"O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877), a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem.Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau's French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind's redemption.

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On 24 December 1906, Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor, broadcast the first AM radio program, which included him playing "O Holy Night" on the violin and singing the final verse. The carol therefore was one of the first pieces of music to be broadcast on radio.

Three different country music artists have charted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts with renditions of "O Holy Night:" Martina McBride, John Berry and Josh Gracin. McBride's rendition charted on five separate occasions, peaking at #74 in 1997, #67 in 1998, #49 in 1999, #57 in 2000 and #41 in 2001. Berry's charted at #55 in 1996 and #63 in 1998, and Gracin's at #59 in 2006.

The above text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "O Holy Night" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Holy_Night ).