The Story Behind the Popular Christmas Song That Took Seven Years To Write

“Mary, Did You Know?” has become one of the most popular Christmas songs since its 1991 release. It was first recorded by Michael English on his 1991 debut album. The song has since been covered by numerous artists over the years. Among the artists singing “Mary, Did You Know?” are Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd, Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Home Free, and many more.

Now as well known as other Christmas classics like “Silent Night” and Away In A Manger”, “Mary, Did You Know?” is not an overnight success story. Written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene, the song took an astonishing seven years to write.

Lowry first wrote the lyrics in 1984. Seven years later, Greene added the melody, after Lowry handed him the lyrics.

“Mary, Did You Know?” says, “Mary, did you know / That your baby boy will give sight to a blind man? / Mary, did you know that your baby boy / Will calm the storm with his hand? / Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod? / When you kiss your little baby, you kissed the face of God?”

How Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene Wrote the Christmas Classic, “Mary, Did You Know?”

Perhaps surprisingly, Greene isn’t the first songwriter with whom Lowry shared the song. But he is the one who was able to bring the song to fruition.

“I knew it would be a song someday,” Lowry tells Sheet Music Direct. “Others had tried to put music to it. But whenever I handed anyone the lyric to try to write the music to it, I would tell them that I would be the one to decide if there was a marriage. … The lyric is my baby.”

The two were traveling together when he gave Greene the lyric. After waiting so long, Lowry reveals it took Greene about 30 minutes to write the melody.

Lowry may not have ever even written “Mary, Did You Know?” if not for a request from his pastor.

“My pastor asked me to write the Christmas program for our church, called The Living Christmas Tree. I wrote some monologue to go in between the songs. I started thinking and wondering if Mary realized the power, authority, and majesty that she cradled in her arms that first Christmas,” Lowry recalls. He adds that he thought about what he would want to ask Mary.

“I wondered if she realized those little hands were the same hands that scooped out oceans and formed rivers,” Lowry says. “I just tried to put into words the unfathomable. I started thinking of the questions I would have for her if I were to sit down and have coffee with Mary. You know, ‘What was it like raising God? What did you know? What didn’t you know?’”

Of all of the versions that have been released, Lowry says Rogers and Judd’s remain among his favorites.

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