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.[1]
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.[2]
Repp got some mainstream notoriety in 1997 when he sued composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, asserting that Lloyd Webber had plagairized portions of his "Phantom Song" from his own composition "Till You". Repp ultimately lost the case.
Data from One Way Jesus Music Website