Crying in the Chapel
Bob Carlisle's Butterfly Kisses
Steve Rabey
July 1, 1997
Butterfly Kisses (Shades of Grace) by Bob Carlisle (Diadem Music Group, 1997).
Pop music history was made in June when Butterfly Kisses, Christian crooner Bob Carlisle's album featuring his omnipresent and sob-inducing ode to family values, became the first contemporary Christian release to reach the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart.
The unapologetically sentimental song, written two years ago for Carlisle's then-16-year-old daughter Brooke, was a late addition to the singer's third solo release, Shades of Grace, which was released in the summer of 1996 on the small Diadem label. "Butterfly Kisses" was a hit with Christian radio and won two Dove Awards.
Case closed.
Until early 1997, that is, when Diadem was bought by a large, mainstream entertainment conglomerate—a scenario that has become a common refrain in recent years. "Butterfly Kisses" was released as a single to adult contemporary stations, which were deluged with listener phone calls every time they played it.
Now, the song has created a mini-industry. Word Publishing has released three book spin-offs, including a $9.99 gift book with more than a quarter million copies in print. In November, Golden Books, the mainstream kid publishing giant, will release Butterfly Kisses in three formats, a Little Golden Book, a Little Golden Storybook, and an audio book. There have been articles in everything from newsweeklies to the supermarket tabloid, the Star. At least three production companies want to make a tv movie. And Carlisle's countrified remix of the song is competing with versions by two country acts: the Raybons and Jeff Carson.
In a July 22 editorial, the Wall Street Journal hailed the "Butterfly Kisses" phenomenon as "a miracle," citing the song's "explicit ...
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