A few weeks ago we started our journey into the history of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) to point out that contrary to what many have believed, CCM started a long time before the arrival of Amy Grant. If you are a first-time reader to my columns, and are curious about the previous two installments, be sure read my other columns.

But before we go back to Amy and the late 70's, I have to admit that I made a mistake in my last column when I stated that the Beatles' "Let It Be" was an example of one of a number of songs that had Christian references in them. And who would be the one to point out that grave error on my part? None other than the ultimate Beatles' fan, Helene McHendry. I don't think that there's a song that the group recorded that my wife of 29 years doesn't have on a CD.

So let me fill you in on the song, "Let It Be," to set the record straight. And this info, by the way, is compliments of Helene and the web encyclopedia Wikipedia. "Let It Be" was written by Paul McCartney and produced by the Beatles. It was released as a single and later on the album Let It Be in 1970.

Some, including me, did interpret the song's lyrics as being a hymn to the Virgin Mary, but that was not the case. The song was actually written as a tribute by McCartney after he had a dream about his mother, Mary, who died when he was only fourteen. At first, fellow Beatle John Lennon was allegedly critical of the song, assuming that "Mother Mary" was merely an allusion to Christianity. And even though it may not be a Christian reference, the "let it be" quote by Mary quotes the Gospel of Luke, 1:38.

Back to Amy. She was first discovered when she was working in a Nashville recording studio erasing tapes, and was signed to a Word contract at the age of 15. She had her first Christian radio hit in 1978, and her album in 1982, Age to Age, was the first solo Christian artist to reach album sales of more than 500,000 units ("gold").

Grant was the first artist to break through the barrier to the secular world, and it could be argued that she was the first that really had the star potential to reach a mass audience. Even though the album Age to Age did very well, it wasn't until her 1985 release Unguarded that would push her onto the mainstream music scene. Her Top 40 song, "Find a Way" made her the first Contemporary Christian artist to actually have a pop crossover hit. Other Christian artists attempted to match Grant's success in the 1980's, but none even came close.

One of the reasons in that 80's period was two major scandals featuring high profile evangelicals. In 1987, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were in a huge scandal involving their finances and sexual issues, bringing his PTL Ministries to collapse.

And then there was Jimmy Swaggert. Personally, I loved his music and can still remember him playing the piano, singing, and preaching here in Denver at the Coliseum. He too fell by the wayside, however, when he had an encounter with a prostitute near New Orleans, and his tearful apology on national television was played many times over.

Swaggert had a cousin named Jerry Lee Lewis, and it didn't help that the evangelist was very critical of rock'n'roll music for years, including Christian rock' n' roll. Many cast all Christians and evangelicals into the murky pit during those years, including musicians.

Compared to the earlier CCM, the music of the 1980's was far more moderate. Men of Christian faith were entering the political arena, and even though televangelist Pat Robertson announced he was running for the Presidency in 1988, his bid faded even though he had early success in Republican caucuses. So what were evangelicals and CCM artists to do? Retreat to their own comfort level or try even harder to take on the secular world with their ideas about Jesus?

There was one artist that stood out in this period, and that was a man named Steve Taylor (picture above), a preacher's son whose specialty was satire. His song "We Don't Need No Color Code", an attack on Bob Jones University's segregated dating policies, stirred up trouble. There was even more controversy four years later when he came out with "I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good," a song about an antiabortion extremist that was mistaken by some listeners as a defense of those that were bombing abortion clinics. If anything, Taylor's presence on the Christian scene showed many CCM's diversity and willingness to allow dissent.

Not everyone agreed with Taylor or his critique of American evangelical subculture. Some described him as a "loose cannon". Not all attempts at CCM failed, however, and a Canadian folk singer/songwriter named Bruce Cockburn was a good example of this. Since the mid-1970's, Cockburn recorded albums that had highly literate personal testimonies to his Christian faith. His 1981 album Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws was successful. Other artists made reference to the power of Jesus Christ, including Ireland's U2. One of their early hits, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in 1983 had specific references to God.

There has always been a conflict between "ministry" and "entertainment" when it comes to CCM, and Taylor had this to say: "In my career, you can see skid marks from trying to ride down that very slippery road." In the case of Taylor, there was a conscious decision to create entertainment rooted in Christian values. Others saw Taylor's attempts as a watering-down of a Christian musician's mission and went in the opposite direction.

The attempt to go in the opposite direction of Taylor took root in the late 1980's, and it became known as "Praise and Worship" music, much of which we still sing in our churches every Sunday all over the world. That will bring us up to an artist named Steve Camp, who became a factor in the late 1980's and early 90's. And that is where we will begin our next segment in two weeks.

Again, my thanks to my wife Helene for her contribution, and to Barry Alfonso whose book The Billboard Guide To Contemporary Christian Music is a "must-have" for fans of CCM.