He Gives Us All His Love

He Gives Us All His Love“ is a song written and performed by Randy Newman. It first appeared in the 1971 film Cold Turkey, for which it served as a sort of theme song and played during the opening and closing credits. Newman re-recorded the song for his album Sail Away the following year. The ballad is both brief (running 1:52 in its Sail Away version) and very sparsely arranged. It opens with the delicate sounds of a string section and is maintained by Newman’s piano in a slow “four to the bar“ tempo. The song is gospel-influenced and shares both musical and thematic similarities with such American hymns as Jesus Loves Me. It does not, however, discuss Christian themes of redemption but merely gives a testament of faith (“he’s lookin’ down on us, from up above / and he’s givin’ us all his love“). The tone of the song is bittersweet; the succinct lyrics include the assertion that the divine witnesses human suffering (“he hears the babies c