"Hold My Mule" is a 1980 black gospel song by

Shirley Caesar Shirley Ann Caesar-Williams (born October 13, 1938), known professionally as Shirley Caesar, is an American gospel singer whose career has spanned seven decades. She has won 11 Grammys in addition to Dove Awards and Stellar Awards; Caesar is kno ...

. Telling the story of an old man named Shoutin' John who boisterously praises God for his numerous blessings to the dismay of more conservative, "spiritually dead" clergy, the song earned newfound popularity in 2016 after DJ Suede the Remix God remixed the song into the

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

anthem "You Name It!"

Synopsis

As a lead-in to the song, Caesar tells the story of "Shoutin' John," an 86-year-old man who one day chooses to attend a church that is "spiritually dead." It opposes boisterous behavior among the congregation, including

speaking in tongues Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...

and dancing, not out of theological opposition but out of fear it may embarrass the "dignitaries" that attend the church. Shoutin' John attends a service at this church and begins celebrating all over the sanctuary; an angry clergyman attempts to stop him by tackling him, but Shoutin' John gets back up and resumes dancing, eventually getting the entire congregation excited. After the service, the concerned clergy of the church decide to visit Shoutin' John at his home, with the intent of warning him that if he does not stop his boisterous behavior, he will be barred from attending the church. When they arrive, they find that Shoutin' John owns a large and successful farm, which he still plows by hand. Shoutin' John then explains that he has received an abundance of blessings from God: his children are all healthy, none have died young nor faced legal troubles, and at age 86, he is still in good enough physical health to work his farm and to dance. Because of that, he insists that even if the church expels him, he is obligated to give praise to God for His blessings, asks the clergy to "hold my mule" as he begins dancing and praising God at that moment. Albertina Walker and

Milton Brunson Milton R. Brunson (June 28, 1929 – April 1, 1997) was an American gospel musician and former pastor and music director of Christ Tabernacle Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois. Brunson released his first musical project in 1988, ''Available to ...

are credited as featured artists on the record.

DJ Suede the Remix God rendition

In 2016, DJ Suede the Remix God released a remix, consisting of a portion of the story where Shoutin' John lists the items that grow on his farm:

Look! I got beans,
greens Greens may refer to: *Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc. Politics Supranational * Green politics * Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics * Global Greens * Europ ...
,
potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...
,
tomatoes The tomato is the edible Berry (botany), berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to th ...
, lamb, ram, hogs,
dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
,
chickens The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...
,
turkeys The turkey is a large bird in the genus ''Meleagris'', native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey (''Meleagris ocellat ...
,
rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit specie ...
—you name it!

Under the title "You Name It!," the song went viral, (initially on

Vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

and

Musical.ly Musical.ly (pronounced "musically"; stylized as musical.ly) was a Chinese social media service headquartered in Shanghai with an American office in Santa Monica, California, on which platform users created and shared short lip-sync videos. The f ...

) as part of DJ Suede's effort to create a

-themed

Internet challenge Internet challenges are a genre of videos in which users record themselves performing an action, usually daring others to repeat it. They play a role in Internet meme, Internet meme culture, with many challenges spreading through such memes. Example ...

to dance to the remix, with the help of

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. According to '' Billboard'', Brown is one of the most successful R&B singers of his generation, having often been referred to by many contempo ...

. It proved to be DJ Suede's breakthrough hit, peaking at number 15 on the

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

. In the wake of DJ Suede's remix, the original recording shot to the top of the

Hot Gospel Songs The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in '' Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

chart, peaking at number one on December 10, 2016. ''Billboard'' noted that despite the uptick in interest in the song, it did not receive a corresponding rise in airplay on radio stations, in part because Caesar was focusing her efforts on more recent singles. The song has since been reused in November 2020 and November 2021 on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

Synopsis

DJ Suede the Remix God rendition

Chart performance

Shirley Caesar version

You Name It! (DJ Suede the Remix God remix)

References