The Holy City is a religious Victorian ballad dating from 1892, with music by Michael Maybrick writing under the alias Stephen Adams, with lyrics by Frederic Weatherly.
[1] The three verses of the song describe in turn, a crowd cheering Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus's crucifixion on Good Friday, and the eventual "New Jerusalem" (Zion) of universal peace and brotherhood, which is foretold in Isaiah 2:4 [2] and Isaiah 11:6-9.
[3] The song is recorded in the African Methodist Episcopal Church Review in 1911 as having been sung by an opera singer awaiting trial for fraud in his cell while a group of men arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct were before the judge.
The men were said to have dropped to their knees as the song began 'Last night I lay a-sleeping, There came a dream so fair.
[5] It gained renewed popularity when it was sung by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1936 hit film San Francisco.