Rimes’ Cd Throwback To Good Ol’ Days Album’s Mix Of Gospel And Inspirational Songs Appeals To Wider Than Country Audience

LeAnn Rimes’ third CD, “You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs,” has to be one of the more eccentric collections of music to reach the peak position on pop lists in a long time.

Take the national anthem. According to Record Research in Menominee Falls, Wis., the only other time it has been part of an album that topped the pop charts was in 1988, when U2 included Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock version of it in their “Rattle and Hum” package.

Rimes’, by contrast, seems almost an anachronism, a throwback to a spirit that existed before Woodstock and the riotous ‘60s.

“It’s nice to be hearing positive music,” says Music Group chairman Mike Curb, “particularly from a voice like LeAnn’s.”

That there is broader-than-country demand for this kind of material is illustrated by a personal observation from Curb. He says his teenaged daughter, who “primarily likes pop music, just fell in love with this (Rimes) album.

“It’s really nice to go by her room and hear those songs,” he adds. “It gives you a good feeling.”

As a record seller?

“I mean just as a father,” he says.

Alongside “The Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America,” the new Rimes set offers six religious tracks (“Amazing Grace,” “I Believe,” “Ten Thousand Angels Cried,” “Clinging to a Saving Hand,” “On the Side of Angels” and “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow”), three uplifting secular standards (“The Rose,” “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” and the title song), as well as a soundtrack tune from the film “Con Air” (“How Do I Live”).

The brainstormers of this unlikely mix have been commercially brilliant. In the package’s first week of release, it hit the top of Billboard’s pop, country and contemporary Christian charts, giving Rimes her biggest opening sales week for any of her three albums and making her the first female to debut three times in the top spot on the country charts. She is the first country artist to debut an album atop the contemporary Christian charts.

So whose idea was all this? Rimes? Her father-producer, Wilbur Rimes? Curb Records?

“It was originally their (the Rimeses’) idea to do an inspirational album,” explains Curb. “Then I think we (Curb executives) tried to position it so it could go into all three markets.”

Does that mean the project began as a gospel idea?

“It started off more in the gospel direction and ended up a little more on the inspirational side,” Curb says.

Thus the record company seems to have suggested widening the commercial aim of the package, and Curb confirms the company timed the package’s release for the Christmas season. Asked if he pushed for any of the collection’s specific titles, Curb acknowledges bringing up “You Light Up My Life.” He produced the original Debbie Boone hit 20 years ago.

The broadening of the album’s scope allowed its inclusion of Rimes’ “How Do I Live” single, which has topped Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Singles chart for more than a month and appears to be driving much of the album’s early sales. They totaled nearly 200,000 copies the first week, according to Billboard.

After the Rimes version of “How Do I Live” was turned down by the film’s producer (who ironically, Curb says, thought the Rimes version was “too country”), it was recorded by country star Trisha Yearwood, whose version appeared in the film and became the hit in the country charts. Meanwhile, the Rimes version became the pop hit and by far the biggest seller.

Berg song of aging a winner

Matraca Berg’s stunning performance of “Back When We Were Beautiful,” near the climax of the CBS-televised 1997 Country Music Association Awards show was a powerful first shot in a campaign to popularize one of the most moving country songs in recent memory.

Capturing the emotions of aging, the song was set up beautifully earlier in the evening by Berg’s winning of the Song of the Year title for co-writing the Deana Carter hit “Strawberry Wine.”

The CMA performance created listener demand, and Berg, now on a publicity swing, is singing it everywhere she goes. Whether country radio would play such meaty fare was problematic, but Berg pushed for it to become a single and had faith.

“Deana got on (the radio),” Berg reasoned. “I thought that (record) was awful good.”

If “Back When We Were Beautiful” gets the notice it deserves, it could win Berg another Song of the Year title in ‘98.