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"The Collection" was Amy Grant's first greatest hits collection, and was released when she was at her peak in the Contemporary Christian music market. After 1986, Grant would move more toward mainstream music beginning with her #1 pop duet with Peter Cetera, "The Next Time I Fall." As a result, "The Collection" contains her biggest Christian music hits and provides an indication of her future crossover into pop music.
The album contains two new tracks, one of which, "Stay For Awhile," has become one of Grant's classic hits in its own right. The album then presents its songs in reverse chronological order, beginning with "Find A Way" from 1985's "Unguarded" (which was also the singer's first Top 40 pop hit) and ending with "Father's Eyes" from 1979's "My Father's Eyes," with the 1983 song "Ageless Medley" closing out the album.
Not only are these songs the prime cuts from Amy Grant's first decade as a recording artist (even if some of her biggest Christian radio hits are left off the album), they are probably the best collection of Christian music from the late '70s and early '80s. During this period, Contemporary Christian music (CCM) was growing from a niche market into a fully professionalized industry. Amy Grant was the first artist to create Christian music that musically sounded fully contemporary, as if it could compete with mainstream music of the day. The songs on "The Collection" sound like more than just the progression of an artist's career; they are indicative of the progression of an entire musical genre over a decade of explosive growth. For anyone who is looking for Amy Grant's best songs from the '70s and early '80s, or someone who is looking to capture the sound and feel of Christian music as a whole from the same time period, there is no better place to look than "The Collection."
The album contains two new tracks, one of which, "Stay For Awhile," has become one of Grant's classic hits in its own right. The album then presents its songs in reverse chronological order, beginning with "Find A Way" from 1985's "Unguarded" (which was also the singer's first Top 40 pop hit) and ending with "Father's Eyes" from 1979's "My Father's Eyes," with the 1983 song "Ageless Medley" closing out the album.
Not only are these songs the prime cuts from Amy Grant's first decade as a recording artist (even if some of her biggest Christian radio hits are left off the album), they are probably the best collection of Christian music from the late '70s and early '80s. During this period, Contemporary Christian music (CCM) was growing from a niche market into a fully professionalized industry. Amy Grant was the first artist to create Christian music that musically sounded fully contemporary, as if it could compete with mainstream music of the day. The songs on "The Collection" sound like more than just the progression of an artist's career; they are indicative of the progression of an entire musical genre over a decade of explosive growth. For anyone who is looking for Amy Grant's best songs from the '70s and early '80s, or someone who is looking to capture the sound and feel of Christian music as a whole from the same time period, there is no better place to look than "The Collection."
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