When the Saints Go Marching In

One of the most famous jazz recordings of "The Saints" was made on May 13, 1938, by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra.

[3] The song is sometimes confused with a similarly titled 1896 composition: "When the Saints Are Marching In", by Katharine Purvis (lyrics) and James Milton Black (music).

Several other gospel versions were recorded in the 1920s, with slightly varying titles but using the same lyrics, including versions by The Four Harmony Kings (1924), Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers (1924), Wheat Street Female Quartet (1925), Bo Weavil Jackson (1926), Deaconess Alexander (1926), Rev.

E. D. Campbell (1927), Robert Hicks (AKA Barbecue Bob, 1927), Blind Willie Davis (1928), and the Pace Jubilee Singers (1928).

Even though the song had folk roots, a number of composers claimed copyright in it in later years, including Luther G. Presley[7] and Virgil Oliver Stamps,[8] R. E.

The song is apocalyptic, taking much of its imagery from the Book of Revelation, but excluding its more alarming depictions of the Last Judgment.

The verses about the sun and moon (often interpreted as solar and lunar eclipses) correlate to prophecy in the Book of Joel,[10] which is also referenced by the Apostle Peter in Acts of the Apostles: ("The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord").

As the hymn expresses the wish to go to Heaven, picturing the saints going in (through the Pearly Gates), it is sometimes played at funerals.

Bill Haley started the song, which he learned through his mother, with the line "Rocking and rolling all the way".

), "When the Reds Go Marching In (Liverpool FC)", "When the Posh Go Steaming In" (Peterborough United F.C.

[25][26][27] Liverpool fans may have been introduced the chant when they used it for their star player Ian St John in the 1960s.