Church News - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Choir returns to Billboard charts

Published: Saturday, Dec. 18, 2004

E-mail story

It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.

Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.

For the first time in more than 20 years, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has achieved a spot on Billboard magazine's "Top Christian Albums" chart with the holiday-themed "Sing Choirs of Angels." The week of Dec. 10, the choir scored the No. 30 spot on the chart, which measures the popularity of musical recordings according to sales and other factors.

Additionally, the album moved up to No. 5 on the "Top Classical Albums" and No. 4 on "Top Classical Crossover." The album moved from No. 49 to No. 28 on the "Top Independent Albums" chart.

The choir was associated for decades with the Columbia, Sony and Telarc labels but in March 2003 launched its own label, which is distributed by Navarre.

Of course, the choir is no stranger to the Billboard charts. In 1959, the choir's single recording, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" penetrated the magazine's Top 10 pop chart at a time when the dominant and durable Rock and Roll genre was in full swing.