''Garden of Prayer'' is a 1954 album of songs recorded by American singer

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classi ...

, accompanied by the orchestra of

Paul Weston Paul Weston (born Paul Wetstein; March 12, 1912 – September 20, 1996) was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and conductor who worked in music and television from the 1930s to the 1970s, pioneering mood music and becoming known as "the F ...

. Each of the eight tracks on this album has a religious or inspirational theme. It was released in 1954 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

(CL 6286), then reissued on CD in 2010 by Sinetone AMR, and appears under two titles - either ''Garden of Prayer'' or ''Beautiful Garden of Prayer''. A contemporary reviewer writing for ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' was quite impressed. They praised Stafford for being able to "sing almost any type of tune" and for doing "a first-rate job here". Stafford sings these "sacred songs....with deep conviction and sincerity", and the reviewer notes that the album should be quite popular in the

Bible Belt The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's aver ...

of the United States.

Track listing

# ''

It Is No Secret "It Is No Secret" is a Southern gospel song written and sung by Stuart Hamblen and released on the Columbia label. In January 1951, it reached No. 8 on the country disc jockey chart. It spent two weeks on the charts and was the No. 30 best sellin ...

'' (3:10) # ''Star of Hope'' (2:37) # ''He Bought My Soul At Calvary'' (2:44) # ''I Found a Friend'' (3:11) # ''

Beautiful Isle of Somewhere "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" is a song with words by Jessie Brown Pounds and music by John Sylvester Fearis, written in 1897. The song gained huge popularity when it was used in William McKinley's funeral. It was subsequently a staple at funera ...

'' (2:47) # ''Invisible Hands'' (2:56) # '' (There'll Be) Peace in the Valley'' (2:53) # ''The Beautiful Garden of Prayer'' (2:21) (Written by: Eleanor A. Schroll published: 1920)

References

{{Authority control 1954 albums Jo Stafford albums Columbia Records albums Gospel albums by American artists Albums conducted by Paul Weston