#5 most-searched carol in the US · 1739
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: the story behind the carol
⛪ Church & choir🏡 Great for caroling
- Words
- Charles Wesley (1739), revised by George Whitefield (1753)
- Music
- Felix Mendelssohn (1840), adapted by William Cummings (1855)
- From
- England
- Type
- Sacred carol
The story behind “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
Charles Wesley, brother of Methodism's founder John Wesley, wrote the hymn in 1739 with a very different first line about the sky ringing out. The preacher George Whitefield changed it in 1753 to the herald angels we sing today.
The tune comes from a cantata Mendelssohn wrote to celebrate Gutenberg and printing. Mendelssohn said it would never do for sacred words — but in 1855 William Cummings fitted Wesley's hymn to it anyway, and it stuck.
More carols like this
- Silent Night1818 · Oberndorf, Austria
- Jingle Bells1857 · Boston, Massachusetts
- Joy to the World1719 · England; tune from Boston
- O Holy Night1847 · Roquemaure, France
- Deck the Halls1862 · Wales; English words from Scotland
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas1935 · West of England
History retold from the carol's Wikipedia article and its sources; checked 2026-09-30.