Reuters reports today that some of secular music’s top acts — among them Queen Latifah, Jon Bon Jovi, Joss Stone and 3 Doors Down — join together on the gospel album, “Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration.” The EMI Gospel/Vector Recordings collection will be released March 31 exclusively at Wal-Mart.
For 3 Doors Down, singing about their faith isn’t an issue. 3 Doors Down lead vocalist Brad Arnold tells Reuters, “It’s something that we’d never really done before, and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun. It seemed like it would also be a challenge because we’d never really recorded that style of song.” He adds, “We all grew up in church and we’re all Christians. We were happy to do it. There was no discussion at all of whether or not we should.”
The band performs the song “Presence of the Lord,” backed by Soul Children of Chicago, a nondenominational community choir. According to a press release posted on several of the artists’ MySpace pages, the track listing for the album includes:
1. Jonny Lang & the Fisk Jubilee Singers “I Believe”
2. 3 Doors Down & the Soul Children of Chicago “Presence of the Lord”
3. Robert Randolph & The Clark Sisters “Higher Ground”
4. Jon Bon Jovi & the Washington Youth Choir “Keep the Faith”
5. Al Green & Heather Headley “People Get Ready”
6. Mavis Staples & Patty Griffin “Waiting for My Child To Come Home”
7. Michael McDonald & the West Angeles COGIC Mass Choir “Storm Before The Calm”
8. Angelique Kidjo “Redemption Song”
9. Aaron Neville & the Mt. Zion Mass Choir “A Change is Gonna Come”
10. Queen Latifah & Jubilation “Oh Happy Day”
11. Joss Stone & Buick Audra “This Little Light Of Mine”
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