"Red Letters" is a song performed by American

contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and ...

singer

Crowder Crowder may refer to: Places in the United States *Crowder, Oklahoma *Crowder, Mississippi *Crowder, Missouri *Crowder College *Fort Crowder Other uses * Crowder (musician), contemporary Christian musician *Crowder (surname) *Crowder, someone who ...

. It was released as one of the first singles from his third studio album, '' I Know a Ghost'' (2018), alongside "

Wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

" on September 19, 2018. The song peaked at No. 9 on the US

Hot Christian Songs Hot Christian Songs is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It ranks the popularity of Christian songs using the same methodology developed for the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, the magazine's flagship songs ...

chart, becoming his fifth top ten single. "Red Letters" was nominated for the

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 Award ...

s for

Song of the Year Song of the Year may refer to: * Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year * Dove Award for Song of the Year * Golden Melody Award for Song of the Year * Grammis Song of the Year * Grammy Award for Song of the Year * Latin Grammy Awa ...

and Short Form Video of the Year at the 2019 GMA Dove Awards.

Background

Crowder released the song on September 19, 2018, and announced his third studio album ''I Know a Ghost''. He explained the meaning behind the song in a video on his YouTube channel, "When I was a kid I remember sitting in the church pew next to my grandmother and asking her why some of her bible was written in red. She explained it was the Red Letter edition and whenever Jesus, God’s only Son, spoke, it was written in red. As a kid I thought that was just how God wrote it. Nope. I was wrong. About this and other things. Turns out it was a guy by the name of Louis Klopsch. It was the late 1800s and he very much wanted the common man to not only have access to scripture but for the story of God’s reconciliation to jump off the pages as it had for him. At the time, translations such as the King James didn’t use punctuation marks that are common place now. You can imagine how difficult numerous passages could be with the absence of any quotation marks or full stops. One evening, he was reading in Luke 22:20, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you,' and that is when Mr. Klopsch had an idea -the words of Jesus in red. He didn’t stop there, he and the editors went all the way to the beginning and took any scripture in the old testament foretelling the arrival of a messiah as well as any scriptures that Jesus was quoted as quoting and put them in red as well; a scarlet thread woven through all of time and creation."

Composition

The song is played in a

B major B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and ...

key, and 148 beats per minute (BPM).

Reception

Critical response

"Red Letters" was described in reviews on ''Jesusfreakhideout'' as a "typical Crowder radio song", comparing it to one of his singles from his last album "My Victory". It was also compared to

dc Talk DC Talk (stylized as dc Talk) is a Christian rap and rock trio. The group was formed at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1987 by Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait, and Kevin Max Smith. They released five major studio albums together: ''D ...

's 1998 hit, which both focus on the words of Christ from the bible.

Accolades

Commercial performance

It debuted at No. 29 on the

chart. After the release of the album, it rose to No. 16. The song reached the top 10 on its twenty-third week, reaching its peak of No, 9.

Track listing

;CD release #"Red Letters" – 3:48 #"Red Letters (Lead Sheet (Medium Key)" – 3:49 #"Red Letters (Vocal Demonstration)" – 3:40 #"Red Letters (High Key With Background Vocals)" – 3:40 #"Red Letters (High Key Without Background Vocals)" – 3:40 #"Red Letters (Medium Key With Background Vocals)" – 3:40 #"Red Letters (Medium Key Without Background Vocals)" – 3:40 #"Red Letters (Low Key With Background Vocals)" – 3:40 #"Red Letters (Low Key Without Background Vocals)" – 3:40 *Digital download #"Red Letters" – 3:48 #"

" – 3:14 *Digital download (acoustic) #"Red Letters" – 3:49 *Digital download (Southern-Style edit) #"Red Letters" – 3:42

Music video

The music video for "Red Letters" was released on October 29, 2018. It was inspired by

Louis Klopsch Louis Klopsch (March 7, 1852 – March 6, 1910) was a German-American journalist, publisher, and fundraiser for charitable causes. He originated red letter editions of the Bible. Early life Louis Klopsch was born in Lübben, Prussia on March ...

’s statement in the introduction of his Red Letter Bible, “It sheds a new radiance upon the sacred pages, by which the reader is enabled to trace unerringly the scarlet thread of prophecy from Genesis to Malachi. Like the Star which led the Magi to Bethlehem, this light, shining through the entire Word, leads straight to the person of the Divine Messiah, as the fulfillment of the promise of all the ages.” Crowder also adds, “The meta-narrative of the story of God’s rescue woven through the Scriptures is intricate and powerful and that’s what I wanted to pick up on with this song. It’s worth singing about. I love it and I hope it’s meaningful for my fans and listeners out there.”

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Crowder 2018 singles 2018 songs Crowder (musician) songs Songs written by Ed Cash Sparrow Records singles