Yes, Superstar charted, but most people do not consider it “Overtly religious.” Particuarly if you were around to see the brouhaha over the whole thing.
I don’t know how any of the individual tracks did, but Chant, by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, peaked at #3 on the album charts.
Cite? I can’t find The Saints on the Billboard charts in 2010.
Long Black Train by Josh Turner?
According to wikipedia it peaked at 72 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and 13 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs for 2003-04 and debuted at 60 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks in May 2003 which is apparently yet another Billboard chart
Louis Armstrong Chart History - scroll down to #7.
“Mother Mary” is an explicit reference to Paul McCartney’s own mother, named Mary. During the recording of the Beatles’ White Album, McCartney had a dream about his mother which left him feeling full of peace. The dream was the inspiration for the song. McCartney himself started that the reference is not religious.
James Corden (host of The Late Late Show on CBS) has a regular segment called Carpool Karaoke, in which he drives around with a famous musician, while they talk and sing the musician’s songs. On one such segment, he drove around Liverpool with Paul McCartney, who pointed out landmarks referenced in Beatles songs, and told the story of the dream of his mother that inspired that lyric.
Oh, my mistake. Despite having Hot 100 at the top, that’s not actually the Hot 100.
“Down in the River to Pray” sung by Alison Krauss (pllus chorus), used in the movie “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSif77IVQdY
“From a distance” is high on my list of songs that people don’t listen to the lyrics of. It’s pretty much the exact opposite of everything that I learned in church - as the message of the song is “God isn’t paying attention and doesn’t give a shit.”
"Honey" Bobby Goldsboro
“One day while I was not at home
While she was there and all alone
The angels came
Now all I have is memories of Honey”
I’d say that kidnapping/murdering angels is overtly religious.
??? As I recall, everyone saw it as explicitly religious. Some people liked that, some people didn’t care, and some people it made sick and they wrote insulting satirical parodies. But everybody knew it was explicitly religious.
Without knowing anything else about that song, it sounds like she (presumably Honey) died while alone.
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
I don’t know how to get official chart positions, but that’s been top 20 a couple of times?
She didn’t die. She got recruited to play baseball in California.
Neil Diamond had Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show hit #22 in 1969.
He brought religion back to the charts in 1970 with He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, which got up to #20.
And though not overtly religious, his What a Wonderful World is pretty much an anthem for deists.
Poison’s Something to Believe In.
Here’s a genuine “modern day spiritual” (from 1972), inspired by Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”
Styx released this the following year. Flip the LP over and you get their classic "Plexiglass Toilet." Skip the first 1:15.
They both won an Emmy for that episode.