He Touched Me

Album: He Touched Me (1964)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is arguably Bill Gaither's most famous song. He recalled to CCM Magazine presents 100 Greatest Songs In Christian Music: "That was my 54th song. I started writing in 1960 and had written a few that were strong songs, but nothing had made an impact on a national level yet. That changed with 'He Touched Me.'"
  • Bill Gaither explained in the same interview that he wrote the song during a time when he was accompanying an old preacher friend of his, Dr. Dale Oldham, on some evangelistic crusades. He recalled: "He was a very eloquent speaker. One night after one of those meetings, Dr. Oldham said to me, 'Bill, the word "touch" is a very popular word. It comes up so often in the New Testament stories about Jesus touching people's eyes and healing them, or touching people's lives and changing them. It's a special, spiritual word and you ought to write a song that praises His touch.' So I did."
  • Doug Oldham, Dr. Oldham's son, was the first to record the song in 1964 and later in the year Bill's own group recorded it. Gaither recalled: "Doug sang it around in church circles, but I think it really started to get popular as people would take it back to their own congregations and sing it as a chorus. Its funny, you write 53 songs and then you write one little baby, and even though it comes out of the womb the same way they all did, this baby just all of a sudden goes BOOM!"
  • Many other artists have recorded this song, including most famously, Elvis, who made it the title track of his 1972 Grammy Winning gospel album. The King covered it after hearing an arrangement by his backing group, The Imperials.

Comments: 4

  • Sharon L Dawes from North CarolinaThis is one of my very favorite songs, it touches my heart every time I hear it.
  • Bill Parks from Edmond, OkWhat was the name of the collection that was so popular in the early 70’s? It blessed my heart.
  • Sandra Whaley from Claremore Who wrote the lyrics of He Touched Me?
  • Mark Johnson from MaineIt's strange there are many stories of an old preacher named Hal Davis singing the course to this song for years prior to Bill releasing it. A copy of the chorus was removed from Hals bible in one of these meetings and then a year later this was released. My grandpa said it was a huge stink in there town cause so many knew it was preacher Hals song.
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