I believe the song "When a Child is Born" has been recorded by several
artists.  In the late fall of '73, '74, or possibly '75, a version
charted and received radio play for about a month or so.  In the
version I remember, there was a spoken part before the next to last
verse, of which I believe there were four.  What is the artist and
label for this version?

joe --

This was a real tough one, but I am confident that the version of
"When a Child is Born" that you remember was a now-obscure Mercury
single (Catalog #73542) by one Michael Holm, which was released in
1974 and made it onto the Billboard chart for that year.

Mr. Holm is a German songwriter and recording artist who appears to
have had the first hit single of your song, two years before Johnny
Mathis took the song to #1.

Here is a page from a German Web site that contains a summary of Mr.
Holm's career, including a reference to his 1974 accomplishment:
NeunLive: Michael Holm (scroll down to 1974)
http://www.neunlive.de/bcbp_4796.html

A loose translation of that paragraph (my college German is very
rusty) is: "Another milestone in Michael Holm's career occurred when
his English version of "When a Child is Born" made the American
Billboard charts."

Here is a link to the page of a U.S. auction Web site that offers the
45rpm single for sale and describes it as a "charted hit":
Bob Pegg Records
http://www.peggrecords.com/A4GN7803.html

To tie up the remaining loose end, I have found a Web site that
contains the lyrics to "When a Child is Born" as recorded by Michael
Holm.  This confirms that Holm's version of the song included the
spoken interlude you have described:
GoLyrics: Songtextdatenbank
http://www.golyr.de/index.php?view_site=display&view_id=143433&accept=true&session_id=


Aditional Information:

"When a Child is Born" (in its English translation) was copyrighted in 1974:
Pianospot.com (scroll down the alphabetical listing of songs)
http://www.pianospot.com/1703297.htm

It was composed by Zacar and Fred Jacobson:
BMI.com: Title Search
http://repertoire.bmi.com/TitleSearch.asp?querytype=WorkName&page=1&fromrow=1&torow=25&keyname=when%20a%20child%20is%20born&blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=False&blnAltTitles=False
(If this long link doesn't work, go to bmi.com and enter the song's
name in the "Repertoire Search" box near the bottom of the page.)

That Holm's version was a hit is confirmed by the Cash Box Top 100
listing for the week ending January 4, 1975:
Cash Box: Top 100 Singles
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/randypny2/cashbox/19750104.html



Search Strategy:

Because of the obscurity of the recording in question, my first rounds
of Google searches were unproductive, and initially led me to believe
that the first hit recording of "When a Child is Born" was the famous
and still-in-print version by Johnny Mathis in 1976.  After
establishing that the Mathis version also contained the spoken
interlude, I was about to ask you whether the version you are seeking
could have been released in 1976.

Before doing that I decided to perform one more search focusing on
1974 while eliminating the ubiquitous "Mathis" results.  I focused on
1974 because I had deternined that the song was copyrighted in that
year.  This was the search that led me to Michael Holm:

"when a child is born" chart 1974 christmas -mathis
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22when+a+child+is+born%22+chart+1974+christmas+-mathis

Subsequent searches confirmed that Holm's version of the song did
indeed make the Billboard chart in 1974 and that Holm was otherwise
entirely obscure in this country.  For example:

"michael holm" "when a child"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22michael+holm%22+%22when+a+child%22


I am confident that Michael Holm's version of  "When a Child is Born"
is the recording you remember.   If any of the above information is
unclear, please ask for clarification before rating this answer.


markj-ga

Great jon of research, Mark.  Yes, I think this is it.

I don't know whether it's the version of the song that you want, but
Kenny Rogers' recording of "When a Child is Born" definitely has a
spoken section.

These are the words that are spoken, rather than sung:

And all of this happens
Because the world is waiting,
Waiting for one child;
Black, white, yellow, no one knows,
But a child that would grow up and turn tears to laughter,
Hate to love, war to peace,
And everyone to everyone's neighbor,
And misery and suffering would be forgotten forever.

Thanks for the kind words and the tip.  Now if only I could identify
"Dry Your Eyes, Maggie" . . .   .

markj-ga