SING YOUR
PRAISE
TO THE
LORD
WRITTEN BY RICH MULLINS
RECORDED BY AMY GRANT ON AGE TO AGE (MYRRH, 1982)
PRODUCED BY BROWN BANNISTER
ALSO RECORDED BY: RICH MULLINS ON SONGS
Alot changed in Amy Grant’s life in 1982. The 21 year-old married singer/songwriter Gary Chapman, for one. She also released an album A that would not only change her life forever— its success finally convinced her that maybe she could make a career of music after all—but would literally change the entire course of contemporary Christian music.
Age to Age, Grant’s fourth studio album, exploded out of the starting gate at number one and never looked back. The album spent 22 months in the number one position (knocked out only by Grant’s follow-up release, Straight Ahead), and over five years in the Top 50 of the Christian albums chart. To put that into perspective in today’s musical climate, the longest-running Top 50 Christian titles are often on the chart less than two years. In 1984, Age to Age became the first album ever by a Christian artist to be certified gold (for sales of 500,000 copies), and in 1985 it broke another barrier when it was certified platinum (sales of 1,000,000). The album also resulted in Grant winning her first of four Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association for “Artist of the Year.” Oddly enough, Grant has never won the lesser title of “Female Vocalist of the Year.”
Age to Age is full of songs that are now classics, including our #5 song, “El Shaddai.” But “Sing Your Praise to the Lord” is significant for another reason: it introduced the world to the music of Rich Mullins, who penned the song. Mullins went on to write several other songs for Grant, including “Doubly Good to You” and “Love of Another Kind.”
Grant herself gently pokes fun at all the hoopla, recalling a humorous story about the incredible song with a climactic minute-plus intro taken from Bach’s Fugue No. 2. “I remember turning on the TV one time, years later, on a beach trip with my family. They were doing some big show at the Radio City Music Hall (in New York City), and the Rockettes were doing can-cans across the stage to a re-written ‘Sing Your Praise to the Stars.’ It just goes to show there are no sacred cows!”
“I love Amy’s spirit, and I love her. Her songs have always been so powerful, and this is just a beautiful song.”
CECE WINANS
“I was on Amy Grant’s first tour ever with a band. I had never been to a Christian concert, and here I was singing background vocals for Amy! I cried the whole time because I couldn’t believe how incredible it was that somebody could sing about their faith. I remember her being just so real…so incredibly honest and real about her faith. And it literally changed my life.”
BONNIE KEEN OF FIRST CALL
