100 Greatest Songs in Christian Music: The Stories Behind the Music That Changed Our Lives Forever

by Tori Taff

Book Overview

100 great songs, 100 great stories. Listen to the soundtrack of your life. What do you hear? Which songs and artists have impacted your spirit and inspired your faith? This ultimate guide chronicles such songs'the top 100 songs of contemporary Christian music that have not only achieved commercial success, but have forever changed the lives of those who have listened. Selected by votes of thousands of CCM Magazine readers with the input of a top panel...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591452104
• ISBN13: 9781591452102
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Superb But With Several Of The Greatest Songs Missing

This is a very interesting and fun to read book for any fan of Contemporary Christian Music. In addition to listing some of the greatest songs in Christian music, the book also contains a story to go with each song. It was a pleasure to read this volume and compare my personal list of the top 100 to those by the authors. In many, if not most, cases, I tend to agree with the selections here. There are also several that I think should be included that are not. Part of that is undoubtedly a matter of preferring certain genres to others. In some cases, I have a hard time understanding why a few of the songs would make this top 100 list, but I'm sure that others would question my list as well. The authors faced a formidable task in trying to come up with the top 100. There are so many great songs in Contemporary Christian Music that perhaps they should have compiled the top 250 or so. Just coming up with the criteria for such a list is undoubtedly a great challenge. After debating possible approaches, Tori Taff and her collaborators came up with these requirements: The song had to originate with CCM 'songwriters/artists and initially (or simultaneously) be nationally distributed to the Christian market', and the song had to 'be distinctly faith-evident.' These guidelines prevented the inclusion of Christian leaning songs by primarily secular artists such as U2 and also songs by CCM artists that were not clearly 'faith-evident'. I think the guidelines are very sound for such a project. After coming up with the guidelines, Ms. Taff and her helpers had to come up with a weighting method. They settled on basing it on 50% from Christian music industry professionals and 50% from a random sampling of 2500 subscribers to CCM Magazine. I think the mix of methods is a good one. I think that perhaps the sample size of Christian music fans might have been better if it were somewhat larger and perhaps not just limited to subscribers. Had they also included CCM readers who are not necessarily subscribers, perhaps it might have been a bit better. Nevertheless, that is really just speculation on my part. There are many very interesting stories about how the songs came about. A couple that I found particularly interesting were 'Shine' by the Newsboys (page 34) and 'Dive' by Steven Curtis Chapman (page 179). Regarding songs that I think should have been included, but were not, here are a few: 'God' by Rebecca St. James 'Yes, I Believe In God' and about 10 other songs by Rebecca St. James 'These Thousand Hills' and about 10 other songs by Third Day 'Blessed Be Your Name' by Tree 63 'King' by Tree 63 'I Need Thee Every Hour' by Jars of Clay 'God Will Lift Up Your Head' and about 10 other songs by Jars of Clay 'Strong Tower' by Kutless 'Indescribable' by Chris Tomlin 'I'm Not Ashamed' by Newsboys 'Entertaining Angels' and about 10 other songs by Newsboys 'I Still Believe' by Jeremy Camp 'Restored' and about 10 other songs by Jeremy Camp 'Colored P