HE
REIGNS
WRITTEN BY PETER FURLER AND STEVE TAYLOR
RECORDED BY NEWSBOYS ON ADORATION: THE WORSHIP ALBUM (SPARROW RECORDS, 2003)
PRODUCED BY STEVE TAYLOR
NEWSBOYS VERSION OF “HE REIGNS” IS ALSO FEATURED ON DOVE HITS 2004 (WORD RECORDS)
ADORATION DEBUTED AT #1 ON THE CHRISTIAN ALBUM SALES CHARTS AND #33 ON THE BILLBOARD 200 CHART
2004 ASCAP CHRISTIAN MUSIC AWARD—SONG OF THE YEAR
The Newsboys and longtime songwriting partner/producer Steve Taylor (Sixpence None the Richer, Waterdeep) might have sported sweaty palms as they entered the studio to record 2003’s Adoration: The Worship Album. True, the Newsboys had been king of the Christian pop band hill for almost a decade, and Taylor had years of gold and platinum album notches in his production belt, but this was new territory. Sacred territory—literally. For the first time in each of their prestigious careers the band and producer were preparing to record a worship album.
Months later they would watch in amazement as Adoration became 2003’s best-selling artist-worship album on its way to landing both Grammy and Dove Award nominations. The song “He Reigns” anchored the album and fueled the public’s strong response as it claimed the #1 spot on Christian pop radio for five consecutive weeks in route to becoming the most played single of the year.
“The band always had a kind of a joke with me when I presented a new song to them,” recalls Newboys frontman Peter Furler. “They would always say to me, ‘Well what three chords is it this time?’ And I actually do know four chords; I just keep the other one to myself. But it was funny— them joking and messing with me, and I sort of took it to heart at one point and I thought, ‘Alright, I’m gonna teach you dogs a lesson. I’m gonna write a song with three chords in it.’ And so I sat down and I just started singing that chorus, ‘He reigns,’ and I just started singing, ‘Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns.’ And I was sort of having my own time with my guitar with the Lord and then the phrase, ‘All God’s children’ came. And I put it away—I put it away for about four years.
“When we started working on Adoration I just went back and looked through my old demo CDs. I usually document everything I’m sort of working on and just keep it. And I went back and listened to the song and I thought, ‘Man, there’s something in this.’ So I just put together the verses and the chorus and the sections and then I showed it to Steve Taylor.”
Taylor gave insight into his response to the song in a statement highlighted in The GMA 35th Music Awards program book:
“When Peter first played me the chorus for ‘He Reigns,’ I had two immediate impressions: 1. This is a chorus that could be sung Sunday mornings in church, therefore… 2. I’m not the guy to finish it. Then I recalled extraordinary images from travels to the corners of the earth. A thousand Masai children singing praises to God on a Tanzanian plain. A town square in Krakow packed with fellow Christians singing hymns in defiance of Soviet-era authorities. A Japanese house church. A ballroom in Chile. A van in Nepal. I couldn’t speak the language in any of these places. Yet, when I heard my brothers and sisters raise their voices to heaven, I understood perfectly. May ‘He Reigns’ fill you with the same joy and gratitude that Peter and I experienced writing it.”
“He Reigns” drew nominations for GMA (Dove) Awards in two categories—Song of the Year and Worship Song of the Year. (The Newsboys were also Group of the Year and Praise and Worship Album of the Year nominees.)
13 STEVE TAYLOR FAVORITES
We picked that number to prove we’re
not superstitious.
“Meltdown (at Madame Tussaud’s)”
“I Want to Be a Clone”
“Sin for a Season”
“Harder to Believe Than Not To”
“Hero”
“Jim Morrison’s Grave”
“Baby Doe”
“Bannerman”
“I Blew Up the Clinic (Real Good)”
“This Disco (Used to Be a Cute Cathedral)”
“The Finish Line”
“Svengali”
“On the Fritz”