Jesus He Knows Me

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“Jesus He Knows Me”
“Jesus He Knows Me” cover
Single by Genesis
from the album We Can't Dance
B-side "Hearts on Fire"
Released July 1992
Format CD maxi
7" single
12" maxi
Recorded The Farm, Surrey; March 1991 — September 1991
Genre Pop rock
Length 4:18 (single mix)
Label Atlantic, Virgin
Writer(s) Tony Banks
Phil Collins
Mike Rutherford
Producer Genesis
Nick Davis
Genesis singles chronology
"Hold on My Heart"
(1992)		 "Jesus He Knows Me"
(1992)		 "Invisible Touch (Live)" (Live)
(1992)
We Can't Dance track listing
"No Son of Mine"
(Track 1)		 "Jesus He Knows Me"
(Track 2)		 "Driving The Last Spike"
(Track 3)

"Jesus He Knows Me" is the second track on the 1991 Genesis album We Can't Dance, and its fourth single.

The song is a satire about televangelism, released in a period when several televangelists such as Robert Tilton and Benny Hinn were under investigation for promising financial success to their listeners, provided they sent money to them.

Contents

[edit] Release

Like all the singles from We Can't Dance, "Jesus He Knows Me" was released on two CDs as well on vinyl editions. All formats featured the non-album track "Hearts on Fire" (later included on Genesis Archive #2 1976-1992) as the primary B-side, while both CDs included an exclusive track.

The first CD had "I Can't Dance (The Other Mix)" (a remix by Ben Liebrand) and the second featured "Land of Confusion (Rehearsal Version)". "The Other Mix" is so-called because another version, the "Sex Mix", had been released some months before on the "I Can't Dance" CD single.

The second CD was the fifth disc in "The Invisible Series", a collection of Genesis CDs which featured live recordings as extra tracks.

The "Single Mix" of "Jesus He Knows Me" has a louder chorus than the album version, making it more suitable for radio play.

[edit] Music video

The video features singer Phil Collins as an unscrupulous televangelist who lives like a millionaire thanks to donations from his followers. The comedic video also features fellow band members, keyboardist Tony Banks and guitarist Mike Rutherford, as fellow evangelists. Collins, in an orange suit, tries to have his viewers raise $18,000,000 in one weekend. In the final minute on the video, money rains down on the set of the fake program. As the toteboard reaches his goal, the amount of money shown increases in intervals of at least $800,000.

The video is the second from We Can't Dance in which Banks and Rutherford have to drag Collins off at the end; the other is "I Can't Dance".

In the video near the 2:38 mark people can be seen holding a sign reading "Genesis 3:25", referring not to the Bible but to the fact that the band had three members and had been together for twenty-five years (the band formed in 1967, the video was filmed in 1992, although only Banks and Rutherford had been in the band since the beginning). Some observers, not understanding this reference, believed the sign to be an error or a joke, as the third chapter in the book of Genesis has only 24 verses.

At the end of the pre-eliminary of the video, Collins' character is heard saying: "I never thought such a marvellous thing could happen... in the name of Jesus", possibly referring that these acts go against some of the preachings of Jesus.

As a footnote, Collins's character in this video bears some resemblance to his role of "Phil Mayhew", a low-brow con artist eventually dabbling in televangelism in the 1985 Miami Vice episode Phil the Shill.

[edit] Track listings

CD maxi
  1. "Jesus He Knows Me" (single mix) (4:18)
  2. "Hearts on Fire" (5:15)
  3. "I Can't Dance" (the other mix) (6:00)
7" single
  1. "Jesus He Knows Me" (single mix) (4:17)
  2. "Hearts on Fire" (5:15)

[edit] Charts

Chart (1992)[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 23
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 27
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks 24
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream 12
Austrian Singles Chart 26
French Singles Chart 27
German Singles Chart 13
Irish Singles Chart 22
Swedish Singles Chart 38
UK Singles Chart 20

[edit] External links

Music Video at VH1 Classic

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Jesus He Knows Me", in various Singles Chart Lescharts.com (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
  2. ^ German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
  3. ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
  4. ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
  5. ^ Billboard Billboard.com (Retrieved April 10, 2008)