In the apocryphal Gospel, Jesus has already been born and so Joseph's truculence is unrelated to any dismay over Mary's pregnancy, but has to do with an inability to reach the fruits of the palm and a concern over the family's lack of water.
[6] Many other traditional versions have been collected in the last century, such as an audio recording of Bob Arnold of Burford, Oxfordshire, England,[7] and another of Thomas Moran of Mohill, Co. Leitrim, Ireland.
Alan Lomax recorded three versions in Kentucky in the late 1930s, including from the traditional singer Aunt Molly Jackson, all of which can be heard online.
[11][12] The version sung on Ritchie's album Carols for All Seasons (1959), and later on her sister Edna's eponymous LP of traditional songs (1962),[13] later became popular after a recording by Joan Baez.
[14][15] Various versions of the song have been recorded by Shirley Collins & Davy Graham (also by herself and with The Young Tradition), Marty Haugen, Kacy & Clayton, the Clancy Brothers (as "When Joseph Was an Old Man"), Judy Collins, José Feliciano, Emmylou Harris, Mary Hopkin (as B-side of the single "Mary had a Baby/Cherry Tree Carol"), the King's College Choir, Cindy Kallet, Magpie Lane, Mark Lanegan, Colin Meloy, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Nowell Sing We Clear, Pentangle, Angelo Branduardi (two Italian versions: "Il ciliegio" and "Rosa di Galilea"), Peter Paul and Mary, Casey Stratton, Bob Rowe, John Rutter (with the Cambridge Singers), the Poor Clares from New Orleans ("Cherry Tree Carol" on their album Songs for Midwinter), Sting (If on a Winter's Night), Ron Block on his album Carter's Creek Christmas, Joe Weed, on his album Prairie Christmas, and Kerfuffle (as "Cherry Tree Carol" on their Midwinter album Lighten the Dark).