Now is a good as time as any to admit to having listened to adult contemporary in the early 1990s. Why? Perhaps I was afraid of the new, alternative music – unsure what it was and how to enjoy it. Perhaps it sounded mildly familiar to the popular music I remembered from the late 1980s? I'd say both – combined with the fact that I don't recall being too adventurous with the radio. Perhaps an arrogant mistake on my part?
I later discovered that some of what I heard was not so much AC, but artists who were labeled CCM - Contemporary Christian Music, a sort of blend of soft pop-rock sounds with gospel/inspirational overtones. Perhaps I was too gruff to catch on but I never made the connection or considered it particularly stirring. For example, one such track that garnered airtime was the double-bubbly track, Baby Baby, by CCM mainstay Amy Grant. Her album, Heart in Motion, hit the pop charts and was wildly successful during this time period, but it was hardly a song that I think most youth of that day and age included in their playlists. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it wasn't geared more for "adults" – but I still remember it more from doctor visits and being in other people's CD collection.
Usually older people - like teachers at the high school, who listened to music during class. The high school chemistry teacher – who went my the rather generic name of Ms. Jones – was prime example, as I remember on more than one occasion spending the first ten minutes of class being lectured in preparation for a class lab session. Once that was over and we had to move from lab station to lab station, we would pass by her office in our search for chemical purities, and see that she had retreated from the students to sit and eat and listen to music. And there was Baby Baby, blaring in all its glory.
As for Grant, she's stayed the course and has been making music since, maybe not as popular and as well known as her 1991 album, but I don't think that's stopped her. As for CCM, I would come in contact with it again during my tenure with my graduate school-era radio station.
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Baby Baby
(Amy Grant/Keith Thomas)
Amy Grant
From the album Heart in Motion
1991
Baby, baby
I'm taken with the notion
To love you with the sweetest of devotion
Baby, baby
My tender love will flow from
The bluest sky to the deepest ocean
Stop for a minute
Baby, I'm so glad you're mine...yeah
You're mine
Baby, baby
The stars are shining for you
And, just like me, I'm sure that they adore you
Baby, baby
Go walkin' through the forest
The birds above a-singin' you a chorus
Stop for a minute
Baby, they're so glad you're mine...oh, yeah
And, ever since the day
You put my heart in motion
Baby, I realize
That there's just no getting over you
Baby, baby
In any kind of weather
I'm here for you always and forever
Baby, baby
No muscle man could sever
My love for you is true, and it will never
Stop for a minute
Baby, I'm so glad you're mine...oh, yeah
And, ever since the day
You put my heart in motion
Baby, I realize
There's no getting over you
And, ever since the day
You put my heart in motion
Baby, I realize
That there's just no getting over you
Over you
Baby, baby
Always and forever
Baby, I'm so glad
Here for you, baby
I'm so glad you're mine
Baby, I'm so glad
When I think about you, it makes me smile
Baby, baby, be mine
Baby, I'm so glad
Don't stop giving love
Don't stop, no
Baby, I'm so glad that you're mine
Baby, I'm so glad
Baby, I'm so glad
