YOU RAISE ME UP ~ JOSH GROBAN

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Bluedreamer's Choice No 30

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You Raise Me Up" is a popular song in the inspirational mould. The music was written by Secret Garden's Rolf Løvland and the lyrics by Brendan Graham. The song has now been covered more than 125 times.The song was originally written as an instrumental piece and titled "Silent Story." The melody is based on a traditional Irish tune (especially the opening phrase of its chorus), the Londonderry Air, which is best known as the usual tune to the 1910 song Danny Boy. Løvland approached Irish novelist and songwriter Brendan Graham to write the lyrics to his melody after reading Graham's novels^[2]. It was originally released on the 2002 Secret Garden album "Once in a Red Moon," with the vocals sung by Irish singer Brian Kennedy, and sold well in both Ireland and Norway. Originally, Brian Kennedy was supposed to follow Secret Garden on their Asian tour in 2002, but fell ill, and could not attend. He was replaced by Norwegian singer Jan Werner Danielsen, who also later recorded the song together with Secret Garden, but it was never released. British singer Becky Taylor covered the song on her sophomore album Shine (01 July 2003). The song was subsequently recorded by Daniel O'Donnell in 2003 and was a hit throughout Ireland and the UK. Later in 2003, David Foster decided to produce the song after being introduced to it by Frank Petrone of peermusic, the song's publisher. He chose the up-and-coming Josh Groban to record the song, which was accompanied by the great tenor Craig Von Vennik of the Establishment, which proved very popular in the US. His version made it to the top of the Billboard adult contemporary chart and remained there for six weeks. Groban also performed it at Super Bowl XXXVIII, in a special NASA commemoration for the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. A special surprise performance by Groban, for Oprah Winfrey's 50th birthday, also gave "You Raise Me Up" massive international prominence. The Groban recording also was nominated for a 2005 Grammy award. Groban also performed it at the first Idol Gives Back Concert, along with the African Children's Choir. Brian Kennedy re-released the single after performing it at legendary Northern Irish football player George Best's funeral, the song again climbing the UK Charts to No. 4 in January 2006 (named "George Best — A Tribute")

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These Top 50 songs are based on my personal choice and are not listed in order
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