Tune of the Day: When the Saints Go Marching In
This famous song is a slight modification of the similarly titled song “When the Saints are Marching In” from 1896 by Katharine Purvis and James Milton Black. Though it originated as a spiritual, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band.
A true jazz standard, it has been recorded by many jazz and pop artists. Louis Armstrong was one of the first to make the tune into a nationally known pop-tune in the 1930s. Armstrong wrote that his sister told him she thought the secular performance style of the traditional church tune was inappropriate and irreligious. However, Armstrong was in a New Orleans tradition of turning church numbers into brass band and dance numbers that went back at least to the very start of the 20th century.
New Orleans' professional football team was named the New Orleans Saints, after the song, and the song is often sang in celebration after a successful game.