我悄声祈祷 (1968)

"I Say a Little Prayer" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the American singer Dionne Warwick, originally peaking at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in December 1967. On the R&B Singles chart it peaked at number eight. The following year, it was a top ten hit for another American singer, Aretha Franklin.

Dionne Warwick original

Intended by the lyricist Hal David to convey a woman's concern for her man who is serving in the Vietnam War, "I Say a Little Prayer" was recorded by Dionne Warwick in an April 9, 1966, session. Although Bacharach's recordings with Warwick typically took no more than three takes (often only taking one), Bacharach did ten takes on "I Say a Little Prayer" and still disliked the completed track, feeling it was rushed.

The track was unreleased until September 1967, when it was introduced on the album The Windows of the World and it was Scepter Records owner Florence Greenberg rather than Bacharach who wanted "I Say a Little Prayer" added to that album. When disc jockeys from the United States began playing the album track in October 1967, significant airplay led Scepter Records to release the track as a single, backed with newly recorded track "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls".

The brisk sound of "I Say a Little Prayer" that Bacharach disliked proved to be a million-selling hit for Warwick, as "I Say a Little Prayer" reached No. 4 that December on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 8 on the Billboard R&B chart, No. 4 on the Canadian chart and No. 4 on the Record World 100 Top Pops chart as well. "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls", the B-side would become another hit for Warwick reaching No. 2 in February 1968 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Record World chart. Warwick's "I Say a Little Prayer" single would receive gold certification from the RIAA for sales of a million units in January 1968. "I Say a Little Prayer" b/w "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls" became one of the most successful double-sided hits of the rock era.

Like several Bacharach compositions, both sides contain passages written in unusual time signatures. The verses of "Prayer" are constructed of two successive measures of 4/4, a measure of 6/4, and three final measures of 4/4. The chorus is in 4/4 + 3/4 + 4/4.

Aretha Franklin version

"I Say a Little Prayer" also returned to the Pop & R&B Top Ten in the fall of 1968 via a recording by American singer Aretha Franklin taken from her 1968 album Aretha Now. Franklin and background vocalists The Sweet Inspirations were singing the song for fun while rehearsing the songs intended for the album when the viability of their recording "I Say a Little Prayer" became apparent, significantly reinvented from the format of the Dionne Warwick original via the prominence of Clayton Ivey's piano work. Similar to the history of Warwick's double-sided hit, the Aretha Franklin version was intended for the B-side of the July 1968 single release "The House That Jack Built" but began to accrue its own airplay that August.

In October 1968 "I Say a Little Prayer" reached number ten on the Hot 100 and number three on the R&B singles chart. The same month the single was certified Gold by the RIAA. "Prayer" became Franklin's ninth and last consecutive Hot 100 top 10 hit on the Atlantic label. Franklin's "Prayer" has a special significance in her UK career, as with its September 1968 No. 4 peak it became Franklin's biggest UK hit; subsequently Franklin surpassed that track's UK peak only with her No. 1 collaboration with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)".

In February 1987, UK music weekly New Musical Express published its critics' top 150 singles of all time, with Franklin's "I Say a Little Prayer" ranked at No. 1, followed by Al Green's "Tired of Being Alone" and Warwick's "Walk On By". (Franklin's "I Say a Little Prayer" did not appear in the magazine's in-house critics' top 100 singles poll conducted in November 2002.) In Australia, "I Say a Little Prayer" and "The House That Jack Built" were assigned a joint chart ranking that saw the double-A-side hit reach No. 10 in November 1968. "I Say a Little Prayer" also gave Franklin a European hit with chartings in France (No. 12), West Germany (No. 29) and the Netherlands (No. 4).

There are several harmonic differences between the Warwick and Franklin versions. Whilst the Warwick original was sung in G major, Franklin's transposes up a tone to A major. The chord under 'Say a little prayer for...' in the bridge is substantially different (F#m7, or v7 of III, in the original; D, or IV, in Franklin's version) and the third-inversion seventh in the bass under '...and ever...'in the chorus from the original (D major/C#) is a more conventional chord V (E major) in Franklin's arrangement.

In 2021, it was listed at No. 117 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".