Christian has produced albums that have been nominated for nine and won four Grammy Awards. He has also been nominated for seven Gospel Music AssociationDove Awards as an artist, songwriter, and producer, winning five. He has also released sixteen other albums as a solo artist.
Throughout his career, he has written music for many major TV sports events such as the Super Bowl, NCAA finals, The Masters, Olympics, NFL Today, US Open, and many more.
As a record producer, he is best known for starting Amy Grant's music career by signing her at age 16 to his production company, and calling Myrrh Records executive Stan Moser, to advise he was making an album with Grant as part of a long-term production agreement Christian had signed with Myrrh Records. Christian produced her first album and acted as executive producer for her second, handing over production duties to his college friend Brown Bannister. He owned her songs until 1997 when they were sold to Gaylord Entertainment.
As the first artist signed to Boardwalk Records owned by Neil Bogart, with Bob Gaudio (Four Seasons) producing, he recorded "I Want You, I Need You," which peaked at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1981 and reached the No. 8 on Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart. "I Want You, I Need You" was a number one song in some countries outside the US. Cheryl Ladd sings back-up on the song along with many other artists on the album including Christopher Cross, Nigel Olsson, Frankie Valli, Dann Huff, Tommy Funderburk, Bill Champlin, Paul Jackson, Amy Holland, and Robbie Patton. Other artists on Boardwalk were Ringo Starr, Joan Jett, Mike Love (Beach Boys), and Night Ranger. Robert Kardashian (the Kardashians' father) was his best friend, manager and was responsible for Chris signing with Boardwalk Records. A second hit, a medley of the 1968 Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell Motown songs "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By" sung with Amy Holland, hit No. 21 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 88 on the Hot 100 in 1982.
In 1992, he founded HSH Educational Media with his brother Brad. He executive produced and wrote the music for the children's series Gerbert, which aired on PBS and what is now ABC Family for over 10 years. His company continues to own and license the Gerbert shows and music. The Gerbert TV series won an ACE award for best Pre-School Show.
Christian purchased The Studios at Las Colinas in 1992 with partner Steve Jarchow. Ross Perot Jr. bought Jarchow's interest in 1993. Christian and Perot purchased the acreage around the Studios Complex selling their interest in the studio and the remaining land to Fox Sports Southwest in 2003.
In 2015, he became the vice-chairman and managing partner for the WNBA's Dallas Wings.[3]
He was inducted into the West Texas Music Hall of Fame,[4] as well as the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2007. He is listed among the Distinguished Alumni of Abilene Christian University (class of 1973).[5] His family was a founding family of The Covenant School in Dallas.[6]
America are a British-American rock band formed in London in 1970 by English-born American Dewey Bunnell and Americans Dan Peek and Gerry Beckley. The trio met as sons of US Air Force personnel stationed in London, where they began performing live. Achieving significant popularity in the 1970s, the trio was famous for its close vocal harmonies and light acoustic folk rock sound. The band released a string of hit albums and singles, many of which found airplay on pop and soft rock stations.
Deborah Anne Boone is an American singer, author, and actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life", which spent ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year. Boone later focused her music career on country music, resulting in the 1980 No. 1 country hit "Are You on the Road to Lovin' Me Again". In the 1980s, she recorded Christian music which garnered her four top 10 Contemporary Christian albums as well as two more Grammys. Throughout her career, Boone has appeared in several musical theater productions and has co-authored many children's books with her husband Gabriel Ferrer.
Boardwalk Records is a record label founded by Neil Bogart in 1980, after PolyGram acquired Casablanca Records from him.
Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s.
Paul Milton Jackson Jr. is an American fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist.
Michael S. Omartian is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, keyboardist, and music producer. He produced number-one records in three consecutive decades. He has earned 11 Grammy Awards nominations and won three. He spent five years on the A&R staff of ABC/Dunhill Records as a producer, artist, and arranger; then was hired by Warner Bros. Records as an in-house producer and A&R staff member. Omartian moved from Los Angeles to Nashville in 1993, where he served on the Board of Governors of the Recording Academy, and has helped to shape the curriculum for the first master's degree program in the field of Music Business at Belmont University.
Home Sweet Home Records is a record label, based in Dallas, Texas.
Daniel Milton Peek was an American musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the co-founder of the band America and a "pioneer" in contemporary Christian music.
Matthew Ward is one of the pioneers of the Jesus music genre, later to be called contemporary Christian music. He is best known as a member of the trio 2nd Chapter of Acts, in which he sang and performed with his sisters Annie Herring and Nellie (Ward) Greisen. During his musical career with the 2nd Chapter of Acts from 1973 to 1988, he also recorded solo albums.
Elliott Brown Bannister III is a contemporary Christian music (CCM) producer and songwriter.
Brian Keith Thomas is an American record producer and songwriter from Franklin, Tennessee. He founded the record label and artist management company Levosia Entertainment in 2003. He has received two Grammy Awards from six nominations.
Lamon Records is an indie record label that was established in North Carolina before moving to Nashville, Tennessee. Lamon Records concentrates its efforts in country, bluegrass, alternative and Americana music, as well as all forms of Christian music.
Tasty is the second solo album released by recording artist Patti LaBelle, her second solo album with Epic Records. Compared to the success of her debut album, released the previous year, the album performed only modestly well but featured the popular tunes "Eyes in the Back of My Head", which became a club hit, the Latin soul flavored "Teach Me Tonight ", the David Lasley composition "I See Home" and the ballad "Little Girls". "Eyes in the Back of My Head" became an international hit reaching the top five of the Italian singles chart. The album also featured covers of songs by Boz Scaggs, The Drifters and Roy Hamilton in addition to a couple songs co-written by LaBelle herself, including "Teach Me Tonight" and "Quiet Time".
During his career as a singer and composer, Pat Boone released 63 singles in the United States, mostly during the 1950s and early 1960s when Boone was a successful pop singer and, for a time, the second-biggest charting artist behind Elvis Presley according to Billboard. Boone has had over 25 singles reach the top 20 on the U.S. singles charts, including the number-one hits "Ain't That a Shame" (1955), "I Almost Lost My Mind" (1956), "Don't Forbid Me" (1957), "Love Letters in the Sand" (1957), "April Love" (1957), and "Moody River" (1961). "I'll Be Home" (1956) reached No. 1 in the UK. He set a Billboard record, which he still holds, for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more songs each week.
The 23rd Annual GMA Dove Awards were held on April 9, 1992, recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 1991. The show was held in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by Marilyn McCoo and Glen Campbell.
The 15th Annual GMA Dove Awards were held on 1984 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 1983. The show was held in Nashville, Tennessee. This is the first televised award show, broadcast on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Billy Sprague is an American Christian pop singer, songwriter, and producer.
All Things Are Possible is the solo debut album by Dan Peek after his departure from the popular soft rock band America. The album was released in 1979 and was a hit on contemporary Christian music radio stations. It was released by Pat Boone's label Lamb & Lion Records and was produced by Chris Christian, who also helped with the songwriting and contributed acoustic guitar and backing vocals on the album.
Our Christmas is a 1990 compilation Christmas album released jointly on Reunion Records and Word Records. This is the second of a three-album trilogy from Word Records using the word "Our" following the release of Our Hymns (1989) and the upcoming Our Family (1992). Like Our Hymns,Our Christmas features Christmas songs done by CCM artists' interpretation and styles of music. Highlights include a duet with Amy Grant and Sandi Patti singing a medley of "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "One Small Child" recorded by David Meece, a song he wrote back in 1971 and has since been covered by many Christian artists including Evie, First Call and Rebecca St. James. Our Christmas peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Top Christian Albums chart.
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