Amazing Grace and Pop Culture

Several years ago my daughter, independent soul like me, did graduate studies in France, determined to mix with the natives for polishing off the language, instead of with Americans there. Once she found herself at two o’clock in the morning sitting with new friends in a Paris bistro. Sleepy and wanting to go home, she tuned out her surroundings, till suddenly the spotlight found her, the only blonde in the place. The emcee spoke in French about an American among them. Would she come to the microphone and sing a song? Of course, she declined: she was an artist, not a vocalist. But the emcee did not relent. Finally, my daughter decided it would be less embarrassing to sing than to sit under the persistent spotlight with the French egging her on.

She stood, shocking her audience by her height. Five feet, eight inches tall and slender, she wore three-inch heels and a long black dress, with her hair piled on top of her head. Many of the men present were shorter than the total she. She got to the microphone, thinking, “They won’t know what I’m saying,” and began singing the only song she knew, “Amazing Grace.” Perhaps they might think she was singing about Princess Grace of Monaco, whose beauty was amazing. Enriching the performance, my daughter couldn’t carry a tune. She got no offers from the Paris Opera.

Within a year left-wing Joan Baez was singing “Amazing Grace.” Then it picked up all over. Everyone was singing it. But I’ve heard no finer or more touching rendition of the song than that of the tenor soloist at the memorial service for President Ronald Reagan. My computer says that man’s name was Ronan Tynan. A CD of that would be absolutely great. I cried during his singing that day, for it all came back to me: my childhood in church; my daughter’s solo off key in a Paris bistro; Joan Baez; and the framed copy of the song, hanging today on a wall in my home.

Not for a minute do I believe my daughter ushered in the current popularity of the famous song into pop culture, but it is a tear-jerking idea to think it possible. What struck me about it was her saying “Amazing Grace” was the only song she knew to sing. Over the years, she heard me sing lyrics from “You Are My Sunshine” to “The Lost Chord” to “How Great Thou Art,” but she never heard me sing “Amazing Grace.” It took a while to make its way into my repertoire. I much prefer it sung by a master tenor soloist, or by an out-of-this-world choir. Today it is seldom sung in my church, the very denomination of my childhood.

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