Word: Six Decades of Hits

Description

Word: Six Decades of Hits is a triple disc multi-artist compilation, released on Word Records in 2011. Also distributed by Elektra.

Word Entertainment is celebrating it’s 60th anniversary this year! To commemorate this milestone, we have created this exclusive 3-CD set featuring a 51-song collection with a bonus excerpt from the company’s original recording, entitled Word: Six Decades Of Hits. This must-have anthology spans the 60 years of great music that has come out of this landmark label and features legendary artists such as Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, Jaci Velasquez, Point of Grace, to name a few, and the breakthrough new artists Francesca Battistelli, Chris August and Sidewalk Prophets. Sectioned into The Early Years, Yesterday’s Favorites and Today’s Hits, these discs not only contain the biggest and most acclaimed songs that broke through Christian radio but also chronicles the most historic moments over the last six decades.

As any Christian music buff will tell you, Word Records, originally based in Waco, Texas but for many years an iconic Nashville company, has been there as Christian music has grown from a tiny niche market releasing music by choirs and sacred soloists to become the multi-million dollar entity we know today. With Word currently celebrating its 60th anniversary the company had a great chance to present its history to Joe Public. Unfortunately, this three disc compilation fails miserably to do the task. Judging from the number of modern tracks offered here (particularly on Disc 3, subtitled ‘Today’s Hits’), the execs who put this set together had a crisis of confidence about the whole endeavour and tried to make the album serve an additional purpose as a sampler for Word’s current roster. That particular disc is okay as far as it goes if you are looking for a reminder of how good Group 1 Crew, Stellar Kart and Chris August are while the new signings like Dara Maclean, Patrick Ryan Clark and For King & Country show promise too. Disc 1 (‘The Early Years’) has in fact only one really early track, Jarrell McCracken’s “The Game Of Life” which started the whole Word company off back in 1952 with most of the other stuff coming from the ’70s and ’80s. There are one or two gems, like 2nd Chapter Of Acts’ «Easter Song» and the Imperials’ «Praise The Lord», but they are few and far between. Disc 2 (‘Yesterday’s Favorites’) has some good tracks from Nicole C Mullen, Crystal Lewis, Petra, Fernando Ortega and Rachael Lampa but with no stylistic continuity and no attempt at any kind of chronological order this is a mess of a compilation which fails both as musical history and as albums which can be enjoyed in their entirety. [Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms, January 2012]

> Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/3ffkPlzeSgu7ubSOOH5MP0)

3CD tracklist:

Disc One – The Early Years

1-01. Amy Grant – El-Shaddai – 4:08 (from the album Age to Age, 1982)
1-02. Russ Taff – We Will Stand – 4:37 (from the album Walls of Glass, 1983)
1-03. Benny Hester – When God Ran – 4:59 (from the album Benny from Here, 1985)
1-04. B.J. Thomas – Home Where I Belong – 3:04 (from the album Home Where I Belong, 1976)
1-05. The Imperials – Praise the Lord – 3:29 (from the album Heed the Call, 1979)
1-06. Randy Stonehill – Shut De Do – 2:45 (from the album Equator, 1983)
1-07. David Meece – We Are the Reason – 4:38 (from the album Are You Ready?, 1980)
1-08. Leon Patillo – Flesh of My Flesh – 4:42 (from the album Don’t Give In, 1981)
1-09. Evie – Special Delivery – 4:23 (from the album Never the Same, 1979)
1-10. 2nd Chapter of Acts – Easter Song – 2:26 (from the album With Footnotes, 1974)
1-11. Honeytree – Clean Before My Lord – 2:58 (from the album Honeytree, 1973)
1-12. Randy Matthews – I Wish We’d All Been Ready – 2:09 (from the album Wish We’d All Been Ready, 1971)
1-13. George Beverly Shea – I’d Rather Have Jesus – 2:53
1-14. Kurt Kaiser & Wanda Geddie Brickner – Oh, How He Loves You and Me – 2:10
1-15. Mike Curb Congregation – Lord, Achieve Thy Holy Purpose – 4:19
1-16. The Happy Goodmans – The Lighthouse – 3:11
1-17. Cliff Barrows & The Gang – He’s Everything to Me – 2:22
1-18. Jarrell McCracken – The Game of Life (Excerpt) – 0:21

Disc Two – Yesterday’s Favorites

2-01. Sixpence None the Richer – Kiss Me (Top Ten Edit) – 3:28 (from the album Sixpence None the Richer, 1997)
2-02. Randy Travis – Three Wooden Crosses – 3:21 (from the album )
2-03. Nicole C. Mullen – Redeemer (Top Ten Edit) – 4:56 (from the album Nicole C. Mullen, 2000)
2-04. Jaci Velasquez – On My Knees – 3:48 (from the album Heavenly Place, 1996)
2-05. Rachael Lampa – Blessed – 4:04 (from the album Live for You, 2000)
2-06. Salvador – Heaven (Top Ten Edit) – 3:50 (from the album )
2-07. Crystal Lewis – People Get Ready…Jesus Is Comin’ – 6:02 (from the album Beauty for Ashes, 1996)
2-08. Sandi Patty & Wayne Watson – Another Time, Another Place – 5:27 (from the album Another Time… Another Place, 1990)
2-09. First Call – Undivided – 4:15 (from the album Undivided, 1986)
2-10. Petra – Beyond Belief – 5:04 (from the album Beyond Belief, 1990)
2-11. 4Him – Surrender – 4:20 (from the album Walk On, 2001)
2-12. Anointed – Revive Us – 4:08 (from the album Anointed, 1999)
2-13. Cindy Morgan – I Will Be Free – 4:53 (from the album A Reason to Live, 1993)
2-14. David Phelps – Behold the Lamb (Top Ten Edit) – 5:03
2-15. Fernando Ortega – This Good Day – 4:19 (from the album Home, 2000)
2-16. Phil Keaggy – Everywhere I Look – 3:51 (from the album Crimson and Blue, 1993)
2-17. Shirley Caesar – Heaven – 4:50 (from the album )

Disc Three – Today’s Hits

3-01. Francesca Battistelli – Free to Be Me – 3:28
3-02. Chris August – Starry Night – 3:23
3-03. Sidewalk Prophets – The Words I Would Say – 3:18
3-04. Big Daddy Weave – Every Time I Breathe – 3:46
3-05. NEEDTOBREATHE – Washed By the Water – 3:28
3-06. Point of Grace – How You Live (Acoustic Version) – 4:31
3-07. Mark Schultz – I Am – 3:57
3-08. Meredith Andrews – You’re Not Alone – 4:05
3-09. Building 429 – Glory Defined (Top Ten Edit) – 3:22
3-10. Group 1 Crew – Keys to the Kingdom – 4:00
3-11. BarlowGirl – Never Alone (Best Of) – 4:29
3-12. By the Tree – Beautiful One – 4:01
3-13. Stellar Kart – Me and Jesus (Top Ten Edit) – 3:24
3-14. pureNRG – It’s All About You – 2:50
3-15. Dara Maclean – Suitcases – 3:32
3-16. Patrick Ryan Clark – Mercy – 4:09
3-17. for KING & COUNTRY – Light It Up – 3:32

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