• Published/printed by Benjamin Franklin in 1729 (10 years after written by Watts).
• Recorded/published by Victor Records in 1911.
• "Victor Talking Machine" which later became RCA (Radio Corporation of America) Victor.
• Adapted with music by Lowell Mason in 1836.
• Originally entitled "Antioch", starts with descending octave scale.

The words do not indicate Christmas, but the song is now associated with Christmas. No one knows exactly how that came to be.

The words were published as a collection of poems. Benjamin Franklin first published the poems in the American Colonies in 1729.

A hundred years later, in 1836, Lowell Mason took an old English melody and adapted it for the poem.

The start of the song is a descending entire octave scale.

The song was entitled Antioch, but the initial words eventually became the name of the hymn.

In 1851, blind Fannie Crosby was brought to the Lord by the songs of Lowell Mason and others at a revival service.

In 1911, recording artist Elsie Stevenson recorded Joy to the World for Victor Records (started in 1901). The song became very popular. Victor Records allowed Columbia Records to use it's disc record patent. This technology had no electronic recording or amplification. It was called the "Victor Talking Machine". The company later became RCA Victor.

Victor Talking Machine (1901-1929) became Radio Corporation of America, or RCA (1929-1986).

RCA was founded in 1919 and was acquired in 1986 be GE (General Electric).

RCA went into broadcasting, creating NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation), in order to create more demand for their hardware products such as TV, radio, etc.

A plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania which RCA operated from the late 1940s to June 1986, released more than 250,000 pounds of 1,1,1-trichloroethane pollutants per year from its exhaust stacks. Wikipedia. (as of 2021-11-19)