# Overtly religious Top 40 hits. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130 "2019-11-07T16:46:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/21 "2019-11-07T17:24:40Z")
How about “From a Distance” as performed by Bette Midler, which peaked at #2 on the US Hot 100 and #1 on the US Adult Contemporary charts. (Written by Julie Gold; first recorded by Nancy Griffith.) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/22 "2019-11-07T17:24:52Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Mr Mister - Kyrie Eleison > > Don't know if it was top 40, but I heard it on the radio a lot when I was in high school. Not just Top #40, but a strong #1 on the Hot 100 Singles Chart in the U.S. The Doobie Brothers’ cover of “Jesus is Just All Right” hit #35. The Byrds’ 1965 #1 hit “Turn! Turn! Turn!” is essentially Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 set to music excepting the repeated title refrain. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/23 "2019-11-07T17:26:15Z")
He - The McGuire Sisters I Believe - Pat Boone Yeah, I’m old. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/24 "2019-11-07T17:26:59Z")
Elvis’ “How Great Thou Art” album hit #18 on the Top Pop chart in 1966. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/25 "2019-11-07T17:27:27Z")
What about “Turn! Turn! Turn!” as made popular by The Byrds? It hit #1 and it’s basically a recitation of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. For what it’s worth, the Wikipedia article on this song says: > [@](#): > > The song is notable for being one of a few instances in popular music in which a large portion of the Bible is set to music, other examples being the Melodians’ “Rivers of Babylon”, Sister Janet Mead’s “The Lord’s Prayer”, U2’s “40”, Sinead O’Connor’s “Psalm 33” and Cliff Richard’s “The Millennium Prayer”. Edit: ninja’d by damn near everyone as I looked up the song and answered an email ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/26 "2019-11-07T17:42:17Z")
[“One Toke Over The Line(Sweet Jesus)”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkCaAnIcDWw)-A modern spiritual. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/27 "2019-11-07T17:43:26Z")
Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band There are some churches where this wouldn’t be out of place. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/28 "2019-11-07T17:44:10Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [“One Toke Over The Line(Sweet Jesus)”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkCaAnIcDWw)-A modern spiritual. > 😃 Yeah, Right. Alone With Murray Head’s Superstar. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/29 "2019-11-07T17:47:53Z")
I got beat by pretty much everyone on my two faves (_Turn! Turn! Turn!_ and _Rivers of Babylon_) so I’ll go with [Amazing Grace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtteRD5bBNQ) by Judy Collins. As a bonus, [Gaudete](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN9AJj9rtlk) was a UK hit by Steeleye Span - religious and sung in Latin - how 'bout that? j ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/30 "2019-11-07T17:56:34Z")
Lauren Daigle’s You Say hit #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 after being on the Christian charts for over a year. If you listen casually and are unaware of her career as a Christian artist, it can sound like a love song. The chorus is that way. > [@You Say](#): > > You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing > You say I am strong when I think I am weak > And you say I am held when I am falling short > And when I don’t belong, oh You say I am Yours > And I believe (I) > Oh I believe (I) > What You say of me (I) > I believe The final short verse makes it explicit that it’s addressed to God, but it would be easy to miss. > [@You Say](#): > > Taking all I have and now I’m laying it at Your feet > You have every failure, God, You have every victory > Ooh oh So it’s a “no doubt about, this song is about God” song IF the listener hears every word, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of listeners on secular radio just hear it as a love song. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/31 "2019-11-07T18:01:42Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > **Day By Day** from Godspell peaked at #14. I came in to mention this. Although not from a Bible verse, it is apparently based on a 13th century prayer by the bishop St. Richard of Chichester, and included in more recent hymnals. The Wikipedia article says it hit #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. > **[Day by Day (Godspell song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_by_Day_(Godspell_song))** > > "Day by Day" is a folk rock ballad from the 1971 Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak musical Godspell. It is the third song in the show's score and is reprised as the closing number for the 1973 film version. > The song's refrain follows a prayer ascribed to the 13th-century English bishop Saint Richard of Chichester: > The version in Godspell follows more closely the wording in Hymn 429 of the 1940 Hymnal: > "Day by Day" was first a hit in Australia, where both Judy Stone and Colleen Hewett r... My complaint about the song, which I’ve heard sung in church countless times since _Godspell_ unleashed it on the world, is that unrehearsed amateurs don’t know how or when to end the thing, so it sort of peters out as people drop out of singing the endless refrain. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/32 "2019-11-07T18:09:39Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Not just Top #40, but a strong #1 on the Hot 100 Singles Chart in the U.S. > > The Doobie Brothers’ cover of “Jesus is Just All Right” hit #35. > > The Byrds’ 1965 #1 hit “Turn! Turn! Turn!” is essentially Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 set to music excepting the repeated title refrain. No wonder this song never scanned right. It always sounded to me as if they were trying to cram more words than fit into the melody. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/33 "2019-11-07T18:10:45Z")
I’ve always considered Toy Matinee’s “Last Plane Out” to be borderline in this regard: _Greetings from Sodom, how we wish you were here The weather’s getting warmer now that the trees are all cleared No time for a conscience, and we recognize no crime, Yeah, we got dogs and Valvoline (!), it’s a pretty damn good time._ Although, in the third verse, it seems to reverse course a bit: _Someone said the Big Man may be joining us soon, But I never was the type to hang with the Harbingers of Doom._ YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/34 "2019-11-07T18:14:16Z")
I think some of the songs from Jesus Christ Superstar hit the charts. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/35 "2019-11-07T18:16:21Z")
I thought _Spirit in the Sky_ was _mocking_ religion? Is this Reverse Poe’s Law? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/36 "2019-11-07T18:18:15Z")
How about _Superstar_ from the musical _Jesus Christ, Superstar_? It reached #14 on the Billboard singles chart in 1969. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/37 "2019-11-07T18:20:08Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > U2, Until the end of the world (it’s about Judas) I was going to mention their song [40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9A5sCzSpK4), which is Psalm 40 set to music, but I saw that it only ever was once released as a single, in August of 1983 in Germany, the live version from “Under A Blood Red Sky” which was recorded at [Rockpalast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockpalast)at the Loreley which was U2’s big breakthrough concert in Germany and elsewhere (Rockpalast used to be broadcast on TV in many parts of Europe). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/38 "2019-11-07T18:20:09Z")
There are probably a lot of Christmas songs that qualify. Can we just take them as read? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/39 "2019-11-07T19:12:23Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Stryper’s high water mark was “Honestly” which peaked at #23 on the Hot 100 January 30, 1988. Stryper was/is definitely a Christian band, but is that particular song **overtly** , can’t-miss-it religious enough for the OP’s criteria? There have been other Christian bands to break into the mainstream top 40 (Jars of Clay, Sixpence None the Richer). But are their biggest hits “overtly religious” enough? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/40 "2019-11-07T19:19:26Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > I thought _Spirit in the Sky_ was _mocking_ religion? > > Is this Reverse Poe’s Law? Greenbaum wrote it mockingly but it has been embraced by Christians. Sorta like Blur’s Song 2 being a parody of radio friendly grunge and then. . . you know the rest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130.md?page=3)