One of the most popular pop records in history: "Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord", the 1978 Christmas single from the West Germany-based West Indies Euro-disco group Boney M, in this Kampala Express photo from the Timothy Kalyegira record collection, May 6, 2016.
On the record sleeve dressed in the robes of ancient Roman Empire nobility are the four members of Boney M.
Left to right: Marcia Barrett, Maizie Williams, Bobby Farrell and the lead singer Liz Mitchell.
This was the original seven-inch vinyl Hansa record as it was released in late Nov. 1978.
"Long time ago in Bethlehem," states this 5:29 song in its opening lines, "So the Holy Bible says/Mary's boy child Jesus Christ/Was born on Christmas Day."
Recorded in a light disco format and presented with the characteristic glitter and sing-along harmonies of Boney M, "Mary's Boy Child" quickly went on to become the world's best-selling Christmas song, a record it held for six years until it was broken in Dec. 1984 by the British Africa famine relief song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" from Band Aid.
"Mary's Boy Child" spent four weeks at number one on the UK Top 20 pop music chart in Dec. 1978 and in the BBC World Service "Top of the Pops" chart show yesterday, Saturday Dec. 23, 2017, the song was ranked at number four on the list of the best-selling Christmas season songs of all-time in the UK.
It was the ninth best-selling song in apartheid South Africa in 1979 and one of the biggest-selling songs in East Africa in 1979 too.