"Joy to the World" found originally as the second segment of “Psalm 98” is a part Isaac Watts' “The Psalms of David,” a collection of poems where each verse was based on a psalm published in 1719.
Watts during those times grew up in a society where only of sections of scriptures and psalms were being incorporated with music. Watts noticed a certain lack of emotion among the congregants who performed them, thus he broke the hegemony and started tweaking his verses, opening a whole new frontier of possibilities!
And so "Joy to the World" wasn’t even intended to be a Christmas Carol, as its original version had no such link with Christmas. It wasn’t even supposed to be a song! It was born of coincidence, rather than desire.
Nevertheless, Lowell Mason was smitten by the poem and in 1836 composed a riveting melody for this second part and the rest is history!
"Joy to the World" has been a Christmas staple, maintaining its popularity as one of the most-published hymns in Northern America even today. Because of its extreme popularity, there has been a lot of renditions and performances recorded by an array of world-known artists and acapella groups!
Read more about its exciting inception at:
https://galaxymusicnotes.com/pages/learn-the-story-behind-joy-to-the-world
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