In 1971 Gavin Bryars joined Alan Power to work on a film about the people living around the area of Elephant and Castle and Waterloo Stations in London. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song - sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads - and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet”.
Listening to the hymn later Bryars noticed that it was in perfect pitch and formed an effective loop. While working on the tape, Bryars left his studio for a few hours, leaving the door open. Coming back he noticed that the normally lively room was unnaturally subdued. People were moving slowly and some were sitting alone, quietly weeping. He was puzzled until he realized the tape was still playing, and it was the tramp’s singing that overcame the people. Bryars continued to work on the piece, and looked for the tramp to show him the final piece, but by that time the tramp had died.
The movie that the recording was made for was never released. This is a soundtrack for that movie.

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Links:
More about the recordings and some MP3s of them
The story behind the recording
Wikipedia Article