"Simple Gifts" in popular culture

A folk-nouveau version of the song was used as the theme music for the PBS series Craft in America, airing first in May 2007.

The Copland version of the melody was used as the theme music for the CBS News series of documentary specials, CBS Reports, the earliest of which (1959) were hosted by Edward R. Murrow (who was born to a Quaker family).

The song was also used in a film about a mentally disturbed child. The movie concerns Tarra, a troubled child, who develops a friendship with a grown man no more than a child himself. The film was made when the actual girl, on whose story the movie is based, turned seven. "Simple Gifts" went to Cannes Film Festival the spring of 1998.

The melody of the song was also heard from the background in the Election night of 1996 when President Bill Clinton and his family exited the Arkansas Governor's mansion and were greeted by crowd when it was announced that he had won re-election.

An ABC western from the early 1970's, "Alias Smith and Jones" featured the song in several episodes. It was sung in the last episode Only Three to a Bed, by guest star Jo Ann Pflug.

In episode 10 entitled "Alethea" in the first season of the 1970's Kung Fu television series starring David Carradine guest child star Jodie Foster who plays the character Alethea Patricia Ingram sings the song, accompanied by her lute.

The song was featured in the Christmas episode of the PBS television show Shining Time Station, titled "'Tis a Gift".

The song was featured in the Broadway show Blast!

The song is used by West Virginia University; the clock tower at Woodburn Hall, on the downtown campus, plays the melody daily at 12:20 p.m. and it has been played by the Pride of West Virginia during pregame at all home football games since at least 1977. This arrangement of the song is a highly anticipated moment during the show where the band tightens into three concentric circles at the middle of the field before expanding them during the melody.

The song is used by Appalachian State University; the Marching Mountaineers play it right before 'Hi Hi Yikas' (the Appalachian fight song) in the football pregame show, effectively whipping Kidd Brewer Stadium crowds into a frenzy.

The song is also featured in the movie A Time for Dancing.

A more classical version of Simple Gifts was recorded by Yo Yo Ma on cello with Alison Krauss, the vocalist. It's currently listed as twenty-first among Itunes' Top 40 Classical Songs and is on Yo Yo Ma's album - Classic Yo Yo.

Abbreviations of the song are used by a Renaissance band Blackmore's Night in a song Lord of Dance/Simple Gifts. The album was released on November 7, 2006.

A small section of the song is also featured in the Broadway show Legally Blonde the Musical.

Weezer's 2008 self-titled album features a song called "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" which features some derivations from Simple Gifts.

The song was also in Bedlam's Bard by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon. Its in the first of the two books in the volumn, named Knight of Ghosts and Shadows.