Will the Circle Be Unbroken

The hymn "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" has words by Ada R. Habershon and music by Charles H. Gabriel, written in 1907 (1908 by Songfacts), published on April 30, 1907 by Charles M. Alexander in Chicago, and is in the public domain. A. P. Carter reworked the verses to describe the funeral of the narrator's mother, the hearse, the slow procession to the grave and the siblings' grief, and modified the chorus, which stays close to the hymn. The Carter version is still under copyright with A. P. credited. Ralph Peer reportedly told artists to avoid radio songs and collect traditional material they could modify and copyright, and the Birthplace of Country Music article suggests A. P. may have believed the hymn traditional. A teaching guide says the verse melody matches the Carters' "Sunshine in the Shadows" and mentions an unreleased 1927 Victor take, a claim the Bristol Sessions article does not support.

Roy Acuff recorded the Carter lyrics in 1940 and that became the standard version. Other recordings include the Metropolitan Quartet (1927) and Bill and Charlie Monroe (1936) in the hymn's lineage, then George Jones (1959), the Staple Singers (1960 and 1966), John Lee Hooker (1961), Bob Dylan and the Band (1967, issued in 2014), Pentangle (1971), the Youngbloods (1972), the Avett Brothers (2002) and Susan Boyle (2014). The Allman Brothers Band played it at Duane Allman's funeral and it is on Eat a Peach. Carl Perkins asked A. P.'s permission to use the chorus in "Daddy Sang Bass". Johnny Cash and the Carter Family recorded it for Columbia in 1963 or 1964. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's three-LP album, recorded in August 1971 at Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville and released in November 1972, took its title from it and went platinum in 1997; John Carter Cash says the circle is music handed down from generation to generation.

The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, in 1998 by Wikipedia and 1988 by a teaching guide. Britannica, per a search summary, calls it the Grand Ole Opry's signature song. We found no chart history for the 1935 record. Our upload is credited with composer A.P. Carter and a 2019 reissue label, and nothing states the original recording date or whether it is the 1935 ARC take or the 1960s Columbia recording with Cash.