HE
TOUCHED
ME
WRITTEN BY BILL GAITHER
RECORDED BY THE BILL GAITHER TRIO ON HE TOUCHED ME (HEARTWARMING RECORDS, 1964)
PRODUCED BY BOB MACKENZIE
ALSO RECORDED BY: BARBRA STREISAND ON THE ESSENTIAL BARBRA STREISAND
ELVIS PRESELY ON ELVIS: ULTIMATE GOSPEL
If Bill Gaither had never picked up his pen again after writing “He Touched Me,” he would have already earned his place in the songwriting history books. “That was my 54th song,” Bill laughingly remembers. “I started writing in 1960, and had written a I few that were strong songs, but nothing had made an impact on a national level yet. That all changed with ‘He Touched Me.’”
Bill had been accompanying an old preacher friend of his, Dr. Dale Oldham, on several crusades. “He was a very eloquent speaker,” Bill says. “One night after one of those meetings, Dr. Oldham said to me, ‘Bill, the word “touch” is a very powerful 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.”
Dr. Dale Oldham’s son, singer Doug Oldham, was the first to record the song in 1964 on an album called Songs That Touch the Heart. “Doug sang it around in church circles,” says Bill, “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. It’s funny, you write 53 songs and then you write this 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!”
“He Touched Me” is arguably Bill Gaither’s most famous song. He says, “By the time Elvis recorded it, the cat was out of the bag.”
“One of the first albums I ever did in Nashville was something entitled ‘Nothing But Praise,’ which was a collection of all the Gaither tunes. My favorite song on it was ‘He Touched Me.’ We took a real different direction with it and it turned out so well. In fact, just the other day I was putting together a new concert list for my tour and I sat down at the piano and started playing it. It’s one of the songs I want to keep performing, because it’s so well written and moving. It just still needs to be heard.” The Imperials had already done it, and when Elvis heard their arrangement of it—which was done by Henry Slaughter and is still the one the Vocal Band uses today—he said, “I need to record that.” I remember when I finally got a copy of his record, I just stood there saying, ‘Hey, Elvis is singing my song!’ But that was all a bonus. I just really love the song.”
DALLAS HOLM
“I literally grew up on Bill Gaither’s music. When I was nine years old, my parents thought my voice was going to change and I wouldn’t be able to sing anymore. They were probably right. So they wanted to make a recording of me while I could still sing. They didn’t have a tape machine, but they knew there was this little studio down the street, so they spent $500 to get me on tape. The title of the record was ‘He Touched Me.’ I never realized that one day I would actually know Bill Gaither, and more importantly, he would know my name! So even way back then I was singing Bill’s songs. Of course, he’s been writing forever; I think he’s ten years older than God.”
MARK LOWRY
