Pharoah’s Army Got Drownded

The Fisk Jubilee Singers' 1915 recording of the Negro spiritual "O Mary Don't You Weep Don't You Mourn" is the oldest recording of any song on "The Seeger Sessions." Other early recordings included the Virginia Female Jubilee singers in the early 1920s, by the Golden Gate Quartet at their 1940 Library of Congress concert, and by Leadbelly.

The Swan Silvertones' 1962 recording is the most prominent of this song. Other notable artists who recorded the song include The Soul Stirrers with Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole, Jimmy Witherspoon, Burl Ives, Mississippi John Hurt, Bobby Darin, Aretha Franklin, Eartha Kitt, Taj Mahal, and Aaron Neville. More recently, Roger McGuinn recorded a folk version as part of his Folk Den project; a link to a full-length mp3 is available from the audio page of this site.