Again I am comprising a list that is not exhaustive. There are plenty of songs that did not make it on the list that I think are just fantasic but I just chose to list the ones that have had the most long standing impact on me. A couple of songs that did not make the List are "Welcome Home" and "Jesus" by Shaun Groves. I think that Shuan is certainly one of the most talented Christian songwriters we have. I also love some Nichole Nordeman, Derek Webb, Genny Owens, Ray Bolz, Kenny G, ect... Okay not those last two but you get the point.
10. You put This Love in my Heart (Keith Green) The piano intro alone could put this song on my list. What a talent. So much Joy in his heart. 
9. Rocketown (Smitty) I am a sucker for old Smitty. This song is so darn cool. It goes out of the norm and I played it over and over as a kid and get all nostalgic when I hear it again. 
8. The Love of God (Rich Mullins) About 8 years ago one of my best friends in Undergrad introduced me to Rich Mullins. His name was Jerod McKinnley. We used to listen to Rich on the way to racket ball every morning one semester. Sadly, my friend Jarod passed away a few years ago from Cancer. He is with the Lord now and I am so thankful for his witness. I can hardly hear this song now without choking up. It is a little known song but the words are so stinking powerful. 
7. Jesus Freak (DC Talk) This song rocked my world in College. I was soooo excited when this album came out. I worked at Blockbuster Music at the time and the workers could pick a CD for rotation to play on the overhead. I always picked this one. TONS of people asked who it was and loved it. 
6. Sing Your Praise (Amy Grant, but really Rich Mullins) I remember singing this song at the top of my lungs as a youngster out in the parking lot of our Church. I imagined myself singing infront of huge crowds leading them to Worship the almighty, throwing my hands up in reckless abandon at the tender age of 6. I turned around and saw a deacon had been watching me and I acted like I was just stretching and sort of sauntered off.
5. Your Love Broke Through (Keith Greene) After almost 30 years this song is so powerful and fresh. It is the best of Keith and I just love it. It is a song that could be done a thousand different ways and still be powerful. However I still love it when Keith sings it best. BTW, did you guys know that Bob Dylan LOVED Keith's music and recorded some songs with him?
4. Untitled Hymn (Rice) Just beauty. This song shows a writer that has the spirit of David. A true communicator of Grace. One time Amber and I choreographed this song (Amber is an AWESOME dancer as well as singer) It is the best song for me to hear when I need to hear the message of Grace and hope in Christ again.
3. Great Light of the World (Bebo) Bebo has my favorite voice in Christian Music. (Shane Bernard a close second) He has a way of speaking to every demographic and you believe him. From the songwriting to the production I hardly get tired of hearing it.
2. Thankful (Caedmon's Call) I put this as my number 2 because this song just makes me feel so good. It is the perfect synthesis of Derek's great songwriting and the Joyful abandon that is so prevalent in Caedmon's music. Sidenote: I found this hilarious pic and had to post it. 
1. The Color Green (Rich Mullins) This song is my favorite for so many reasons. It is the work of a true Artist. Passionate for God and not cheap. It is a redeemed soul crying out in Joy for being Born again. It has a sense of awe and wonder that is missing from so much music today, only concerned with getting people jumping up and down. Okay, so whats yours!!
21 comments:
This is such a great list! I used to imagine that I was Amy Grant. I think my lip singing was done in front of the mirror instead of in a parking lot. And then, my English teacher, Coach Thomas, in 6th grade nicknamed me Amy because I wore her "Lead Me On" t-shirt to school...too much. (nerd) (I went to that concert.) And he thought I looked like her. I loved Coach Thomas for that. He only called me Amy.
I LOVED Rocketown. And the Rich Mullins songs, those are ones I actually listen to now. His songs will definitely last the test of time. Good picks!
That picture of Caemon's Call ROCKS!
Hey Amber, it sounds like you and I have alot in common. Wanna hook up?
For some reason, I can't remember the name of my favorite CCM song. It's by Rich Mullins. It goes:
I hear the thunder in the sky
I hear the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairie calling out your name.
I gave my Rich Mullins c.d. to someone. Hmmm. Can't remember exactly who...
I also love "Your grace Still Amazes Me" by Phillips, Craig and Dean. It gets me every time.
Calling out your name!!!! another favorite of mine. I had it on my list but I decided that I had too many Rich Mullins songs so I bumped it and put Bebo in.
Such an amazing song. I think Amber and I are going to cover it.
HEY I read your article in the paper and it ROCKS!!! I'll blog about it soon sis.
oh man am i dying to hear everybodies fav's. Are you going to leave me hangin here or what???
; )
an extremely shallow comment to make. rich mullins was very hansome.
Wait, OpMom, I can't tell if you're kidding or not.
Okay, *(knuckle-cracking)*, let's see... these are in no particular order because I don't have the brain power:
Melody of You - Sixpence
Needful Hands - Jars of Clay
El Shaddai - Michael Card/Amy Grant
Beauty for Ashes - Crystal Lewis
All Over Me - the Benjamin Gate
In the Light - DCT
Less Like Scars - Sara Groves
Higher - Cindy Morgan
Somewhere Down the Road - Amy Grant
Gloria - Watermark
You people have already stolen some of mine.
Strangely, I'm finding this one very difficult. I think there are a few different reasons for this.
One, I guess I'm much more album-oriented than song-oriented. I mostly enjoy songs as a group or collection when it comes to my personal listening (in case you couldn't tell by the ease with which I whipped out a list of favorite albums).
Two, I have a little bit of trouble keeping a favorite single song, because if a song really speaks what my heart is saying to the Lord, or ministers to me with some sort of truth or lesson, then I take the living water portion of what I receive from that song, and drink from it, then when I've heard it too much, it becomes too "familiar" to me, and it no longer touches me the way it did originally.
I guess what I'm saying is that it's the Lord that I seek, and our flesh has a way of trying to create a formula around what moved us at one point in time, but when we go back to that same well over and over, eventually it runs dry. I don't know if I'm making sense here, so I think I'll just babble instead. :-)
And if I start listing individual songs, there could potentially be so many. (But, you must have a few favorites, that you can always come back to, right?) Yes, I'm sure I can think of some. But it'll have to be later, sorry.
I'm off for our weekly men's meeting, a few hours of iron sharpening iron with the guys from my home group...
All great tunes Cach. Another one that i love is "The Word" by Sarah Groves. I am always a sucker for El Shaddai and In the Light!
Some of those I have not heard. I will check them out!
Kat-
Have you heard Bethany Dillon's remake of "Lead Me On?" I love it. Can't wait to hear your Amy stories.
Great list, there. Hold Me Jesus is a must know. That song has ministered to me time and time again.
Kat, I love the Chris Rice "Welcome to our World" song as well. Just beautiful. It was a toss up between those two and I decided the other. I remeber the first time I heard that song in the car. The tears definitely made an appearance.
Our violinist Joey (yes the same crazy fellow i blog about) just toured with Jeremy Camp and Bethany and got to know them really well. They are just salt of the earth people.
The real thing.
40 something cards!!
It is an amazing song. I can hardly think of a Christmas song written in the past 100 years that is more well written.
The verse that gets me is.
"fragile fingers sent to heal us
tender brow prepared for thorns
tiny heart who's blood will save us
unto us is born,
unto us is born"
actually every verse gets me. Lets just quote the whole song shall we....
"Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child
Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home
Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world
Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born
So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world"
This is an impossible task.
Many of you already stole some of my songs and artists. :-)
There are so many artists and so many songs (most artists I have on my list have done several songs I could list). So here are a few I didn't notice listed previously:
Michael W. Smith - Great is the Lord
Amy Grant - 1974
Larry Norman - Watch What You're Doing
Michael Card - Love Crucified Arose
Petra - The Coloring Song
Keith Green - Oh Lord, You're Beautiful
Kim Josephson - Come See a Man
The Imperials - Be Still My Soul
Kelly Willard - Nothing But the Blood
2nd Chapter of Acts - The Easter Song
This list could go on forever...
It's me, Susanne, from Band! Here are some of mine (in no real order):
River God - Nicole Nordman
You are Beautiful (not sure if this is the actual song title) - Third Day - we were listening to this one on the radio while driving our newborn daughter home from the hospital
In Christ Alone
I Will Follow Christ - Clay Crosse
He Walked A Mile - Clay Crosse
Nothing is Beyond You - Rich Mullins - This song comforted me so much when my Granddaddy was dying
Hope to Carry On - Caedmon's Call
You Were There - Avalon - my very favorite right now!
Mercy Said No - Greg Long
Stay For Awhile - Amy Grant - This song makes me think about Centrifuge camp in 1986 or so! :)
Untitled Hymn - Chris Rice
This was fun! I like top 10 lists.
Liz here, again. A couple of my favorites are:
The whole "I'll Lead You Home" album and "Friends" by Michael W. Smith
"I Can Only Imagine" and "Keep Singing" by Mercy Me
"Twenty-Four" and "This is Your Life" by Switchfoot
"Dive" by Steven Curtis Chapman
"What if I Stumble" by dcTalk
I could go on, but that's good for now. Great blog, by the way.
Those are some good ones Liz. I loved Dive when it came out and always still get a kick out of What if I stumble. 24 is my fav on that Switchfoot album.
Hey Sean I checked out your site and I really like your music. Refreshing and real. I just kind of kicked back and soaked it in. Very nice my friend. Thanks for stopping by and keep on writing.
I definitely hear the Keith influence and that is a good thing. I kind of have my own Keith tribute song on our album!
Oh, there are so many, many great CCM songs it would take more than a list of 10, more like 50 or so - to name my favs (groups & songs)! I Like the one's mentioned above, and also the following one's that come really to mind, in no real particular order:
1. "Revelation (Song)" - Green Day,
2. "I Can Only Image" - Mercy Me,
3. "East to West" - Casting Crowns (And, other's of their songs),
4. "O Sifuni Mungu" - First Call,
5. "Something Beautiful" & "You Are My King" (Amazing Love) - Newsboys,
6. "Hide Away" - Brush Arbor (they're a Blue-grass/country/pop sound),
7. "When God Ran" - Benny Hester,
8. "Hosanna Gloria" & "Lifesaver" - Farrell & Farrell,
9. "Mighty To Save" - Laura Story (also "Indescribable" by her & Chris Tomlin),
10. "Without A Doubt" - B.J. Thomas,
11. "Stop, Watch and Listen" - Kim Hill,
12. "Trumpet Of Jesus" - Russ Taff & The Imperials,
13. "More Love, More Power" by Jeff Deyo (And, also by Michael W. Smith),
14. "Jesus, Lover of my Soul" - Kara Williamson,
15. "Adonai" - Petra,
16. "Blessed Be Your Name" & "The Heart of Worship" - Matt Redman (Most of his Music). I also like other CCM Singers, groups & bands, like Sonicflood, Twila Paris (there are a couple of her songs I really like too), Newsboys, Casting Crowns, Petra, Kutless and many others! Then there area also so many memorable songs, but not necessarily one's you'd add to a all time best liked Christian songs list - like "Wish We'd All Been Ready" by Larry Norman. Well, those are a few of my favs!!!
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