Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground

When NASA launched Voyager 1 and 2 into deep space in 1977, each carried a Golden Record, a disk of sounds and images selected to communicate the story of our world.

- KIMBERLY ELKINS

Along with greetings in 55 languages, it featured 27 musical samples, including Bach, Beethoven and someone you may not have heard ofBlind Willie Johnson. A committee led by astronomer Carl Sagan chose Johnson's 1927 recording of "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," which borrowed its structure and title from an eighteenth-century English hymn. Johnson p