Mary Did You Know?

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Mary, Did You Know?
Words by Mark Lowry, 1984; music by Buddy Greene, 1991

This modern Christmas favorite began with a simple assignment. In 1984, singer and comedian Mark Lowry was asked to write the script for a Christmas program at his church in Lynchburg, Virginia. As he worked, he found himself thinking about the questions he’d love to ask Mary if he could sit down with her. What was it like to raise that child? What did she know, and what didn’t she? Those questions became a series of short monologues for the program, and later the lyric of the song. The song asks its questions but never answers them.

The words waited seven years for their music. In 1991, Lowry and Buddy Greene, a respected songwriter and harmonica player, were both touring with the gospel singers Bill and Gloria Gaither. Lowry gave Greene the lyric, and Greene took it home. Before writing the tune, Greene spent a day listening to Christmas carols in minor keys, such as “What Child Is This?” and “We Three Kings.” You can hear that influence in the song’s quiet, searching melody.

The first recording came that same year. Michael English, Lowry’s fellow member of the Gaither Vocal Band, included it on his 1991 debut solo album, and it reached No. 6 on Contemporary Christian Music magazine’s Adult Contemporary chart. Country singer Kathy Mattea recorded it for her 1993 Christmas album, Good News, which gave the song its first broad exposure on country radio. Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd released a duet version that reached No. 55 on the country chart in 1997. Since then, it has been recorded by a long list of artists, including Clay Aiken, CeeLo Green, Dolly Parton, and Carrie Underwood.

The version many people know best came from Pentatonix, the five-voice a cappella group. They recorded it for their 2014 album That’s Christmas to Me. With no instruments at all, only voices, their recording entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 26 in December 2014. That was the highest new entry on the chart that week and brought the song to a large new pop audience.

Not everyone has admired the song. Over the years, some commentators have picked apart its questions and published essays arguing about them. Lowry takes the criticism in good humor. He closes every concert with the song, whatever the season. “When you have one hit,” he once said, “you better end with it.”