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Watch the Stars

Peggy, Penny and Barbara Seeger sang one verse of Oh, Watch the Stars on their 1957 Folkways album American Folk Songs for Christmas which contains songs from Ruth Crawford Seeger’s book of the same name (New York: Doubleday, 1953). The track was also relased in 1958 on their Topic EP Shine Line a Star which is a partial UK issue of the Folkways album. The first album notes:

St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Because of their isolation from main arteries of communication, the islands off the coast of Georgiaa and South Carolina have long supported sparse populations of Negroes inheriting some of the oldest tradition of plantation life, including a distinctive repertory of folklore and song.

From St. Helena Island Spirituals, by N.G.J. Ballanta-Taylor.

Dorris Henderson with John Renbourn sang Watch the Stars in 1967 as the title track of her Fontana album Watch the Stars.

Pentangle sang Watch the Stars in 1968 on their Transatlantic album Sweet Child. A live recording from the Royal Festival Hall an 29 June 1968 was released in 2007 on their Castle anthology The Time Has Come. They noted:

John [Renbourn] and Jacqui [McShee] sing an American children’s Christmas song.

Pentangle’s Bert Jansch sang Watch the Stars in 2006 on his Sanctuary album The Black Swan.

The Furrow Collective sang Oh Watch the Stars in 2023 on their Hudson album We Know by the Moon. Emily Portman noted:

We learnt Oh Watch the Stars from The Seeger Sisters’ 1957 LP accompanying their mother, composer Ruth Crawford Seeger’s songbook American Folk Songs for Christmas (Doubleday, 1953). The song first appeared in print in 1925 as Oh Watch De Stars in the songbook Saint Helena Island Spirituals by Sierra Leonean scholar and musician Nicholas Ballanta. He printed two versions, attributed to Rina Miller and Virginia Brown, whom he recorded on St Helena Island, South Carolina, at Penn Normal Industrial and Agricultural School. Now a museum of African-American history, it was formerly a school for freed slaves.

Lyrics

Peggy, Penny and Barbara Seeger sing Oh, Watch the Stars

Oh, watch the stars, see how they run,
Oh, watch the stars, see how they run.
The stars run down at the setting of the sun,
Oh, watch the stars, see how they run.

The Furrow Collective sing Oh Watch the Stars

Oh watch the stars, see how they run.
Oh watch the stars, see how they run.
The stars run down at the setting of the sun.
Oh watch the stars, see how they run.

Oh watch the moon, see how it shines.
Oh watch the moon, see how it shines.
The moon’s gonna shine at the setting of the sun.
Oh watch the moon, see how it shines.

Oh feel the wind, feel how it blows.
Oh feel the wind, feel how it blows.
The wind comes up at the setting of the sun.
Oh feel the wind, feel how it blows.

Oh watch the stars, see how they run.
Oh watch the stars, see how they run.
The stars run down at the setting of the sun.
Oh watch the stars, see how they run,
See how they run.