O What a Savior

{{Short description|1948 Southern gospel song}}

"O What a Savior" is a Southern gospel song written by the Free Will Baptist musician Marvin P. Dalton in 1948. The first line is "Once I was straying in sin's dark valley" and the chorus starts "O what a Savior". It was first recorded in January 1950 by the Original Stamps Quartet, a male-voice quartet, accompanied by piano.[https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/375397 Dalton, Marvin P.], Discography of American Historical Recordings (accessed 9 October 2024)

It was included as the first hymn in the Blackwood Brothers collection Sunday Meeting Songs in 1957.[https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=01VAN_INST:MUSIC&search_scope=MyInstitution&tab=LibraryCatalog&docid=alma991043591368603276&lang=en&context=L Sunday meeting songs / (compiled by) Blackwood Brothers], Vanderbilt University Library catalog (accessed 9 October 2024) Dalton's works were popular locally in the 1940s and 1950s, and he is also known for his hymn "Looking for a City".Alton E. Loveless. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LW-MAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA76 And Who Will Follow: Angelika's Plea], p. 76 (Xlibris; 2009) {{isbn|9781469105178}}Ken Petersen. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=k5cQEAAAQBAJ&&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q&f=false Oh Happy Day], p. 7 (Tyndale House; 2021) {{isbn|9781496446398}}