"The Millennium Prayer" is a song recorded by English singer

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

, in which the words of the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...

are set to the tune of "

Auld Lang Syne "Auld Lang Syne" () is a Scottish song. In the English-speaking world, it is traditionally sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on Hogmanay/New Year's Eve. It is also often heard at funerals, graduations, and as a far ...

". It was released in November 1999 as a

charity single A charity record, charity album, or charity single is a recording with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. In 1956, The Lord's Taverners released a 78 rpm disc which contained six tracks donated by popular artis ...

in the lead-up to the new millennium, hence the name. The single became a surprise hit reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart, number two in Australia and New Zealand, number three in Ireland, and the top 20 in a number of European countries.

Background

The original adaption of "The Lord's Prayer" to "Auld Lang Syne" (a

contrafactum In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this "lyrical adaptation" date back to the 9th century in Gregor ...

) was created by composer Paul Field and writer Stephen Deal as the finale to the Christian musical ''Hopes & Dreams'' (a Share Jesus International production). It is the only single that credits Jesus as a lyricist. The original recording of the song, also sung by Richard, featured on the musical's soundtrack album ''Hopes & Dreams: A New Musical For A New Millennium'' released in January 1999. Paul Field had also told Richard of his wife's suggestion, "that it would make a great Christmas single for Cliff." Richard took up the suggestion and recorded a new version for release as a single in the lead up to Christmas, with Field hearing of the recording from Richard after it had been recorded.

Release and live performances

Richard's record label,

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

, declined to release it amid concerns about its commercial potential, so Richard approached the independent record label

Papillon Records Papillon Records was a record label started by the Chrysalis Group (who had sold their Chrysalis Records division to EMI) in 1999 with longtime Chrysalis act Jethro Tull. Whilst Echo Records was formed to provide an outlet by new and indepe ...

for the release, with the proceeds going to the charity Children's Promise. Richard performed the song exclusively on the TV programme '' An Audience with... Cliff Richard'' before a music video had been made for it. The song was Richard's 14th UK No. 1 hit, his 112th hit overall, and the third highest-selling single of his career. The song was listed No. 2 of all-time worst singles in a poll run by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in 2003. The song won the

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

for the best selling single of 1999. The version Richard released as a single was not taken from any album, however the following year the song was included on Richard's compilation album '' The Whole Story: His Greatest Hits'' and in 2003 on his album ''

Cliff at Christmas ''Cliff at Christmas'' is the 2003 Christmas album of Cliff Richard, containing eight new songs and nine previously released songs including all of his previous hit List of UK Singles Chart Christmas number ones, Christmas-themed singles includ ...

''.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Millennium Prayer, The 1999 singles Cliff Richard songs Number-one singles in Scotland UK singles chart number-one singles UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles Charity singles Christian songs Songs written by Paul Field (Christian singer) 1999 songs