Robert Robertson came from the school of hard knocks. His father died while Robertson was young and his grandfather disinherited him. As a teen, Robertson apprenticed with a barber/hairdresser – not a profession that made his bookworm heart sing. So, like most square-peg-in-a-round-hole teenagers, he started hanging out with the wrong crowd and became a real rascal. In 1752, he attended an evangelical meeting to heckle the believers and, while looking for trouble, found God instead. It was three years before he completely turned his life around – eventually becoming a pastor – and after that wrote Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it,
mount of God’s redeeming love.
In the United States, Come, Thou Fount is most often sung to the hymn tune Nettleton but, despite its ubiquitousness, hymn scholars have no definitive answer who composed it. Since the tune is ideal for bouncy syncopation, I got adventurous (and maybe a little silly) with it and created a bright and cheerful piano arrangement that is fun to play. Enjoy!