O Holy Night

• Performances
• History
• Lyrics
• Artist
  • Phish
  • Fish
  • Mike
  • Page
  • Trey
  • All

History

O Holy Night: From Sacred Scandal to MSG

“O Holy Night,” originally titled Cantique de Noël, stands as one of the most emotionally demanding carols in the holiday canon. The music was composed in 1847 by Adolphe Adam, a prolific French composer more famous for the ballet Giselle than for liturgical works. The lyrics were based on a poem Minuit, chrétiens penned by Placide Cappeau, a wine merchant and occasional poet who was, surprisingly, a critic of organized religion.

While it would later become a familiar fixture in homes and school Christmas concerts worldwide, the song was initially banned by the Catholic Church. It was dismissed as unfit due to its musical style and the background of its creators. Adolphe Adam was Jewish and best known for secular stage works, a fact that unsettled clergy despite the carol’s explicitly Christian text. Those objections proved temporary. The song’s message of equality and the “breaking of chains” resonated far beyond church walls, and it became the first piece of music broadcast over the radio on Christmas Eve in 1906.

The Baker’s Dozen Appearance

On August 2, 2017, the “Donut Hole” night of the historic Baker’s Dozen residency, Phish invoked that same sense of “cosmic rupture.” The second set began with a monstrous, 25-minute “Mike’s Song,” the longest version played in over 20 years. As the dark, pulsing jam finally dissipated into a thick layer of stage fog, the band didn’t pivot to a standard “Mike’s Groove” transition. Instead, they stepped to the front of the stage for an a cappella performance.

Video by William Corcoran

The juxtaposition was brilliant. The show opened with a cover of Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole,” effectively dragging the audience into the subterranean grit of the blues and the depths of hell. By the time the four voices rose in harmony for “O Holy Night,” the narrative arc was complete. It wasn’t merely a “Christmas in August” joke, it was a thematic ascent from the depths of the “Hole” to the heights of the “Holy.”

A Moment of Stillness

As the band performed the song, the 20,000-person capacity of Madison Square Garden shrank to the size of a small chapel. You could hear a pin drop in the world’s most famous arena as the band’s harmonies pierced through the lingering psychedelic haze of the “Mike’s” jam before segueing into “Taste.” It remains one of the most memorable and dramatic moments of the Baker’s Dozen.

Video by LazyLightning55a

Madison Square Garden has hosted championships, rallies, and countless moments of cultural excess, but on that August night it became something else entirely. A song, initially rejected, echoed upward through the rafters and settled gently over a crowd willing to join the gospel of Phish. Another fantastic example of the band’s instinct for context. From scandal to MSG, it found a sanctuary disguised as an arena.

Last significant update: 1/3/26

Submit notes/corrections