Song of the Day 8/17: Joan Osborne, “One of Us”

If WJBR is going to go religious, it doesn’t have to leave music behind. Even leaving aside gospel music, there are lots of songs about Jesus they could play. Granted, most of them aren’t very interesting – they’re mostly about the singer’s gratitude over being saved from a life of sin – but a country station could go days without repeating a tune.

God forbid, though, should a song preach an actual Christian message. Joan Osborne tried that with this Eric Bazilian composition and got lots of criticism from some religious people upset that she called God a slob. They apparently never read Matthew 25:40, the verse that says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Bazilian, best known as co-leader of the Hooters, said he wrote the song to impress a woman, and it worked – she married him. He worked as a producer on Joan Osborne’s first album, 1995’s “Relish,” and played guitar on the track. As the debut single from the LP it reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy as Song of the Year.

The song opens with a sample from a 1937 Alan Lomax field recording of Mrs. Nell Hampton of Salyersville, Kentucky, singing a variation of the 1928 John S. McConnell hymn “Heavenly Aeroplane.”