Ray Repp

Ray Repp is a Roman Catholic singer-songwriter credited with introducing folk music into Catholic masses with his 1965 album "Mass for Young Americans" that formed the earliest stirrings of Contemporary Christian music. (Not all of his music was squarely religious; "Don't Go In the Street" and "Apple Pie" from "The Time Has Not Come True" featured sometimes humorous, prescient left-leaning social commentary.)

Since that early collection, he has recorded 11 collections which have been translated into as many as 28 languages and has won ASCAP's "Award for Special Contributions to the Field of Music" 6 times. [http://www.ocp.org/artists/634 OCP.org Website Accessed 6/17/2008.]

Repp's music has been recorded by those outside the Catholic church as well. Christian punk outfit Undercover and Christian rocker Phil Keaggy have seen fit to cover Repp's work on their own discs. [http://www.christianmusicarchive.com/artist.php?id=1389 Christian Music Archive article on Repp Accessed 6/17/2008.]

Repp got some mainstream notoriety in 1997 when he sued playwright Andrew Lloyd Webber, asserting that Webber had plagairized portions of his "Phantom Song" from his own composition "Till You". Repp lost the case, no doubt in part on the testimony of Lawrence Ferrara of the N.Y.U. School of Education who maintained that Repp actually pilfered "Till You" from Webber's earlier "Close Every Door" (from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"). [http://cip.law.ucla.edu/cases/case_reppwebber.html Repp v. Webber 132 F.3d 882 (2d Cir. 1997) UCLA Law School Website accessed 6/17/2008.] [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=2nd&navby=case&no=969691 FindLaw Website accessed 6/17/2008]

Selected discography

Data from [http://www.one-way.org/jesusmusic/repp.htm One Way Jesus Music Website]
* 1965, "Mass for Young Americans", F.E.L.
* 1966,"Allelu!",F.E.L.
* 1967,"Come Alive",F.E.L.
* 1968,"Sing Praise",F.E.L.
* 1969,"The Time Has Not Come True",F.E.L. (recorded 1966)
* 1972,"Hear the Cryin' ",Myrrh
* 1974, "Give Us Peace",K&R (also released in 1975 on Agape label)
* 1978, "Benedicamus - The Song of the Earth",K&R
* 1979, "Sunrise, In the Dead of Winter",K&R
* 1981, "By Love Are We All Bound",K&R
* 1985, "Ever Bless",K&R

References