African-American spiritual from the oral tradition, sung long before it was written down. John Wesley Work Jr., a music scholar at Fisk University in Nashville, wrote it down and published it in 1907.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers carried it around the world, and it has been recorded by gospel and pop singers alike — Simon & Garfunkel put it on their very first album in 1964.