Appearing in songs such as Solidarity Forever and Blood on the Risers, this tune is recognized by everyone. But where does it come from? What song was the first to use this famous melody?
It was an old hymnal first called Say, Brothers and was first written in a hymnal book (Plymouth Collection by Henry Ward Beecher) in the mid 1850s (credited as an 1856 publication);
Say, brothers, will you meet us
Say, Brothers, will you meet us
Say, Brothers, will you meet us
On Canaan's happy shore?
By the grace of God we'll meet you
By the grace of God we'll meet you
By the grace of God we'll meet you
Where parting is no more!
That's not really the origin, however. It is believed to have been written by a composer named William Steffe a few years earlier as a fire company call to meeting. But a Boston Journal correspondent wrote that Millerites had used the tune as early as 1843 with different words;
We'll see the angels coming
Through the old church yards
We'll see the angels coming
Through the old church yards
Shouting through the air
Glory, glory, hallelujah
None the less, the tune was attached to New England through the Plymouth Hymnal book and soon found it's way to Ft Warren where the 12th Mass made it a common song, changing the words to "John Brown's Body" (one man refers to the tune they used as "old as the hills"). The tune caught on and was soon being sung throughout the army, which inspired an abolitionist in D.C. to again rewrite the words, feeling the tune warranted something more noble and grand after hearing it sung by soldiers marching through. The result would be The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which helped the song gain massive popularity and immortality. Soon after that the southern counter tune, speaking of John Brown being rejected from heaven and beckoned by the devil, would circulate to the same tune.
An interesting side note that would indicate the tune predates the 1850s by a good amount and is in fact as old as the hills comes from Georgia. As Sherman marched to the sea he passed through Shady Dale, GA. When they did the band struck up the tune. Just then several young black girls emerged from houses they believed to be deserted and began to dance next to the band. They were familiar with the tune but not as a hymn, rather it was a superstitious tune for them known as "wedding tune." They claimed that if a young lady didn't dance when it played, she would remain a spinster through life. The song ended, the dancing stopped, and the young ladies retired back inside.
Nobody really knows the true origin of the tune itself other than as a camp meeting song of the early 19th century, likely created during the evangelical revival taking place at the time.
Stories of Great National Songs, Nicholas Smith, 1899
The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On, John Stauffer & Benjamin Soskis, 2013