The record reached number 6 on the Billboard " Race Records" chart in late 1948. Besides Tharpe (vocals, guitar) and Knight (vocals), other musicians on the record were Sam Price (piano), George "Pops" Foster (bass), and Wallace Bishop (drums). The recording by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight was made on November 24, 1947, in New York City for Decca Records. In 1995, the National Association for Music Education (then known as the Music Educators National Conference) published a list of songs that "every American should know", which included "Over My Head". Civil rights leader Bernice Johnson Reagon changed the traditional words of the song in 1961, to "Over my head / I see freedom in the air.". The spiritual " Over My Head", apparently dating from the 19th century but of unknown authorship, contains many of the same lines as "Up Above My Head" – "Over my head / I hear music in the air./ There must be a God somewhere" – and may be presumed to be its origin. ![]() In the version that is now the best-known, it was recorded in 1947 by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight as a duo. "Up Above My Head" is a gospel song of traditional origin, first recorded in 1941 (as " Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air") by The Southern Sons, a vocal group formed by William Langford of the Golden Gate Quartet. Single by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight "Up Above My Head, I Hear Music in the Air"
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