The strophic setting for The Old Rugged Cross has been given some variety in this arrangement modulating midway from C to A flat and then back for the final verse.Evangelical song-leader George Bennard wrote The Old Rugged Crossin 1912 during a series of church meetings. It was popularized a few years later by the Billy Sunday evangelistic campaigns and since then has been a church and country gospel favourite having been recorded by artists as diverseas Johnny Cash Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Al Green.