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The Perrys just sent out an email announcing that “If You New Him” is at the #1 spot on the Singing News December Top 40 chart. The song, penned by Rodney Griffin and Perrys lead singer Joseph Habedank, has only been on the charts three months.

It’s the Perrys’ first #1 single in just over five years—their last #1 was “I Wish I Could Have Been There” in July 2004.

It is also the Perrys’ sixth #1, a number that ties them with the Cathedrals. (The Perrys’ six: Not Even a Stone, By Faith I Can Touch Him Now, Praise God It’s Settled I’m Saved, I Rest My Case at the Cross, I Wish I Could Have Been There, and this one. The Cathedrals’ six: Step Into the Water, Can He Could He Would He, Boundless Love, I Can See the Hand, Wedding Music, and He Made a Change.) The Cathedrals’ six songs, however, spent more months at #1 (19 vs. 8).

It’s a well-deserved honor. Congratulations!

JoyFM, a Southern Gospel station based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will be airing Greater Vision and Legacy Five’s Celebration event in Washington, DC. This will both be available on their local FM channels and online on their website.

I started listening last night but gave up after about twenty minutes, since it seemed groups couldn’t go two full songs without a promo or ad break. The broadcast will be starting at 10 AM today, and I plan to give it another try then.

Update: I must have just hit a particularly rough spot last night. Things are going better today. (The feed hasn’t gone down today, either, another plus.)

Crossroads sent out a press release yesterday announcing their new release-as-needed digital singles policy. It contained a new angle I hadn’t considered when writing my post yesterday:

Although Crossroads has been servicing the radio markets for several months with their monthly digital releases, this is the first time they have released singles on a single song, as needed basis.  This gives the company the ability to release a single within hours of making the decision, instead of having to sometimes wait for days and weeks, as in years past.  It will also allow the company to have more opportunity to get additional singles off each record by eliminating time delays.

Unless Singing News moves to a digital-driven chart, not constrained by waiting for magazine deadlines, allowing for faster chart action—or, for that matter, moves to a bi-monthly or a weekly chart—there probably won’t be much opportunity to speed up single distribution. But being ready to release a single on the spur of a moment could conceivably allow Crossroads to get in one more single per project, even under existing conditions.

Crossroads typically sends singles to radio on a set date, the 25th of each month. They recently moved to a digital distribution system that allows them more flexibility, and yesterday, they put that to use for the first time.

Former Inspirations tenor Archie Watkins will be releasing the debut recording of his solo career with Crossroads. Yesterday, they sent out the first single from that project, a song called “He Will Remember Me,” as a mid-month single release.

This is a worthwhile move, since it will allow more variety on radio stations through the month, with new songs getting introduced throughout the month rather than all at one time. And perhaps, with this being the first try at that system, the novelty will help the single.

Last night, BMI honored 26 Christian radio singles as the “Most Performed Christian Songs on Radio during 2008.” Five Southern Gospel singles were honored:

• I CAN PRAY Nathan Markee Asheville Music Publishing Chris White Music Dove Brothers Sonlite Records
• I’VE BEEN CHANGED Earl Galloway Jeff Steele Christian Taylor Music OSMR Songs Sunset Gallery Music Legacy Five Daywind Records/Daywind Music Group
• LAST NIGHT Marcia Henry Christian Taylor Music Marcia Henry Music Karen Peck Gooch & New River Daywind Records/Daywind Music Group
• NO DOUBT SALVATION Jeff Weeks Pisgah Ridge Music Palmetto State Quartet Sonlite Records
• THE ROCK’S BETWEEN A HARD PLACE AND YOU Dianne Wilkinson Niles Borop Music Kingdom Heirs Sonlite Records

Oddly enough, none of these were Singing News #1s in 2008, but “I Can Pray” was #1 in June/August 2007  and “Last Night” was #1 in October 2007. “The Rock’s Between the Hard Place and You” peaked at #7 in December 2007.

This suggests that, at least according to BMI’s measuring methods, singles have more staying power on Southern Gospel radio than the SN chart reflects.

Two years ago, give or take a month or so, the Collingsworths released their last studio project, We Still Believe. It closed with a ballad penned by Rebecca Peck called “Blessed Be the Lamb.”

Now to rewind the clock a little, this was, I think, a little before the Collingsworths started doing Gaither dates. I was of the opinion at the time that they had the talent, beyond question, to be one of Southern Gospel’s biggest groups, but they were three minutes away from the top. In other words, they needed a good radio song that people would associate with the group.

As soon as I heard “Blessed Be the Lamb,” I thought, for the first time when hearing one of their songs, “This could be the one!” It is a well-penned and well-arranged ballad that fits their group perfectly.

This month, they are finally sending it to radio. So we shall see if I was right.

An interesting little tidbit for the day: Songwriter Rusty Golden, whom I interviewed here, has had three songs he’s written or co-written singled to Southern Gospel Radio. “John in the Jordan” (Signature Sound) was #1 in May 2007. “What Salvation’s Done for Me” (Booth Brothers) is #1 on the April 2009 chart, and I’ve heard that “I Want to Thank You” (Karen Peck and New River) is going to be #1 in May 2009. So his first three singles all went to #1. Not bad!

In the old days, people purchased radios for entertainment purposes. Southern Gospel radio is still entertaining to listen to, but unfortunately, a good deal of that entertainment is unintentional.

Yesterday afternoon, I heard this on the local radio (WLRD, heard at 12:35 PM): “That was [song name] by the Northmen. I don’t know why they call themselves the Northmen – sounds like there is a woman or two in that group.”

Oh, my.

As Joy FM DJ Daniel Britt explains in this post, his station has decided to pull the current Gaither Vocal Band single, “Jesus and John Wayne,” from airplay due to a number of listener complaints. As one might imagine, this has sparked a flurry of posts across the Internet.

The controversy, of course, is over the song’s theme. The money line is at the end of the chorus: “I try to be more like you, Lord, but most days I know I ain’t / I’m somewhere between Jesus and John Wayne.” The songs’ supporters and opponents would probably both agree on what the line is about: It is about the tension between being more like the Lord versus giving in to our old sin nature.

I do understand why those who complain would complain, and I’m going to give a try to explaining why.

Here’s the thing: Many Southern Gospel fans just don’t “dig” subtlety. While CCM attracts more fans of subtle lyrics, for a song to catch on in Southern Gospel, the Gospel message has to be unmistakably clear.

The problem with “Jesus and John Wayne” has nothing to do with the topic addressed or the Hollywood reference. The problem is that the song isn’t that clear whether we are fighting or accepting the fact that most days we’re not as close to conquering our sin nature as we should be.

While the answer is obvious enough for any dedicated Christian that we just assume it refers to fighting our sin nature, it’s not quite clear enough for Southern Gospel radio. And therein likes the conflict.

Of course, what’s past is past. The song is cut and singled. I only post this as a reminder to Southern Gospel songwriter: Be clear. It’s what the genre requires.

It wasn’t that long ago I was posting about an interesting local radio intro to Signature Sound’s #1 hit “Reason Enough.”

I just hit chapter 2 in that saga: The same local station carries the Salem / Solid Gospel feed at nights. About fifteen minutes ago, they played the same song. Afterwards, the overnight announcer (Greg Goodman?) said, “That was Ernie Haase and Signature Sound with the title song from their latest project, Reason Enough.”

Hopefully everyone who heard the song, loved it, and rushed out to the nearest Wal-Mart or Lifeway to pick up a copy can figure out they need to be looking for Dream On.

(Make no mistake, I’m not bashing Solid Gospel at all. They typically have a very high-quality program quality. That’s why this anomaly stood out.)