The latest part of the ongoing series chronicling, in no particular order, the greatest 1001 recordings made by Christian artists

Leon Patillo

708. LEON PATILLO - I HEARD THE THUNDER, 1984. From the album 'The Sky's The Limit', Myrrh.
During his time as a CCM big hitter (1981 to 1990) too much was made of the African American singer/keyboard player's Santana connection (Leon was, after all, only a minor part of Carlos Santana's band and never contributed to any of their hits). But leaving this point aside, Leon did write some top rate CCM songs, like the wedding favourite "Flesh Of My Flesh" while he was a key figure in introducing a bit of funky fire into the vapidly white vistas of US Christian radio. In 1983 the Dove Awards named Leon's 'I'll Never Stop Loving You' Contemporary Gospel Album Of The Year. But 'The Sky's The Limit' was much better and the opener "I Heard The Thunder" showed all of Patillo's strengths - a catchy hook and some dazzling synth riffs interlocking with the drumming downbeat.
Tony Cummings

709. FAT & FRANTIC - LAST NIGHT MY WIFE HOOVERED MY HEAD, 1989. From the album 'Quirk', I'll Call You.
That mixture of punk and skiffle that the London-based Greenbelt favourites knowingly referred to as "piffle" was music which raised a smile with their devotees and the ire of cool rock critics. In fact, F&F's near hit single, with its zany chorus and a whole verse sung in French, still retains its infectious wit which permeated all their best songs. An acquired taste certainly but as their acappella album once demonstrated, Fat & Frantic had considerable musical talent as well as an addiction to silliness.
Tony Cummings

710. BESSIE GRIFFIN - SEARCH ME LORD, 1973. From the various artists album 'Precious Lord: Recordings Of The Great Gospel Songs Of Thomas A Dorsey', Columbia Legacy.
Gospel expert Tony Heilbut wrote about the great gospel songs of Thomas A Dorsey thus: "The songs stay popular because they succeed as testimonies, sufficiently personal to evoke a singer's sense of his own history, sufficiently general to allow each singer to turn the song's rhetoric into fact." This version on Dorsey's "Search Me Lord" had in Bessie Griffin the mightiest contralto of her generation and her passionate reading is truly electrifying. As Dr Heilbut observed in his album sleevenote, "Her final 'yeah' is as contented as any barrel-house mama's."
Tony Cummings

711. SUPERCHICK - ONE GIRL REVOLUTION, 2000. From the album 'Karaoke Superstars', Inpop.
Chinese American producer Max Hsu is a huge talent who down the years has produced some of the most engaging pop music ever to grace Christian radio and though the group he gathered around him never quite broke through to the mainstream, the best of Superchick's tracks still have a zest and freshness that few other teen-targeted acts ever achieved. Over an infectious ricocheting drum pattern Tricia Brock intones her tale of female empowerment in her brittle-yet-knowing way. "I wear a disguise I'm just your average Jane/The super doesn't stand for model but that doesn't mean I'm plain/If all you see is how I look you miss the superchick within/And I christen you Titanic underestimate and swim." Teen pop doesn't come any cleverer.
Tony Cummings

712. BILLY SPRAGUE - HEAVEN IS A LONG HELLO, 1992. From the album 'Torn Between Two Worlds', Benson.
In 1989 singer/guitarist Billy Sprague, who'd carved out a successful CCM career first as a member of Amy Grant's backing band and writer for acts like Sandi Patty and Debby Boone and then as a Kenny Loggins-style recording artist, was hit by tragedy. Billy's fiancé was killed in an automobile accident on her way to see him in concert. The singer/songwriter took a three year break from recording and touring and on his return channelled his sorrow and struggle into the powerful album 'Torn Between Two Worlds'. This fine song is its epicentre. Moving, tender and infused with hope "Heaven Is A Long Hello" is a gem.
Tony Cummings

Chris Lizotte

713. CHRIS LIZOTTE - PSALM 69, 1995. From the album 'Human Kind', Metro One.
Chris remains one of Christendom's most underrated talents and this deliciously soulful blues ballad contemplation of King David's inner turmoil is a perfectly executed cut. "Oh God, my God/Deliver me from the mire/And don't let me sink." Chris purrs over a moody guitar, bass and drums pattern before strings add to the sombrely reflective mood.
Tony Cummings

714. SABIO - CARRY ME, 2002. From the album 'Escape', Independent.
Down the years singer/songwriter Aaron Frith has recorded his haunting worship song several times but this for me remains the definitive version. Sabio, who in different stages of their career also used the names Fruit and Oversol, give solid support to Aaron's yearning vocal on a song which declares its utter reliance on Christ with the gauche sincerity of youth ("I will be more popular with you than my friends/Because you've always carried me, and you will do 'til the end"). A worship song of which I never tire.
Tony Cummings

715. SISTER JESSIE MAY RENFRO - I'LL BE SATISFIED THEN, 1953. From the various artists album 'Texas Gospel Vols 3-5: Devil Can't Harm A Praying Man', P-Vine.
Gospel authority Anthony Heilbut boldly declared this soloist with Church Of God In Christ "one of the great gospel voices," but sadly Jessie May has been largely written out of gospel music history. Her huge lyrical soulful voice was able to hit, in Heilbut's words, "immense blue notes without fuss or bother" and despite the primitive recording it truly is a spine-tingling sound.
Tony Cummings

716. JULIE MILLER - S.O.S., 1993. From the album 'Orphans And Angels', Word.
20 years on this still remains the definitive musical denouncement of our sex-obsessed culture ensnared in the pursuit of unbridled sensuality. Over its simple garage rock drive Julie spits out the self-penned lyrics with complete passion. "This is making me sick, I can't stand it anymore/You make sex so dirty, let me out the door/What was supposed to be personal, supposed to be clean/Supposed to be private, you make a public scene/You manipulate the innocent, exploit the weak/You aim for the ones too young to know the lies you speak/One more commercial you don't care what it costs/You got your profit, you don't care whose soul got lost."
Tony Cummings

717. KEVIN SMITH - LONELY MOON, 1994. From the various artists album 'Strong Hand Of Love: A Tribute To Mark Heard', Fingerprint.
Mark Heard was a fine songwriter and producer and before his sudden death in 1992 produced a body of work that even today stands comparison with many of the giants of popular music. One of Heard's finest songs was this poetic response to postmodernism and its rejection of God, a mindset which "caught the Holy Spirit lurking in his cellar/And threw him out leaving just a lonely name". Kevin's rendition, recorded of course prior to his departure from dc Talk and his re-emergence as Kevin Max, is the definitive reading. The way the singer's distinctive tones pick up the passionate cadences of the song and the juddering climax as he is enveloped in a spiralling wall of electric guitars is rock art of the highest order.
Tony Cummings

Christafari

718. CHRISTAFARI - VALLEY OF DECISION, .1996. From the album 'Valley Of Decision', Gotee.
The rise of Christafari to their position as world-acclaimed exponents of gospel reggae was always unlikely. By and large American attempts to reproduce the sinuous rhythms of reggae have proven to be limply unconvincing. But in Mark Mohr, Christafari has a band leader who fully understood the rhythmic nuances of JA music without neglecting pop radio demands for the strongest of musical hooks. The combination of swaying riddims, rich harmonies and delicious brass make for a summery delight while the lines "This is no game/People have to die in his name" still rings true.
Tony Cummings

719. RAVING LOONATICS - POUNDING MUSIC CULTURE, 2000. From the album 'Episode Two...Hypnocrite', N-Soul.
Down the years a few brave souls have tried putting beats and rhythms to fragments of preaching to take the message onto the dancefloor. It was the rather unwisely named Raving Loonatics - a loose aggregation of techno heads led by a German loopmeister called Rolf - who took a fragment of an uncredited preacher who in his message asked some uneasy questions abut what is being driven into the hearts of youth addicted to club culture. With telling irony Rolf and friends built a rave-style track around the preacher's ponderings, who, bizarrely, sounds a bit like Nicholas Cage!
Tony Cummings

720. THE BENJAMIN GATE - ALL OVER ME, 2001. From the album 'Untitled', Forefront.
The South African pop rockers had in Adrienne Liesching an exceptional lead singer whose brittle, breathy voice was perfectly counterpointed by heavily treated, jagged toned guitars. Adrienne went on to marry Jeremy Camp and make occasional solo albums but it's this track with its repetitive chorus "All over me/All over me/ Your love is all over me" which continues to connect.
Tony Cummings

721. CHRISTA WELLS - MY BEST REMEDY (AMAZING), 2009. From the album 'Frame The Clouds', Independent.
Christa, from Raleigh, North Carolina, is surely one of the most underrated talents on the contemporary music scene. She has the ability to not only write memorable melody and apposite lyrics (Christa has written a big hit for Natalie Grant) but she sings them beautifully, often accompanied by her own piano. With some acoustic guitar, bass and percussion put together with precision by Zodlounge nothing clutters this haunting little song of thankfulness sung in tones that sound a little like Sarah McLachlan. "Thank you for making me laugh today/You took me by surprise." I'm not sure I understand the bit about the "mischievous angel" later in the song, but such is the poetic flow of Christie's imagery that I'm won over anyway.
Tony Cummings