11. City on a Hill - God of Wonders
From the album City on a Hill: Songs of Worship and Praise (Essential, 2000)
City on a Hill was actually a collaborative effort spearheaded by Producer Steve Hindalong and features members of Jars of Clay, Sixpence None the Richer, Third Day, FFH, Peter Fuhrler, Gene Eugene (from Adam Again), The Choir, SonicFlood and Caedmon's Call. God of Wonders, the albums biggest hit, features Mac Powell of Third Day and Caedmon's Call among the 12 musicians performing in the song. God of Wonders is a simple declaration of the holiness and majesty of the Creator.The singers and the music combine for the perfect mix of awe and adoration as the song starts out slow and reverent and builds to a robust climax. The subtle inclusion of the a line from the traditional hymn Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty blends traditional and modern worship in a way that works perfectly.
10. Darlene Zschech - Shout to the Lord
From the album Shout to the Lord (Hosanna/Integrity, 1996)
Zschech got her start in the entertainment industry at the age of 10 when she was a regular on the Australian kids' show Merry Go Round. She went on to record Jingles for international companies such as McDonalds, KFC and Coca-Cola. From 1996-2007 She was the Worship Pastor at the famous Hillsong Church.
"A native of Queensland, Australia, Darlene's self-penned Shout to the Lord is practically the theme song for the entire [praise and worship] movement. It is sung by an estimated 25-30 million churchgoers every week, has been covered by at least 20 other artists and has been performed for the President of the United States and the Pope at the Vatican." (source: CCM Presents: 100 Greatest Songs in Christian Music, Integrity Publishing, 2006, p. 38)
9. Newsboys - Shine
From the album Going Public (StarSong Records, 1994)
Going Public was an imprtant album that had a huge impact on the Christian music industry. But it also needs to be recognized for it's incredible music and stronger lyrical themes than many of it's contemporaries. This is undobtedly due in no small part to the influence of Producer Steve Taylor who co-wrote some of the songs including Shine. The breakthrough album was the band's first real success and won a Dove Award in 1995 for Rock Album of the Year. It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album
The song peaked at #1 on the Christian Hit Radio Chart and was nominated for a Dove Award for Song of the Year. The video was also nominated for a Dove Award for Short Form Video of the Year.
Here is the studio released concept video for the song.
8. Stephen Curtis Chapman - The Great Adventure
From the album The Great Adventure (Sparrow, 1992)
This song begins with a buoyant invitation to "saddle up your horses" and challenges the listener to jump headlong into "the great adventure" of life with the assurance that God will always be right there with them. Musically, it fits easily into the contemporary pop niche, but Chapman's country roots were definirely showing. The song was a hugely popular radio hit, occupying the charts for 11 weeks. The accompanying video enjoyed some play on CMT (Country Music Television) briefly.
This was the album that, on the strength of this song, helped Chapman cross-over and achieve some mainstream success. In 1993, the song won Dove Awards for Song of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Song of the year. The video won the Dove Award for Short Form Music Video of the Year and the album won for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year. The album also won a Grammy award for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. It was certified Gold less than seven months after its release and peaked at #1 on the Christian Albums Chart.
Here is the award winning studio released concept video for the song.
7. Jars of Clay - Flood
From the album Jars of Clay (Essential Records, 1995)
In 1994 a quirky, acoustic quartet from Greenville College sent a demo tape into a “New band” contest being put on by the Gospel Music Association. The quartet was invited to Nashville to perform as a finalist for the contest and ended up winning. CCM was never the same. Little by little the song Flood started getting airplay on College, Modern Rock and CHR radio stations around the country. The little label the band was signed to, Essential, received help from their parent company, Silvertone Records who paid for a Music video and the song took off. The album has reached multi-platinum status with sales of over 2 million units. Here are the song's peak positions on various Billboard Charts:
Mainstream Rock Tracks
16
Modern Rock Tracks
12
The Billboard Hot 100
37
Adult Top 40
29
Top 40 Mainstream
20
Christian Hit Radio
4
Christian Rock
1
The song was produced by Adrian Belew of King Crimson who heard a copy of the band's first demo Frail and was very impressed with their sound. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album
Here is the original studio released concept video for the song.
6. Delirious? - I could Sing of your Love Forever
From the album Cutting Edge 2 (Furious?, 1994/Sparrow, 1997)
This song's popularity has reached far beyond the band's; Christian Copyright Licensing International places the song among the 30 most-sung worship songs in the United States of America and it has been called a "modern worship classic". According to Martin Smith, the author of the song: "That song just wrote itself in about five minutes. The same chords the whole way through the song. I mean that's embarrassing really! It was just a little ditty. Did it at church. It was good but I don't think it really blew anybody away. It wasn't like, 'Oh Martin's written the most amazing song!' I still don't really think it is. But yes, that song, that moment changed our lives really. It's been one of the most sung songs in America and around the world. It's crazy really, this little ditty that we don't really do anymore. It's been great."
The song has been released in several different forms. The original was released on Cutting Edge 2 which was a collection of worship songs recorded for an annual youth retreat in Littlehampton, West Sussex, England before the band ever became Delirious?. The were known as the Cutting Edge band at the time and had gotten together specifically to lead worship services. It was later recorded for Deeper in the form of a shorter rock ballad. An even shorter radio edit of this version was released as a single and reached #37 on the UK Charts.
5. Amy Grant - El Shaddai
From the album Age to Age (Independent, 2001)
Before Amy Grant became a household name with chart topping hits like Find a Way, Every Heartbeat and Baby Baby, she released Age to Age, an album that almost singlehandedly changed the contemporary Christian music industry. The album sold well over a million copies. It became the first Christian music album by a solo artist to be certified gold in 1983, and the first ever platinum Christian music album in 1985. El Shaddai was one of several hits that pushed sales of the album to 5-6,000 copies per week and kept it at #1 on the Christian album charts for an astonishing 85 weeks.
The song was written by Michael Card and originally appears on his 1981 debut album Legacy, but it is Grant's version that Contemporary Christian Magazine named the 5th best Christian song of all time. Unusual for a contemporary song, half the lyrics are sung in Hebrew.
El Shaddai, El Shaddai, (God Almighty, God Almighty) El-Elyon na Adonai, (God Most High) Age to age You're still the same, By the power of the name. El Shaddai, El Shaddai, Erkahmka na Adonai, (I love you, O Lord) We will praise and lift You high, El Shaddai.
El Shaddai peaked at #1 on the Christian Songs Chart and was later awarded one of the "Songs of the Century" by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in 2001. In 1983, the song won a Dove Award for Song of the Year and Card was given the award for Songwriter of the Year.
4. MercyMe - I Can Only Imagine
From the album Almost There (Independent, 2001)
Has there been a bigger Christian song in the last decade than MercyMe's I Can Only Imagine? Has there ever been? After signing with INO Records, the band released its first major debut album, Almost There. The single I Can Only Imagine earned the band a Dove Award in 2002 for song of the year; however, it was not until three years after its release before the song began to gain mainstream success, topping the Billboard 200 sales chart for 7 weeks, and peaking at number 71 on the Hot 100, 33 on the US Pop Chart, 27 on the Adult Pop Chart, 15 on the Christian Hit Radio Chart, 5 on the US Adult Contemporary Chart, and #1 on the Christian Adult Contemporary Chart. (Whew!) it even hit #52 on the US Country chart! Now that is a crossover hit.
The song was inspired by the death of Bred Maillard's father when he was only 18. He began writing the words "I can only imagine" on items whenever he thought about his father. Needing one more song to fill out the bands 1999 independent album, The Worship Project, he finished writing the lyrics while alone on a bus in the middle of the night, by reflecting on what he thought standing before God in heaven would be like. Millard has stated that "it is one of the only songs I have ever written where there wasn't any mistakes, it was just written the way it is and left at that". He estimates that it took him only ten minutes to write the lyrics.
MercyMe
The music didn't come as easily, however. Originally a faster song that just wasn't working, keyboardist Jim Bryson noted that "[Millard] and I were talking about arranging it differently and doing a slower version, so we just tried out a piano intro... it was literally the first thing I played. It wasn't anything to do with me, I think it was just a God thing. [Millard] said 'here it is, this is what's going to happen', and we laid the song down in about five minutes."
The song was re-recorded for the bands major label debut record Almost There and released as the first single in 2001. It was a hit on Christian radio but went unnoticed by mainstream stations until 2003 when Dallas mainstream radio station, 100.3 Wild-FM, first played the song on its morning show, The Fitz Radio Program. It soon became the most requested and played song on the station. After hearing the song played on the station, Millard called-in and spoke with the crew; MercyMe then came in and played the song live.
The song won Dove awards in 2002 for Song of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the year.
Speaking about the inspiration behind the video for the song, Millard recalled, "I just kept seeing all these people holding picture frames [at MercyMe concerts] that are empty because we all carry these people with us in some way. I've had so many people after a show pull out a picture of someone they've lost. These people embrace these photos and I just thought how can we tap into that".
Here is the original studio released concept video for the song.
3. Michael W. Smith (ft. Amy Grant) - Friends
From the album Michael W Smith Project (Reunion Records, 1983)
Smith got his professional music start in 1981 when he signed as a writer with Meadowgreen Music. There, he wrote several Contemporary Christian hits for artists such as Sandi Patty, Kathy Troccoli, Bill Gaither and Amy Grant. Some of these popular worship songs can now be found in modern church hymnals. The following year, Smith played keybords on Amy Grant's Age to Age album and performed in the band on her supporting tour. This led to him becoming Grant's opening act and, in 1983, he recorded and produced his debut album, Michael W Smith Project.
Michael wrote the music for Friends and his wife, Debbie, wrote the lyrics originally as a gift for a church friend who was moving away. "The simple chorus with it's hopeful, almost child-like lyric has been part of an entire generation's memory making moments. It has been responsible for countless lumps in countless throats at weddings, graduations, funerals, birthdays, church camps, anniversaries and youth groups for almost 30 years." (From the book 100 Greatest Christian Songs)
The album was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Gospel Album but, surprisingly, the song never peaked higher than #7 on the Christian music Charts. Over the years, however it has become the most played Christian song of all time.
2. dc Talk - Jesus Freak
From the album Jesus Freak (Forefront Records, 1995)
After the success of their previous album, Free at Last, landed dc Talk a distribution deal with Virgin Records, many fans feared that the band would water down its Christian message to appeal more to a mainstream market. Those fears were entirely unfounded.
While the band's previous efforts were more rap and hip-hop oriented, here, dc Talk nearly single handedly invented nu metal. Released 4 to 5 years before bands like Lincoln Park and Limp Bizkit popularized the genre, dc Talk combined hard rock, grunge and rap to create one of the greatest songs of all time.
Although dc Talk broke in to the Billboard Top 40 with Just Between You and Me, it was the title track that was selected as the 2nd best Christian song of all time in Contemporary Christian Magazine's book, 100 Greatest Songs in Christian Music.
Rather then watering down the Christian message, the lyrics in Jesus Freak are bold and "in your face."
Kamikaze, my death is gain I've been marked by my Maker a peculiar display. The high and lofty they see me as weak Cause I won’t live and die for the power they seek, yeah
What will people think when they hear that I’m a Jesus freak? What will people do when they find thats its true? I don’t really care if they label me a Jesus freak There aint disguising the truth.
"The music video for Jesus Freak was directed by Simon Maxwell, who also worked on the music video for Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. Maxwell's treatment of the video, reminiscent of his work with Nine Inch Nails, features footage of Christian imagery such as doves and crosses mixed with stock footage of riots, book burnings, hate crimes, and propaganda films projected onto a screen. Interspersed between the stock footage is video of the band performing the song in a darkened room.
Although the song and video are, on the surface, about expressing one's belief in Jesus Christ, the band later commented that the song could also be a metaphor for the "preservation of standing up for what you believe in – even in the midst of persecution."
McKeehan later said that the point of the video was to "push the envelope" for the Christian rock community, and indeed, the song and video proved controversial. Although the song and video were an earnest attempt to "declare a single-hearted faithfulness in Christ in an age when such devotion strikes many as the freakiest kind of fanaticism," some of the more conservative Christian community members frowned at the video. The song however, was highly successful on Z Music and managed to achieve air time on MTV." (Source: Wikipedia)
The album sold over two million copies, and peaked at #16 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart. It won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album and a Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year in 1997. In 1996, the song won Dove Awards for Song of the Year and Rock Recorded Song of the Year and the band was named Artist of the Year. The music video for the song later won the award for Short Form Music Video of the Year in 1997.
Here is the original studio released concept video for the song.
1. Rich Mullins - Awesome God
From the album Winds of Heaven...Stuff of Earth
(Reunion, 1998)
With Awesome God Mullins would fundamentally change Sunday morning worship at English speaking Churches across the world. Originally written quickly for a Michigan youth group, it became the single most often sung modern worship song in history.
Awesome God was the first single from the album "Winds of Heaven ... Stuff of Earth" and rose to the number one spot on Christian radio and subsequently became a popular congregational song. The song was inspired by Old Testament verses like Psalms 47:2 that refer to God as awesome. "For the LORD Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth."(NIV)
Actually, Mullins did not think the song was one of his best. In an interview with The Lighthouse Electronic Magazine in April 1996, he said:
"You know, the thing I like about Awesome God is that it's one of the worst-written songs that I ever wrote; it's just poorly crafted. But the thing is that sometimes, I think, that when you become too conscientious about being a songwriter, the message becomes a vehicle for the medium. This is a temptation that I think all songwriters have. I think a great songwriter is someone who is able to take a very meaningful piece of wisdom - or of folly or whatever - and say it in a way that is most likely to make people respond. But, what you want them to respond to is not how cleverly you did that; what you want them to respond to is your message."
Awesome God was listed as the Number One Christian song in history in CCM Magazine’s countdown of the greatest songs. It peaked at #1 on Billboard's Christian Singles Chart. Here is the original album version of the song:
