(February 18, 2025). Back in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, rock musicians were reconciling their music with their spirituality in ways never before seen in modern pop history. Bible-based musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and Godspell (1971) broke down the barriers between rock-and-roll and Christianity and sent their soundtracks and key songs to the top of the pop charts, joining one-off gospel-pop hits by Edwin Hawkins Choir (“Oh Happy Day”), Norman Greenbaum (“Spirit in the Sky”), George Harrison (“My Sweet Lord”), the Doobie Brothers (“Jesus Is Just Alright”), the Staple Singers (“I’ll Take You There”), and so many others as the era’s biggest pop star testimonials.
But from 1975 through the Eighties, rockers largely put down their Bibles and stuck with more secular themes in popular music: love, sex, dancing, and rock-and-roll, with the occasional ponderings about the meaning of life and the happenings of the world quenching our spiritual pop palette.
Then in late 1990, Bette Midler released what this blogger considers her best song: “From A Distance,” a million-selling No. 2 smash that unflinchingly declared “God is watching us!” — a refrain heard around the world. And thus began 1991, a year filled with big hit songs referring to, inspired by, praying to, or pondering the existence of God. Whether they were borrowing lines from Bible verses or anointed by full gospel choirs, a significant portion of that year’s pop hits made 1991 seem like 1971 all over again. In fact, given the sheer number of spiritually themed songs charting that year, it may be the most divine year in pop history.
Here’s a list of 16 hits that charted in 1991 and a brief description of what made them so anointed (in no particular order):
High-Charting Hymns – Direct Calls to the Divine…
These songs had explicit religious themes, either invoking God directly, borrowing from scripture, or serving as outright prayers:
“Love…Thy Will Be Done” – Martika
Leave it to Prince to take a female protégé — in this case, Martika — and elevate her from the cautionary kiddie-like, anti-drug warnings of 1989’s No. 1 “Toy Soldiers” to a woman cloaked in God’s love on 1991’s “Love…Thy Will Be Done.” Martika has said this No. 10-peaking Hot 100 hit started off as a prayer; it’s love personified as God, or vice-versa — and it is love’s will that Martika is reckoning with. It was another way of saying “Love, do with me what you want, I will no longer fight that which is ordained.” That the song’s title line was borrowed from The Lord’s Prayer and the music video contained several biblical references (crucifixes, white doves, portrait of Mother Mary) channeled co-writer Prince’s early tendencies to blur the lines separating sexuality and Christianity. An underrated masterpiece.
“Mercy Mercy Me”/“I Want You” – Robert Palmer
In 1991, Robert Palmer took two Marvin Gaye classics and joined them to create this top 20 hit medley. It’s the “Mercy Mercy Me” part that covered Gaye’s spiritual prayer for God’s mercy on man because of our greed and disregard for the earth (the original song was subtitled “The Ecology”). While “Mercy,” written solely by Gaye, had spiritual roots in the seeking of God’s mercy, it doubled as a plea for mortal mankind to have compassion for the environment as well as the state of the world in general.
“That’s What Love Is For” – Amy Grant
Amy Grant, who at the time this song was peaking had to defend her music in a Christian humor and satire magazine (in an article titled “Mother Theresa Goes Rock”), is arguably the most accomplished Christian music artist of any featured on this list. Therein lies the irony that this song is arguably one of the least gospel-centric tunes here. Her 1991 album Heart in Motion topped the Billboard Contemporary Christian albums chart longer than any other that year, and its singles were highly successful on the Hot 100, including her biggest, the No. 1 “Baby Baby,” its followup, “Every Heartbeat,” which peaked at No. 2, and “That’s What Love Is For,” a No. 7 pop hit that was the only one of the album’s singles to also be serviced to Christian radio.
“Place in This World” – Michael W. Smith
The crossover allure of many Christian pop singles of the early ‘90s was their ability to use relatable imagery to connote religious themes without sounding preachy. Smith, Christian music’s best-selling artist who has regularly toured with Amy Grant and is second only to Grant in career No. 1 Christian albums, begins his lone top ten pop hit, “Place in This World,” with the following visual: “The wind is moving, but I am standing still.” It was an acknowledgment that the Holy Spirit was moving him but the protagonist’s hesitance to follow it was palpable. He later concedes in the chorus, “I need Your light to help me find my place in this world.” The song peaked at No. 6 in July 1991 and is said to have helped many people give their lives to Christ.
“Show Me The Way” – Styx
Legendary Chicago rock band Styx became power ballad kings with big hit songs like “Lady,” “Babe,” “The Best of Times,” and “Don’t Let It End.” But none of them had the protagonist pondering his faith like 1991’s “Show Me The Way,” the song that begins and ends with the lines “Every night I say a prayer in the hopes that there’s a heaven.” Singer Dennis DeYoung apparently wrote this as a hymn of encouragement, and it arguably was the song that benefited most from America’s very short Gulf War involvement in January and February 1991, particularly after sound bites about the war were mixed into this song’s intro and bridge by radio DJs, which no doubt helped propel it to No. 3 on the Hot 100 that March.
“Pray” – MC Hammer
Believe it or not, this single was the highest peaking of the songs from Hammer’s blockbuster 1990 LP Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em, which still ranks as the rap album with the longest No. 1 run on the Billboard 200 (21 weeks). On this No. 2 Hot 100 hit, Hammer put it directly, “Oh Lord, we pray… we got to pray just to make it today.” Though the song, which heavily sampled Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” peaked in late 1990, it hung around the Hot 100 long enough to spend all of January 1991 on that list and qualify for this one.
The Gospel-Infused Hits
Each of these tracks brought a gospel sensibility to mainstream radio, whether through choir arrangements, inspirational messages, or anthemic crescendos:
“Miracle” – Whitney Houston
While containing no direct references to God or any specific miracles, the gospel-rooted Whitney Houston once told Jet Magazine that when she sang this top 10 hit — the third released from her third LP, I’m Your Baby Tonight — she thought about “the air we breathe, the earth we live on,… our children… things God put here for us to have, things that we need and we take for granted.” She continued, “I think all of these things are miracles and we should take better care of them.” Enough said.
“Cry For Help” – Rick Astley
Astley ditched the dance ditties with Stock, Aiken and Waterman for this gospel-tinged ballad from his third album, 1991’s Free. While the lyrical message could easily be interpreted as a divine one with Astley’s protagonist compelling the subject to put their “trust in me,” what really took it to church were the choir backing vocals arranged by gospel legend Andrae Crouch. The song was the last top ten hit for Astley in America.
“Coming Out of The Dark” – Gloria Estéfan
There was no Andrae Crouch directing it, but the backing vocals on Gloria Estéfan’s “Coming Out of the Dark” — her first new music since the tour bus accident that almost claimed her life and started a long journey to recovery a year earlier — were definitely gospel choir-like. There’s no doubt that gospel touch helped send the song to No. 1 in March 1991, making it her third and final chart topper in the States. In the 34 years since, it has been called one of the “top inspirational pop hits of all time.”
“Power of Love/Love Power” – Luther Vandross
No God references here, but see the above comments about gospel-like choir vocals and then put that on steroids. Luther and the dozen or so backing vocalists — including former Chic contributors Fonzi Thornton and Michelle Cobbs, plus other big names like Tawatha Agee, Lisa Fischer and Cissy Houston — definitely took us to church on this ode to love and its almighty power.
“All the Man That I Need” – Whitney Houston
This song may have been written as a romantic love ballad, but that changed when Houston interpreted it for 1990’s I’m Your Baby Tonight album. Hers was a No. 1 pop and soul remake of the tune first recorded — albeit unsuccessfully — by disco legend Linda Clifford (for the 1980 movie Fame) and then by Sister Sledge a few years later. The church-honed Houston left little doubt Whom she was personifying in her version of the song, especially in its video where she’s constantly looking to the heavens and a huge choir suddenly emerges in the song’s final, anthemic chorus.
Questioning Faith, Seeking Answers
These songs explored themes of spirituality, doubt, and the complexities of belief — sometimes through satire, sometimes with raw emotional honesty:
“All This Time” – Sting
Sting lost his father in 1989. Two years later came this top 10 hit that doubled as an ode to his dad (“the old man”; with Sting taking on the persona of son “Billy”) and a commentary on organized religion and the Catholic traditions that accompany death. It even paraphrased the Bible in the third verse: “Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the earth; better to be poor than be a fat man in the eye of the needle,” which mocked Matthew 20:24: “And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
“Signs” – Tesla
“And the sign says, ‘Everybody welcome come in, kneel down and pray.’ But then they passed around a plate and I didn’t have a penny to pay. So I got me a pen and paper, and I made up my own little sign. I said ‘Thank you, Lord, for thinking about me, I’m alive and doing fine.’” Earlier, the lyrics of this remake of the 1971 Five Man Electrical Band hit invoked God and sinners in admonishing a man who’d put up a threatening “trespassing” sign. It may have been on the fringes, but “Signs” had enough God references to anoint this list.
“Sadeness (Part 1)” – Enigma
Another Bible-quoting top five hit from 1991, this tune by the German outfit Enigma begins with a Gregorian chant, “Procedamus in pace, in nomine Christi, amen,” which translates to “Let us proceed in peace, in the name of Christ, amen.” Everything that happens afterwards is an interrogation of Marquis de Sade, an 18th century French writer imprisoned for his sexual proclivities. The song, mostly sung in French, asks Sade about the “gospel of evil” and questions his faith before declaring “if you are against God, you are against man” and finally asking, “are you diabolical or divine?” Deep and danceable!
Something to Believe In” – Poison
If the Styx “hymn” from a few months later was a prayer of encouragement, then this hair metal band’s top five smash from December 1990 was the epitome of a man questioning his own faith, especially after its been tested by so much loss, pain and, yes, deceitful televangelism. On “Something To Believe In,” lead singer Brett Michaels tackles all of the above while directly addressing the Lord and ultimately taking it to the titular refrain, “Give me something to believe in, if there’s a Lord above. And give me something to believe in… Oh, Lord arise.” It was Poison’s last top ten hit.
Watching From Above…God Observes Humanity’s Struggles
This last tune stands alone as the most overt declaration of a divine presence, presenting a distant yet omniscient God observing humanity’s struggles:
“From A Distance” – Bette Midler
Whether one believes in an immanent God or a transcendental one, Bette Midler’s 1990 cover of this 1987 Nancy Griffith gem (penned by Julie Gold) asserted that “God is watching us,” albeit “From a Distance.” When Midler’s song peaked at No. 2 in December 1990, it graced a top 40 that included the MC Hammer and Poison hits above, which had already peaked. By the time 1991 rolled around, Midler’s song was still strong at No. 3 as the United States’ involvement in the Gulf War began to ramp up, creating a patriotic sentiment that helped make it one of the longest-charting songs of 1990-91.
That’s sixteen songs that contributed to an unexpected spiritual resurgence in popular music during 1991. All were top-20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and all but one reached the top ten. While the first Gulf War along with the ongoing popularity of Christian-pop crossover courtesy of Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant were factors, the religious and gospel-adjacent themes explored by some of pop’s biggest artists suggested that there was more at play.
Something that was indeed divine.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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