Mac Davis heeft dit nummer eerst aangeboden aan Bill Medley en daarna aan Sammy Davis Jr (geen familie), maar die zagen er in eerste instantie niets in.
As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin’
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)
And his mama cries
Cause if there’s one thing that she don’t need
It’s another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)
People, don’t you understand
The child needs a helping hand
Or he’ll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
Are we too blind to see,
Do we simply turn our heads
And look the other way
Well the world turns
And a hungry little boy with a runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)
And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steal
And he learns how to fight
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)
Then one night in desperation
A young man breaks away
He buys a gun, he steals a car,
He tries to run, but he don’t get far
And his mama cries
As a crowd gathers ‘round an angry young man
Face down on the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)
And as her young man dies,
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin’,
Another little baby child is born
In the ghetto
(In the ghetto)
And his mama cries
En dus aan de King de eer het als eerste op te nemen, en toen nam Sammy Davis het alsnog ook op. 1969.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.- Martin Luther King
Zowel witte als zwarte artiesten hebben het lied opgenomen, maar de covers worden minder in aantal en kwaliteit met de jaren.
Het is dan ook intens treurig dat het net zo goed vanochtend geschreven had kunnen zijn.
Solomon Burke, 1970
