# 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:** 6
**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 8, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/101 "2019-11-08T16:18:15Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought that was about an NFL team. 😃 From his Wiki: > [@](#): > > Armstrong had nineteen “Top Ten” records including “Stardust”, “What a Wonderful World”, “When The Saints Go Marching In”, “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, “You Rascal You”, and “Stompin’ at the Savoy”. and from the Wiki on the song itself, he turned it into a jazz standard on his 1938 Decca recording. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/102 "2019-11-08T16:18:48Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > BTW, Louis Armstrong’s version of “When The Saints Go Marching In” hit the Top Ten. Actually, it didn’t. Armstrong recorded _Saints_ in 1938, and there were no charts back then. That Armstrong’s _Saints_ hit the top ten comes from the book [Pop Memories 1890—1954](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0898200830/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i28) by Joel Whitburn. This author has published many books based on Billboard charts, and most of them are fine. This one, however, covers the era before Billboard charts, during which record sales info was kept in the vaults of record companies and not released to the public. For _Pop Memories_, Whitburn pieced together his own set of charts based on industry publications. The book is notorious among record collectors for its inaccuracies and distortions. In many cases it claims great popularity for records that are so rare today that it’s unlikely many were ever sold. In one case, it gives credit to a performer (Billy Murray) who is known by collectors not to have performed on the record in question (_Take Me Out to the Ball Game_ by the Haydn Quartet). Almost everything you see in print about chart rankings of records from before 1955 comes from this book. I wouldn’t trust anything that’s based on it. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/103 "2019-11-08T18:11:53Z")
This thread needs some more soul/gospel. [“Are You Ready”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MR1LBEJ-ok) - Pacific Gas & Electric [“I’ll Take You There”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7T1rN6nYeE) - The Staple Singers ---
**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 8, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/104 "2019-11-08T18:15:15Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Actually, it didn’t. Armstrong recorded _Saints_ in 1938, and there were no charts back then. > > That Armstrong’s _Saints_ hit the top ten comes from the book [Pop Memories 1890—1954](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0898200830/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i28) by Joel Whitburn. This author has published many books based on Billboard charts, and most of them are fine. This one, however, covers the era before Billboard charts, during which record sales info was kept in the vaults of record companies and not released to the public. For _Pop Memories_, Whitburn pieced together his own set of charts based on industry publications. The book is notorious among record collectors for its inaccuracies and distortions. In many cases it claims great popularity for records that are so rare today that it’s unlikely many were ever sold. In one case, it gives credit to a performer (Billy Murray) who is known by collectors not to have performed on the record in question (_Take Me Out to the Ball Game_ by the Haydn Quartet). > > Almost everything you see in print about chart rankings of records from before 1955 comes from this book. I wouldn’t trust anything that’s based on it. [Johnny Carson]I did not know that![/JC] ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/105 "2019-11-08T19:38:35Z")
Not a charting single, but IMHO notable enough to mention: “After Forever” by **Black Sabbath**. Opening verse: _Have you ever thought about your soul can it be saved? Or perhaps you think that when you’re dead you just stay in your grave Is God just a thought within your head or is he a part of you? Is Christ just a name that you read in a book when you were in school?_ ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/106 "2019-11-08T19:55:23Z")
> [@LLCoolL](#): > > Not a charting single, but IMHO notable enough to mention: “After Forever” by **Black Sabbath**. Opening verse: > > _Have you ever thought about your soul can it be saved? > Or perhaps you think that when you’re dead you just stay in your grave > Is God just a thought within your head or is he a part of you? > Is Christ just a name that you read in a book when you were in school?_ If we start veering away from top 40, there are a ton of great ones such as “Satan is Real” by the Louvin Brothers and “The Christian Life” by the Byrds. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/107 "2019-11-08T20:13:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > BTW, Louis Armstrong’s version of “When The Saints Go Marching In” hit the Top Ten. > [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Actually, it didn’t. Armstrong recorded _Saints_ in 1938, and there were no charts back then. Although there was a resurgence in 2010, after New Orleans won the Super Bowl. Peaked at #11. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/108 "2019-11-08T20:18:15Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I have heard John Lennon’s “Imagine” in a church. A Mennonite church, of all places. I don’t remember if they changed the “and no religion too” line or not. > > My grandma, who is ex-Amish, had never known the song before she’d heard it in church and thought it was the most beautiful thing. Bless her. Did they play “Imagine there’s no heaven”? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/109 "2019-11-08T21:38:38Z")
Has anybody mentioned “People Get Ready” by the Impressions? Ferlin Husky had a Top 20 hit with “Wings of a Dove” in 1960. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/110 "2019-11-08T22:14:48Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Has anybody mentioned “People Get Ready” by the Impressions? Yep 🙂 > [@Wheelz](#): > > Unless I missed it, nobody’s mentioned “People Get Ready,” which has charted at least twice. The Impressions went to #3 in 1965 and then Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart took it to #5 twenty years later. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/111 "2019-11-09T00:08:55Z")
I don’t think any of them hit the top 40, but a whole bunch of Alice Cooper’s songs have overtly Christian themes (particularly on “Brutal Planet,” “Dragontown,” and “The Last Temptation”). ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/112 "2019-11-09T00:40:41Z")
Has anyone mentioned _Let It Be_? Explicit reference to Mother Mary. > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Did they play “Imagine there’s no heaven”? _Imagine_ is a song about the Kingdom of God on earth. There’d be no heaven, because earth would be heaven. There’d be no religion, because its mission would be fulfilled. All the other negatives (no countries, no killing, no possessions, no hunger, no greed) and the positives (peace, unity, brotherhood) are goals of Christ. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/113 "2019-11-09T01:18:36Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Has anyone mentioned _Let It Be_? Explicit reference to Mother Mary. > > _Imagine_ is a song about the Kingdom of God on earth. There’d be no heaven, because earth would be heaven. There’d be no religion, because its mission would be fulfilled. All the other negatives (no countries, no killing, no possessions, no hunger, no greed) and the positives (peace, unity, brotherhood) are goals of Christ. I think Paul says that Mother Mary was inspired by his own mother and is not biblical. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/114 "2019-11-09T03:00:19Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Am I missing something here? They’re a Christian band - all their songs are religious! Some of them might be more subtle than others (‘Flood’ seems on the more subtle side but it’s still got ‘Casting down all the waves of sin / And guilt that overthrow me’ which is a bit of a dead giveaway) I was responding the person who said their big hits might not be overtly religious. So, if you are responding to me while dropping the context of the conversation, I guess that’s what you’re missing. IMHO, how could references to a 40 day Flood and asking to be lifted up by God not be religious? I’m not religious but I had a little kid’s bible and some brief exposure to church as a child and I thought the whole 40 day flood thing was one of the most generally known religious references. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/115 "2019-11-09T03:14:17Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Has anyone mentioned _Let It Be_? Explicit reference to Mother Mary. > > _Imagine_ is a song about the Kingdom of God on earth. There’d be no heaven, because earth would be heaven. There’d be no religion, because its mission would be fulfilled. All the other negatives (no countries, no killing, no possessions, no hunger, no greed) and the positives (peace, unity, brotherhood) are goals of Christ. “Imagine no religion” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/116 "2019-11-09T03:26:03Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Has anyone mentioned _Let It Be_? Explicit reference to Mother Mary. There are so many Marys in the New Testament that I wonder if “Mary” isn’t Aramaic for “some random woman.” ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/117 "2019-11-09T03:34:20Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > “Imagine no religion” Jesus never said anything about religion. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/118 "2019-11-09T03:36:17Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > _Imagine_ is a song about the Kingdom of God on earth. There’d be no heaven, because earth would be heaven. There’d be no religion, because its mission would be fulfilled. All the other negatives (no countries, no killing, no possessions, no hunger, no greed) and the positives (peace, unity, brotherhood) are goals of Christ. Hard disagree. _Imagine_ is a song about a world where there are no supernatural consequences for our actions; “no Hell below us, above us only sky”. It’s about a world where people are good to each other not because they’re afraid of punishment or hoping for reward, but because _they know it’s the right thing to do_. Lennon posits that once all the social pressures telling us to hate this or shun that or fear the outsider are removed, all that is left is love. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/119 "2019-11-09T03:40:46Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Hard disagree. _Imagine_ is a song about a world where there are no supernatural consequences for our actions; “no Hell below us, above us only sky”. It’s about a world where people are good to each other not because they’re afraid of punishment or hoping for reward, but because _they know it’s the right thing to do_. Lennon posits that once all the social pressures telling us to hate this or shun that or fear the outsider are removed, all that is left is love. Loving because you _know it’s the right thing to do_ is the essence of Christ’s message. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130/120 "2019-11-09T04:55:58Z")
Michael W Smith hit #6 with [“Place In This World”](https://youtu.be/LpXMnY_t03M), which features lyrics like: > [@](#): > > If there are millions > Down on their knees > Among the many > How can you still hear me? > Hear me asking > Where do I belong? ETA: album released in 1990, song in 1991. The year I graduated from high school. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtly-religious-top-40-hits/843130.md?page=7)