Songs

Rich Mullins | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 30, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Reunion
• ASIN: B0000004TR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,295 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #39 in Music > Christian > Country & Bluegrass

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This 1996 collection of Rich Mullins's finest work is a must-have for any Christian-music fan. A quick glance at the song list will make one marvel over the significant influence this masterful songwriter has in the CCM world. "Sing Your Praise to the Lord," Mullins's first recorded work, helped launch Amy Grant's superstar career. "Awesome God" has become an anthem sung by youth in many churches in America. But let's not forget the plaintive "Calling Out Your Name" or "Hold Me Jesus," two oft-covered numbers that further testify to Mullins's genius. The praise-and-worship theme that flows throughout Songs aptly captures the sincere spirit of this well-missed man. --Michael Lyttle

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing but Classics September 20, 2002

By Mark Baker HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

When this CD was released, I was a marginal Rich Mullins fan. I enjoyed what was on the radio, but thought some of his other stuff was a little strange. But I was thrilled to get this CD because it had all the songs I loved on it.

It starts out with a new version of "Sing Your Praise to the Lord." Originally recorded by Amy Grant, it was the first hit for Rich, its songwriter. I prefer this version because of the wonderful bridge that Rich has put back in the song.

And, what collection of Rich's best would be complete without his two signature songs? Any Christian familiar with Christian music only through church would still be familiar with "Awesome God" and the chorus from "Sometimes by Step."

But there are so many great songs here. I've always loved the humorous challenge of "Screen Door." "While the Nations Rage" is a great reminder of God's power. And I've been drawn to "Hold Me Jesus" since I first heard it. It's an absolutely wonderful song of surrender to the One who will be there throughout this life.

While not every song in this collection is a personal favorite, they are all major songs from Rich's career and deserve to be here.

And me? After Rich's death, I started to appreciate his music much more then I did while he was alive. I now own all his CD's. But this remains a favorite. Any Rich Mullins fan will love having his best in one place. And any Christian music fan will recognize many of these great songs stuffed full of timeless truth. This CD belongs in every home.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Awesome God gave Rich Mullins an awesome talent! February 9, 2000

By Gerald Lamb

Format:Audio CD

This album has touched my life in such a profound way that I don't know where to begin describing it. I've been listening to Christian music for quite some time now, and I was already familiar with the songs "Awesome God" and "Sing Your Praise to the Lord". Still, it wasn't until this past Christmas, when my brother gave me the "Songs" anthology CD, that I became a real fan of Rich Mullins's music. When Rich was tragically killed in a car accident in September 1997, the sense of loss among his fans and within the Christian music community was something I couldn't truly appreciate. But over the past month, as I have listened to this CD time and again, that sense of loss has finally hit home. I'll probably always regret the fact that I never truly appreciated Rich Mullins while he was alive, but at least I can enjoy the work that he has left behind. And I can take comfort in the fact that his legacy will continue to touch the lives of many for generations to come. For those of you who are just now discovering Rich Mullins (like me) and want to sample his music, this is a great introductory CD. But I encourage you to listen to his other albums as well, because he recorded a lot of other great songs, too many in fact to be able to fit them all into an anthology. So listen, enjoy, and then come back for more!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The great poet of the faith. March 30, 2008

By Joel Munyon

Format:Audio CD

Rich Mullins was one of those rare birds, the type of Christian who's vision was incorruptible by the makings of man-made religion and the tasty, salted morsels of idealistic micowavable faith. He was resolute, not on the things many pious church mice of our day are, but on the idea that grace has never abandoned us, that it is a very real and passionate force in this world and that God has not quit on humanity or on us as individuals. To the contrary, Mullins' words echo out from the canyons of heaven: that the faith is larger than our modest grasp of it, and that the glory of Christ transcends past the church pews where comfortable ho-hum believers find themselves rationalizing their own bored view of the cross and heaven.

Mullins hits us with the weeping testimony of a man in longing for his final home in heaven, of a free-liver who transcendentally takes in the glory of God through nature in the fields of Kansas, of a wavering Christian on the verge of free-falling from the cliffs of life as he pleads, "Hold me Jesus, because I'm shaking like a leaf. You have been my King of Glory, now be my Prince of Peace."

Mullins was, in a way, our "through the looking glass" tell-it-like-it-is poet who enabled us to think outside the realm of what we've been so boringly taught by a myriad of smug Sunday school teachers and political believers with a self-created agenda to push. Mullins words on this album radiate a calming lesson: life is to live and the faith is more than something to merely talk about. It is something to weep over, test, relish in, and, if it comes to it, bleed yourself dry for.

There will likely be others who help us to think more clearly on the reality of the greatness of the One, but there will never be one who was so poignant in the way he made us meditate on the immense, always-abounding beauty of a Creator who adores us more than any lover could hope to dream. Here, you will find a poet who spares us the cheap clichés and hits our eardrums with the radiant truth of the Everlasting.