Songfacts®:

• "Joy To The World" is one of the best-known and best-loved of Christmas carols, with a message of joy and love replacing sin and sorrow. The hymn is significant for its widespread use throughout Christian denominations and for the musical stature of the people who created it. The scripture-based words are by the great hymn writer Isaac Watts who based them on Psalm 98 in the Bible. It was first published in 1719 in his collection The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship.
• Isaac Watts is considered by many to be the father, or revitalizer, of the English hymn. He began writing hymns after complaining to his father that all they had to sing in church were poor renderings, in verse, of the Psalms. His father suggested he should create something better. The following Sunday Watts presented his hymn "Behold the Glories of the Lamb."
• The music was adapted and arranged by Lowell Mason, a prominent American music educator, music editor, and hymn writer in 1839. It is believed he took it from an older melody by Handel. Aficionados will recognize the theme of the refrain ("And heaven and nature sing...") as appearing in the aria Comfort Me from Handel's Messiah.
• According to the Dictionary of North American Hymnology, the song was published in 1,387 hymnals in North America before 1979, making it the most-published Christmas hymn in the USA and Canada up to that point.
• Many well known performers have recorded this carol, including German group Boney M, Mariah Carey and Jonas Brothers. Also Whitney Houston recorded the song for The Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack Album.
• Ben and Jerry's has a flavor named after the popular Christmas carol: "Joy To The Swirled." But the caramel-and-chocolate laced vanilla ice cream is only a joy to part of the world as it's only available in the UK, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.