August newsletter: annual visitor stats, and song & hymn requests

It's summer in the Northern hemisphere, so the number of new research requests has been low recently.

This year, as well as taking a holiday, I've spent some time looking at where all the 288,081 visitors to to this website over the last year are from.   To start with, Google Analytics gives a nice summary picture (darker colour = more visitors).

Looking at this in detail, numbers from the largest English-speaking countries are fairly predictable:
  • 25% were in the United States of America
  • 18% were in the United Kingdom
  • 15% were in Ireland
  • 7% were in Australia
The number of  visits from Ireland may seem large (the Irish Republic has only 4.5 million people, compared 65 million in the UK), it reflects the number of Irish-language hymns and Irish hymn books.

The next set of countries, each contribute between 4.5 and and 1.5 % of all visits:
Australia 7.2
India 4.3
Canada 4.2
Philippines 2.4
Nigeria 2.3
New Zealand       2.3
South Africa 2.1
Kenya 2
Singapore 1.5
Malaysia 1.4

In many cases, English isn't even an official language used in the country.   But it is the unifying language used in some Christian churches, bringing together people from various different language groups, so natually enough they are looking for certain English-language hymns.

After that, the numbers get a lot smaller - there were 58 countries with over 100 visits each:
The Netherlands, , United Arab Emirates, Ghana, Germany, Sudan, Trinidad & Tobago, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Italy, Fiji, Jamaica, France, Uganda, Spain, Japan, Kuwait, Brazil, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Israel, Belgium, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Belize, Barbados, Thailand, Switzerland, Dominica, Saudi Arabia, Austria, South Korea, Oman, Qatar, Grenada, Bahamas, Tanzania, Pakistan, Taiwan, Poland, Malta, St. Lucia, Sweden, Mexico, Ukraine, Vietnam, Bahrain, Norway, Russia, Denmark, Portugal, Namibia, Guyana, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Malawi, Botswana, Seychelles, ad Guam.
It's really quite amazing that there are so many people from these places looking for English-language hymns - and it's taught me about a few countries that I didn't even know existed.

There are another 146 countries which contributed less than 100 visitors each - I'm not going to list them, but a special mention goes to the one person from each of Andorra, St. Barthélemy, Cuba, the Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Nauru, St. Helena, Turkmenistan and Yemen: I'm delighted that they visited the site, and hope they were able to find what they were looking for!


Hymn and song research requests for June and July 

These are the song and hymn requests which were responded to during June and July 2016.

A Mhuire Mhathair

Information about this favourite Irish-language hymn is available here.

Ag Críost an Síol

An information page for this Irish-language hymn is available here.

All of my Life I will Praise the Living God

Information about this song is available here.

All the Nations of the Earth

An information page for this song by Michael Cockett and Kevin Mayhew is now available here.

Be Thou my Vision

Information about this Irish-origin hymn is available here.

Bring Back the Springtime

Information about this song by American composer Kurt Kaiser is now available here.

Bring them to the Lord

This request for a hymn called Bring them to the Lord was made in 2015 by someone who heard it in Nigeria. It included one phrase from the hymn I "will bring my gift to the Lord! I will offer."   I haven't found any hymn which is an exact match - but one possibility is Sir Jude Nnan's In Thanksgiving and Love, which contains some very similar phrases.

Dauntless Ignatius

Information about this hymn about St ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, is now available here.

Don't Worry about Food

Updated information about this song based on Matthew 6 is available here.

Everything I Posess

Information about this song by Australian Fr Frank Andersen is now available here.

Gentle as Silence

An informaiton page for this song is now available here.

Go the Mass is Ended

An information page for this song is now available here.

Greet we this Mystery

An information page about this communion hymn by Ronald A Knox is now available here.

Hail Mary Gentle Woman

Information about this song by American composer Carey Landry, is now available here.

Heart of Jesus Sacred Heart

Information about this hymn about the Sacred Heart of Jesus is now available here.

Hymn 223

Assuming that this request is for number 223 from the Nigerian Catholic Hymn Book, which is Miriam Therese Winter's song Come Down Lord my Son is Ill - there is now an information page about it here.

I Give my Hands

This song was first requested in 2015 - but only the first few words of the title were included, so I wasn't absolutely certain if this was the right version. But a recent request has me thinking that it is - so an information page about it is now available here.

I'd Rather have Jesus than Silver or Gold

Information about this gospel song by Rhea F Miller is now available here.

Jesus Lord I'll Sing A Song

This song by Breige O'Hare was requested by two people who heard it in church in Ireland in May 2015. It has been difficult to find any more information about it, beyond that it is inlcuded in one in-print hymnal from England. The information that has been found is now available here.

Leave it in the Hands of the Lord

An information page for this song is now available here.

Lord You have Come to the Seashore

The Six Maddens webiite has a full description of this English-language translation of Pescador De Hombres - including an alternative translation than the most-commonly-used one.

Nearer my God to Thee

Information about this hymn is available here.

O Christ the Same

Information about this hymn by Timothy Dudley-Smith is now available here.

Psalm 66

This request was simply included the phrase Psalm 66 - without more detail about the section of the psalm, it's not possible to know what the person who asked for it was looking for.

Romans IIIV

Information about this hymn by American priest Enrico Garzilli,is available here.

Sing to the Mountains

An information page for this hymn by Robert Dufford is now available here.

Soldiers of Christ

This request came from someone who learned the song at an Evangelical church in Ireland.

Although there are several older hymns with this title, none of them match the other words which were provided:
Let us arm ourselves with the armour of God let us stand our ground with hope and love let us push on through the trials and hardship of life like a soldiers of Christ.

If you have any information about this song - who wrote it, whether it has been published, where to find any on-line examples - please leave a message in the Comments box near the bottom of the page.

Take up the Wonderful Cross

This request was for lead music to Take up the Wonderful Cross. Google isn't finding any hymns with that specific title - though as an alternative it suggests The Wonderful Cross, which is a bridge written by Chris Tomlin to go between verses 2 and 3 of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

If that's not what you're looking for, then please submit another request with some more details, and I'll try searching again.

The Lord is my Shepherd - Gelineau

This request is for the Gelineau setting of The Lord's my Shepherd which was used when the Pope visited Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, Scotland in 1982.

The words used in this are from the Grail translation - and available on this website, along with a YouTube clip.

Sheet music of this setting is still available from OCP, and a preview can be seen on Hymnary.

The Wisdom Song

A reader found this song on YouTube.   They've written down the words from the first verse:
One Starry Night King Solomon had a dream God said that he could have anything he pleased Emeralds Rubies Diamonds As far as he could see But he only needed just one thing God will give us wisdom That is what we need Help for every problem Strength for you and me

But they want to find out some more details about the song: who wrote it, is sheet music available, who owns the copyright, etc. So far, this hasn't been located. If you have any information about this, please leave a message in the Comments box near the bottom of this page.

Throughout All Time

Information about this paraphrase of Psalm 89 by David Haas is now available here.

To Everything there is a Season

Information about this song by American composer Ed Harris is now available here.

We Shall be as One

An information page about this short worship chorus by Joan Parsons is now available here.

You are the King of Glory (Hosanna to the Son of David

An information page for this English worship song is now available here.




Don't see your request?

Every month, there are a number of requests which just don't have enough information to track down the intended hymn or song. If you made a request but don't see it listed here, then you might like to try again. this time, including some phrases that aren't likely to be included in other hymns.


Getting updates about requested songs and hymns

If you subscribe to the GodSongs.net mailing list, you will get an email when new hymns and hymnal-listing are added, and when new newsletters are posted:

Please note that shortly after you subscribe, Feedburner will send you a verification-request message - be sure to click on the link, so your subscription is complete.


Are you looking for a hymn or song?

Are you searching for the words or sheet music for a particular song or hymn - especially from the last 50 or so years?



The Hymn Finder tool is your first port of call.   It is a customized search tool, which lets you search for any words from the hymn - and looks for them in a set of websites that are known to contain hymns.    This means that you get results which are hymns - instead of sermons and newsletters which just contain snippets, or pages about totally different topics which just happen to contain those words.



If this doesn't help, then submit a request using the hymn research request tool, and it will be responded to in next month's newsletter.

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