Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 194

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back 40+ years. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday November 01ST 2020:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 10 Rise Up (Lazarus) Cain
2 2 9 No Hold On Me Matty Mullins
3 3 5 Jericho Andrew Ripp
4 5 9 This Is What We Live For Big Daddy Weave
5 4 12 God So Loved We The Kingdom
6 6 4 Truth Be Told Matthew West
7 7 5 Start Right Here Casting Crowns
8 9 9 Into The Sea (It’s Gonna Be OK) Tasha Layton
9 10 4 You Keep Hope Alive Mandisa Ft. Jon Reddick
10 1 Evidence Josh Baldwin

# 1 This Week In:
2019 – “Fear No More” – Building 429
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “Different” – Micah Tyler

It’s a quiet chart week with no change in the Top 3. Taylor, Madison, Logan, Matty, and Andrew have a firm hold at the top, and I’m interested to see what the next week holds for my 3 favorite songs on the radio. K-LOVE plays them about every 2 hours and 20 minutes around the clock. It’s actually fun to predict when I’ll hear any one of them again based on when they were last played. If I hear one of those 3 hits at 9:20 AM then I know that I’ll hear it again at 11:40 AM.

Josh Baldwin is back with his 3RD hit on my chart. He sees the evidence of God’s goodness – all over his life – all over his life. He sees God’s promises in fulfillment – all over his life – all over his life.

“Evidence” is my 182ND chart hit over the past 194 weeks. Next month after my 200TH chart is revealed I’ll present a special cumulative chart on Tuesday December 15TH featuring my Top 20 hits of the past 200 weeks. 

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends !  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
1980s Blogging Career Driving Life Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Every 2ND, 3RD, and 4TH Friday of the month I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 20, or 30 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 5TH Friday of the month, so it’s a special. Back in 1985 I was an 18-year-old USAF Airman Basic living in a dorm at Chanute AFB near Rantoul Illinois. I was there for technical training related to my future job. During those last days of October of 1985 I was still there, but I shouldn’t have been. You see I was held-back. While my 3 classmates moved on to their next destination I was still there with my instructor. I failed the final exam (barely). I didn’t study hard enough for it. Perhaps I partied just a little bit too much during the days and nights leading-up to the final exam.

So my instructor summarized the material of the past 12 weeks, quizzed me on it over and over again, and prepared me to take the final exam again. I passed it on the redo, and I was soon on my way out of that dorm, off the base, and on the road in my 1980 Chevy Citation. I drove 700 miles eastward across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and into Northern Virginia (my home-of-record at the time).

These were the hottest hits in the land during that memorable 700-mile drive – exactly 35 years ago this weekend – for the week ending Sunday October 27TH 1985:

  1. “Saving All My Love For You” – Whitney Houston
  2. “Part-Time Lover” – Stevie Wonder
  3. “Take On Me” – A-Ha
  4. “Miami Vice Theme” – Jan Hammer
  5. “Head Over Heels” – Tears For Fears

That was the longest solo road-trip of my life (up to that point). That was in my very first car that I didn’t get to keep long enough, as I would soon be on my way overseas to The United Kingdom. (That car would eventually be sold by my Dad.)

Big changes are coming to RETRO starting next Friday. I’ll be removing 20 years ago from the monthly rotation, and I’ll be adding 25 years ago and 35 years ago. My hit music chart began 35 years ago next month in England, and 25 years ago this month it was resurrected after a 3-year hiatus. The beginnings of both of these distinct eras are intriguing, and I’m looking forward to looking back at these music memories of my life. 

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Blogging Christian Driving God History Music Radio Travel

My Favorite Music Decade

Greetings my friends. It’s Thursday October 29TH 2020, and it’s the start of another 4-day weekend of blogging – today, tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest. That’s my day with God’s Word. I also don’t blog on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Those are just my days off from this blog. There are a few Tuesdays each year when I do blog for a special occasion. The next one will be in December.

I normally don’t blog about music on Thursdays because I already do so on Fridays and Mondays, but I’ll make an exception this week.

When I was in the Wichita Falls Texas area last month we were listening to 50s On 5 on SiriusXM in my Uncle’s big Ford pick-up truck. He’ll be 90 in a couple of months, so the 1950s were his decade for pop music. He was 18 to 28 back then, so he heard those great hits on some great old-fashioned AM radio stations. Every so often he would hear a song that he wasn’t too fond of, so he would switch it over to 60s On 6. From there he would switch it over to the Love music channel. That wouldn’t last long, as it was soon back to 50s On 5.

My brother is 45. His favorite decades channel is 80s On 8 – followed closely behind by 90s On 9. That’s what we listened to in his SUV while driving around the northeastern suburbs of Dallas Texas. Every so often he’d switch it over to 70s On 7 – knowing that it’s my favorite music decade.

I loved ’70s music back in the ’70s when it was brand new on the radio. I was 2 to 12 during the ’70s. I remember listening to Top 40 radio for almost as long as I’ve been alive. I remember those childhood years in Prince Georges County Maryland with my very first radio – listening to WWDC AM-1260 out of Washington D.C. – and also WPGC AM-1580 (and then later on FM-95.5). Those were the best pop music years of my life !

But then 1980 hit, and I all but abandoned ’70s music for the next 30 years. Top 40 music continued on, and the ’70s seemed so outdated to me. It also brought back some bad memories for me. I wanted to leave those behind forever.

But then something weird happened in 2010. After 3½ years of listening to only Christian pop, rock, hip hop, and dance music from the day of salvation – I started listening to a local South Florida “oldies” station that was playing ’70s music on my coworker’s radio at her desk. I began reminiscing about the decade that I had left behind. I soon went all ’70s all the time, and that lasted nearly 7 years until 2017. It was actually during those 7 years that my weekly hit music chart was on its longest hiatus since its inception 35 years ago.

I still listen to ’70s music today alongside Christian pop music. My two favorite radio stations are both nationwide – K-LOVE and ’70s On 7. My iPod Shuffles that I listen to at work contain 305 (my area code) of my greatest hits of all-time (interchangeable), and almost 40% of them are currently from the ’70s.

The music that used to remind me of the bad times of my childhood now remind me of the good times. There were so many happy days back then, and now I see the light. The memorable music was the soundtrack of my life and times as a toddler, child, and preteen.

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 193

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back 40+ years. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday October 25TH 2020:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 9 Rise Up (Lazarus) Cain
2 2 8 No Hold On Me Matty Mullins
3 8 4 Jericho Andrew Ripp
4 3 11 God So Loved We The Kingdom
5 4 8 This Is What We Live For Big Daddy Weave
6 6 3 Truth Be Told Matthew West
7 7 4 Start Right Here Casting Crowns
8 5 10 Who Am I NeedToBreathe
9 9 8 Into The Sea (It’s Gonna Be OK) Tasha Layton
10 10 3 You Keep Hope Alive Mandisa Ft. Jon Reddick

# 1 This Week In:
2019 – “Fear No More” – Building 429
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “Word Of Life” – Jeremy Camp

Siblings Taylor, Madison, and Logan Cain spend a 2ND week atop my chart with “Rise Up (Lazarus)”. It’s also Top 5 nationwide at big-market Christian radio where it records more increased plays (+229) than any other song on the chart (by far).

Check out the official music video for “Rise Up (Lazarus)” below, or over on YouTube. It was filmed at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.

My biggest climber this week is courtesy of Andrew Ripp. He’s up big – 5 notches to # 3 – with “Jericho”. He also cowrote “Rescue Story” with Zach Williams – a # 1 smash from earlier this year.

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends !  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries