“The Savior Is Waiting To Enter Your Heart” 3 AUTHOR: Ralph Carmichael May 28th 1927 TUNE: CARMICHAEL COMPOSER: Ralph Carmichael May 28th 1927 Ralph Carmichael was born May 28th 1927 in Quincy, Illinois. He is an author, composer and arranger of both secular and sacred music and a forerunner of what we may call contemporary Christian Church music. He is married to his wife Marvella. His daughter, Carol Parks is an artist.1. Near the end of the 50’s when music was starting to become more Rock oriented, he caught the attention of Nat King Cole and Capitol Records; their joint effort was eventually a work called “The Magic of Christmas”. Carmichael worked with others of Cole’s endeavors through mid-60’s at which point Nat King Cole died of Lung Cancer in 1965. One of the more ambitious projects Carmichael and Cole partnered on was before the singers death was Nat King Cole Sings My Fair Lady (1964). Carmichael arranged for other performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Stan Kenton, and Roger Williams among others including Sue Raney's comeback album All By Myself in 1963. Carmichael even became music advisor and director for the I Love Lucy show during the last few years of the show. But, his most prolific work is clearly in the arena of Christian music. Some would even hang the moniker Father of Contemporary Christian Music on Carmichael because of his pop-rock style and use of 7th chords and ‘sing-able’ lyric flair. He founded Light Records and endeared himself to the Jesus People movement in the late 60’s and 70’s. As strange as it may seem today, he was labeled a “…heretic for his use of guitars in worship and his adaptations of Gospel songs to big band stylings.” 2. Carmichael was key in the production by Gospel singer George Beverly Shea, which included recordings The Love of God, 1958, and How Great Thou Art, 1969. Folk musicals for the Church began to hit circuit with Tell It Like It Is by Carmichael and Kurt Kaiser in 1969. One of the stand out songs on the album written by Kaiser was Pass It On, a song sung around thousands of Christian Camps and campfires in the decades that followed. Carmichael created the music for the well-known, The Cross and the Switchblade. In addition his contemporary hymns, Reach Out to Jesus, was recorded by Elvis Presley, and He’s Everything To Me, was included in the 1975 Baptist Hymnal. Ralph Carmichael wrote his autobiography, He's Everything To Me, and it was published by Word Books in 1986. Although the hymn The Savior is waiting was not published until 1958, a few years prior, Carmichael’s pastor Lester Harnish asked him to write a new hymn to be used as an invitation for upcoming revival meetings. By the end of the meetings many people were asking for copies to take home to use in their own churches.4. 1. Baptist Hymnal 1991 The Savior is Waiting, 1958 by Ralph Carmichael. 2. wikipedia.org/wiki/ 3. www.hymnary.org 4. Hymn Stories: dianaleaghmatthews.com .