Discs One and Two, from best to worst
Jars of Clay is the only CCM artist I’d ever willingly defend to a secular audience. The rest I’ll cheerfully acknowledge mostly hold a claim on me through nostalgia. Come on, though, “Love Me Good”? That is a damn delight! Michael W. Smith was the Christian George Michael. And (FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE) the Newsboys were absolutely the U2 of Christian Contemporary in the 90s. And I know U2 is Bad now, but you have to admit they knew how to sell records. The W’s I had to put in the top ten, because “The Devil Is Bad” is just fun and of the two, is a better representative of Christian ska than the O.C. Supertones.
1. “Crazy Times” – Jars of Clay
2. “Deeper” – Delirious?
3. “Love Me Good” – Michael W. Smith
4. “Entertaining Angels” – Newsboys
5. “Into Jesus” – dc Talk
6. “Lord of Eternity” – Fernando Ortega
7. “The Devil Is Bad” – The W’s
8. “Undo Me” – Jennifer Knapp
9. “Pray” (Radio Edit) – Rebecca St. James
10. “If You Really Knew” – Out of Eden
The Smalltown Poets really nailed it with “There Is Only You” in WOW 2000, but “Anything Genuine” doesn’t quite crack the top ten for me. This is a respectable but indifferent pack. It’s pretty good, you know? You wouldn’t wince if it came on the local CCM station.
11. “He Will Make a Way” – Kathy Troccoli
12. “To Know You” – Nichole Nordeman
13. “Anything Genuine” – Smalltown Poets
14. “Agnus Dei” – Third Day
15. “Testify to Love” – Avalon
16. “Lord I Believe In You” (Remix) – Crystal Lewis
17. “Can’t Get Past the Evidence” – 4Him
18. “Steady On” – Point of Grace
19. “Strollin’ On the Water” – Bryan Duncan
20. “I Will Not Go Quietly” – Steven Curtis Chapman
“Chevette” was sort of a baseline here, acting as an Averagely Bad Song I used to calibrate the others. I’m not perfectly happy with this set. Does Steven Curtis Chapman really deserve to be in the bottom thirteen? No, but his song from Robert Duvall’s The Apostle shouldn’t kick anyone out of the middle group, either. Amy Grant was about four years before my time and she wore outdated jeans and I never liked her.
21. “Little Man” – The O.C. Supertones
22. “Chevette” (Remix) – Audio Adrenaline
23. “I Will Not Go Quietly” – Steven Curtis Chapman
24. “That Where I Am, There You…” – Rich Mullins
25. “The Power of a Moment” – Chris Rice
26. “God So Loved” – Jaci Velasquez
27. “There Is a God” – Natalie Grant
28. “Somewhere Down the Road” – Amy Grant
29. “What Would Jesus Do?” – Big Tent Revival
30. “His Cheeseburger” – VeggieTales
31. “The Light on the Hill” – Máire Brennan
32. “Healing Waters” – Michelle Tumes
33. “Never Be” – Carman
Tags: christian music, music, ranking things, wow 1999
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I just had flashbacks to junior high, and fittingly, my hair is having flashbacks to that time period as well.
The first disk was the superior one.
(Edit: omg, I was in high school with terrible hair when I loved these…)
I think I could sing all or most of the top ten here right now, so these are mostly correct. I don’t like “Love Me Good” very much, but I do have a good memory of my 7-year-old sister mishearing the lyrics as “give me love, give me love, puppy girl” and that’s delightful. I also like that Rich Mullins song a lot more than you must, I’d at least put it in the middle section.
I know, right? Rich Mullians is easily the least embarrassing christian musician you can listen to. That song isn’t the greatest he ever did, but it’s not like it’s Awesome God or something.
“Entertaining Angels” still activates my feels. Oof.
ENTA-TIE-NING INE-GELS BY THE LIGHT OF MY
TV SCREEN
24/7
YOU WAIT FOR ME
I can sing the whole “Shine: The Hits” CD, back-to-back, anytime.
(I am sorry I am crazy excited about this thread I seldom have the opportunity to geek out over bad 90s CCM with anyone)
THAT’LL MAKE A VEGETARIAN BARBECUE HAMSTER
(I was always pretty disturbed by that line, as eager as I was to have as much faith as this hamster-barbecuing vegetarian)
Here for it. Phil Joel, man.
Newsboys were never as good after Steve Taylor stopped producing, in my opinion. Broke my tiny heart.
The only Steven Curtis Chapman song I’ve ever heard in its entirety was “The Great Adventure,” which was enough to tell me I’d never need to listen to another of his songs again.
Which is to say that most CCM is terrible.
WAIT CARMAN WAS ON A WOW CD WHOSE IDEA WAS THAT
WAS THERE A TIME WHEN MAINLINE CHRISTIANS DIDN’T REALIZE HOW CREEPY AND INSANE CARMAN WAS
Dude. Dude. The Cheeseburger song needs to be in the top five. Seriously.
Great, now I have Point of Grace stuck in my head.
Wait, tell me! What’s insane about Carman? He’s the only Christian singer that I tolerated in the 90s, when my Mom was in the midst of a fervent believer phase.
I think this music video is a pretty good explanation about what is insane about Carman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_UO8wlZymM
I was hoping with every fiber of my being that you were linking to “Satan, Bite the Dust.” And you did not disappoint.
I drunkenly youtubed that song a few months ago and was embaressed to find that I remembered all the words.
Oh man, we had a VHS collection of CCM music videos and they had the video for “Great God” by Carmen and my little Christian/fantasy nerd heart was borne aloft by its awesomeness. I watched it a few months ago and it’s super bizarre and creepy. But boy did I love it as a kid.
Aaaaaaaaand I remember all the words. I’m disappointed in myself.
I have so many songs in my head at one time now. If anyone needs me I’ll be revisiting Michael W. Smith today and astonishing my unfamiliar-with-CCM husband by how much of the “Love Crusade” rap I still remember.
This post has reminded me that I once went to a Rebecca St. James concert (had TOTALLY forgotten).
My freshman-year HS boyfriend played “My Cheeseburger” for me ALL THE TIME. Despite the fact that he and his family were in no way religious, he’s the one who introduced me to VeggieTales.
I’LL WAIT FOR YOOO-OOOU, OH, I’LL WAIT FOR YOOO-OOOU!
Oh, man, it kind of blows my mind that this video is 13 years old, and after that Clueless oral history, it made my heart hurt a little bit that Brittany Murphy was the host.
Glad “Agnus Dei” is lingering in the middle given its inferiority to the Michael W. Smith version.
And the fact that it was sung every single week at every single youth group worship time for about 6 years running.
and both are inferior to the Rufus Wainwright version.
Oh man, Carman! I had forgotten about Carman! Basically all of my contemporary Christian music knowledge came from my half-sister who was raised in a much more religious household than I was, and she would bring all of her terrible music for the two weeks a year she would come to visit. So much Amy Grant. My sister is 40 now, so she was right in the Amy Grant/mid-80’s sweet spot.
Wasn’t there some big scandal with either Michael W. Smith or Steven Curtis Chapman having an affair with some other singer? I remember knowing just enough about who these people were for it to be fairly scandalous at the time.
Well suppoooooosedly Amy Grant had an affair with Vince Gill back while she was still married to Gary Chapman. Then later after they were both divorced from their first spouses, she and Gill got married.
It was Michael English who had an affair.
I… I still remember every lyric to His Cheeseburger and I don’t even need to watch the video.
The remnants of my growing up in and around Christianity are surprising even to me, sometimes. I don’t think my parents introduced VeggieTales to our family organically, it was only after I asked to rent some videos, since all the kids at school knew all the songs and I had no clue what they were talking about. And then I guess I binged?
And now I’m trying to remember which tune is “Tango Maureen” and which is “Barbara Manatee” and it’s messing me up
The remnants of growing up in and around Christianity is such a good way to phrase it. Sometimes I forget that my upbringing wasn’t universal. Like when I couldn’t find my hairbrush at a then-boyfriend’s home and not only did he look at me like I was crazy for singing “Where is my hairbrush” he had actually never heard of the VeggieTales.
I definitely grew up around and not in Christianity, but I, too, am constantly surprised at what people who didn’t don’t realize about it. I mean, I had a lot of anger and resentment toward the conservative Christian majority in my hometown, but now I’ll be the first to defend them when people go on rants about the uber-religious. There are a lot of negatives, but there are a lot of positives, too, and I had some seriously good times at the local youth groups.
I used to do impressions of Veggie Tail and 3, 2, 1 Penguins and it still occasionally comes out. How people react to someone suddenly saying, “Hulloo!” like Kevin lets you know who had a similar childhood.
It is fascinating how completely different people’s experiences can be. I am English and an atheist, and grew up being vaguely aware that there were people who were religious, but not having any direct experience of such things. The religion posts on the Toast, like last week’s Communion one, always make me realise that so many people had a completely different background. I have heard of none of these artists.
Barbara Manatee (MAN-A-TEE, MAN-A-TEE)
You are the one for me!
(ONE FOR ME, ONE FOR ME)
I’m so glad someone else has the Tango Maureen / Barbara Manatee confusion. I used to mix and match words from them, which led to some very confused theater kids and some very horrified youth group kids.
“The Devil Is Bad”? Is that not a pretty self explanatory title?
That title is amusing me greatly. It sounds like the writers had just run out of points to make beyond the most obvious ones. (Christian rock is extremely far removed from my frame of reference, so for all I know, it’s perfectly normal.)
Did you listen to the song? The chorus spells it out even more clearly if you’re confused.
I definitely had a W’s shirt that was construction cone orange that said “The Devil is Bad” across the front. I was obnoxious but it’s still a fun song.
Nowadays that shirt could be worn with joyful irony among hipsters! Hmmm, that orange color, though…
Mallory, I’m just so glad to be here also advocating for Jars of Clay. THEY ARE GREAT. I am totally an atheist now but Jars of Clay is still good and I love them forever and I always recognize Dan Haseltine’s voice when I’m in the car with my parents and they’re playing mostly awful Christian music.
And yes, The W’s were so great and fun, but I feel like Five Iron Frenzy was the better band. Anyone else love Five Iron?
I was obsessed with FIF from 9th grade to about the middle of freshman year of college. I am humming their Canada song in my head now!
That was the opening song to my driving mix CD in high school. So classic.
I am HERE for any and all discussions involving Five Iron. I got to see them in Orlando during their first year of reunion shows, and I still kind of can’t believe that actually happened.
Raising hand to participate in Five Iron discussion. I would go see them anytime they came within 150 miles of my town.
As someone who is married to a (former) member of Five Iron, I agree!
If you could pass on my sincerest thanks to this former member for having a hand in making music that helped me through some dark times as a teen, it would be greatly appreciated!
I would like to second this request for passing on thanks.
Will do. He’s a little embarrassed by the love, but he’ll be fine 🙂
I sent him this whole post. You guys are so sweet!
WAIT WHAT HI WE LOVE YOU
Aw, thanks! I married a good dude. We aren’t involved in that particular scene any longer (he is the one who didn’t join again when they reformed) but we still are very close to most of the members.
my best FIF story is when my youth minister tried to get them played at a roller skating rink but she was turned down. Please convey my highest regards.
They did play a whole tour of roller rinks back in the day…sorry yours didn’t make the list 🙁
AS A FELLOW ATHIEST, I
also enjoy Jars of Clay. I just listened to the song “Work” on the subway today! Still holds up.
It never occurred to me until I started reading The Toast, but for a secular Canadian, I spent an awful lot of time listening to Christian rock music during the 90s.
Same here. Goodness, Jars of Clay makes me feel happy when it pops up on my iTunes.
In “A Flowery Song”, the chorus is:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
praise Him all creatures here below,
praise Him above ye heavenly host,
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
And I always loved that bit and thought it was kind of original.
Then about, uh, 7 years later I learned that that’s the Doxology and it has been around for a while.
(I do love that song, and also “Kamikaze”)
Five Iron was the best! Also some pretty actually solid lyrics. The “Dandelion” song gives me the feels.
Oh man the “Dandelion” song! *sniff*
dandelions <3 (both the song, and the flower)
Me too, along with One Girl Army.
I can’t get over how truly edgy was the first song on their first album. It’s a screed against Manifest Destiny. From a CHRISTIAN BAND. As a kid from a pretty conservative Christian household it made me reconsider history VERY differently than how I’d been taught.
The chorus:
“West or bust
in God we trust
lets rape, lets kill,
lets lets steal!
We can almost justify
anything we feel
I’m climbing up that ladder
more brownie points for me
work my way to Jesus –
just you wait and see.”
I haven’t followed CCM in MANY years but I can’t help but think those lyrics would not fly like, at all.
I think this is one of the reasons that I never really heard them on the radio! Just like, at youth group stuff.
I am HERE for Five Iron Frenzy!! Blue Comb 78 is one of my all-time favorite songs. And basically all the songs from Proof That the Youth are Revolting.
I adore FIF! I got to see them in concert twice, once in college and once after college on their farewell tour. I have their new album, which I don’t love as much as their old stuff, but I am still fond of it for sentimental reasons.
I remember at both of the concerts, they were all very friendly and hung around afterwards talking to everyone and answering all sorts of questions.
Jars of Clay has a song on the inspired-by soundtrack for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and it is just really, really beautiful. I’ve managed to forget most of the catalog of christian rock i was, uh, exposed to as a kid, but that song always struck me, and I like to listen to it in wintertime. It really fills you with a sense of wonder and anticipation.
I didn’t realize how many Christian concerts I went to in the years around 1999 until I read this list. I think I saw 12 of these bands? Who can beat me? I’m sure there are a couple of you.
I caught like five of them at once when they were touring as part of a giant roving pack of the CCM Old Guard. Not really a lot of concerts come through Jackson, MS but the CCM scene was fire in the early ‘aughts.
I think I saw 15? My dad was all about bringing us to CCM concerts, and I went to at least one festival in this era.
I was never allowed to go to festivals. (Seriously parents, how much trouble did you think I could get into??) I would imagine my youth group friends who went to Creation like 4 years in a row can check off pretty much this whole list.
^Same.
I probably wouldn’t have been allowed to go with other teens or a youth group, but my dad took me. Probably the most wholesome music festival experience possible.
I’ve only been to two from this CD (mostly because I live in Europe): Jars of Clay and Michael W. Smith. Jars was pretty good, but I was sorely disappointed by Michael’s concert (this was circa 2009) because even back then, I only liked his older things (songs up to, say, 1999) and he barely played any of those.
🙁
You have me beat.
Carman in the early 1990s (1991, I think?). Fast forward to 1997 when I went with my church’s youth group and saw Third Day, Rebecca St. James, and Michael W. Smith at a one-day festival in New Hampshire (it was at some waterpark in Portsmouth). I’m still kinda crushed that, a couple of years later, dcTalk played in Maine and I didn’t know it until shortly after the fact. THE YEAR BEFORE THEY BROKE UP. (A lot of their songs sucked, in hindsight, but they were a long-time favourite and I still have feels.)
Hardly anyone of note (much less in CCM!) comes this far north, so.
I have seventeen at least. To be fair, I worked as the music person at a Christian bookstore so I got lots of tickets.
I think I’ve seen about 15 or so. But there’s a couple I’ve seen in multiples (like 5+ times because I loooooved Delirious & Avalon, and my parents drug me to see Amy Grant, Carman, & SCC since I was a tiny kid). My parents were old-school Jesus movement-Keith Green/Rich Mullins fans so it was something we did as a family a lot.
Don’t mind me, I’ll be the Relient K purist sitting over here in the corner by myself.
I’m with you! I still like listening to them sometimes even though I’m not religious anymore. Also Superchick, except for their purity songs.
Some of those purity songs, man. Even when I was hitting the koolaid pretty hard they gave me the jibblies.
Superchick were both simultaneously awesome but super creepy.
Barlow Girls? No. Just. No
But Stand In The Rain still just gets me in the feels.
Yeah Barlow Girls is the one I had in mind. Although let’s be honest, I was never fooled by the chorus “All the boys in the band want a valentine from a Barlow girl, boys think they’re the bomb ‘cuz they remind them of their mom”. One Girl Revolution is a pretty awesome song though!
I loooooved them, despite not being religious growing up at all. I found one of their songs with totally secular lyrics first (In Love with the 80s maybe?) and got into them that way. My parents were a little bit confused, I think. But they were the first band I “discovered” on my own in middle school, so I’ll always have a soft spot for them in my heart. And still love some of their songs!
I’ll come sit in the corner with you! I loved Relient K; going to their concerts was the most fun I ever had in youth group. Time to dig out those albums…
I’m from Canton, where the members of Relient K grew up, and the whole Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right But Three Do album speaks to my soul on a DEEP level. Also, fun fact, RK’s lead singer Matt Thiessen dated Katy Perry from 2003-2005, before she got big with “Ur So Gay,” which, most people think is about Matt.
It’s really frightening how many of these songs I sang at church camp. (Also I really resent the emotional/nostalgic tug that Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W Smith, dc Talk, and 4HIM still have on me.)
I feel the same way!
A FRIEND WILL NOT SAY NEVER *heartsqueeze* DAMMIT
My first boyfriend’s college roommate was a self-described born again Christian, drove a K car and had two CDs that he listened to in aforementioned K car. One of them was a random mix of classic rock songs, which was excellent and tolerable. The other was this.
This dude wore head-to-toe orange every Friday, and as far as I can tell, still does. I have so many stories about him because he was a grade A weirdo, and I don’t think that any of it is coincidental.
I…did not expect this list to end with the cheeseburger song.
(Also, I grew up in an atheist household but we loved us some VeggieTales. I’m pretty sure I still know all the lyrics to such classics as “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” and “Oh Where Is My Hairbrush?”)
They were an excellent trojan horse, my niece had a period where she was super into it (she found them on youtube), and from what I recall of the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, they weren’t in your face about being “Christian Media”
Yeah, Amy Grant hit the sweet spot is me too. My first concert was her Unguarded tour, and my favorite, favorite adolescent outfit was an Unguarded sweatshirt with hot pink and leopard print details, paired with hot pink stirrup pants. HER affair with whats-his-name really, really pissed me off.
Oh, and the male singer scandal was Michael English, who got it on with one of his back-up singers, but I didn’t care because I never liked him anyway.
Reply to @katni
Michael’s affair was with one of the women from First Call. (Why I remember that, I don’t know.) And while he got to come back, she never did.
MALLORY. thank you for this. I spent kindergarten-7th grade at a “nondenominational” (read: fundamentalist) Christian school and was VERY familiar with the WOW series. i 100% agree with your rankings.
oh no no no no no not Carman no no no no no
no
I grew up on this music, and while I acknowledge that a large chunk of it is not good music, I still like it.
But not Carman.
I am pretty sure my dad has this CD somewhere at home, among with many other WOW collections.
I’m gonna need a minute this stirred up so many things in me.
Here are some of my favorite albums, which I would play over and over on the cassette deck in my 1982 Citation:
Flowers in the Rain (by Mad at the World, 1988); Allies (by Allies, 1985); Not of This World (Petra, 1983); Michael W. Smith Project (MWS, 1983).
I still get a lot of the songs stuck in my head, although it’s been nearly 30 actual years since I heard any of them.
Also, I love this article a lot. And Gabbin’ about God. And Art History. And basically everything here. So thanks!
It’s funny how the title “WOW 1999” still translates how I feel about it, years later: “woooooooowwwww, 1999.”
I listened to Christian pop a lot in adolescence/junior high, but I’m a few years older than Mallory, so I recognize all the artists in this post, but none of the songs. That’s always been one of the weird things about Christian music: the sheer longevity of its groups/artists. I mean, Sandi Patti, Amy Grant, MWS, SCC, PETRA?? They were around for-freaking-ever, and some of them are still recording! It’s insane.
My best friend, who grew up under strict Christian rule, loved Relient K — and since they were they closest approximation to the music I listened to, I’d often listen to them with him, even though I abhorred Christian rock across the board. Turns out Relient K’s great! They helped me appreciate the musicianship and songwriting of many Christian bands in my preferred genres (Devil Wears Prada much?), easing my distaste for anything religious and, I’m sure, making me much more sufferable to be around. Last fall, even though we’re both about as far from religious as it gets, we went to go see them when they came through on their anniversary tour for Mmhmm. We held hands and jumped up and down and screamed like the giddy fourteen-year-olds we were when we first heard the album. It was excellent.
SCREAMING to realize I still remember every single song on this list, including the bad ones. (I’ve always kind of liked “Chevette,” which I found very affable in its mediocrity, but I can’t quibble over its placement.) Totally forgot that they included a VeggieTales tune, though. I was doing a lot of babysitting in that period, so I tend to blame all the VT lyrics I still know (a lot) on that.
I still have so many Christian music compilation CDs hidden away in my house. I sneak them out and listen to them when my husband isn’t around to mock me. The first, and best, one I have is Tooth and Nail Volume 1–it introduced me to Pedro the Lion and Damien Jurado in high school and for that I will be forever grateful.
Have you experienced David Bazan (lead singer from Pedro the Lion) in recent years? As someone who grew up fundamentalist and is now totally non-religion, his solo album – Curse Your Branches – really helped me get through my initial “Oh man, I don’t think I believe in God” period.
I can’t beleive no one has posted that the CD is up on Spotify of course.
For those who want to <del>wallow in nostalgia</del>…nevermind.
https://open.spotify.com/user/wowilovechristianmu…
This list brought so many memories screaming back for me. I never really listened to Carman or Michael W. Smith, but almost everything else, I at least dabbled in. Still have a Rich Mullins song on my ipod.
I still don’t understand why Delirious was spelled “Deliriou5?”.
For the same reason that Five was spelled 5ive, I guess. The late 90s! What a treat they were.
For bands wanting to be labeled “alternative,” it was required to add a number to the band name. No excuses.
Oh man, so many memories. Who else is now reliving their favorite arguments from when they were chided for listening to secular music? (What about music without lyrics? What about music by Christians that is not about Christian themes? What about music that is technically religious but was written at a time when sponsorship relied on the church and we therefore have no way to really know the composer’s personal beliefs? HMMMM?)
My father once told me that no one needed to have more than 100 songs on their laptop, and that I was (clearly) not following Jesus because of how much secular music I listened to. You can imagine the horror when I brought home one of those innocuous world music CDs from Cost Plus.
There were things to buy other than candy at Cost Plus? I just recall it as the store where I bought a lot of airheads because they were ten cents and that was a perfectly reasonable amount of money for young me to get his hands on.
Well, candy and spiders.
I will never forget the day I brought home a Linkin Park CD, which my dad forbade me to listen to after reading the lyrics.
At one point when I was 16 or so, all the boys in our homeschool group made a pact and destroyed all their secular CDs. I remember one of the other girls and I talking about how proud we were of them and how they were really on the right track.
And then there were those *other* homeschoolers, who thought even CCM was evil. Basically, if it had drums, the devil probably inspired it.
5th-grade-me may or may not have had a cassette tape without the vocals of “God So Loved” that I may or may not have practiced over and over again in my room in hopes of performing it at church………………………
Oh I had SEVERAL songs that I would practice constantly, and figure out which ones were best as duets to be performed with my church bestie, and which would be best for my American Idol audition (my dad supported me in my dreams and offered to drive me, but the regional auditions were always held on … you guessed it … Sunday mornings).
I ended up duetting with that church bestie, but I cannot for the life of me remember which song it was now.
First of all, thank you for recognizing Smalltown Poets–they were my jam in high school. Also, did anyone else listen to the Benjamin Gate? I loved them so hard in high school–still do, let’s be honest.
BENJAMIN GATE. (I cannot myself listen to their music for more than a few minutes at the time anymore, but I LOVED them so much.)
Also I might have (cough) owned the video that went with this compilation (cough)
Anyone here is still hoping for a DC Talk reunion?
Asking for a friend.
YEEEEEEESSSSSS. (There are songs of theirs I’d like to kill with fire now, but I still have feels about them in general.)
Is this the place to say that Third Day was waaay overrated back in the day? And that one youth pastor who tried to make me feel bad for not liking them? Effffff you. You were a shitty youth pastor with shitty taste in music.
100 percent concur (well, I guess I probably didn’t know your youth pastor, but I remember my dislike of Third Day being so great that I’m willing to bet you were right on the youth pastor being shitty too).
I had this album. Haven’t thought of this stuff in years. Now I have all memories! (good and bad). Rebecca St. James in concert was fantastic. Thanks for this – weirdly.
Oh man, I got this CD as a birthday gift when I was 12 and it was the only CD I owned for like a year, so I’m pretty sure I still know all the lyrics to all of these.
Except for Little Man. I misheard the crap out of those lyrics. I would walk around my house singing “He who gets the most Haagen Dasz is the winner/I’m living the high life, with lots of Kraft Dinner”
We listened to “His Hamburger” on repeat, during one memorable youth group road trip. Youth group leader–if you’re out there–I apologize from the bottom of my heart. From the very, very bottom.
Oh, man, I had this CD (hm, maybe I still have it in storage?) and I LOVE that you put this list together. So many memories that are maybe only 40% embarrassing! My 12-year-old self would be outraged that you ranked “Testify to Love” so low. My obsession with that song and Avalon when I was 12, 13 knew no bounds. I have NO idea what happened to them after about 2000, when my family moved away from the Bible Belt and I moved on to listening to whatever secular pop music of questionable quality was on the radio at the time. (Actually, even in the Bible Belt, I remember standing out as pretty weird for being that into CCM. I was in a pretty religious family but we were Catholic, I went to Catholic school, and my impression at the time was CCM seemed to be regarded as more of a Protestant thing. But I think the fact that no one else I knew was into it made me decide, in my funny 12-year-old brain, that I was cool for choosing something non-mainstream AND Jesus-approved. :-))
Agree with the high ranking of “Undo Me.” I haven’t listened to Jennifer Knapp’s stuff in years, but I went to a (secular) indie concert just a few months ago with my husband and a friend, and could NOT stop thinking that some of the songs (which I liked!) reminded me of some of her songs. Maybe THAT one I will see if I can dig out of storage.
ILY. Yes. Testify to Love was my favorite song for an obscenely long time. Like 11 (I think that’s how old I was when it came out) to 20. I wanted to be Janna Potter
Hahahaha ILY back at you, and I am cracking up that I totally still recognize Janna Potter’s name. I don’t remember wanting to be her per se, but I definitely remember envying her shiny hair on the “A Maze of Grace” album cover photos — and I strongly suspect that her hair may be the ONLY aspect of those photos that has stood the test of time. Also — anyone else remember Wynonna Judd covering “Testify to Love” on an episode of “Touched by an Angel”? I think I nearly hyperventilated from excitement when that happened at the time. Wow, I seriously can’t handle this much late ’90s nostalgia in one day.
Thanks, Mallory. Now I looked up Audio Adrenaline again and they came out with an album in 2013 and now I am listening to it. THANKS A LOT.
AHHHHH KEVIN MAX IS NOW IN AUDIO ADRENALINE AND THIS IS TERRIBLE.
Yes we do not talk about the new AA, that did not happen no sir.
Everything Kevin Max did outside of DC Talk is terrible, in my opinion.
And do not get me started about the new Newsboys with Tait (when they started they did have a few good songs but since then it has gone waaaaaay downhill)
I kinda have a soft spot for his solo records and any of his poetry. My college roommate and I would recite it to each other very dramatically to make each other laugh: “Is there a treason at sea? Is it me?”
One time a friend spoke the words, “Is it a sin to find Carmen hot?” and my faith has never recovered.
Ohhhhhhh mannnnnn. My siblings and I would get these every year in the 2000s, plus we had the Wow The Nineties one, so we had a lot of these. Personally “His Cheeseburger” should be #1, but I guess I’ll forgive you, Mallory *sanctimonious voice*
“Michael W. Smith was the Christian George Michael”. dead.
What a beautifully correct opinion about Jars of Clay.
I LOVED Point of Grace in the late 90s and had a whole dance choreographed to Steady On that I’d perform in my living room whenever invited/allowed/unsupervised. Very cool.
I just youtubed Point of Grace and I’m AMAZED at how well I remember them. I was far too Catholic for Christian music, but my bff in the late 90s let me borrow her CDs and I played them non. stop.
Michael W. Smith is a genius in my opinion. He’s still recording and he’s still so good! His looks also helps, I’ll admit.
I have always loved his music. My favorite song of his, though, isn’t even technically a CCM song. He wrote it as a bid for the credits song for Titanic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK7SLxrvtBc
Oh wow. I graduated high school in 1997, and I actually skipped prom to attend the Ichthus Festival because Jars of Clay were playing, and I was much happier there than at some lame high school dance. I think I saw them in concert three or four times between ’95 and ’98. And I was heavily into the whole CCM scene through middle and high school and my first year or two of college (at a Baptist school). I recognize a lot of the names on this CD, but really only the Jars song — I had had my crisis of faith and gotten into theater (the heathens!) by ’99 or so.
The first concert that I went to on my own (well, without my parents)? Michael W. Smith. DC Talk opened for him, back when they were still a rap group. This was the Nu Thang era, I do believe.
Really the only group I can still listen to today without just cringing is Jars, because they had real musical chops and some really solid secular bands that I also love as jumping-off points for their sound. And their lyrical content isn’t club-you-over-the-head religious most of the time, which I appreciate. They were always my favorite, even though younger me was really more about the fact that Dan was a cutie, to be honest. But I also have to believe that somewhere in there I also did subscribe to the fact that they were musically superior to their counterparts.
So I’m just gonna stand over here being Jewish, then…
(I mean, we had a Máire Brennan CD but that’s because my dad’s partially of Irish descent so we did the Celtic thing.)
Superchick were both simultaneously awesome but super creepy.
Barlow Girls? No. Just. No
But Stand In The Rain still just gets me in the feels.
When did Switchfoot start making music? I guess they were more in the aughts, like Relient K? Because I would (and do!) defend Switchfoot to a secular audience all the time, as ‘Christians who make music’ rather than ‘Christianmusic.’
VeggieTaaaaaaaaaaaales yes please!
Oh maaaaaannnnnnnn. “Testify to Love” was playing during one of the most discrete moments of my teenage life and I still die for that song whenever it comes up on shuffle.
My local Christian radio station refused to play dc talk when they were popular, because they were too “rock and roll” or “edgy” or whatever, but they came to town right when they were splitting up, so I got to see them perform together AND separately, which was pretty epic. Plus they performed at the amphitheatre of the amusement park at the edge of town, so I rode rollercoasters all day and screamed about Jesus at night.. definitely a good day in life of 15-year-old me.
Songs I can still remember some/all of our choreographed outreach team dances to:
Jesus Freak, dcTalk
Breakfast, Newsboys
Let Us Pray, SCC
Liquid, Jars of Clay
We would go on “mission trips” and perform for various other youth groups, and occasionally public/secular venues. I was then and am now unclear on what the missions impact precisely *was,* but it was a lot of fun. And the cuter and hipper girls in the group coined the term “evangiflirting,” so there’s that.
Outreach dancing + evangiflirting! Better than all that impure nonsense. Completely effective contraceptive practice. 😀
Mercifully, my parents were punks, and they hated CCM. They liked Larry Norman and stuff, and there was a basic understanding that the Newsboys were ‘okay’ but I think if I’d come home raving about Rebecca St James there’d have been words!
Oh, man. CCM for me WAS a way to rebel against my parent’s oldies music and so many of these bring back memories. I LOVED Rebecca St. James and Jennifer Knapp and Jars of Clay and Audio Adrenaline and dc Talk (FIGHT ME).
Also: Skillet (I think I went to their concerts two or three times) and Five Iron Frenzy (BEST) and also PFR.
I admit I still listen to most of the CDs I have from that era, too.
Dude, Crystal Lewis was the red-headed girl who was the best singer on the first season of Roundhouse, and I had SO MANY of her terrible, terrible albums because of that connection. I think she may have also made the cover of Brio, so I had a subscription.
This was one of my first 7 CDs, purchased for $1 by joining Columbia House mail order CD club, of course.
I saw Jars of Clay 21 times. That is all.
OH NO. Memories of Christian camp and baby-blue t-shirts and youth group leaders and trying to wear my hair in dual buns are flooding back!
Also a lot of terribly embarrassing proselytizing to my middle school friends and asinine excitement about that Newsboys concert I went to that almost convinced me to go on a mission trip.
And also those terrible books I read that were part of a massive series, all about girls who get involved in potentially sexual relationships but then they’re SAVED instead.
Oh well.
I’m atheist now, but that first Jars of Clay album (the one with Flood) is still excellent.
I always wanted 4Him and Point Of Grace to collab more, they were like the Brady Bunch of CCM in the 90’s!!