All Through the Night

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All Through the Night

Traditional, English words by Harold Boulton, 1884

Long before Peter, Paul and Mary sang it softly to a generation of children, this gentle tune was already very old. It comes from Wales, where it’s known as “Ar Hyd y Nos.” The melody first appeared in print in 1784, in a collection by Edward Jones, a Welsh harpist who gathered the old tunes of his homeland. It’s a traditional melody, and no one knows who first composed it.

Over the years, people fitted many different verses to the tune. The Welsh words most people sing today came from John Ceiriog Hughes, a 19th-century Welsh poet. Here’s a curious thing: his Welsh verses aren’t really a lullaby. They’re about the night itself, and how the stars bring light and peace to the darkness. The English words we know best, the ones Peter, Paul and Mary sing, were written in 1884 by Sir Harold Boulton. His version turned it into a true cradle song, about a parent keeping watch over a sleeping child through the long, quiet hours, with angels standing guard. So the Welsh and English songs share a melody and a title, but they tell two quite different stories.

The tune has also traveled well beyond the nursery. It carries several hymns, including Reginald Heber’s evening hymn “God That Madest Earth and Heaven,” and it’s a treasured piece for the famous Welsh male voice choirs, who sing it at festivals all over the world. Because of its peaceful mood, many people think of it as a Christmas song, and it turns up on holiday albums by artists such as Olivia Newton-John.

Peter, Paul and Mary included it on Peter, Paul and Mommy in 1969. It was the trio’s first children’s album, and it also held their beloved “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Their “All Through the Night” was never released as a single and never charted by itself. The album, though, reached No. 12 on Billboard’s album chart and won a Grammy for Best Recording for Children.