Nearer To Thee

Written by Sam Cooke

Trivia

• Cooke's best selling gospelsong

The Soul Stirrers: 

• Sam Cooke, Paul Foster - leads 
• Senior Roy Crain - first tenor 
• Thomas L. Bruster, R.B. Robinson - baritones 
• Jesse J. Farley - bass  
• Willie Webb - organ  
• Edward Robinson - piano

Recorded February 16, 1955 at Universal Recorders in Chicago

A&R: S.R. Craine

Singles    Specialty 878 b/w Be With Me Jesus    (1958 - 37,000)

Albums    

• The Complete Recordings of Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers
• The Gospel Soul of Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers, Vol. 1 
• The Soul Stirrers featuring Sam Cooke
• Touch The Hem Of His Garment
• Wonderful

Live Version

Recorded July 22, 1955 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles

The Soul Stirrers:     

• Sam Cooke, Paul Foster - leads   
• Senior Roy Crain - first tenor    
• Bob King, R.B. Robinson - baritones   
• Jesse J. Farley - bass 
• Bob King - guitar

A&R: Bumps Blackwell

Albums    The Complete Recordings of Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers    /    The Great 1955 Shrine Concert

Lyrics

The minister was preaching
and the crowd was standing near
The congregation was singing a tune
in a voice that was loud and clear

You know the crowd stood around him
they were crying, I could plainly see
For the song that they sang was touching
they were singing:
Nearer my God to thee
O, nearer my good to thee, nearer, nearer to thee

We kept on singing: nearer my Lord to thee

Songs have a feeling
there is a story in every song we sing
Songs that are known to lift heave burdens
if all of our troubles, god we all _____

And if we Christians we ought not to be ashamed
to lift our voices in our Jesus' his name
We ought to be able to sing, nearer my God to thee

Lift our voices and sing, nearer, nearer

I want to get nearer to thee
When I got lonely I can sing nearer my God to thee
I just bow down and say nearer to thee
Nearer my God to thee