Songs Without Boundaries, Part 4 (Final) - (#426)
This week's entry is the final installment of Randy Frank's Songs Without Boundaries..."On
the Wings of a Dove" stayed at Number 1 on the country charts for 10
weeks for Ferlin Husky in 1960. His manager, Robert B. "Bob" Ferguson,
wrote the song that's been recorded by artists spanning from the Fox
Brothers to Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Husky recalls that he
and musician/writer Ferguson wrote "On the Wings of a Dove" together
although he let Ferguson have all the writer's credits because Husky is
the publisher of the song.
Ferguson, who said he took a job
producing movies for the Tennessee Game & Fish Commission in 1955,
told author Dorothy Horstman, "This was a personal expression of faith
and joy in achieving a goal. When I wrote it, I had just completed 13
films on wildlife, and I was elated that the job was done."
Husky says it took him five years to get the song recorded.
"Mr.
Ken Nelson, the A & R Man at Capital in Nashville, said 'People are
not buying those religious-type songs,'" Husky says. "'It won't sell.'
Every time I'd record I'd bring it up. Finally, he said to me one day
'If you want to do it, you will be history.'"
Husky tried to get
the biggest stars such as Tennessee Ernie Ford and producers Don Law
and Owen Bradley to record it, but no one did.
After being
unsuccessful in getting cuts by other artists, Husky cut the song
during a session Nelson missed due to a delayed flight connection.
"When
I found out Nelson wasn't going to be there, I said 'Well good. Let's
cut 'Wings of a Dove,' recalls Husky. "Soon as I started, everybody
knew it. They were all singing it. That is just the way it came out."
In just two takes, he had it -and Nelson still didn't see it as a hit.
But the public proved Nelson wrong.
"The
rhythm was so different at the time," Husky says. "Absolutely, it was
God-inspired. That is why it hit. It was like a miracle."
Earle
Wheeler of the Marksmen Quartet, the 2007 Country Gospel Band of the
Year, has sang "On the Wings of a Dove" hundreds of times in his
40-year career.
"The uplifting spirit of the melody combined
with the promise that God's love comes down to us through one of His
most beautiful creations - a dove is what makes this song connect with
so many people," he says. "I think it is a reminder that God is always
looking out for us even when things are at their toughest."
Possibly
that is just what all of these songs in this series capture - the
feeling that God is always there with His amazing grace, reminding us
of His love.
A comment shared by the Dottie Rambo helps to sum
up this quest: "A good anointed gospel song written for the Glory of
God - or just to be a testimony to the Lord - will continue to be sung
long after the writer has left us. But a nice song without anointing
tends to live it's life and die on the vine."