Faith of Our Fathers (album)

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Faith of Our Fathers
Faith of Our Fathers (album cover 1996).jpg
Compilation album by
Released21 October 1996 [1]
Recorded1996
Genre Christian
LanguageEnglish, Latin, Irish
Label Lunar (Ireland)
Producer John Kearns, Bill Somerville-Large
Singles from Faith Of Our Fathers
  1. "Faith of Our Fathers"
    Released: 1996

Faith of Our Fathers (subtitled Classic Religious Anthems of Ireland) [2] is a compilation album of traditional Catholic/Christian English, Irish, and Latin hymns recorded by Irish artists in 1996.

Contents

The album topped the Irish Albums Chart for two months, [3] broke release records, [4] and was certified fifteen times-platinum. [5] The nineteenth-century hymn "Faith of Our Fathers" is the title track.

Origins

The album was the idea of a broker, John Kearns, working for Hibernian Insurance. [1] [6] Funding included contributions from his coworkers. [7] Several labels turned Kearns down before Lunar records agreed to produce the album. [1]

Artists

The album was produced by Bill Somerville-Large and overseen by musical director John Tate. [6] Tenor Frank Patterson, soprano Regina Nathan, the Monks of Glenstal Abbey, youth choir RTÉ Cór na nÓg, and the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir made contributions to the album. [6] [8] It was recorded over five sessions in venues that included the Aula Maxima at Maynooth College in County Kildare and Glenstal Abbey in County Limerick. [6]

Track listing

Legacy

With sales of over 150,000 copies, [1] the album was the biggest-selling release in Ireland in 1996, [2] and it became Ireland's biggest-selling album of all-time by 1998. [9] Sales in Ireland stand at 200,000 copies as of November 1997. [10] It launched the recording career of Monks of Glenstal Abbey. [2] Peter Lennon compared its popularity to that of Riverdance. [3] The success of the record led the album's promoters to arrange concert performances in the Dublin's Point Depot and New York City's Carnegie Hall. [7] [11] [12]

A Faith of Our Fathers II album was released in 1997, [13] which inspired the name of Dustin the Turkey's Christmas album Faith of Our Feathers . [14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Pogatchnik, Shawn (4 January 1997). "Religious CD tops Irish chart". Kokomo Tribune . p. 4. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 "Music news & notes: Chanting Monks". The Record . Bergen County, New Jersey. p. 67 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 Lennon, Peter (27 November 1996). "Play it Again, Father". The Guardian – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Pollak, Andy (9 November 1996). "A blast from a past of celebrity and grandeur" . The Irish Times .
  5. ↑ "John Kearns - Extraordinary Venture, the Faith of Our Fathers Story (Book & DVD)". CDWorld.ie. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Stewart, Ken (9 November 1996). "Lunar Records Hymn Collection a Surprising Irish Hit". Billboard . Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 44, 49 – via Google Books.
  7. 1 2 Kearns, John (2006). Extraordinary Venture: The Faith Of Our Fathers Story. Foreign Media Music. ISBN   9789087340025.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Richie (19 December 1996). "`Miracle Singer' Frank's Thanks from Yanks". Irish Daily Mirror . Archived from the original on 29 May 2019.
  9. ↑ Faucher, Michael (23 November 1998). "Patterson's Irish tenor soars at Auditorium". Lowell Sun . Retrieved 31 May 2019– via NewspaperArchive.com.
  10. ↑ Stewart, Ken (29 November 1997). "Global Music Pulse – Ireland". Billboard. p. 51. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  11. ↑ Allen, John (25 January 1997). "Faith Of Our Fathers" . The Irish Times .
  12. ↑ White, Declan (19 January 1997). "The Biz; It's Ireland's Hottest Showbusiness". Irish Sunday Mirror . Archived from the original on 29 May 2019.
  13. ↑ "Faith of Our Fathers II: Classic Religious Anthems of Ireland". discogs.com. Zink Media LLC. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  14. ↑ Murphy, Mary J (28 November 1997). "Country Music Scene". City Tribune (Connacht Tribune Galway edition) . p. 10. Dustin's own album is currently available in the shops and is cleverly titled "Faith of Our Feathers" [..] but its contents are a world apart from the actual "Faith of Our Fathers II"
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