When a Child Is Born
"When a Child Is Born" is a Christmas song, with a melody taken from "Soleado", a tune from 1974 by Ciro Dammicco. The tune was based on Dammicco's earlier tune "Le rose blu" published in 1972. The English lyrics were written by Austrian composer Fred Jay as a Christmas song. Versions of the song have been recorded by Michael Holm in 1974, Johnny Mathis, whose version was the 1976 Christmas number one in the UK, and Boney M, who included it on their hit 1981 Christmas Album.
Johnny Mathis version
The most commercially successful version of the song is the 1976 recording by American singer Johnny Mathis, titled "When a Child Is Born ". Released in November 1976, the single featured a cover of Charlie Rich's "Every Time You Touch Me " as its B-side.Mathis' rendition became a major hit in the United Kingdom, where it topped the UK Singles Chart for three consecutive weeks in December 1976. This included the coveted Christmas number one position. It remains Johnny Mathis' only chart-topping single in the UK and sold approximately 885,000 copies.
In the United States, the song appeared in the Record World chart during the 1976 and 1977 Christmas seasons, peaking at No. 123 and spending a total of ten weeks on the survey. Mathis later re-recorded the song as a duet with Gladys Knight & the Pips; this version reached No. 137 on the Record World chart during the 1980 Christmas season and entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 79.