I just thought of another of my favourites:
Brightest and best of the sons of the morning (MORNING STAR)
That should make 82.

"Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" was written by John Greenleaf Whittier as part of a longer poem.

I can't place this either:

do - re mi | sol - sol - | mi - re mi | do
_la - do re | mi - mi - | _la - do re | mi
sol - sol mi | re - do - | ^la - sol mi | re
do - re mi | sol - sol - | mi - re mi | do

but I keep wanting to fit "Be Thou My Vision" to it.
I don't know if it's a known tune, or not.

I think Brightest and Best is a great American tune. I omitted seasonal carols from my list because of their limited usability, and there are just too many chestnuts to choose from.

I love How Can I Keep From Singing, but with this significant caveat: *not* the modern (Proulx arr.) 4/4 time version with a refrain, but the original (Christo-centric text) in what might be rendered as 3/2 time and no refrain. Btw, the text (even in the Proulx arrangement, with the modern verse that Doris Plenn wrote for Pete Seeger inserted - that was the subject of a copyright case against Enya that Enya won because the Plenn failed to renew the copyright properly) is public domain, as would the original melody be.

And, now I will make a statement that will be controversial for many on this board, any American hymnal that fails to include "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" is missing something important.

For what is likely to be the oldest entirely American-penned hymn-anthem in the active repertoire (though not as much in Catholic circles), I would remind folks of the fabulous setting of select verses from Song of Songs ch. 2 as set during the American Revolution by that industrious tanner-turned-autodidact-hymnist from Boston, William Billings: I Am The Rose of Sharon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGygzGAx998

In this genre, one should avoid trying for a pure, European choir tone. Billings got his musical ideas from rough, nearly brutish Congregational hymn-singing (which he was trying to improve) and from lusty sea chanties sung by his co-workers in Boston's bustling harbor community. (I find it amazing that Billings set that text from Song of Songs - it's a text that was long beloved in Catholic tradition (the Song of Songs was one of the most popular texts for commentary in the Middle Ages), but appears much less in the Protestant tradition.) Err on the side of lusty and vibrant. This is often true for the shape note genre that followed, and I have too many favorites in that genre to name. If you are an American choir director and you've never seen the 2-DVD video of "Awake My Soul, The Story of The Sacred Harp", you should remedy that failure and watch it, including the wonderful second DVD consisting entirely of iterations of hymns. It is moving on too many levels to describe, and delves many dimensions of sacred music if you are patient to observe and enter into the world. I credit Sr Monica Weis, SSJ, for my awakening my love of this genre over 30 years ago in Charlottesville, VA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ7uMC9xeHE

Liam, I am an East Tennessee native with ancestors going back over 200 years here. What they call locally, "Old Harp Singing" is available somewhere in the area every week. I grew up with that stuff and remember well the shape-note hymnals and hearing choirs learn notes by singing solfege.

If you like William Billings try Jeremiah Ingalls or Nehemiah Shumway; and buy a copy of The Sacred Harp.

Mr. Chonak's solfege for "Be Thou My Vision" is Desrocquettes. See for example Hymns Psalms & Spiritual Canticles (Cambridge, 1974).

Almost 50 years ago, in Sept. 1963, the choirboys of Theodore Marier's St. Paul Choir School rehearsed for the first time. "Be Thou My Vision" with this tune was the main work of that hour. Paul Hotin, the assistant director, held the baton, while Marier played the piano. I remember feeling alarm at the bewildering demands beyond just singing the right notes.