The Winans
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7168
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The Winans were pioneers in the field of contemporary gospel, updating the sound and style of traditional black gospel vocal groups for the urban contemporary age. While they weren't the first group to do so, they were probably the most important factor in popularizing the style, paving the way for countless urban-style gospel groups to follow... [+] Read More

The Winans were pioneers in the field of contemporary gospel, updating the sound and style of traditional black gospel vocal groups for the urban contemporary age. While they weren't the first group to do so, they were probably the most important factor in popularizing the style, paving the way for countless urban-style gospel groups to follow -- including numerous other members of their own, confusingly large family tree. The Winans were composed of brothers Marvin, Carvin, Ronald, and Michael, all of whom were born in Detroit and raised in a strict, loving Christian environment. Their parents later recorded together as Mom & Pop Winans, and their other family spinoff acts included Daniel, Vickie, brother and sister BeBe & CeCe, and Angie & Debbie; plus, their own sons went on to form the third-generation group Winans Phase 2. All of that came later, though. The four brothers, like the rest of their siblings, grew up singing in gospel choirs, and decided to form a professional quartet in their twenties. A mutual friend introduced them to Andraé Crouch, a major force in the contemporization of gospel music, and Crouch signed the Winans to his Light label.

The Winans released their debut album, Introducing the Winans, in 1981, which was produced by Crouch and featured the now-classic cuts "The Question Is" and "Restoration." The 1983 follow-up, Long Time Comin', started to break the group to a wider audience, reaching the Top Ten on the gospel album charts; it also produced another staple of their repertoire in the ballad "Long Time Comin' (Holdin' On)." The title track of their third album, Tomorrow (which also made the gospel Top Ten), won the group its first Grammy for Best Soul Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group in 1985. In the wake of that success, the Winans moved over to famed producer Quincy Jones' Qwest label. Their label debut, Let My People Go, topped the gospel albums chart in 1986, and featured their first high-profile duet -- with Vanessa Bell Armstrong on "Choose Ye." Meanwhile, the title track won another Grammy, and the group received the first of three consecutive Dove Awards as Best Contemporary Gospel Group. Released in 1987, Decision was another number one hit on the gospel charts, and produced the Winans' first big crossover hit in the Anita Baker duet "Ain't No Need to Worry." The single made the Top 20 on the R&B charts and won a third straight Grammy.

Following this run as one of the most popular gospel groups in America, the Winans slowed their pace a little. Aside from the 1988 concert album Live at Carnegie Hall, the group didn't release any new music until 1990's Return. Return was another big crossover success, going gold and just missing the Top Ten on the R&B album charts. It featured a duet with Stevie Wonder on "Everyday the Same," and the Teddy Riley-produced "It's Time" was a major hit with secular audiences, reaching the R&B Top Five. Riley also worked on "A Friend," which became a fan favorite, and saxman Kenny G appeared on another single, "When You Cry." Released in 1993, All Out upped the ante for high-profile guest appearances, featuring Wayman Tisdale (on the single "Payday"), R. Kelly, Lalah Hathaway, Ricky Van Shelton, and Kenny Loggins. Despite winning a Grammy for Best Soul Gospel Album, All Out didn't sell as well with secular audiences as its immediate predecessors. Perhaps as a result, the Winans didn't court crossover success as ardently on its follow-up, 1995's Heart & Soul, which returned them to the Top Five on the gospel album charts. After Heart & Soul, the Winans took a break from performing to concentrate on individual interests and ministries. They did return in 2000 with the holiday album Christmas: Our Gifts to You. In 2002, Rhino Records released the 16-track retrospective The Very Best of the Winans, and the entire Winans family -- not just the group itself -- hit the road in support, marking the first time in a decade that all the family members had performed together. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Mike Curb Congregation
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 0
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Harmony pop chorale the Mike Curb Congregation was the brainchild of producer and music industry veteran Curb, a notoriously conservative figure who upon assuming the position of MGM Records president in 1969 promptly fired his entire A&R department and dropped all of the label's counterculture acts. In keeping with such mandates he assembled... [+] Read More

Harmony pop chorale the Mike Curb Congregation was the brainchild of producer and music industry veteran Curb, a notoriously conservative figure who upon assuming the position of MGM Records president in 1969 promptly fired his entire A&R department and dropped all of the label's counterculture acts. In keeping with such mandates he assembled the Mike Curb Congregation, an otherwise anonymous studio aggregation in the mold of large-scale vocal groups like the Doodletown Pipers. Favoring saccharine material and childlike harmonies in direct opposition to rock's prevailing psychedelic mindset, the group nevertheless scored a Top 40 hit with 1970's "Burning Bridges," the theme to the Clint Eastwood film Kelly's Heroes. A handful of minor chart hits followed, among them 1971's "Sweet Gingerbread Man" and the next year's "See You in September." In addition, their recording of "It's a Small World" went on to become the official theme song of the Disneyland attraction of the same name. But the Mike Curb Congregation was better known for its collaborations. They backed Sammy Davis, Jr. on his chart-topping "Candy Man," and were regulars on television's Glen Campbell Good Time Hour, in 1972 even releasing the LP Sing Their Hits from 'The Glen Campbell Show.' So ubiquitous and innocuous was the group that it even appeared at the White House on the invitation of then-President Richard Nixon. Curb pulled the plug on the project sometime in the mid-'70s. In 1978, he was elected lieutenant governor of the state of California, and in 1980 reassembled the Mike Curb Congregation long enough to record "Together, a New Beginning," the theme for Ronald Reagan's successful presidential campaign. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Point of Grace
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Denise Jones, Heather Floyd and Terry Lang began singing as the Oauchitones in Norman, OK, but added Shelley Phillips in 1991 to form Say So (later Point of Grace) at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR. The CCM vocal group began touring, and a first-place finish in the group competition at the Christian Artists Seminar in Estes Park,... [+] Read More

Denise Jones, Heather Floyd and Terry Lang began singing as the Oauchitones in Norman, OK, but added Shelley Phillips in 1991 to form Say So (later Point of Grace) at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR. The CCM vocal group began touring, and a first-place finish in the group competition at the Christian Artists Seminar in Estes Park, CO caught the eye of the Word label, which signed the quartet, releasing a self-titled debut album in 1993. Their 1995 follow-up, The Whole Truth, expanded the pop-R&B sound of their first album with rock and folk influences. A year later, Life Love & Other Mysteries topped Christian charts and became a platinum best seller. In 1998 Point of Grace returned with Steady On, which, as the title suggests, found them true to the course set out on previous releases. Christmas Story followed in 1999 with a mix of holiday chestnuts and original songs. Their next new album didn't appear until spring of 2001, but prior to Free to Fly a rarities collection, Rarities & Remixes, was released. Point of Grace's next project was an ambitious one. They organized a series of concerts and conferences targeted at teenage girls with ample time at each meeting for question and answer sessions. A companion CD to the conferences, Girls of Grace, was released in 2002 that featured a host of female Christian artists all interested in addressing the issues and pitfalls of growing up. The next year a double-CD retrospective, 24, was released with many of POG's hits and one new song. ~ John Bush & Wade Kergan, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Kathy Troccoli
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7168
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One of contemporary Christian music's biggest stars during the 1980s, singer Kathy Troccoli was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 24, 1958. She performed her first concert while in junior high, delivering a set of Carole King songs at her school's talent show; she became interested in CCM during the late 1970s, and in 1982 issued her debut LP... [+] Read More

One of contemporary Christian music's biggest stars during the 1980s, singer Kathy Troccoli was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 24, 1958. She performed her first concert while in junior high, delivering a set of Carole King songs at her school's talent show; she became interested in CCM during the late 1970s, and in 1982 issued her debut LP Stubborn Love on Reunion Records, a label formed specifically to release her music. Although some pundits declared Troccoli's smoky voice too "sexy" for Christian audiences, the album became the fastest-selling debut ever by a female CCM artist; however, after just two more releases, 1984's Heart & Soul and 1986's Images, she quit the music industry, moving back to Long Island after six years in Nashville. Some time later Troccoli resurfaced as a session vocalist, and in 1991 she released Pure Attraction, her first new album in five years; after signing to RCA, she issued a self-titled 1994 LP, followed a year later by Sounds of Heaven. Love & Mercy appeared in 1997, and a year later she returned with Corner of Eden. Troccoli returned in 1999 with the seasonal effort Sentimental Christmas. She continued recording and was able to release a string of popular solo albums including, Love Has a Name in 2000, Heart of Me in 2002 and Comfort in 2005. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Stryper
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7168
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Heavy metal has been associated with ol' Beelzebub ever since its inception, but there have been a few acts who took the opposite route and put their Christian beliefs in hard rocking songs, such as Stryper. Formed in Orange County CA in 1983, the group was originally known as Roxx Regime, and consisted of singer/guitarist/main songwriter... [+] Read More

Heavy metal has been associated with ol' Beelzebub ever since its inception, but there have been a few acts who took the opposite route and put their Christian beliefs in hard rocking songs, such as Stryper. Formed in Orange County CA in 1983, the group was originally known as Roxx Regime, and consisted of singer/guitarist/main songwriter Michael Sweet, drummer Robert Sweet, lead guitarist Oz Fox, and bassist Timothy Gaines. It wasn't until the group changed their name to Stryper (which stood for "Salvation Through Redemption Yielding Peace Encouragement and Righteousness") that things really began taking off for the quartet. Specializing in the melodic Van Halen/Def Leppard style (with heart-wrenching power ballads tossed in), dressed in all black-and-yellow outfits, and spreading their religious message even further by tossing bibles out into the crowd at their shows, Stryper was signed by the Enigma label in 1984. The same year, the group's debut recording, a six-track mini album titled The Yellow & Black Attack, was issued.

The album created a buzz for the group among metalheads, which was only heightened with the release of their first full-length album, 1985's Soldiers Under Command. The first Stryper release to crack the Billboard charts, its success resulted in the re-release of The Yellow & Black Attack (which included an extra two tracks and new artwork) in 1986. Later the same year, Stryper issued their sophomore full-length, To Hell with the Devil, which many consider to be the group's finest hour. Turning out to be the highest-charting album of their career (barely missing the Top 30), the platinum-certified album benefited by MTVs repeated airings of the videos for "Calling on You" and the syrupy ballad "Honestly" (the latter of which peaked at number 23 on the U.S. singles charts). Despite possessing a different message than their peers, Stryper's music by this point fit in perfectly with the other popular pop/hair metal bands of the day (Bon Jovi, White Lion, Dokken, etc.).

Yet just as it appeared that Stryper could possibly break through on a massive scale, such new metal styles as thrash (Metallica) and more stripped-down rock (Guns N' Roses) began to usurp Stryper's pop-metal audience. As a result, Stryper's next release, 1988's In God We Trust, failed to expand their following, nor did it live up to promise of its predecessor (although it did manage to earn gold certification). Sensing this, the group adopted a harder-edged sound and look for 1990's Against the Law, and even covered the Earth, Wind & Fire funk classic, "Shining Star." Neither managed to cross over to the top of the charts.

A greatest-hits set, Can't Stop the Rock, followed in 1991, but with Nirvana just about to ring the death knell for pop-metal bands, Michael Sweet decided to leave the group for a solo career. Surprisingly, the remaining members of Stryper opted to carry on as a three-piece (with Fox handling lead vocal duties), and continued to tour for a spell. The Michael Sweet-less version didn't last long however, as Stryper officially called it quits in 1992.

In the wake of their split, its members remained busy. Michael Sweet's solo career never scaled the same heights as Stryper's, although solo releases have appeared on a somewhat regular basis, with 1994's Michael Sweet, 1995's Real, and 2001's Truth. Robert Sweet issued a solo recording, Love Trash, in addition to studio work, while Fox and Gaines formed a new group, Sin Dizzy, who issued a rock opera (concerning the crucifixion of Jesus Christ), titled He's Not Dead.

During the intervening years, a large core of devoted fans remained intact, resulting in all of Stryper's albums being reissued by Hollywood Records. In 1999, Sin Dizzy played a show with Michael Sweet, which ended in an off-the-cuff jam session of old Stryper tunes -- resulting in reunion rumors. And with a heightened nostalgic interest regarding '80s era metal bands come the early 21st century, Stryper agreed to sporadically reunite for a "Stryper Expo," which has since turned into an annual event. Stryper's second greatest-hits' collection, 7: The Best of Stryper, followed in 2003, and included a pair of new tunes recorded especially for the collection, "Something" and "For You." ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Petra
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7680
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Petra is one of the most successful Christian rock bands ever, a veritable institution whose name (taken from the Greek word for "rock") has come to reflect not only their music, but their staying power as well, even in spite of Christian radio's reluctance to program their brand of loud, slick arena-rock. Petra was formed in 1972 by guitarist... [+] Read More

Petra is one of the most successful Christian rock bands ever, a veritable institution whose name (taken from the Greek word for "rock") has come to reflect not only their music, but their staying power as well, even in spite of Christian radio's reluctance to program their brand of loud, slick arena-rock. Petra was formed in 1972 by guitarist Bob Hartman, who was attending the Christian Training Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the time; he recruited several fellow students -- guitarist/vocalist Greg Hough, bassist John DeGroff, and drummer Bill Glover -- to his cause, and the group began playing around the Fort Wayne area with backing from their school. Petra encountered early resistance to the very idea of Christian rock from many local churches, who held that the rock & roll sound was inherently evil; nevertheless, the group proved popular with younger Christians, and was signed to the Word Records subsidiary Myrrh in 1973. Their self-titled debut was released in 1974, and was more similar to the California country-rock of the Eagles than to the arena-rock that would dominate most of their career. The follow-up, Come and Join Us, did not appear until 1977, but it featured strong contributions from lead vocalist Greg Volz, as well as a harder-rocking sound.

Petra's lineup fluctuated over the next several years; in spite of the instability, they managed to record their first breakthrough effort, Washes Whiter Than, in 1979, which featured the Christian radio hit "Why Should the Father Bother." When the dust finally settled, the group consisted of Hartman, Volz, keyboardist John Slick, bassist Mark Kelly, and drummer Louie Weaver. The albums Never Say Die (1981), More Power to Ya (1982), and Not of This World (1983) did much to popularize the group, and in 1984, they were rewarded with a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Gospel Group and two Dove Award nominations (the first of many). For 1985's Beat the System, ex-Joe English Band keyboardist John Lawry replaced Slick; in 1986, Greg Volz left Petra for a solo career, and former Head East singer John Schlitt assumed vocal duties for Back to the Street. 1987's This Means War marked a successful transition to a less polished brand of rock & roll; subsequent efforts like 1988's On Fire!, which debuted bassist Ronny Cates, brandished a heavier guitar onslaught in the wake of Stryper's success as a Christian metal band, although Petra never neglected their trademark lush ballads. Petra has soldiered on through the 1990s with few signs of slowing down; 1995 saw Lawry replaced by Jim Cooper, as well as the addition of guitarist David J. Lichens. Subsequent efforts include 1998's God Fixation and 2000's Double Take. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Michael W. Smith
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7680
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Michael Whitaker Smith has become one of the most enduringly popular artists on the Christian Contemporary Music front and is also finding considerable success as a mainstream artist. He was born in Kenova, West Virginia, the son of an oil refinery worker and a caterer. He became a devout Christian at age ten and spent his teens hanging around... [+] Read More

Michael Whitaker Smith has become one of the most enduringly popular artists on the Christian Contemporary Music front and is also finding considerable success as a mainstream artist. He was born in Kenova, West Virginia, the son of an oil refinery worker and a caterer. He became a devout Christian at age ten and spent his teens hanging around with a solid support group of fellow believers who frequently gathered to play and make music. After high school, that support group split up, and Smith turned to alcohol, drugs and wild times. He scraped through a couple semesters of college and began honing his songwriting skills. In 1978, a songwriting company expressed interest in his songwriting, and he moved to Nashville, where he played with local bands, including Rose. He was still heavily into drugs and continued using until October 1979, when he suffered a sort of emotional mental breakdown that culminated in recommitting to Christ. The next day he auditioned for a new CCM group, Higher Ground, as a keyboardist. While touring with them, Smith cleaned up his act.

In 1981, he signed to Meadowgreen Music as a staff writer, where over the next few years he provided gospel hits for such artists as Sandi Patti, Kathy Troccoli, Bill Gaither and Amy Grant. He began touring as a keyboardist with Grant in 1982 and the following year, after releasing his first album, The Michael W. Smith Project, became her opening act. His debut album garnered him a Grammy nomination for Best Gospel Performance. Smith became a headliner following the release of his second album, Michael W. Smith 2. Afterwards, he changed musical directions and began recording more rock-oriented music in order to reach a younger audience. As a result, some of his songs became more secular and began breaking through to mainstream audiences. His first real shot at mainstream music came in 1991 when his label, Reunion Records, allowed Geffen Records to distribute his albums. They chose a two-pronged promo campaign with ads designed to appeal to both CCM audiences and to the mainstream pop audience. This has caused some controversy among his more religious fans, who feared that Smith was selling out to the more lucrative secular market, but Smith saw it differently, claiming that he is really only trying to get his message out to a wider audience and to help young people. Over his career, Smith has won both Dove and Grammy Awards, has topped Billboard charts and has been hailed by Keyboard magazine as one of the top keyboardists in rock.

Continuing his musical reign into the new millennium, Michael W. Smith had sold more than seven million records and had 25 number one hits. And Smith's undying commitment to music came with his first instrumental record entitled Freedom. This album, which was recorded in Ireland, featured backing from the Irish Film Orchestra Limited and contained Smith's personal songs composed with his classic piano arrangements. The live albums Worship and Worship Again arrived in 2001and 2002. 2004 saw the release of Healing Rain, Smith's first recording of new studio material since the turn of the millenium. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Jars of Clay
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Jars of Clay were the breakout band of the so-called alternative CCM movement of the '90s, scoring an enormous mainstream hit with their debut single, "Flood." The group's lyrics may have been exclusively Christian, but their mostly acoustic music fit perfectly into the folky jangle pop wing of alternative rock radio, at the time a rarity on the... [+] Read More

Jars of Clay were the breakout band of the so-called alternative CCM movement of the '90s, scoring an enormous mainstream hit with their debut single, "Flood." The group's lyrics may have been exclusively Christian, but their mostly acoustic music fit perfectly into the folky jangle pop wing of alternative rock radio, at the time a rarity on the contemporary Christian music scene. Not only did their success set the stage for breakthroughs by Christian bands like dc Talk and Sixpence None the Richer, but it's also difficult to imagine the later popularity of heavier, Christian-themed hard rockers like Creed and P.O.D. without Jars of Clay having established the viability of fusing spiritual themes with mainstream alternative rock sounds. As popular tastes shifted, Jars of Clay found it increasingly difficult to maintain their secular audience, but still commanded a sizable following among Christian youth and remained one of the highest-profile groups in any gospel-music subgenre.

Jars of Clay were formed at Illinois' Greenville College in 1993 by singer/songwriter Dan Haseltine and keyboardist Charlie Lowell; they soon added guitarist Stephen Mason, who like Haseltine, was a big fan of Toad the Wet Sprocket (a good secular reference point for the typical Jars of Clay sound). All three were music majors in the college's new CCM department, and at first played together just for fun, writing a song for a class recording project. Eventually, they chose a name for the band from a verse in the second book of Corinthians, which emphasized the frailty of the physical vessels in which God had placed the human spirit. Second guitarist Matt Bronleewe joined up later, and drummer Scott Savage became part of the band's live lineup, though they continued to use electronic drum loops on some of their recordings. Encouraged by the response to their small repertoire of originals, the band entered a talent competition run by the Gospel Music Association in 1994. Chosen as finalists on the strength of their demo tape, the band traveled to Nashville to perform for industry executives, and wound up winning the contest. They returned to Greenville and began selling a self-released demo CD called Frail, and record companies were soon calling the group's dorm hoping to sign them. With such intense interest, the band decided to leave school and relocate to Nashville permanently; at this point, Bronleewe departed, wanting to finish school and settle down with his fiancée, and was replaced by Lowell's childhood friend Matt Odmark.

After considering several offers, Jars of Clay signed with the smaller Essential label, which nonetheless had ample distribution power through its parent company Brentwood's arrangement with the secular label Silvertone. As the group was recording its self-titled debut album, Frail caught the ear of prog rock guitarist and recent Christian convert Adrian Belew, who offered to produce a couple of tracks for the record. One of those songs was "Flood," which became a runaway hit on Christian radio when the album was released in the spring of 1995. When "Flood" began to catch on with secular stations (particularly in the Northwest), Silvertone threw its full promotional muscle behind the album, and by early 1996, the song was a major crossover hit on mainstream rock radio, modern rock radio, and the pop charts (its peak of number 37 on the latter makes it one of many '90s-era hits whose release formats affected its chart eligibility, thus obscuring how massively popular it really was). "Flood" helped push sales of Jars of Clay past the double-platinum mark, a stunning showing for a Christian group.

Some secular listeners and radio programmers hadn't realized that Jars of Clay were a Christian band, and there was something of a backlash when that fact became more widely publicized. What was more, they were criticized in some Christian quarters for touring with secular alternative rock bands during 1996. They spent most of the year on the road, then took a break to work on material for their second album (they'd already released the Christmas EP Little Drummer Boy at the end of 1995). Signing on with British producer Steve Lipson, Jars of Clay released Much Afraid in 1997. The record debuted in the Top Ten on the pop charts and not only went platinum, but won a Grammy for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. Yet, despite some success with the singles "Five Candles" and "Crazy Times," Much Afraid didn't gain the same level of mainstream exposure as its predecessor. Nonetheless, their Christian audience remained loyal, sending their 1999 follow-up, If I Left the Zoo, to gold sales; the record was produced by Dennis Herring, who'd also worked with Counting Crows. By this time, Savage had left the band's concert lineup to back Jaci Velasquez, and was replaced by Joe Porter. Jars of Clay self-produced their fourth album, The Eleventh Hour, which was released in early 2002 and followed by a live DVD.

The next year, the band issued the impressive double-disc set Furthermore: From the Studio/From the Stage. This album highlighted fresh, acoustic-driven classics as well as cuts from some of Jars of Clay's intoxicating live shows. In November 2003, the group released their fifth album proper, Who We Are Instead. Comprised of the band's take on significant church hymns and popular spirituals, Redemption Songs followed in early 2005. Jars of Clay returned in fall 2006 with Good Monsters and supported their seventh effort on the road with Matt Wertz and ex-Sixpence None the Richer frontwoman Leigh Nash opening. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Rebecca St. James
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Australian Rebecca St. James began her successful CCM vocal career at the age of 16, releasing her self-titled debut on Frontline Records in 1994. The following year, she was nominated for a Dove award as New Artist of the Year. Also in 1995, Forefront released a five-track EP of remixes. God followed in 1996, with the holiday release Christmas... [+] Read More

Australian Rebecca St. James began her successful CCM vocal career at the age of 16, releasing her self-titled debut on Frontline Records in 1994. The following year, she was nominated for a Dove award as New Artist of the Year. Also in 1995, Forefront released a five-track EP of remixes. God followed in 1996, with the holiday release Christmas appearing a year later. St. James returned in 1998 with Pray. Transform followed two years later, with Worship God appearing in 2002.. After taking off some much needed time after an ambitious tour and live album, St. James reappeared in 2005 with the pop-friendly If I Had One Chance to Tell You Something.~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Caedmon's Call
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Caedmon's Call is a CCM band that fuses folk-rock with adult alternative rock influences. Cliff Young (vocals, rhythm guitar), Derek Webb (lead guitar, vocals), Danielle Glenn (vocals), Aric Nitzberg (bass), Todd Bragg (drums), Randy Holsapple (organ), and Garett Buell (percussion) formed the Houston, TX-based band at Texas Christian University... [+] Read More

Caedmon's Call is a CCM band that fuses folk-rock with adult alternative rock influences. Cliff Young (vocals, rhythm guitar), Derek Webb (lead guitar, vocals), Danielle Glenn (vocals), Aric Nitzberg (bass), Todd Bragg (drums), Randy Holsapple (organ), and Garett Buell (percussion) formed the Houston, TX-based band at Texas Christian University in the summer of 1992. The group originally included Aaron Tate, who left the band shortly after its formation, but he continued to write songs with Young. After spending some time playing locally, Caedmon's Call began touring college campuses across the South, steadily building up a dedicated following of young Gen-X singles.

Caedmon's Call self-released their first album in June of 1994. In August of 1995, they released their second record. Both independently released albums sold over 10,000 copies apiece, and were distributed in Canada and the U.K. as well as America. The two albums, plus their live shows, led Musician magazine to call Caedmon's Call one of the best unsigned bands in America. Such grassroots success attracted the attention of Warner Bros., which signed Caedmon's Call in 1996 and released their major-label debut, the Don McCollister-produced Caedmon's Call, in the spring of 1997. Long Line of Leavers was issued three years later, and despite a good reaction from their fan base, it signaled to the bandmembers that they desired more control over their sound.

The next year, In the Company of Angels: A Call to Worship was recorded by the band, and its success in the Christian market led to their highest sales yet. When the album was nominated for several Dove Awards, Caedmon's Call decided to continue to produce their own material and recorded Back Home in 2002. Released the following spring, the band hit the road with Jars of Clay to promote the release. In 2004 the anthology Chronicles 1992-2004 was released, as well as a new collection of songs called Share the Well. In the Company of Angels II: The World Will Sing arrived in March of 2006. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Smiley Kids
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 2048
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The Denver-based punk group the Smiley Kids play aggressive but melodic skate punk along the lines of Five Iron Frenzy and Switchfoot, both of whom the band toured with on the Pants Across America Tour. They released their debut album ,Don't Get Bored, in 1999. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide

The Denver-based punk group the Smiley Kids play aggressive but melodic skate punk along the lines of Five Iron Frenzy and Switchfoot, both of whom the band toured with on the Pants Across America Tour. They released their debut album ,Don't Get Bored, in 1999. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Sandi Patti
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 0
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MxPx
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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The Christian-themed punk-pop outfit MxPx was formed in Bremerton, WA, in 1993 by vocalist/bassist Mike Herrera, drummer Yuri Ruley, and guitarist Andy. Originally dubbed Magnified Plaid, at the time of the group's formation all its members were still in high school. Their moniker was later shortened to just MxPx after Ruley abbreviated their... [+] Read More

The Christian-themed punk-pop outfit MxPx was formed in Bremerton, WA, in 1993 by vocalist/bassist Mike Herrera, drummer Yuri Ruley, and guitarist Andy. Originally dubbed Magnified Plaid, at the time of the group's formation all its members were still in high school. Their moniker was later shortened to just MxPx after Ruley abbreviated their name on some show flyers, but poor handwriting saw the periods being interpreted as x's instead; the name stuck. By the time they got their driver's licenses, the trio had already released several 7" singles and their debut album, Pokinatcha, for Tooth & Nail Records in 1994. It quickly became the label's best seller and prompted the release of the band's sophomore effort, Teenage Politics, late the next year. By this album, Andy had been replaced by band friend Tom Wisniewski, who dropped his drumsticks and picked up a guitar in order to join the band. Popular with the skate/surf community as well as the punk underground (with a snowboard sponsorship to their name), MxPx broke out of the underground in 1996 with their classic third LP, Life in General. The album included such fan favorites as "Chick Magnet" and "Move to Bremerton." Though dubbed a Christian punk band, religious themes were never an overbearingly dominant force in the band's songs, as they usually relied on universal themes of growing up and trying to figure life out. As MxPx progressed in their career, their songs began to gravitate more toward the secular side of things as well. Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo, their debut for major label A&M, appeared in 1998. That fall they also released the compilation album Let It Happen back on Tooth and Nail, which contained B-sides, demos, and other stray tracks. The live At the Show trailed a year later. The Broken Bones EP came out in 2000 before their next full-length, The Ever Passing Moment, appeared in the spring. Two years later, MxPx commemorated their time together with the greatest-hits release of Ten Years and Running. Their next official studio effort came the next year in the form of Before Everything & After, an album that alienated many veteran fans with its overly slick, pop-oriented nature. Late 2004 saw the release of the career retrospective DVD B-Movie; jumping back to the indies and their punk roots, Panic next surfaced in June 2005 on Side One Dummy. ~ John Bush & Corey Apar, All Music Guide [-] Hide

John P. Kee & New Life Community Choir
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 2048
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Jaci Velasquez
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Jacquelyn Davette Velasquez, born in the early '80s, began singing at the age of ten and performed at the White House just three years later. It's hardly surprising, then, that after several more years performing and recording with her family's worship ministry, she gained a record contract on her own. By late 1995, Jaci Velasquez signed with... [+] Read More

Jacquelyn Davette Velasquez, born in the early '80s, began singing at the age of ten and performed at the White House just three years later. It's hardly surprising, then, that after several more years performing and recording with her family's worship ministry, she gained a record contract on her own. By late 1995, Jaci Velasquez signed with the Christian recording label Myrrh and found a number one hit (on the CCM charts) with her Spanish-tinged single, "If This World." Her debut album, Heavenly Place, produced by Mark Heimermann, continued the Spanish inspiration and made Top Ten on the Christian charts for several months after its May 1996 release. A self-titled follow-up appeared in 1998, and a year later Velasquez resurfaced with Llegar a Ti. Released in 2000, Crystal Clear emphasized the Latin and pop elements in her style while retaining her CCM roots, and Mi Corazon appeared in spring 2001. But she was just getting started. With 2003's Unspoken, Velasquez dropped an album that was steeped in pop texture, but still unabashedly Christian-themed. Her fifth foray into the English language market, the album also employed songwriters outside of the CCM circle (including Senator Orrin Hatch, who co-wrote the title song), featured big-name producers (Emilio Estefan), and marked Velasquez's debut as a songwriter. With Unspoken, Velasquez made it clear that she wasn't just little Jaci anymore. Then in 2005, Velasquez moved even further a field of her teen pop roots with the alternative rock influenced Beauty Has Grace ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Edwin Hawkins Singers
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 0
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Rich Mullins
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 3072
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Rich Mullins was many things to the CCM community: a beloved performer nominated for 12 Dove Awards, an expert on several instruments (including hammered dulcimer, piano, guitar) and a very successful songwriter, responsible for one of the most popular contemporary praise songs in existence, "Awesome God." Born in 1955 in Richmond, Indiana, he... [+] Read More

Rich Mullins was many things to the CCM community: a beloved performer nominated for 12 Dove Awards, an expert on several instruments (including hammered dulcimer, piano, guitar) and a very successful songwriter, responsible for one of the most popular contemporary praise songs in existence, "Awesome God." Born in 1955 in Richmond, Indiana, he began playing piano at the age of four, and gradually became proficient on guitar and dulcimer as well. In 1974, he began studying at Cincinnati Bible College, where he wrote praise songs and often performed on acoustic guitar. As part of Zion Ministries, Mullins toured the country and led praise & worship meetings at many retreats. One such meeting, in Nashville, got him signed to a publishing deal by Reunion Records, and Amy Grant recorded his "Sing Your Praise to the Lord" for her 1982 album Age to Age. Just two years later, he signed a recording contract with Reunion as well.

Even early in his career, Mullins' gift for incisive lyrics and folky, Celtic music revealed itself, as on his 1986 self-titled album and the follow-ups Pictures in the Sky and Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth. Though he moved to Kansas in 1988 to study music education at Friends University, Mullins continued to record steadily during the late '80s and early '90s, and also released two volumes of a quasi-song cycle entitled The World as Best as I Remember It. He began to get involved with relief organizations after graduation from Friends, and spent time in the American Southwest teaching music to children on a Navajo reservation. He had recorded two collections of new songs plus another compilation before he was tragically killed in an Illinois car accident in September 1997. The Jesus Record was released posthumously the following year and Here in America, a collection of live recordings and demos accompanied by a DVD, was released in 2003. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Amy Grant
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7680
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Although Amy Grant cannot claim to have invented the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) style of gospel music, she did the most to popularize it in the 1970s and 1980s before successfully crossing over to pop music in the '80s and early '90s. When Grant came along as a teenager in the mid-'70s, "inspirational" (i.e., white) gospel music was a... [+] Read More

Although Amy Grant cannot claim to have invented the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) style of gospel music, she did the most to popularize it in the 1970s and 1980s before successfully crossing over to pop music in the '80s and early '90s. When Grant came along as a teenager in the mid-'70s, "inspirational" (i.e., white) gospel music was a tiny subgenre, its records sold almost exclusively in Christian bookstores and almost exclusively in small numbers. By the mid-'80s, when she released Unguarded, her first album to be marketed to a secular as well as a Christian audience, gospel music constituted eight percent of U.S. record sales, a higher percentage than that for jazz or classical music.

She achieved this breakthrough for CCM and for herself by forging a pop/rock sound that matched the production values, and often aped the styles, of pop/rock, and by writing lyrics that often were ambiguous in their meaning, sounding to Christian music fans like appeals to God and to more general pop fans like love songs. She also matched the staging of rock concerts in her shows, which often played in venues more typical of secular performances than religious ones. And her music videos, which emphasized her photogenic appearance, were on a par with those of pop stars. When it occurred, her complete crossover to pop was more a slight shift of emphasis than a major change of direction. Nevertheless, it made her a controversial figure in the Christian music community of the '80s in a way similar to Bob Dylan in the folk music of the 1960s: she was both the field's biggest star and came to be viewed as something of a traitor. As her career went on, however, she managed to mend fences with traditional fans and achieve a balance of pop and Christian-oriented songs on her albums as her career became less of a full-time focus for her and her record sales declined from the heights of her pop heyday.

Born November 25, 1960, in Augusta, GA, where her father, Dr. Burton Paine Grant, was doing his residency, Amy Lee Grant was a descendent of one of the most prominent and prosperous families of Nashville, TN. Her great-grandfather, Andrew Mizell Burton, was a wealthy insurance executive and philanthropist. She was the fourth and final daughter born to her father and her mother, Gloria Grant, following her sisters Mimi, Kathy, and Carol. The family moved briefly to Houston, TX, in 1961 before returning to settle in Nashville. In addition to being well established socially and financially, the Grant family was also deeply religious, belonging to the strict Protestant sect the Church of Christ, which was sufficiently conservative to ban the playing of musical instruments at its services; worshipers sang the hymns a cappella. Despite this stricture, Grant was allowed to begin taking piano lessons when she was ten. While in the seventh grade at the private Ensworth grammar school, she turned to the guitar. Although she was baptized in the Church of Christ, she soon followed her sister Mimi in attending a breakaway variant of the faith, the Belmont Church of Christ, which took a less formal approach, more in keeping with the Charismatic movement.

While attending the private girls' prep school Harpeth Hall, Grant began performing with her guitar at devotional meetings at the school, playing songs by such favorites as James Taylor, Carole King, and John Denver. None of them, however, sang religious songs, so Grant augmented her program with her own Christian-oriented compositions. While working as an intern at a recording studio, she made a tape of her songs for her parents that was heard by producer Brown Bannister, who in turn played it for gospel singer Chris Christian, recently retained by gospel label Word Records as a talent scout. Christian took the tape to Word, which signed Grant to a recording contract while she was still in her mid-teens.

Amy Grant, her debut album, was released on Word's Myrrh Records imprint in 1977. It sold 50,000 copies during its first year of release, a very good sale for a Christian album at the time. The songs "Old Man's Rubble" (written by Bannister), "What a Difference You've Made in My Life" (written by Archie Jordan), and "Beautiful Music" (written by Lanier Ferguson) all ranked as Top Ten hits on Christian radio. Grant graduated from high school in the spring of 1978 and began performing concerts around the country that summer. At first, her touring was restricted to two weekends a month as she attempted to combine her budding musical career with college; she enrolled at Furman University in Greenville, SC, in September.

My Father's Eyes, Grant's second album, was released in April 1979. The ballad "Father's Eyes" had been written by Gary Chapman, a young aspiring Christian songwriter, and it carried a subtle religious message rather than the sort of overt statement typical of gospel music. That message was positive, and it alluded to elements of Christian belief, but it also could be appreciated in nearly secular terms. The more openly religious "Faith Walkin' People" also earned Top Ten airplay on Christian radio, but "Father's Eyes" was the real hit off the album, helping it to strong sales that would accumulate to a gold record certification by 1987. In the short term, My Father's Eyes attracted enough attention to earn Grant her first nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary or Inspirational.

Grant focused on her schoolwork while still finding time to perform and record. Her third album, Never Alone (1980), featured songs mostly written by some combination of her, Chris Christian, Bannister, and Chapman, among them "Look What Has Happened to Me," which Christian radio made a Top Ten hit, but the LP was not as popular as My Father's Eyes, even though it earned her a second Grammy nomination for Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary or Inspirational. She toured with Chapman as her opening act during the summer of 1980. She then took a semester off from college and accepted concert dates on the Billy Graham Crusade and as an opening act for the Bill Gaither Trio.

Instead of returning to Furman, she enrolled at Vanderbilt University in Nashville for the spring 1981 semester, but prior to that she undertook her first national headlining tour, playing 40 dates starting in February, backed by the Christian rock band of DeGarmo & Key. Some of the shows were recorded, and Myrrh released two separate LPs, In Concert in May and In Concert, Vol. 2 in November. Christian radio made Top Ten hits out of two new songs from the discs, "Singing a Love Song" (written by Jim Weber) from the first album and "I'm Gonna Fly" from the second, and In Concert earned Grant her third consecutive nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary or Inspirational.

Grant's life and career reached a turning point in the spring of 1982. Unable to balance her college studies with her performing and recording work, she dropped out of Vanderbilt 20 credits shy of her degree. Before that, she had accepted Chapman's proposal, and she married him on June 19. By then, her star was on the rise following the April release of her fourth studio album, Age to Age. This was her breakthrough as a gospel singer and, more than that, an album that tested the limits of how popular gospel music could be. Christian radio found three Top Ten hits starting with the number one "Sing Your Praise to the Lord" (written by Rich Mullins), followed by "El Shaddai" (written by Michael Card and John Thompson) and "In a Little While." Age to Age entered Billboard magazine's Inspirational chart in July and quickly raced to number one, where it stayed for an astonishing 85 weeks. It won Grant her first Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary, and it finally earned her recognition from the Gospel Music Association, which gave her its Dove Awards for Gospel Artist of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year. ("El Shaddai" was named Gospel Song of the Year.) In November 1983, Age to Age became the first gospel album by a solo artist to be certified gold; it went platinum in June 1985. Myrrh assembled a medley of the album's songs for release as an EP in the spring of 1983, and "Ageless Medley" made the Top Ten of the Christian radio charts and won Grant her second Grammy, for Best Gospel Performance, Female.

Age to Age made Grant a superstar within the gospel field. With that, her managers, Michael Blanton and Dan Harrell, began considering whether she could project her career beyond the gospel genre. In the summer of 1983, they sent her to the Caribou Ranch in Colorado, a first-rate recording facility used by the likes of Chicago and Elton John, to record a holiday LP. The modestly titled A Christmas Album appeared in October. Christian radio made "Emmanuel," a song written by Grant's keyboard player, Michael W. Smith, a Top 20 hit, and the album peaked at number four in Billboard's Inspirational chart. It became a perennial seller, going gold in November 1985 and platinum four years later. As Grant worked on her next album, Blanton and Harrell began booking her outside the usual gospel music circuit, and they did so with success. In December 1983, she sold out two dates at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.

Straight Ahead, Grant's fifth studio album, was released in February 1984, and while it did not equal the commercial success of Age to Age, it was also very popular. On March 31, it ascended to number one on Billboard's Inspirational chart, holding that position for 61 weeks. Christian radio made hits out of four of its songs: "Angels," which hit number one; "Thy Word"; "Jehovah" (written by Geoffrey P. Thurman), and "The Now and the Not Yet" (written by Pam Mark Hall). "Angels" won Grant her third Grammy for Best Gospel Performance, Female, and the album won the Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year. Meanwhile, Blanton and Harrell continued to look beyond the gospel market. In the spring of 1984, Grant starred with Paul Williams and Tom Wopat in an hourlong TV special called Story, Songs and Stars that was based on the Cinderella story; it featured her music video for "It's Not a Song," a track from Straight Ahead with no overt religious theme. That summer, she toured the U.S. opening shows for country star Kenny Rogers. By October, she had sold out two shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, hardly a hotbed of gospel music.

All of this helped to set up Grant's major crossover move of 1985. Word Records made a distribution deal with the large independent label A&M Records, which reissued Straight Ahead just as Grant was appearing on the Grammy Awards show in February 1985, singing "Angels." As a result, the year-old album broke into the Billboard pop album chart in April; in May it went gold. That same month, Grant's sixth regular studio album, Unguarded, was released simultaneously by Myrrh for the Christian market and by A&M for the pop market. The overt Christian messages of the songs on Age to Age and Straight Ahead were scaled back considerably on Unguarded, which often featured hopeful, but religiously ambiguous, lyrics. That, however, did not prevent Christian radio from giving airplay to five songs: "Find a Way," which hit number one; "Wise Up" (by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Billy Simon); "Everywhere I Go" (by Mary Lee Kortes); "Sharayah"; and "Love of Another Kind." A&M's promotional muscle got "Find a Way" into the pop Top 40, and "Wise Up" became a minor pop chart entry. ("Find a Way" reached the Top Ten of the Adult Contemporary chart, and both "Wise Up" and "Everywhere I Go" also reached this chart.) Supported by an 18-month tour, the album went gold in September 1985 and platinum in June 1986, after it had won Grant her fourth Grammy for Best Gospel Performance, Female and the Dove Award for Artist of the Year.

As Grant continued to tour in support of Unguarded, A&M and Myrrh released The Collection in July 1986, a compilation that topped the Inspirational chart for 29 weeks and went gold in February 1987, then platinum in August 1989. The album contained two newly recorded tracks, "Stay for Awhile" and "Love Can Do." Both made the Top Ten of the Christian radio chart, "Stay for Awhile" at number one; "Stay for Awhile" also made the Top 20 of the Adult Contemporary chart. Grant won a Dove Award for Short Form Music Video of the Year for the song. Her increasing profile in the music business resulted in opportunities to work with other artists. Producer Michael Omartian, whom she knew from the Christian music field, invited her to duet with former Chicago singer Peter Cetera on "The Next Time I Fall," a song for Cetera's second solo album, Solitude/Solitaire. The album was released on Warner Bros. Records in June 1986, and "The Next Time I Fall," billed to Peter Cetera with Amy Grant, was issued as its second single in September. Spurred by a stylish video that ran frequently on MTV, the single topped the Adult Contemporary chart in November and the pop chart in December, leading to a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. At the same time, the always Christmas-conscious Grant had joined Art Garfunkel in recording a suite of songs written by Jimmy Webb as The Animals' Christmas, released by Columbia Records in November, and Garfunkel joined Grant on her first network television special, Headin' Home for the Holidays, which was broadcast on NBC in December. (There was also a home-video version, retitled Amy Grant's Old Fashioned Christmas, which went gold in 1992.)

Having completed all her recording and promotional activities in December 1986, Grant announced that she was pregnant and temporarily retired to prepare for the arrival of her first child. Matthew Garrison Chapman was born September 25, 1987. His mother returned to the music business with the release of her seventh studio album of new material, Lead Me On, in June 1988. Lead Me On was a surprisingly serious effort from Grant, its title track discussing (albeit in poetically heightened terms) slavery and the Holocaust, while "Faithless Heart" described adulterous temptations and "What About the Love" (written by Kye Fleming and Janis Ian) cast a skeptical eye on preachers, Wall Street brokers, and nursing homes. With a glossy pop production and Grant's impassioned vocals, the album was well received critically, leading to the by-now expected awards: a fifth Grammy for Best Gospel Performance, Female, Dove Awards for Artist of the Year, Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year, and Short Form Music Video of the Year for the track "Lead Me On."

But it marked something of a speed bump in terms of Grant's career as a record seller. Christian radio was enthralled, giving significant airplay to six songs: "Saved by Love" (number one), "Lead Me On" (number one), "1974" (a song about youthful conversion that led off the LP), "What About the Love" (number one), "Say Once More," and "Faithless Heart." The pop market was less impressed, however. The Adult Contemporary chart listed both "1974" and "Saved by Love," but only in minor positions, and "Lead Me On" spent just two weeks in the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 96. The album shipped gold and topped the Inspirational chart for 36 weeks, but despite a promotional tour that ran from September 1988 to March 1989, playing to a million fans in 135 cities, Lead Me On was a commercial disappointment from a pop perspective. (In March 2002, CCM magazine announced the results of a poll of its readers that named Lead Me On the number one Contemporary Christian Music album of all time.)

At the end of the Lead Me On tour, Grant took another pregnancy leave, her only significant recording activity for the year being a performance of the hymn "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus" on the Word Records various-artists album Our Hymns; she co-arranged the song, which earned her a share of a Dove Award for Country Recorded Song of the Year. On December 18, 1989, she gave birth to Gloria Mills Chapman, known as Millie. On May 26, 1990, a Billboard poll on the 1980s named Grant Gospel Artist of the Decade and Age to Age Album of the Decade. She would become equally successful in the '90s, but would do so by leaving gospel music behind almost entirely. Heart in Motion, her eighth new studio album, largely downplayed the serious side she had revealed on Lead Me On in favor of frothy pop/rock music.

Released in March 1991, it was accompanied by an aggressive promotional campaign on the part of A&M Records. (Grant later claimed that the label was trying to make up for its recent loss of Janet Jackson to Virgin Records by creating a new female pop superstar.) That campaign, along with a music video depicting Grant and a male actor pretending to be in love, helped make "Baby Baby" (which Grant said she actually wrote about her daughter) into a number one pop hit in April, leading to Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It was followed by four more Top 40 hits, each accompanied by a music video, the first three of which also reached the Top Ten: "Every Heartbeat," "That's What Love Is For," "Good for Me," and "I Will Remember You." As a result, the album sold five million copies by the end of 1997. (The Heart in Motion Video Collection, meanwhile, went gold.) The Christian market came along, too, with Heart in Motion enjoying 32 weeks at number one on Billboard's Top Contemporary Christian Albums chart, while Christian radio found six songs it could broadcast, though it tended to prefer more thoughtful fare such as "Hope Set High" and "Ask Me" (which treated the subject of pedophilia and even asked the thorny theological question of how God could let such a condition occur).

Grant toured North America and Europe from July 1991 to March 1992. The following month, she was again named Artist of the Year at the Dove Awards and also picked up a Dove for Song of the Year as the co-author of Michael W. Smith's "Place in This World." She went on pregnancy leave a third time, but managed to contribute a cover of the Elvis Presley hit "Love Me Tender" to the soundtrack for Honeymoon in Vegas, released in August, and to record a second seasonal album, Home for Christmas, released in October, which hit number two and went platinum in short order. On October 11, 1992, she gave birth to Sarah Cannon Chapman, named after Harpeth Hall alumna Minnie Pearl, the Grand Ole Opry comedienne whose real name was Sarah Ophelia Colley.

With the massive success of Heart in Motion, Grant could afford to take some time off before tackling another album, but she undertook several recording projects in 1993. She participated in two spoken word albums for children, The Gingham Dog & the Calico Cat with music by Chet Atkins and The Creation with music by Béla Fleck, both released by the Rabbit Ears label. And she and Chapman put together Songs from the Loft, a various-artists collection of religious tunes for teenagers that won the 1994 Dove Award for Praise and Worship Album of the Year. Then she turned her attention to her ninth regular studio album, emerging with House of Love in August 1994. The album was patterned after Heart in Motion, with a combination of catchy romantic songs meant to hit the pop charts and more spiritual efforts to satisfy her Christian fans. The result was another multi-platinum success, even if the album sold less than half what its predecessor had. "Lucky One" made the Top 20, the title song (a duet with country star Vince Gill written by Wally Wilson, Kenny Greenberg, and Greg Barnhill, and featured in the film Speechless) hit the Top 40, and a cover of the Joni Mitchell standard "Big Yellow Taxi" reached the lower end of the singles chart. Meanwhile, the album topped Billboard's Contemporary Christian (Albums) chart for 12 weeks and Christian radio found five other songs to play, among them "Children of the World" and "Helping Hand," both of which hit number one. Grant embarked on a yearlong tour in support of the album that concluded in September 1995. A month earlier, she had been featured on the various-artists album My Utmost for His Highest, singing the song "Lover of My Soul." This enabled her to share in a 1996 Dove Award for Special Event Album of the Year.

In February 1996, Grant was featured on the soundtrack for the film Mr. Wrong, singing the 1976 10cc hit "The Things We Do for Love," which reached the Adult Contemporary chart. In December, she performed two sold-out shows dubbed "Amy Grant's Tennessee Christmas" at the Nashville Arena, beginning what became an annual event. Otherwise, she spent 1996 and much of 1997 working on her tenth regular studio album, Behind the Eyes, which was released in September 1997. The album earned critical approbation for what reviewers saw as a return to her early folk-rock style and for its serious, introspective lyrics. It would have been equally accurate to note that Grant, who always paid close attention to current trends in pop, had dropped the heavy synthesizers and drum programming after listening to new competitors like Sheryl Crow and Jewel. As for the lyrics, while Grant had always emphasized the travails of life, contrasted with the benefits of spiritual support, on Behind the Eyes many fans thought they detected suggestions of real-life romantic discord.

The album entered the pop chart at number eight and went gold in less than three months as "Takes a Little Time" became a Top 40 pop and Top Ten Adult Contemporary hit, while "Like I Love You" also made the Adult Contemporary Top Ten and "I Will Be Your Friend" (written by Michelle Lewis, Dane DeVillier, and Sean Hosein) also reached the Adult Contemporary chart. The album won a Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year. Grant toured for a month in the fall of 1997, returned to the road for four months in March 1998, and played 22 cities on a Christmas tour in November and December 1998. Meanwhile, there was other recording activity. She sang a duet with actor Kevin Costner on a cover of the Lovin' Spoonful's "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" for the soundtrack of his film The Postman (December 1997); she and country singer Bryan White sang a duet on "With These Hands" from the various-artists recording of songs from composer Frank Wildhorn's Broadway musical The Civil War called The Civil War: The Nashville Sessions (October 1998); and she sang "River Lullaby" on the soundtrack of the animated movie musical The Prince of Egypt (December 1998).

Grant and Chapman announced their separation after more than 16 years of marriage on December 30, 1998. Grant filed for divorce in March 1999, and the couple was divorced in June. The same month, she paired with the British Christian rock band Delirious? on "Find Me in the River," a song on the various-artists album Streams that earned her a share in the 2000 Dove Award for Special Event Album of the Year. In September 1999, she returned to acting in the television movie A Song from the Heart, a drama in which she played a blind cellist. In October, she released her third seasonal album, A Christmas to Remember, which topped Billboard's Contemporary Christian Albums chart for five weeks starting in November, made the pop Top 40, and went gold. Her television special of the same name was broadcast at the same time.

On March 10, 2000, Grant married Vince Gill. She gave birth to her fourth child, Corrina Grant Gill, one year and two days later. In May 2002, she released Legacy...Hymns & Faith, her first album of overtly religious music since her pop crossover, consisting largely of traditional material with several originals included. It topped Billboard's Contemporary Christian Albums chart and entered the pop chart at number 21. Grant and her producers, Gill and Brown Bannister, won the 2003 Dove Award for Inspirational Album of the Year, and Grant and Gill won the Dove for Country Recorded Song of the Year for the track "The River's Gonna Keep on Rolling" (written by Gill). Grant returned to pop music with her first secular album in six years when she released Simple Things in August 2003. The album topped Billboard's Christian Albums chart and entered the pop chart at number 23, the same number achieved by the title song on the Adult Contemporary chart. Grant seemed to sum up her hitmaking period with the release of Greatest Hits 1986-2004 and the companion DVD Greatest Videos 1986-2004 in October 2004. Soon after, she announced that she had ended her association with A&M Records, noting that she no longer fit with the label.

In April 2005, Grant and NBC announced that she would host a reality TV special, Three Wishes, that also would serve as the pilot for a possible series. On the show, she and a team of experts would make wishes come true for participants. Grant's follow-up to Legacy...Hymns & Faith, titled Rock of Ages...Hymns & Faith, was released in May 2005 on Word/Curb/Warner Bros. Records. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The Maranatha! Singers
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7680
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The Maranatha! Singers is a 50-person-strong voice choir comprised mostly of University of Florida and Santa Fe Community College students. Originally founded in 1970, the group is part of the University Methodist Church and Student Center (U.U.M.C.), Gainesville, FL. The group sings most Sundays at the U.U.M.C. worship service during the fall... [+] Read More

The Maranatha! Singers is a 50-person-strong voice choir comprised mostly of University of Florida and Santa Fe Community College students. Originally founded in 1970, the group is part of the University Methodist Church and Student Center (U.U.M.C.), Gainesville, FL. The group sings most Sundays at the U.U.M.C. worship service during the fall and spring semesters, and also tours often outside of the church. The Maranatha! Singers have also issued numerous recordings over the years, including 1999's Praise 16: Power of Your Love and Praise 17: In Your Presence, and are directed by Robert Jackson, plus accompanied by pianist James Gilbert, the latter of which issued his first solo piano release, Travels of the Heart, in 2001. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Andraé Crouch
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 3584
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One of the most renowned and widely respected pioneers of contemporary gospel music remains Andrae Crouch. By combining such classic gospel music elements as call-and-response and choir, along with pop songwriting techniques and production, Crouch's style has influenced countless other artists. Born July 1, 1942, in Pacoima, CA, Crouch got his... [+] Read More

One of the most renowned and widely respected pioneers of contemporary gospel music remains Andrae Crouch. By combining such classic gospel music elements as call-and-response and choir, along with pop songwriting techniques and production, Crouch's style has influenced countless other artists. Born July 1, 1942, in Pacoima, CA, Crouch got his musical start at his father's church, singing, playing piano, and before ten years of age, writing his own songs (despite being entirely self-taught). Crouch formed his first serious gospel group during the early '60s, Andrae Crouch & the Disciples, although it wouldn't be until 1977 that the group issued their first release, This Is Another Day (eventually, the "Disciples" name would be dropped, as the albums were credited solely to Crouch).

Crouch's career quickly began to soar, as he kept steadily issuing albums (including such standout releases as 1978's self-titled release, 1981's Don't Give Up, 1982's Live at Carnegie Hall, 1997's Pray, and 1998's Gift of Christmas), as well as penning such renowned gospel tunes as "My Tribute (To God Be the Glory)" and "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power." In addition, Crouch toured across the globe (including Europe, Africa, the Far East, and the U.S.); collaborated with such acclaimed pop artists as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, and Madonna; received a total of nine Grammy Awards and an Academy Award nomination; and provided film scores to such movies as The Lion King and Free Willy.

Crouch was inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame in 1998. Shortly thereafter, he was the subject of a tribute album, Tribute: The Songs of Andrae Crouch, which included spirited renditions of Crouch tunes done by the likes of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Take 6, the Winans, and an album-closing finale of "My Tribute (To God Be the Glory)" that included Patti Austin, BeBe Winans, Susan Ashton, and Vestal Goodman among others, as part of a 70-voice all-star choir. Along with numerous guest appearances and a hectic touring schedule, Crouch released Take the Message Everywhere in 2005. ~ Greg Prato & Thom Granger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Vanessa Bell Armstrong
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7168
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With a style reminiscent of Aretha Franklin, soulful Vanessa Bell Armstrong has been belting out R&B-flavored contemporary gospel since the '80s. A native of Detroit and mother of five, she got her start working with Dr. Mattie Moss Clark. She has since gone on to work in both gospel and secular music. She did the theme song for the television... [+] Read More

With a style reminiscent of Aretha Franklin, soulful Vanessa Bell Armstrong has been belting out R&B-flavored contemporary gospel since the '80s. A native of Detroit and mother of five, she got her start working with Dr. Mattie Moss Clark. She has since gone on to work in both gospel and secular music. She did the theme song for the television series Amen, where her links to Rev. Al Green (and ultimately to Rev. Claude Jeter) were evident. She's recorded urban contemporary ballads and lyrically neutral material for Jive, and done gospel for Muscle Shoals Sound Gospel and Onyx, subsidiaries of Malaco. Albums include the slickly produced Something on the Inside (1993) and The Secret Is Out (1995). Three years later, she released her first live album, Desire of My Heart: Live; a best-of collection appeared in 1999. ~ Bil Carpenter and Ron Wynn, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Bob Carlisle
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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He began making music by appearing on many vocal sessions from the '70s, and Bob Carlisle finally found a solo career in 1993, singing gospel pop/rock with subtle soul influences. He had appeared with several early Jesus Music acts -- including Allies -- and sang backup vocals on sessions by Bryan Duncan, Vince Ebo, Sandi Patti and Petra before... [+] Read More

He began making music by appearing on many vocal sessions from the '70s, and Bob Carlisle finally found a solo career in 1993, singing gospel pop/rock with subtle soul influences. He had appeared with several early Jesus Music acts -- including Allies -- and sang backup vocals on sessions by Bryan Duncan, Vince Ebo, Sandi Patti and Petra before signing with Sparrow Records in 1993; his self-titled debut album appeared later that year. By 1996, Carlisle was recording for the Diadem label, and that year's Shades of Grace became a gospel hit, propelled by the single "Mighty Love." The following year, Carlisle unexpectedly became a crossover success when the single "Butterfly Kisses" became a pop hit. The album was repackaged and reissued in the spring of 1997 under the name Butterfly Kisses and it topped the pop charts; Stories from the Heart followed in 1998. That same year, Carlisle also issued Butterfly Kissess & Bedtime Prayers; its sequel followed in early 1999. Nothing But the Truth was released a year later. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Newsboys
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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One of the more media-exposed Christian rock bands of the '90s, Newsboys formed in the late '80s around a core of John James, Peter Furler, and Philip Urry. Though early in their career the band was panned for a perceived overreliance on religious clichés in their lyrics, Newsboys later grasped secular music's alternative revolution in the early... [+] Read More

One of the more media-exposed Christian rock bands of the '90s, Newsboys formed in the late '80s around a core of John James, Peter Furler, and Philip Urry. Though early in their career the band was panned for a perceived overreliance on religious clichés in their lyrics, Newsboys later grasped secular music's alternative revolution in the early '90s for an image makeover, with good results. The group gained six number one singles on the Christian charts, and have been featured in more secular media outlets than the average Christian band. Step Up to the Microphone, their first album for major label Virgin, followed in 1998; Love Liberty Disco appeared a year later. In celebration of the new millennium, the Newsboys also observed their own career with the greatest hits package Shine...The Hits, issued in fall 2000. Their most elaborate work to date, Thrive, was issued in spring 2002 and led to one of their biggest CCM hits ever, "It Is You." Over ten years into their own career, that fall Newsboys Remixed was released, offering new takes on several of their biggest hits. The band issued Adoration: The Worship Album in April 2003. The record included both originals and Newsboy versions of well-known worship songs. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Ray Boltz
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7168
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Ray Boltz was one of the most successful Contemporary Christian vocalists of the '90s, selling over a million copies of his first five records. Boltz released his first album, Seasons Change, in 1992. The album was an immediate success in CCM circles, and over the next five years he built his fanbase gradually through appearances on Christian... [+] Read More

Ray Boltz was one of the most successful Contemporary Christian vocalists of the '90s, selling over a million copies of his first five records. Boltz released his first album, Seasons Change, in 1992. The album was an immediate success in CCM circles, and over the next five years he built his fanbase gradually through appearances on Christian radio and a series of well-received albums. ~ Rodney Batdorf, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Gaither Vocal Band
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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One of the premier religious harmony groups, the Gaither Vocal Band was formed by contemporary gospel legend Bill Gaither in the early '90s with Mark Lowry, Jonathan Pierce and Guy Penrod. The group has recorded for Star Song, Benson and Chordant, receiving many Dove awards and several Grammy nominations. The Gaither Vocal Band has released two... [+] Read More

One of the premier religious harmony groups, the Gaither Vocal Band was formed by contemporary gospel legend Bill Gaither in the early '90s with Mark Lowry, Jonathan Pierce and Guy Penrod. The group has recorded for Star Song, Benson and Chordant, receiving many Dove awards and several Grammy nominations. The Gaither Vocal Band has released two volumes of Southern Classics and 20 Inspirational Favorites, as well as the live recording Back Home in Indiana and 1999's God Is Good. By this time, David Phelps had joined the group, and I Do Believe was issued in fall 2000. Lowry left the band in 2002 and was replaced by Russ Taff. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Jim Brickman
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Though classically trained, pianist Jim Brickman prefers to play more pop-flavored gently lyrical New Age music. His unique compositions are emotional and structured, but not rigidly so. Brickman enrolled in the Cleveland Institute of Music in his late teens. The focus was on classical music, but Brickman could not escape the lure of mainstream... [+] Read More

Though classically trained, pianist Jim Brickman prefers to play more pop-flavored gently lyrical New Age music. His unique compositions are emotional and structured, but not rigidly so. Brickman enrolled in the Cleveland Institute of Music in his late teens. The focus was on classical music, but Brickman could not escape the lure of mainstream music and at age 19 began writing commercial jingles. This led him to compose music for such major outfits the Gap, Isuzu, Sprint and Kellogs as well as with Jim Henson and Henson Associates. During his association with Henson, he composed for the Muppets and for projects on Sesame Street. He also assisted on some of Henson's Disney projects. Brickman recorded his debut album No Words on Windham Hill in 1994. The following year he released By Heart on the same label, and in 1997 issued Picture This as well as The Gift, a collection of seasonal favorites. Visions of Love followed a year later, and in early 1999 Brickman returned with Destiny A classy live effort, My Romance: An Evening with Jim Brickman appeared in 2000. Two years later, Brickman crafted a beautiful children's album called Love Songs and Lullabies. Efforts such as Grace, Peace and The Disney Songbook followed in the relaxing yet elegant vein of his earlier work. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Kirk Franklin
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Since his debut, 1993's Kirk Franklin and the Family, Kirk Franklin has been one of the brightest stars in contemporary gospel music. The album spent 100 weeks on the gospel charts (some of those on top), crossed over to the R&B charts, and became the first gospel debut album to go platinum. His second album, Kirk Franklin & the Family... [+] Read More

Since his debut, 1993's Kirk Franklin and the Family, Kirk Franklin has been one of the brightest stars in contemporary gospel music. The album spent 100 weeks on the gospel charts (some of those on top), crossed over to the R&B charts, and became the first gospel debut album to go platinum. His second album, Kirk Franklin & the Family Christmas, became the genre's first Christmas album to make it to number one, and his 1996 album Whatcha Lookin' 4 went gold as soon as it was distributed. With such phenomenal success, it is small wonder that some have hailed him "the Garth Brooks of Gospel." Still, despite all the adulation and brouhaha, Franklin remains a humble, devout Christian, eschewing the title "entertainer" in favor of labeling himself as just a "church boy."

Franklin's road to the top, though quick, was far from smooth. Abandoned by his mother and never having known his father, Franklin was reared by his Aunt Gertrude, a deeply religious woman who raised him as a strict Baptist. When he was four, she paid for his piano lessons by collecting aluminum cans. The lessons were money well-spent, for Franklin was a natural musician who could sight read and play by ear with equal facility. At age 11, he was leading the Mt. Rose Baptist Church adult choir near Dallas. Despite, or because of his church background, Franklin began rebelling in his teens and getting into trouble until one of his friends was accidentally shot and killed at age 15. Realizing that he had chosen a bad road, Franklin returned to the fold and began composing songs, recording and conducting. Since 1991, he has been backed up by his 17-member choir, the Family, a group comprising friends and associates from his younger days (interestingly, one member of the Family, Jon Drummond, made it to the semi-finals heat of the 100-meter sprint at the 1996 Olympics). Support from his pastor, his wife Tammy, whom he married in early 1996, and the two children they brought to the marriage help keep Franklin close to his religious core, and he returned in 1998 with Nu Nation Project. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Rev. James Cleveland
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 3968
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The visionary behind the contemporary gospel sound, the Reverend James Cleveland was a pioneering composer and choral director whose progressive arrangements -- jazzy and soulful, complete with odd time signatures -- helped push the music past the confines of the traditional Baptist hymnal into new and unexpected directions, infusing elements of... [+] Read More

The visionary behind the contemporary gospel sound, the Reverend James Cleveland was a pioneering composer and choral director whose progressive arrangements -- jazzy and soulful, complete with odd time signatures -- helped push the music past the confines of the traditional Baptist hymnal into new and unexpected directions, infusing elements of the sanctified church style and secular pop to alter the face of gospel forever. Born in Chicago on December 5, 1932, Cleveland was a boy soprano at Pilgrim Baptist Church, the home of minister of music Thomas A. Dorsey; as his parents were unable to afford a piano, he crafted a makeshift keyboard out of a windowsill, somehow learning to play without ever producing an actual note. When his voice changed, becoming gruff and harsh, Cleveland continued singing, developing into an expressive crooner; for the most part, however, he focused on piano, becoming a top-notch accompanist.

In 1950, Cleveland signed on as a pianist and occasional third lead with the Gospelaires, a trio led by Norsalus McKissick and Bessie Folk; although the group was short-lived, it brought him to the attention of pianist Roberta Martin, for whom he began composing. Even his earliest material reflects a bluesy, funkified style well ahead of its time, while his arrangements of traditional spirituals like "Old Time Religion" and "It's Me O Lord" were highly stylized, almost unrecognizable from their usual interpretations. By the mid-'50s, Cleveland was a member of the Caravans, not only playing piano but also narrating hymns in his rough yet relaxing voice; despite the group's success, however, he kept quitting and rejoining their ranks, earning a reputation as a highly temperamental character. He also played briefly with groups including the Meditation Singers and the Gospel All-Stars; in 1959, he also cut a rendition of Ray Charles' "Hallelujah I Love Her So," his first overt attempt to bridge gospel and R&B.

Although Cleveland kept drifting from group to group, his reputation continued to grow -- with the Gospel Chimes, he cut a series of records which veered sharply from pop-inflected ballads to fiery shouters, arranging harmonies which straddled the line between the current group style and the rapidly developing choir sound. By 1960, he was clearly well ahead of the pack; "The Love of God," a cover of a Soul Stirrers number he cut with the Detroit choir the Voices of Tabernacle, was a breakthough hit, his fusion of pop balladry and choir spirit finally reaching its apotheosis. After years of struggle, Cleveland was now a major star, and across the country, choir directors began mimicking his style; he soon signed to Savoy, where he recorded with the All-Stars and Chimes as well as his own group, the Cleveland Singers, which featured on organ a young Billy Preston. His third Savoy LP, 1962's live Peace Be Still, made history, selling an astonishing 800,000 copies to an almost exclusively black audience without the benefit of mainstream promotion.

The success of Peace Be Still established Cleveland as arguably the most crucial figure to emerge in gospel since Mahalia Jackson; throughout the 1960s, when hit status for spiritual records typically reflected sales of five thousand copies, his LPs regularly sold five times that amount. Additionally, his annual Gospel Singers Workshop Convention -- an outgrowth of his organization the Gospel Workshop of America -- helped launch the careers of numerous younger talents, a generation of artists largely inspired by the modernized sound pioneered by Cleveland himself. During the 1970s, he remained a towering figure, leading his latest creation, the Southern California Community Choir, and recording prolifically; although his pace began to slow in the decade that followed -- and despite his death on February 9, 1991 -- Cleveland's shadow continues to loom large across the gospel landscape. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Michael English
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Michael English's roots are in Southern gospel; he performed with the Singing Americans, the Goodmans, the Gaither Trio and the Gaither Vocal Band before going solo in 1991. English began drawing attention to his powerful tenor when he recorded "I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy," first with the Singing Americans, then with the Brooklyn... [+] Read More

Michael English's roots are in Southern gospel; he performed with the Singing Americans, the Goodmans, the Gaither Trio and the Gaither Vocal Band before going solo in 1991. English began drawing attention to his powerful tenor when he recorded "I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy," first with the Singing Americans, then with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. English has won Dove Awards for Best New Artist and Best Male Vocalist. Among his solo efforts: 1993's Hope, 1995's Healing and 1996's Freedom. He returned in 1998 with Gospel, followed two years later by Heaven to Earth. ~ Brian Mansfield, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Steven Curtis Chapman
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7168
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His music a cross between '70s-style light rock and orchestrated pop, Steven Curtis Chapman has been one of the most prominent performers of contemporary Christian music since the '80s. Born and raised in Paducah, KY, Chapman learned to play several instruments while hanging out in his father's music store, excelling at guitar and piano. As a... [+] Read More

His music a cross between '70s-style light rock and orchestrated pop, Steven Curtis Chapman has been one of the most prominent performers of contemporary Christian music since the '80s. Born and raised in Paducah, KY, Chapman learned to play several instruments while hanging out in his father's music store, excelling at guitar and piano. As a young man, he enrolled as a pre-med student at Anderson College in Indiana. He soon decided to pursue a music career and dropped out to go to Nashville, where he began working in a music show at Opryland USA. When not performing, he was busy writing songs, a skill he learned from his father. One of Chapman's tunes was recorded by the Imperials, a prominent gospel group, marking the beginning of his songwriting success; many of gospel and country's brightest stars, including Sandi Patti, Billy Dean, Glen Campbell, and Roger Whittaker, have gone on to record Chapman's songs.

Although several different labels and music publishers were interested in him by 1987, he decided to sign with the major Christian music company Sparrow. That year he cut his first album, First Hand. The first single released from the album, "Weak Days," made it to number two on the contemporary Christian chart. His second album, 1988's Real Life Conversations, earned him four more hits, including the number one song "His Eyes." Co-written with James Isaac Elliott, it earned the Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year award from the Gospel Music Association in 1989. That year, he also won a GMA award for Best Songwriter of the Year. Released later that year, his third album, More to This Life, contained four number one hits and in 1990 earned him an unprecedented ten nominations at the GMA Awards (he won five). His next album, For the Sake of the Call, which contained five number one singles and earned him another slew of GMA awards and his first Grammy in the Best Pop Gospel Album category, only strengthened his position as the king of Christian music.

In 1992, Chapman made a successful bid to attract a more mainstream audience with The Great Adventure, which also won a Grammy, and its accompanying title track video. When Sparrow Records was purchased by EMI/Liberty, they began marketing the album in discount stores, and in 1993, it went gold. Also released in 1993 (both as a video and CD), The Live Adventure won more GMA awards and also earned Chapman a new award from American Songwriter magazine, Songwriter and Artist of the Year. Chapman released his seventh album, Heaven in the Real World, in 1994 and embarked on a major tour. In 1996, Chapman released Signs of Life, which was followed three years later by Speechless. Though Chapman's albums had always done well on the Billboard CCM charts, in 2001, after the release of Declaration, he really began to get even more attention on the Top 200. Both it and 2002's All About Love peaked in the Top 15, and his 2004 record All Things New made it to number 22. In September 2005, in time for the holiday season, Chapman released All I Really Want for Christmas, and the following year Musical Blessing came out.~ Sandra Brennan, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Melanie
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7936
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No talent who came out of Woodstock and who continued actively performing more than a quarter century later remained as closely associated with the 1960s and "flower power" than Melanie. Born Melanie Safka in Astoria, Queens, in 1947, she made her first public appearance at age four on a radio show, later studying at the New York Academy of Fine... [+] Read More

No talent who came out of Woodstock and who continued actively performing more than a quarter century later remained as closely associated with the 1960s and "flower power" than Melanie. Born Melanie Safka in Astoria, Queens, in 1947, she made her first public appearance at age four on a radio show, later studying at the New York Academy of Fine Arts. After mounting a singing career while in college, she later sang in clubs in Greenwich Village, and was signed to a publishing contract in 1967. She recorded her first single, "Beautiful People," for Columbia Records that same year. Her relationship with the record company was short-lived, however, and after one more single she left the label.

In 1969, she chanced to meet producer Peter Schekeryk, and after a hastily arranged audition, he took charge of her career. Her first album, Born to Be, was recorded and released by Buddah later that same year. On August 16, Melanie took the stage at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival in Bethel, New York; her song "Birthday of the Sun" was later released on the Woodstock 2 album, and 20 years later it was released on video as part of Woodstock: The Lost Performances, alongside the work of Janis Joplin, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and the Who.

Soon afterward, she cut her second album, Affectionately, which did slightly better than her first; however, her commercial breakthrough came 11 months after Woodstock, when she released the song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)," recorded with the Edwin Hawkins Singers. The song, written as a tribute to the audience at Woodstock and displaying the feel of a gospel hymn, rose to number six on the U.S. charts, while the accompanying LP, entitled Candles in the Rain, reached the Top 20.

After 1970's Leftover Wine, a live album recorded at a Carnegie Hall concert, she issued a plaintive version of the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday." In January of 1971, Melanie's own version of "What Have They Done to My Song, Ma," a recent smash for the New Seekers, got to number 39 in Britain, where she emerged as a major star. In March, however, her new release, The Good Book, peaked on the U.S. charts at just number 80, despite the presence of several impressive tracks, among them a hauntingly beautiful cover of Phil Ochs' prophetic, doom-laden self-eulogy, "Chords of Fame."

At around this time, Melanie rebelled against her contract with Buddah, which required her to supply albums more or less on demand -- she'd had four LPs released in half as many years, and wanted more control over her work and career. With help from Schekeryk, whom she had married, she organized her own label, Neighborhood Records, during the summer of 1971. Her first subsequent single, "Brand New Key" hit number one on the U.S. charts while on its way to becoming a million seller; thanks to its not-so-subtle sexual undertones, the song became a kind of "in" dirty joke in some circles, and was even censored on some radio stations, but it also made Melanie one of the top-selling artists of the year 1971.

The accompanying album, Gather Me, was the best produced long-player she had ever released, and reached a chart position of number 15, earning a gold record in the process. This huge success prompted Buddah to release Garden in the City, consisting of previously unreleased outtakes. At the same time that 1971's Gather Me spawned the single "Ring the Living Bell," Buddah decided to capitalize more directly on Melanie's catalog and released "The Nickel Song"; the presence of two singles in release simultaneously from two different labels and distributors -- each competing for radio play and listener dollars -- damaged both releases, and they effectively canceled each other out.

Garden in the City rose to number 19, but her next new album on Neighborhood, Stoneground Words, only got to number 70 late in 1972. In June of 1973, her double-concert album, At Carnegie Hall, recorded the previous year, didn't even make the Top 100. By this time, Melanie had withdrawn from the stage, and was devoting her time to more personal and domestic concerns, having the first of three children in as many years. She re-emerged in 1974 for a short series of concerts, but her new album of that period, Madrugada, barely made it on to the charts, and her subsequent two LPs, As I See It Now and Sunset and Other Beginnings, released in 1975, barely sold. Neighborhood Records was later closed down.

A year later, Photograph was released to lackluster sales on Atlantic; the follow-up, Phonogenic, also failed to chart, and her last album for the next five years, Ballroom Streets, appeared on the Tomato label in 1977. In 1982, Melanie cut a comeback album, Arabesque, for RCA; a year later, her single "Every Breath of the Way" scraped the middle of the British charts and led to a series of concerts in England. Neighborhood was soon reactivated just long enough for Melanie to release one last album, Seventh Wave.

At the end of the 1980s, she re-emerged once again with her theme music for the popular television series Beauty and the Beast. By that time, Woodstock nostalgia was beginning to be stoked by the media and concert promoters, and Melanie appeared at one of the 20th anniversary events. She continued to periodically perform at clubs in the United States and larger festivals in Europe, where her association with the 1960s made her a major draw, and every so often released an album of new songs or re-recordings of her classic numbers. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide [-] Hide

dc Talk
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 7168
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The first gospel act to incorporate hip-hop influences (though the trio rarely departs from standard pop/rock), dc Talk became one of the most popular groups in Christian contemporary music during the mid-'90s, when their fourth album, Jesus Freak, made the highest debut for a gospel act on Billboard's album charts. Formed in Washington, D.C.,... [+] Read More

The first gospel act to incorporate hip-hop influences (though the trio rarely departs from standard pop/rock), dc Talk became one of the most popular groups in Christian contemporary music during the mid-'90s, when their fourth album, Jesus Freak, made the highest debut for a gospel act on Billboard's album charts. Formed in Washington, D.C., during the late '80s, the group first comprised Toby McKeehan and Michael Tait. Adding Kevin Max Smith to the lineup soon after, the group added elements of hip-hop to their self-titled debut album, which appeared in 1988 on the ForeFront label. Neither McKeehan, Tait, nor Smith were comfortable playing instruments on their recordings, so each recorded only vocals by the time of 1991's Nu Thang. After the release of Free at Last just one year later, dc Talk concentrated on touring for several years, during which a change of image resulted in the group's resemblance to a grunge band. Indeed, 1995's Jesus Freak featured more raging guitars, though within the medium of harmonic pop/rock. Upon its release, Jesus Freak sold more copies than any gospel album in history and eventually moved over one million copies. Supernatural followed in 1998. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Norman Greenbaum
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 768
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Best-known for his 1970 hit "Spirit in the Sky," singer/songwriter Norman Greenbaum was born November 20, 1942, in Malden, MA. He began his musical career while a student at Boston University, playing area coffeehouses before relocating to the West Coast during the mid-'60s and forming a kind of psychedelic jug band dubbed Dr. West's Medicine... [+] Read More

Best-known for his 1970 hit "Spirit in the Sky," singer/songwriter Norman Greenbaum was born November 20, 1942, in Malden, MA. He began his musical career while a student at Boston University, playing area coffeehouses before relocating to the West Coast during the mid-'60s and forming a kind of psychedelic jug band dubbed Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band. After issuing the 1966 single "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago," which fell just shy of reaching the Top 50, the group disbanded, and Greenbaum subsequently formed a series of short-lived acts before finally returning to his solo career in 1968. A year later he issued his debut LP, Spirit in the Sky, releasing several unsuccessful singles before reaching the Top Three with the smash title track, which sold some two million copies. It proved to be Greenbaum's only hit, however, as follow-ups like 1970's "Canned Ham" and the next year's "California Earthquake" tanked; after the release of 1972's Petaluma, he retreated from music to focus on his California dairy farm, but returned to show business during the mid-'80s in a managerial capacity, also promoting a number of concerts. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Morris Chapman
Genre: CCM/Contemp. Gospel
Decades: 6144
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Gospel pianist, songwriter, and singer Morris Chapman moved into ministry in the late '70s. His musical career gives him an extra ability to reach people and touch souls. Over the years he has recorded a long list of albums, earned nominations for both Dove Awards and a Grammy, and written noteworthy songs that other artists have recorded. In... [+] Read More

Gospel pianist, songwriter, and singer Morris Chapman moved into ministry in the late '70s. His musical career gives him an extra ability to reach people and touch souls. Over the years he has recorded a long list of albums, earned nominations for both Dove Awards and a Grammy, and written noteworthy songs that other artists have recorded. In 1990, Chapman finished his first album, Live Worship. The debut received positive reviews and introduced him to a new audience of fans. Two years later a sophomore album appeared, Gospel Praise. Both full-length offerings were released under the Benson Records label. There was a long seven-year break before a third album was finally completed. As if to make up for lost time, Chapman finished his fourth album that year as well and completed a number of others for the start of the new millennium, mostly working with Tyscot Records. Some of the songs gospel fans will find on his works include, "You Are So Easy to Love," "Mighty God," "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," "When I Think About His Goodness," "The River of God," "You Know the Cry," "Amazing Grace," "The Worship Medley," and "I Know the Plans." ~ Charlotte Dillon, All Music Guide [-] Hide