''Medals'' is the second studio album by Christian singer-songerwriter

Russ Taff Russell Taff (born November 11, 1953) is an American gospel singer and songwriter who grew up in Farmersville, California. He has sung a variety of musical styles throughout his career including: pop rock, traditional Southern gospel, contempora ...

, released in 1985 on

Myrrh Records __NOTOC__ Myrrh Records (also known as Myrrh Worship) was an American Christian music record label. According to ''Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music'', the label was instrumental in developing a popular following for contemporary Christian ...

. ''Medals'' would prove to be his breakthrough album. Taff once again co-wrote with his wife Tori, along with his guitarist and songwriter James Hollihan, Jr. and contributions from other CCM artists and songwriters like

Pam Mark Hall Pam Mark Hall (born 1951 as Pamela Ann Mark in San Bernardino, California) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, producer and artist (acrylics and multi-media.) Career Cutting her musical teeth on the renaissance explosion of pop, folk ...

Roby Duke Roby Duke (December 6, 1956 – December 26, 2007) was a contemporary Christian musician and songwriter from Greenwood, Mississippi. He was noted for his blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of ...

and Chris Eaton.

Reception

Thom Granger of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

said the album contained "'80s pop styles and hooky songs, resulting in a CCM classic".

Accolades

Songs like "Here I Am", "Silent Love", "God Only Knows", and "I'm Not Alone" were Christian radio hits, all hitting the top ten on the Christian AC chart. Music videos were made for "I'm Not Alone" and "Not Gonna Bow" to promote the album. ''

CCM Magazine ''CCM Magazine'' is a twice-monthly online magazine focusing on contemporary Christian music, published by Salem Publishing, a division of Salem Communications. History ''CCM'' was first published in July 1978, as a printed magazine. It has bee ...

'' has ranked ''Medals'' at number 36 in their 2001 book ''CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music''. Taff won a

GMA Dove Award A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year for ''Medals'' at the 17th GMA Dove Awards. In 1986, Taff was nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best Gospel Vocal Performance, Male The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by m ...

for ''Medals''. The album peaked at number two on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Top Inspirational Albums chart.

GMA Dove Awards A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

Track listing

Personnel

* Russ Taff – lead vocals, backing vocals (1-4, 9) * Robbie Buchanan – synthesizers (1, 2, 3, 5-10), synth bass (1, 3, 8, 9),

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

(2, 5, 6, 7, 10), Roland drum programming (3), rhythm arrangements (10) *

James Newton Howard James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...

– synthesizers (1, 2, 4) *

Rhett Lawrence James Everett "Rhett" Lawrence is an American record producer and songwriter. He has produced, mentored, and helped launch the career of 5 artists amongst the top 200 artists to be featured on Billboard magazine's top charts from 1955-2012, who ...

–

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commercial lic ...

(9) *

Dann Huff Dann Lee Huff (born November 15, 1960) is an American record producer and songwriter. For his work as a producer in the country music genre, he has won several awards, including the ''Musician of the Year'' award in 2001, 2004, and 2016 at the Co ...

– electric guitar, guitar solo (1, 3, 6, 9) * Paul Jackson Jr. – electric guitar (1, 6) *

Michael Landau Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitch ...

– electric guitar (2-5, 7-10), guitar solo (4) *

Nathan East Nathan Harrell East (born December 8, 1955) is an American jazz, R&B, and rock bass player and vocalist. With more than 2,000 recordings, East is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music. East holds a Bachelor of Arts degr ...

– bass (1, 3, 6, 9, 10) *

Neil Stubenhaus Neil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist. Career He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. He studied at the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in 1975. After graduation, he was rec ...

– bass (2, 4, 5, 7, 8) *

Paul Leim Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

– drums, LinnDrum programming (1, 3, 5, 6, 9), Simmons programming (1, 5) *

Lenny Castro Lenny or Lennie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lennie (surname), a list of people * Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter Arts and entertainment Music * ''L ...

– percussion (2-10) *

Larry Williams Larry Williams (born Lawrence Eugene Williams, a.k.a. Lawrence Edward Williams; May 10, 1935 – January 7, 1980) was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams ...

– saxophone (2, 4, 10) *

Bill Champlin William Bradford Champlin (born May 21, 1947) is an American singer, musician, arranger, producer, and songwriter. He formed the band Sons of Champlin in 1965, which still performs today, and was a member of the band Chicago from 1981–2009. H ...

– backing vocals (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8) *

Tamara Champlin Tamara Champlin (née Matoesian) is an American singer-songwriter who started her career as a session singer in Houston, Texas, later moving to Los Angeles. She has performed with and written for singers such as Elton John, Leon Russell, Nicky H ...

– backing vocals (1, 2, 5) * Tommy Funderburk – backing vocals * Harry Browning – backing vocals (3) * Carmen Twillie – backing vocals (3, 6, 9, 10) *

Tata Vega Tata or TATA may refer to: Places * Jamshedpur, a city in Jharkhand, India also known as Tatanagar or Tata * Tata, Hungary, a town in Hungary * Tata Islands, a pair of small islands off the coast of New Zealand * Tata, Morocco, a city in Tata ...

– backing vocals (3, 6, 9, 10), scat (6, 9) *

Lynn Nichols Lynn Arthur Nichols is an American songwriter, producer,(January 24, 2009New 'Day' Dawns ''Billboard (magazine)'' (identifying Nichols as a producer with associations with Phil Keaggy and Switchfoot) and musician from New York who now resides in ...

– weird backing vocal (3) Production * Russ Taff – producer * Jack Joseph Puig – producer, recording, mixing * Mark Ettel – assistant engineer * Steve Ford – assistant engineer * Steve MacMillan – assistant engineer * Todd Van Etten – assistant engineer *

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...

– mastering at

Masterdisk Masterdisk is an American multimedia company in New York, located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production. Their clients include such no ...

(New York City, New York) * Lynn Nichols – creative consultant * Stan Moser – crucial songwriting input (3) * Jeffrey Fey – art direction, design *

Aaron Rapoport Aaron Rapoport (born May 22, 1954) is an American photographer, best known for his photographs of musicians. Biography In a career that spans over three decades, Rapoport has photographed in a wide variety of areas including commercial photogr ...

– photography * Zack Glickman – direction, devotion

Charts

Year-end charts

Radio singles

References

{{Authority control 1985 albums Russ Taff albums Myrrh Records albums Word Records albums