From Christian Rock to the Rock of Ages

Sandi Patty

Patty was born into a family of musicians; her father was a minister of music and her mother served as the church pianist. She first performed at the age of two when she sang "Jesus Loves Me" for her church. A few years later, she and her brothers joined her parents in a performing group, known as "The Ron Patty Family," and sang at churches across the nation during summer holidays. After high school graduation from Crawford High in San Diego, CA, she attended San Diego State University and Anderson University, Indiana, where she studied voice and conducting. While studying at Anderson University, she worked as a studio musician for area recording studios, singing background vocals and recording commercial jingles, including one for Juicy Fruit gum. Her reputation as a performer and studio singer grew during the late 1970s, and it was during this time that she initiated contact with legendary CCM musician, Bill Gaither who sings Christian music and also my husband’s favourite Christian singer.

Patty as a Christian music singer recorded her first album, For My Friends, an independent effort that landed in the hands of executives at Singspiration! records. In 1979, she was signed to Singspiration! and released her first professional record, Sandi's Song—This is my husbands’ favourite Christian music. According to the FAQ section on her website, the name on her birth certificate is Sandra Patty. A printer's error on the labeling listed her name as Sandi Patti, and she used this moniker as her stage name for the next fifteen years, before correcting it to Sandi Patty.

Her career as a Christian music singer excelled after she won her first two GMA Dove Awards in 1982, and began singing backup for Bill Gaither one of the Christian music singers and the Bill Gaither Trio. She headlined her first national tour in 1984, and reached national acclaim after her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner” was included during the ABC  Statue of Liberty rededication broadcast on July 4, 1986. This exposure led to multiple mainstream television appearances including The Tonight Show, Christmas in Washington, and Walt Disney’s Fourth of July Extravaganza.

At the peak of her Christian music singer career, her concerts were so heavily attended that she performed in often sold-out mainstream arenas and concert halls. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she averaged over 200 concerts a year, and supported a staff of over 30 that managed her career. During this time she was noted, often critically, as the highest-paid Christian music singer in the Christian music industry, largely due to massive touring and high-profile public appearances.

In 1992, her surprising divorce from manager John Helvering rocked the Gospel Music industry, and this was later followed by an infidelity scandal that subsequently stalled her career in the mid-'90s. However, she slowly rebuilt her career through expanding her musical appeal, performing pops concerts with symphony orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops, the Dallas Symphony and repeatedly served as master of ceremonies for the Yuletide Celebration with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In interviews and in her autobiography, Broken on the Back Row, Patty as a Christian music singer has expressed remorse and accepted full responsibility her past actions, and has outlined the steps she undertook to seek forgiveness from people affected by them.

More recently, she appeared in the 2006 annual Macy’s  Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. A televised performance of Sandi Patty's Yuletide Special was filmed for syndication in 2006, with other performers including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the U.S. Air Force Reserve Band. Patty as a Christian music singer has recorded thirty albums, selling over eleven million units. She has been awarded five Grammys, four Billboard Music Awards, and is one the most-accoladed artists in the history of the Gospel Music Association, earning thirty-nine Dove Awards. In 2004, she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and in August, 2007, she was awarded the GMA Music in the Rockies Summit Award.

In May 2008, Patty released her 30th studio recording, Songs For The Journey, in which she covers classic hymns of the church and other modern gospel classics.

2008 also saw the release of five separate compilation recordings of past songs taken from previous albums.

After her Christian music performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on December 12 2008, Washington Blade’s Joey DiGuglielmo said that Sandi Patty appears to have "a considerable throng of fans", suggesting that she is CCM’s  answer to Kylie Minogue or Renee Flemming.

In 2009, Sandi as a Christian music singer received two GMA Dove Award nominations: Female Vocalist Of The Year, and Inspirational Album Of The Year ("Songs For The Journey").