By Glenn Dromgoole

When the church choir stood to sing the spiritual “I Shall Not Be Moved,” I really tuned in. It’s a very upbeat, catchy hymn that we sometimes sing on Tuesday morning at the Rose Park Senior Citizens Center.  

But I had no idea that I was about to chase an internet rabbit that would lead me to a 1956 recording session of the Million Dollar Quartet. 

After I got home from church, I googled the song “I Shall Not Be Moved,” mainly because I just wanted to hear it again.

Next thing I know I’ve stumbled upon this incredible informal jam session in Memphis on Dec. 4, 1956, involving Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Ray Perkins. The session was recorded and, many years later, released. The group was labeled the Million Dollar Quartet. One of the songs they sang that day was “I Shall Not Be Moved.”

In fact, a Broadway musical, “Million Dollar Quartet,” based on that jam session won a Tony Award in 2010 and is still performed by regional theater groups around the country. I don’t know if it’s ever been performed in Abilene. If so, I’m sorry I missed it. (The musical, however, doesn’t include “I Shall Not Be Moved.”)

Well, I also learned the hymn probably originated as an African American spiritual during slave days and was used as a protest song, “We Shall Not Be Moved,” during the turbulent 1960s. My googling came across a Pete Seeger recording of that version. 

I also found a lively rendering by another great “million dollar” quartet, the Statler Brothers. You can listen to it on YouTube.

Here is the first verse, at least of the version that our church choir sang:

Glory Hallelujah, I shall not be moved,
Anchored in Jehovah, I shall not be moved,
Just like a tree that’s planted by the waters.
I shall not be moved.

The chorus:

I shall not be, I shall not be moved,
I shall not be, I shall not be moved,
Just like a tree that’s planted by the waters,
I shall not be moved.

You probably won’t find it in your church hymnal, but you can look it up on hymnary.org. 

By the way, if you like singing gospel hymns, you might check out the Rose Park group. It meets at 10 a.m. Tuesdays at the senior citizens center and ends promptly at 11. 

You might not confuse us with the Million Dollar Quartet, but the 25 or 30 of us that usually show up sing with a lot of gusto.

Glenn Dromgoole’s new website is MoreCivilityPlease.com.