This is a beautiful country song with a positive message. No offense intended to C&W fans, but country music has been stereotyped as being gloomy, forlorn and most songs being about "cheatin' and heartbreak." I know there are plenty of examples to show otherwise. But Christian C&W, of course, is positive, as it should be! The video production is a bit odd. I'm not sure what British soldiers or a person on horseback chasing butterflies has to do with anything, but try and get past that and enjoy the song!

Randy Travis was one of the leading secular artists in the world who sold millions of CDs. He became a Christian and now shares his talents through music on the good side of the fence. Blessed Assurance is a Gospel Standard that many recording artists have performed.

I may be onto something here. Next time we venture into this area, I think I'll explore secular artists who have become Christians. There are scores of examples of people who finally "found the light!"

The Bible says that God calls us "friend." (John 15:15) Really, He just wants to have a relationship with each of us. What a privilege! What a blessing!

I already talked about him, but here are two songs side by side that I have not shared before with you. His extraordinary voice (given to him by God) brought him great popularity before he became a Christian. Everybody in America had at least one of his albums.

As the host tells the audience, in 1956, he sold 20 million copies of this song.

As explained earlier, Tennessee insisted that the last song each week on his TV Variety Show be a Christian hymn!

Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager, insisted after his death, that Elvis had become a Christian. Presley's mother took him to church as a boy, and he never forgot his roots. Proof in the pudding were multiple albums he released of hymns and other Christian songs. His extreme popularity kept him in the mainstream entertainment, however. Elvis not only sold millions upon millions of records, he became a Hollywood movie star as well. He was truly one of a kind.

Lowell Lundstrom was a Rock and Roll star coming out of the 1950's, much like Elvis and Buddy Holly. He took a little bit different path to stardom. He was raised in a Christian home but fought and struggled with his parents to break free. He gained enough notoriety to warrant having his own 30 minute nationally broadcasted radio show as a secular rock artist. He just couldn't shake his upbringing and his mother's prayers. He couldn't help himself. Just like someone else we know, Lowell would always end his radio broadcast with a Christian song. The secular world thought he was crazy. The Christian world thought he was a lost cause. He couldn't take having a divided heart / conscience for very long. Soon he gave his heart to the Lord. What to do about his National Radio Show? Well, he started preaching, telling people about Jesus and singing Gospel songs instead of Rock and Roll. This was a shocker for his fanbase, but he led many of them to the Lord! He kept the show going for many years. I could not find any of his secular songs, but here are two of his more popular Christian hits.

Lowell became famous originally because of his guitar playing, his ability to write great, original songs, but mostly because of his incredible, unique voice. Early in his career, he was dubbed, "The Christian Elvis." It was even said that Elvis would catch Lowell's radio show sometimes.

Just as Lowell Lundstrom was knows as the Christian Elvis, Dave Boyer was known as the Christian Frank Sinatra.

Instead of putting one of his secular hits on here (I did find him singing the Jazz standard Embraceable You), I decided to upload this because during the song he tells a little bit about what type of person he was before he became a Christian. Interestingly, after his secular popularity, he used to tour large churches like this one and sing. I remember when I was a teenager like you guys, one Sunday morning I walked into church here in Houston, Texas thinking it was going to be another boring service. There was one man up front I did not recognize. He was introduced as Dave Boyer. I still had no idea who he was. Then he began singing and my jaw dropped. I had never in my life heard a Christian sing with such poise and undeniable vocal talent. Until that moment I thought all secular music was where it was at, and all Christian music was bland and boring. My heart began to melt. There I was, a rebellious teenager hanging on every word this guy said because I was so impressed with him. He was classy. Some of you boys and girls have superior talent as well, and you could influence others for Christ like I was on that day long ago. Please consider using your God-given talents for the Lord! That's all I'm saying!

Some members from this popular rock band of the early 70's joined with Chuck Girard to form the Christian band Love Song (see just below).

The culture in the United States in the late 60's and early 70's was rife with hippie communes, psychedelic drugs and "Love, Not War" signs everywhere. Let me quote from a publication that described the times:

It was 1967, the year of the Summer of Love and the hippy movement was in full swing. Four years earlier, JFK had been assassinated. Protests were raging against the Vietnam War. The Beatles had just released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – the garish myriad of personalities of the album artwork a snapshot of the social upheaval of the era.

In the thick of this, the seed of the Jesus People Movement was beginning to germinate. The ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’ counterculture was discovering a new way to live as many hippies began to embrace the gospel. Within four years ‘The Jesus Revolution’ would be Time Magazine’s front cover. Leading scholar Larry Eskridge estimates that at least 250,000 people became Christians. The Jesus People Movement has been dubbed the last great American revival. Thousands of hippies found Christ on the beaches of California.

Straight from those beaches and into the recording studio came Chuck Girard and his band to record the first album by Love Song. This was a watershed moment in the history of Christian music. The official "Jesus Movement" of Christian rock began with this album. It was a landmark recording and revered by many as the single greatest Christian rock album of all time, even by today's standards. And it offered Christians with an ear for current music trends an alternative to the Beatles or Led Zeppelin, both giants in the secular music market at the time.

David and the Giants, led by David Huff has been in and out of fame since 1964. Besides his band, he helped The Rolling Stones with some of their studio recordings. David is a superior guitarist and songwriter. He and his band toured with Styx in the U.S. Their music was also very popular in Britain. In this hit of theirs from 1969, you get to hear stereotypical rock from the time period. David and the Giants, so far as I know, are the only band to ALL become Christians at the same time. They were all saved in 1977 and immediately began recording Christian music. Since they were a big secular rock band before that, secular radio stations still played their music, even though it was about Jesus...nice. A couple of other things about the band. Keith Thibodeaux, best known for being "Little Ricky" on the I Love Lucy Show, joined the band as their drummer in 1969, bringing instant fame to add to their growing popularity. David's brother, Raymond, was guitarist for one of Christian music's iconic bands, White Heart, during their heyday, before re-joining his brother in the Giants.

This song may not be my favorite of theirs, and it's a slower song, but it was their #1 best hit in the CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) market. It was a million-seller and got radio air play all across the U.S., including secular stations. How many Christian songs do you hear on secular radio these days?...zero.

Grand Funk Railroad was a heavyweight, a major player in the Rock scene of the 1970's. If you tune your radio to 104 KRBE in 1975, you hear a Beatles song, a Led Zeppelin song, a Rolling Stones song, and a Grand Funk song. They were easily one of the top 5 bands in the world. The band's leader, lead singer and lead guitarist was Mark Farner. They could rock your socks off, but they had some nice slower songs as well...very versatile. I picked The Loco-Motion for several reasons, even though it's not my favorite. It is clean, it is not that hard rock (don't want your parents to get mad at me!), and it was their most-played radio song because it caused a dance craze at the time. Every radio station in American played it every 10 minutes it seemed like. But then something happened. Mark Farner grew more and more unsettled at that kind of lifestyle. He ended up making a change and giving his life to the Lord. Of course, the band broke up. Mark pursued a solo career in Christian music. It still sounds like Grand Funk because he still sings and plays guitar just like he always did, just with different musicians around him. I'll post a song below.

I could have played one of his Christian songs that was a little harder rock, but I chose this song because he shocked the world with it. When he came out of the studio with this song, it was official. Mark Farner, lead singer of one of the world's most popular rock bands, had become a Christian and was now producing songs about God and Jesus. It was a huge blow to Atheists and an equally huge "Wow" moment for lovers of Christian music. Radio stations wore it out. And Mark rubbed it in. The name of this CD is Closer to Home, the same name of one of Grand Funk's huge hit singles. He also re-recorded another huge GF hit, Some Kind of Wonderful, changing the lyrics to be a song about Jesus instead of a girl. He wrote the song, so he had the legal rights to do it. I could have put that song on here, but you would have heard the same thing twice. It was literally the same except for the lyrics. Mark recorded several Christian albums before retiring. The other members of GFR convinced him to go on a reunion tour with them, but he has always remained true to the Lord!

Kansas was a progressive rock band in the 1970s primarily. It's founder, lead songwriter and lead singer was a young man named Kerry Livgren. He was born in Topeka, Kansas, hence the name of the band. If anyone ever mentions the band, the first thought is this song. It was by far their biggest hit. Just like with Grand Funk, when the lead singer of Kansas became a Christian and decided he wanted to record songs about Jesus, they sounded similar because the voice was the same. Basically, Kansas became AD, the Christian band.

The two examples do sound different in style a little for two reasons. One, AD had a really good lead guitarist and they leaned a little bit to a heavier sound. Two, now we're in the 1980's, and ALL bands in the 1980's had a particular similar sound, mostly due to advances in keyboards. Definitely Kerry's voice though!

This was a huge hit in the United States in 1971 by the British progressive rock band. The lead singer was Jon Anderson, who had one of those powerful voices that come along once in a generation. As mentioned in my introductory paragraph, when Jon became a Christian, Yes's record company absolutely refused to allow him to record any songs about God or religion. It would "ruin" Yes's reputation and popularity. They were selling multiple millions of records world-wide. Jon waited for a bit of time before pitching the idea to his recording company of a Christmas album. They thought it was a great idea, and didn't think to put in writing, in a contract, to not do any songs about Christianity. I guess they were expecting White Christmas and other non-Christian classics. It gave Jon the opening and permission he needed to finally be able to sing songs about his Savior, Jesus!

Save All Your Love was the theme song for Jon Anderson's Christmas CD, 3 Ships. A shorter version of the song introduces the music, and it recurs a couple of more times. This clip is the longest at about 3 minutes. He does perform some classics like O Holy Night and Holly and the Ivy. There is one downright typical Yes progressive rock song called How it Hits You. It is amazing, and I almost shared that one instead, but this song shows off his incredible voice more.