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Rock 'n' Roll Hits with a Religious Message

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A local church is doing a series of radio broadcasts that begin with a hit tune whose lyrics can then be dissected to show a relationship to scripture. How many hit tunes can people think of that might be used?

Some examples of tunes that have been used are:

Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
Jesus Is Just Alright With Me - Doobie Brothers
Amen - Impressions
Oh Happy Day - Edwin Hawkins Singers
Turn, Turn, Turn - Byrds

Rather than posting bunches of replies listing a tune or two - I challenge people on the board to come up with a list of at least 10 tunes!
 
Are you Ready - Pacific Gas & Electric

I couldn't come up with 10.. Let's hope with help of others we can come up with 10.
 
The church I attend is currently doing a sermon series on idolatry, and yesterday part of U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was used during the service.
 
A church I visited played a video montage of their youth group's missions trip, with Pink Floyd's "On the Turning Away" in the background.
 
Retro said:
Spirit in the sky is scripturally incorrect.
Click to expand...


Indeed it is. All have sinned.


Let's replace that with "Signs" by the Five Man Electrical Band
 
ringo starr's new cd closes with the bluegrass/rockabilly r u ready
 
In 1974 Larry Norman released Streams of White Light into Darkened Corners, which was an album of spoofs of secular songs that were supposed to have a spritual message. Some of them have been done by other Christian artists and could be interpreted as having a Christian message, but Larry's intent was to show that the original secular versions were done to make a buck by artists who had little or no real Christian commitment. There is also some hilarious commentary between songs by Randy Stonehill as a fast talking disk jockey.

http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/cdreviews/StreamsOfWhiteLightIntoDarkenedCorners.asp
 
Off the top of my head (religious message but may or may not be "Christian" or "scripturally correct".

The Lord's Prayer-Sister Janet Mead
Amazing Grace- versions by Judy Collins and a bagpipe band made the charts
Song of Joy-Miguel Rios
My Sweet Lord-George Harrison (I know, I know,,hare krishna..bad)
Suzanne- (forget the artist, one verse starts wth "Jesus was a sailor when he walked accross the water".
Rock me On the Water-Jackson Browne (not overtly Christian, but still a spiritual type message).
Seem to remember Andy Kim having a song that CKLW played as part of cancon...some of the lyrics were
"Is there a God...Did he have a son"..chorus was "Lord shine on your light".
"I Can Feel Him in the Morning"..Grand Funk. (not a single, from the Shinin' On album).
"One of Us" Joan Osborne
and that's 10.
 
Here's what we have so far - tunes that already have been used or have been suggested:

Amazing Grace - Judy Collins
Amen - Impressions
And When I Die -- Blood, Sweat & Tears
Are You Ready - Pacific Gas & Electric
Beautiful Sunday - Daniel Boone
Bridge Over Troubled Waters -- Simon & Garfunkel
Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show - Neil Diamond
Cat’s In The Cradle -- Harry Chapin
Crying In The Chapel -- Elvis Presley
Eve Of Destruction -- Barry McGuire
Everything Is Beautiful -- Ray Stevens
Get Together -- Youngbloods
God Bless The USA -- Lee Greenwood
Gone at Last - Paul Simon/Phoebe Snow
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother -- The Hollies
Heaven -- Los Lonely Boys
Higher Love -- Steve Winwood
House Of The Rising Sun -- Animals
I Believe In You -- Bob Dylan
I Can Feel Him in the Morning (LP Version) - Grand Funk
I Saw The Light -- Hank Williams
I Shall Be Released -- Bob Dylan
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For -- U2
In My Room -- Beach Boys
It Wasn’t His Child -- Trisha Yearwood
Jesus Is Just Alright With Me - Doobie Brothers
Last Kiss -- J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers
Lean On Me -- Bill Withers
Lord's Prayer - Sister Janet Mead
Love Is The Answer -- England Dan & John Ford Coley
Mercedes Benz -- Janis Joplin
Mississippi Squirrel Revival -- Ray Stevens
Morning Has Broken -- Cat Stevens
My Sweet Lord -- George Harrison
Nowhere Man -- The Beatles
Oh Happy Day - Edwin Hawkins Singers
On the Turning Away - Pink Floyd
On the wings of a dove - Ferlin Husky
One of Us - Joan Osborne
People Got To Be Free -- Rascals
Presence Of The Lord -- Blind Faith
Put Your Hand in the Hand - Ocean
Reflections Of My Life -- Marmalade
Rock me On the Water - Jackson Browne
Signs – Five Man Electrical Band
Song of Joy-Miguel Rios
Speak to the Sky - Rick Springfield
Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down -- Kris Kristofferson
Superstar -- from Jesus Christ, Superstar
Teach Your Children -- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
That’s The Way God Planned It -- Billy Preston
Turn, Turn, Turn – Byrds
Unanswered Prayers -- Garth Brooks
Whenever God Shines His Light On Me -- Van Morrison
You’ve Got A Friend -- James Taylor
 
Sting - If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
Mister Mister - Kyrie
Bette Midler - From A Distance
The Commodores - Jesus is Love
Paul Simon - Loves Me Like A Rock
Friend and Lover - Reach Out of the Darkness
Pat Boone - You Light Up My Life
The O'Jays - Put Your Hands Together
The O'Jays - For the Love of Money
Foreigner - I Want to Know What Love Is
White Lion - When the Children Cry
Mike and the Mechanics - In the Living Years
The Isley Brothers - Harvest for the World
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
MC Hammer - Pray
Gloria Estefan - Coming Out of the Dark
Mariah Carey - Make It Happen
 
Laurie London - He's Got the Whole World i His Hands
Highwaymen - Michael (row the boat ashore)
BJ Thomas - Mighty Clouds of Joy

Kansas - Dust in the Wind
Frank Sinatra - (look down that) Lonesome Road
Ocean - Put your Hand in the Hand (of the Man from Galilee)
Elvis- How Great Thou Art (had a whole album of Gospel stuff)
Pat Boone - A Wonderful Time Up There
Frankie Laine - Up Above My Head (There's Music in the Air)
 
Not all Rock 'n' Roll and not all are religious but carry a positive message :

Le Roux - Nobody Said It Was Easy (1982)
Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin
Don Williams - Lord I Hope This Day Is Good
Mike + The Mechanics - Nobody's Perfect (1988)

just for starters.

It's about damned time that inspirational music stations play more songs with positive messages, not only those with an overt religious theme!
 
Klutch,
I disagree with your last statement. I don't listen to Gospel radio to hear "oldies" or Led Zep. "Nuf places to hear that. The Gospel artists need ore space to get more play. When top 40 radio plays "Awesome God": I'll reconsider.
 
Here are a couple that I can think of:

You Light Up My Life-Debby Boone

Calling All You Angels-Train

Shine-Collective Soul

When I'm Gone-Three Doors Down

Heaven-Live
 
Eve Of Destruction -- Barry McGuire: I can't think of anything specific at the moment, but definitely more left wing political than Christian

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother -- The Hollies: Supports welfare state-ism, which is NOT taught in the Bible.

I Believe In You -- Bob Dylan: Where is his walk with the Lord these days?

Love Is The Answer -- England Dan & John Ford Coley: Is the love they are talking about Jesus - or their own false religion?

Morning Has Broken -- Cat Stevens: He has departed the faith to follow the false prophet and false god of Islam.

My Sweet Lord -- George Harrison: The stated purpose of this song was to misdirect Christians into the false god and false religion of hare krishna. It definitely has no place on a Christian station.

Signs – Five Man Electrical Band: Where is the spiritual content here? The last verse indicates a "tire-kicker" who entered a church, and did nothing with the message presented.

Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum: Bad theology as pointed out above.

I am sure there are other problems with some of the others on the list that I am not as familiar with. All are appropriate on soft rock / classic rock stations, I wouldn't program some of them on Christian stations.
 
A couple more real old ones. From the early 60's "Shadrack"-Brook Benton and "Deck of Cards"-Wink Martindale. A very minor top 40 "hit" from I think 1969 "Jesus is a soul man", I believe by Turley Richards.
 
Leon Patillo did a version of My Sweet Lord where that he added Jesus's name into the lyrics where it was obvious who he was singing about, and DC Talk did their version of Spirit in the Sky. In both cases the original versions had bad theology, but Christian artists managed to rework the lyrics to where they would have a Christian message.

Also, Morning Has Broken was an old hymn that already existed when Cat Stevens recorded it. I have no idea what his religious beliefs were at the time, but we definitely know about his Muslim beliefs now.
 
The original thread was "songs with a religious message",not "songs with a right-wing fundamentalist Christian message". barry McGuire apparently is a Christian now and believes his song was wrong and we should have bombed the hell out of the North Vietnamese in the name of Jesus.

While everyone is blasting "Spirit in the Sky", has it occurred to anyone that if Jesus washes our sins away, we appear to God as "never having sinned" Believe there is scripture to back that up.

"He Aint Heavy.." wasnt that the theme of a boys home of some kind?

No one is saying that you should play these songs on KLove obviously. But we were talking about "songs with a religious message".
 
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