Put Your Hand in the Hand

"Put Your Hand in the Hand"
Single by Ocean
from the album Put Your Hand in the Hand
B-side	"Tear Down the Fences"
Released	February 1971[1]
Genre	Pop, gospel
Length	2:52 3:53 – Remix 2006
Label	Kama Sutra
Songwriter(s)	Gene MacLellan
Producer(s)	Greg Brown, Ocean
Ocean singles chronology
"Put Your Hand in the Hand" (1971) "Deep Enough for Me" (1970)
Audio
"Put Your Hand in the Hand" (single edit) on YouTube

"Put Your Hand in the Hand" is a gospel pop song composed by Gene MacLellan and first recorded by Canadian singer Anne Murray in 1970 on her third studio album, Honey, Wheat and Laughter.

It became a hit single for the Canadian band Ocean, released as their debut single and title track to their 1971 debut album. The song peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, kept from No. 1 by "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night.^[2] It remained in the top 10 for seven weeks,^[3] and was ranked as the No. 33 song for 1971 according to Billboard. The song also reached No. 4 on the Adult Contemporary chart.^[4] The band received fan mail for the song from religious figures such as Billy Graham and the Bishop of Toronto.^[5]

After MacLellan's suicide in 1995, his friend and fellow Atlantic Canadian musician Ron Hynes wrote the song "Godspeed" as a tribute, the lyrics for which reference the title of this song.^[6]

The song was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006.^[7] A remix from the same year adds an instrumental, which occurs between the second chorus and the second verse, as well as a repeat of the chorus and a final instrumentalist chorus, that ends without the fade.^[8]

Track listing

7" single

A1 "Put Your Hand in the Hand" – 2:52
A2 "Tear Down the Fences" – 2:53

Chart history

Weekly charts

Ocean

Weekly chart performance for "Put Your Hand in the Hand" by Ocean Chart (1971) Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report)[9] 6 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[10] 1 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[11] 18 Canada RPM Adult Contemporary 6 Canada RPM Top Singles 10 Canada RPM Country 34 Germany (GfK)[12] 13 Italy (Billboard)[13] 5 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[14] 3 Netherlands (Single Top 100)[15] 3 New Zealand (Listener)[16] 1 Norway (VG-lista)[17] 1 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[18] 4 US Billboard Hot 100[19] 2 US Billboard Adult Contemporary[20] 4 US Cash Box Top 100[21] 2

Year-end charts Chart (1971) Rank Australia [22] 62 Canada [23] 66 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[24] 33 U.S. Easy Listening (Billboard)[25] 38 U.S. Cash Box [26] 20

Alan Garrity Chart (1971) Peak position South Africa (Springbok)[27] 1

Chart (1971) Rank South Africa [28] 5

Cover versions

The song was covered in the 1970s by a number of other performers, including Elvis Presley (who also covered MacLellan's "Snowbird"), Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Frankie Laine, Donny Hathaway, Joan Baez, Shirley Caesar, Dutch group Himalaya, the Les Humphries Singers, a German-language version ("Ich fand eine Hand") [I Found a Hand] by Cindy & Bert, a French-language version ("Prends ma main") by Canadian singer Renée Martel, and recorded by Bing Crosby for his 1972 album Bing 'n' Basie. It was also covered, and often sung in concert, by Anita Bryant.

Evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong rendered his take on the song in a January 1976 episode of Hee Haw. Country acts Sandy Posey, Lynn Anderson, Loretta Lynn, and The Oak Ridge Boys also recorded the song.

Christopher Norton and Richard Lacy made minor wording changes in a release under Whole World Publishing's 1999 copyright. ^[29]

South African singer Ray Dylan recorded it on his 2009 album Goeie Ou Country - Op Aanvraag.^[30]

Later uses

• As a sample in 1989 song "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" by Beastie Boys on their Paul's Boutique album.
• In a 1991 episode of the sitcom Family Matters titled "Choir Trouble", the cast was singing the song in their church as part of their Gospel Fest.
• In the 2013 film Prisoners.
• In a 2017 episode of US television series Last Man Standing titled “Take Me to Church”

References

1. "Ocean - Put Your Hand in the Hand".
2. "The Hot 100 Chart". Billboard.
3. "All US Top 40 Singles For 1971". Billboard.
4. Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 178.
5. "Casey Kasem's American Top 40 – The 70's - April 17, 1971". Internet Archive. 1971.
6. "Godspeed (Ron Hynes) tabs, videos". Wtv-zone.com. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
7. "Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame: Put Your Hand in the Hand". Retrieved 7 April 2019.
8. "Put Your Hand In The Hand (2009 CD Reissue)". Discogs. 2009.
9. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
10. "Ocean – Put Your Hand in the Hand" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
11. "Ocean – Put Your Hand in the Hand" (in French). Ultratop 50. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
12. "Ocean – Put Your Hand in the Hand" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
13. "HITS OF THE WORLD". Billboard. Vol. 83, no. 46. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 13 November 1971. p. 64. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 25, 2024 – via Google Books.
14. "Nederlandse Top 40 – Ocean" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
15. "Ocean – Put Your Hand in the Hand" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
16. Flavour of New Zealand, 19 July 1971
17. "Ocean – Put Your Hand in the Hand". VG-lista. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
18. "Ocean – Put Your Hand in the Hand". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
19. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
20. Whitburn, Joel (1993). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993. Record Research. p. 178.
21. Cash Box Top 100 Singles, May 8, 1971
22. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
23. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". collectionscanada.gc.ca.
24. Musicoutfitters.com
25. Billboard, December 25, 1971.
26. Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 25, 1971
27. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 21 June 2020.
28. "Top 20 Hit Singles of 1971". Retrieved 21 June 2020.
29. "CCLI SongSelect song #3006924 Put Your Hand in the Hand". Retrieved 2023-08-13.
30. "Ray Dylan, Goeie Ou Country - Op Aanvraag, CDS, Musica a World awaits - 6005298026996". Archived from the original on 2013-06-06. Retrieved 2014-03-28.