| "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | ||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Carrie Underwood | ||||||||||||||||
| from the album Some Hearts | ||||||||||||||||
| Released | October 3, 2005 (U.S.) | |||||||||||||||
| Format | Digital download | |||||||||||||||
| Genre | Country, Christian | |||||||||||||||
| Length | 3:46 | |||||||||||||||
| Label | Arista | |||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Hillary Lindsey, Gordie Sampson, Brett James | |||||||||||||||
| Producer | Mark Bright | |||||||||||||||
| Certification | Platinum (RIAA) Gold (CRIA) |
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| Carrie Underwood singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||
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"Jesus, Take the Wheel" is a song written by Brett James, Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson. It is the second single from Carrie Underwood's debut album, Some Hearts.
The ballad tells of a woman seeking help from Jesus in an emergency, ultimately letting Jesus take control of her life. The Country-Christian song became a crossover hit, spending time at number one on the Country chart as well as peaking at number four on the Hot Christian Songs chart.
The song ranked number four on CMT's 40 Greatest Songs of the Decade.
The song tells the story of a mother who lives a hectic life. On a late-night Christmas Eve drive on a snow-covered road on her way to Cincinnati, Ohio, the woman begins sorting out her emotions and bemoans not having enough time to do the things that really matter. Then, her car hits a patch of black ice, causing the woman to lose control of her car. She panics, takes her hands off the steering wheel and cries out to Jesus; shortly thereafter, the car stops spinning and safely stops on the shoulder. After taking stock of the situation (and seeing that her baby has remained fast asleep in the rear seat), the woman decides to let "Jesus take the Wheel" of her life.
She first performed this at the 2005 Country Music Association Awards.
During the fifth season of American Idol, Carrie Underwood went back to the show to perform the song.
She again sang this song at the 41st annual Academy of Country Music Awards where this song won the Single of the Year Award.
On April 2006, she sang this on the CMT Awards where Jesus, Take The Wheel won 2 major awards, Breakthrough Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year.
During her Carrie Underwood Live: 2006 Tour, she performed this song with the other tracks on her debut album.
On December 11, 2006, Oprah Winfrey held an "iTunes" concert featuring Carrie Underwood, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, and Tony Bennett. Carrie performed "Jesus, Take the Wheel" there.
The music video features Underwood singing in various backgrounds such as, a living room, through shelves, standing by a wall, and sitting in a chair. A woman, a young couple, and an older couple are all shown through the video trying to ease a baby, fighting over bills and making up, and trying to feed his wife respectively.
The music video for it was originally slated for release on November 4, 2005 but was delayed and made available at a later date on Yahoo! Launch.
"Jesus, Take The Wheel" was ranked number 64 on CMT's 100 Greatest Videos.[1]
Underwood has stated that her favorite part of the video is when the old woman puts her hand on her husband's.
The song debuted at number 39 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and eventually spent six weeks as number one. That ties Underwood with several other female artists — including Kitty Wells, Faith Hill and Taylor Swift — as runners-up for the longest-running number one song by a solo female artist; the record is held by Connie Smith (1964's "Once a Day").
It proved to be a crossover hit, eventually making it to number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and selling around 1,897,000 digital downloads.[2]
"Jesus, Take the Wheel" finished 4th on the 2006 Year-End Hot Country Songs Chart.
"Jesus, Take the Wheel" was certified Platinum by the RIAA in April 2006.
On August, 2008, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" was reported to have been sold more than 1 million ringtones and was certified Platinum, making Underwood the first country artist ever to have two songs hit Platinum Mastertone status.[3]
Chart performance
Certifications
|
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Best Female Country Vocal Performance | Won |
| 2007 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Song of the Year | Nominated |
| 2007 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Country Song of the Year | Won |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Inspirational Mainstream Country Song of the Year | Nominated |
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Inspirational Music Video of the Year | Nominated |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Single of the Year | Won |
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Song of the Year | Won |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Female Video of the Year | Won |
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Breakthrough Video of the Year | Won |
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Most Inspiring Video of the Year | Nominated |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | SOCAN Song of the Year | Won |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Country Recorded Song of the Year | Won |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Song of the Year | Won |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Song of the Year | Won |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Music Video of the Year | Nominated |
| 2006 | "Jesus, Take the Wheel" | Single of the Year | Nominated |
On April 17, 2007, American Idol season 6 contestant LaKisha Jones performed this song during the "Country" theme week, but received poor reviews from the judges. This marked the second time an American Idol winner's song was covered on the show with the first being Lisa Tucker on season 5 covering Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You".
On March 17, 2009, American Idol season 8 contestant Danny Gokey covered the song during the Grand Ole Opry week and received mostly positive reviews from the judges.
On June 14, 2011, Jeff Jenkins performed the song on The Voice.
Rick Hendrix Company originally promoted the single and recently announced it had been recorded 87 times in Christian music.
| Preceded by "She Let Herself Go" by George Strait |
Billboard Hot Country Songs number-one single January 21-February 25, 2006 |
Succeeded by "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton |
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