If I Can Help Somebody - Laudate Mennonite Ensemble
Description
If I Can Help Somebody by B. Andrezzo
Arr. Nathan Carter
Music Director: Ken Nafziger
Production:
Video by SkySail Productions
Audio by Traveling Tracks
The Historic Faith · Hymn Companion
If I Can Help Somebody
Words by Alma Bazel AndrozzoMusic by Alma Bazel AndrozzoWritten 1945
If I can help somebody as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,
If I can show somebody he is travelling wrong,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
Then my living shall not be in vain,
Then my living shall not be in vain;
If I can help somebody as I pass along,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
Story Behind the Song
“If I Can Help Somebody” is a gospel song by Alma Bazel Androzzo, published in the mid-1940s. It became widely known through performances by Mahalia Jackson and other gospel singers, and its theme of humble service made it especially resonant in churches and the civil-rights era. Martin Luther King Jr. alluded to its opening lines in his preaching, including his sermon “The Drum Major Instinct.”
Found In
African American Heritage Hymnal, Lift Every Voice and Sing II