Who sang the "Dear Mr. Jesus" song in the 80s...

The band was Power Source -- here's the video -- and said singer was Sharon Batts, the daughter of the bandleader. More info here, but nothing about her putative hotness.

This song is a perverse favorite of Mackro Mackro's and mine -- he also made the observation once that modern day Flaming Lips could do a cover of this song without changing anything about it.

Oh goodness, I heard this the other day on my local oldies station before Christmas. That point about the Flaming Lips is hilariously true. But could they top the singer coming in at the end and belting the chorus? Probably not.

this is the absolute end-of-line worst recording of all time

I was in eighth grade and in the thick of my über Catholic phase, so classic for a few weeks until I saw pics of Susannah Hoffs.

Well.

this is the absolute end-of-line worst recording of all time

winner of the all-time most OTM sweepstakes: Matos

I remember some gospel singer wailing "PLEEEEEZE DON'T LET'EM HURT YO CHILDREEEEEN!" over a bloodcurdling guitar coda.

Play the video I linked and you will again understand the horror.

Although in double checking it's just the track itself -- but that's enough. The actual video is godawful bad, of course.

JESUS WEPT

Give them shelter from the storm, Alfred.

Wasn't this and Suzanne Vega's "Luka" on the radio at about the same time?

and wasn't this also about the time that all those people at that child care center in New England were falsely accused/convicted of abuse?

"Luka" was the summer hit. But chin up: "What's The Matter Here?" took off the following summer.

I watched a lot of TBN in the 80s and there was a whole Xmastime appeal about how this song had touched so many lives and brought so many people to Jesus, Jan Crouch was beside herself with morbid joy about it

xpost yeah I think both "luka" and "what's the matter here" (too good to be mentioned in the company of these others) were both around at the same time. to be corny, that was kind of a positive thing overall - you don't wanna know what shit was like before mandatory reporter laws

The amount of YouTube variants of "Dear Mr. Jesus" entertains.

remember the part in the video where the camera pans to the physical letter the little girl is writing and it says "Dear President Jesus" and the word "President" is crossed out and replaced with Mr.?

Scary shit.

Pop Music 1987: The Year of Child Abuse

well, it was also the year in which U2 pushed The Joshua Tree on preteens.

I Know My First Name is Steven

wow that's bad..

hey though it reminds me of some country kid song from abt 10-ish years ago...he was some lil' haley joel osment pumpkinheaded tyke that sang some song about how the world was all fucked up cuz dudes are getting killed and stupid stories about tales of woe...the chorus said something like "down here on earth" or something.

in the video he watches some sad shit go down from a bus window...

Pop Music 1987: The Year of Child Abuse

Add the Butts' Locust Abortion Technician, Negativland, The JAMS, the first Kids Of Whidney High album, and a whole bunch of other brilliance, and it's total infanticide.

Possibly my favorite music year of the 80s.

It should be noted that "Dear Mr. Jesus" is always best followed in a DJ set by another 1987 gem "Time Is Money (Bastard)" by The Swans.

I've done this (a while ago, oh muh knees)

http://www.songtracker.com/images/ShelterCDmed.gif

Let the record show that at EMP Pop 2015 we had a panel to discuss (and have the audience vote on) the worst song of all time, and "Dear Mr. Jesus" was in fact the winner.

Well done, EMP. Every time someone claims "We Built This City" as the worst song ever, I always want to sit them down and play them this.

Yeah. When I listen to "We Built This City", the word that immediately comes to mind is "Lame".

When I listen to "Dear Mr Jesus", the words that immediately come to mind are "Make it stop! Please Make it stop!"

Curious as to what some of the other songs were.

The 10 we discussed in the panel, which were a mixture of crowdsourced nominations and participant picks to support making some particular point about what it means to hate music, were:

We Built This City
We Didn't Start the Fire
We Are the World
What's Up?
How Soon Is Now?
Who Let the Dogs Out
Hotel California
Dear Mr. Jesus
Friday
a "cover" of Thrift Shop by "Dj's at Work"

I've never heard of this. Do I correct this oversight?

i always associated this with XTC's Dear God, like if it weren't for the popularity of that song, Dear Mr. Jesus would not have been so successful

Really? I mean, I don't know that this is incorrect, but a) I didn't know that "Dear God" was such a hit that it would warrant a pushback, and b) "Dear Mr. Jesus" seems like it got through on the "strength" of its novelty (and it is a true novelty hit).

that was my opinion at the time ... i was 12.

Ah! I was, like, 8 or 9 and "Dear God" was still quite a few years away for me yet. But one of the things I can personally credit "Dear Mr. Jesus" with is making a classroom full of 4th graders laugh hysterically at a song about child abuse.

Btw I found Batts online. She seems to like photography and has a dumb right wing aunt.

Doesn't seem to mention the song outside of a vague reference to a recording session she reminisced about on the late producers Obituary page

Hands Across America, y'all.

I have just heard this song for the first time. Not too often you hear a song and thirty seconds in you just know it's going in the so-bad-it's-good hall of fame (along with "Once You Understand" and "Diary of an Unborn Child")

Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction: "How did Lil Markie make it onto pop radio?!"

PLEASE DON'T HURT THE CHILDREEEEEN

One of my fondest memories remains the time someone brought this song to play during elementary school music class (the teacher allowed each student to bring in a song they loved at some point through the year--"music appreciation," I guess), resulting in a room full of 10 year olds losing their shit laughing at a song about child abuse.