Swing Low Sweet Chariot
The Glenn Miller Orchestra (UK) Lyrics

In this song, the singer is envisioning their journey to the afterlife. They describe looking over Jordan, the biblical river that represents crossing over into heaven. The singer sees a band of angels coming to carry them home, a metaphor for being brought to heaven. They repeat the phrase "Swing low, sweet chariot" which is a reference to a mode of transportation in the Bible known as "chariots of fire" that carry individuals to heaven. The singer acknowledges that they are sometimes up and sometimes down in life, but they know that their soul is ultimately bound for heaven.

The song "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" has a long history within African American spirituals and was originally sung by slaves as a means of coping with the harsh realities of slavery. The melody and its lyrics are attributed to Wallace Willis, a slave from Oklahoma who is believed to have composed it around the 1860s. Willis was a Choctaw freedman, meaning he was of African and Native American descent, and his song later became popular among both African Americans and Native Americans.