Jesus, Take the Wheel

"Jesus, Take the Wheel"
Single by Carrie Underwood
from the album Some Hearts
Released	October 18, 2005 (U.S.)
Format	Digital download
Genre	Country, Christian
Length	3:46
Label	Arista
Writer(s)	Hillary Lindsey, Gordie Sampson, Brett James
Producer(s)	Mark Bright
Certification	3× Platinum (RIAA) Gold (CRIA)
Carrie Underwood singles chronology
"Inside Your Heaven" (2005) "Jesus, Take the Wheel" (2005) "Some Hearts" (2005)
Some Hearts track listing "Some Hearts" (3) "Jesus, Take The Wheel" (4) "The Night Before (Life Goes On)" (5) Music video "Jesus, Take The Wheel" at CMT.com

"Jesus, Take the Wheel" is a song written by Brett James, Hillary Lindsey, and Gordie Sampson, and recorded by American country music artist Carrie Underwood. It was released in October 2005 as the first single from 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 six consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart and charting high on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. It also became a top twenty hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

"Jesus, Take the Wheel" won Grammys for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, and it won Single of the Year at the 2005 Academy of Country Music Awards. The song ranked number four on CMT's 40 Greatest Songs of the Decade.

Content

The song tells the story of a young 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.

Performances

Underwood gave her debut performance of the song at the 2005 Country Music Association Awards.^[1]

On May 23, 2006, she again sang it at the 41st annual Academy of Country Music Awards, where she won the Single of the Year Award for the song.

On April 2006, she sang it on the CMT Awards, where "Jesus, Take The Wheel" won two major awards, Breakthrough Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year.

During her Carrie Underwood: Live in Concert tour, she performed this song with other tracks on her debut album.

On December 11, 2006, Oprah Winfrey held an "iTunes" concert featuring Underwood, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, and Tony Bennett. Underwood performed "Jesus, Take the Wheel" there.

Music video

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 nominated for Music Video of the Year at the 2006 Country Music Association Awards and was ranked No. 64 on CMT's 100 Greatest Videos.^[2]

Underwood has stated that her favorite part of the video is when the old woman puts her hand on her husband's.

Reception

Charts and certifications

The song debuted at number 39 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and eventually spent six weeks as number one. It proved to be a crossover hit, eventually making it to number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and selling around 2,470,000 digital downloads.^[3]

In August 2008, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" was certified Platinum, making Underwood the first country artist ever to have two songs hit Platinum Mastertone status.^[4] In February 2011, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA.^[5]

Chart performance As of November 2015, it has sold 2,473,000 copies in the US.[6] Chart (2005–06) Peak position US Billboard Hot 100[7] 20 US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[8] 23 US Christian Songs (Billboard)[9] 4 US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[10] 1 Year-end chart (2006) Position US Billboard Hot 100[11] 78 US Country Songs[12] 5

Certifications Country Certification Sales United States Digital: 3× Platinum Mastertone: Platinum 2,473,000[3] Canada Gold 40,000

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Result
2006	Academy of Country Music	Single of the Year	Won
2006		Song of the Year	Nominated
2006	Country Music Association Awards	Music Video of the Year	Nominated
2006		Single of the Year	Nominated
2006	Canadian Country Music Awards	SOCAN Song of the Year	Won
2006	CMT Music Awards	Female Video of the Year	Won
2006		Breakthrough Video of the Year	Won
2006	Gospel Music Association	Country Song of the Year	Won
2007	Grammy Awards	Best Female Country Vocal Performance	Won
2007		Song of the Year	Nominated
2007		Best Country Song	Won

Covers

• 2007: on April 17, American Idol season six contestant LaKisha Jones performed this song during the "Country" theme week
• 2009: on March 17, American Idol season eight contestant Danny Gokey covered the song during the Grand Ole Opry week.
• 2011: on April 4, Vince Gill sang it during ACM Girls Night Out.^[13]
• 2011: on June 14, Jeff Jenkins performed the song on the first season of The Voice
• 2012: on March 28, American Idol season 11 contestant Hollie Cavanagh performed the song on the show during the "Personal Idol" theme week
• 2012: Kristin Chenoweth recorded a cover of the song for the TV series GCB, featured in an episode of the series and released on its official soundtrack.
• 2013: on April 30, Danielle Bradbery performed the song on The Voice
• 2015: on November 2, Shelby Brown sang it in the knockout round song choice selection in the ninth season of The Voice.

References

1. "Carrie Underwood".
2. "100 Greatest Videos". Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
3. Bjorke, Matt (November 23, 2015). "Top 30 Digital Country Singles: November 23, 2015". Roughstock.
4. American Idol
5. "RIAA – Gold & Platinum: Carrie Underwood singles". RIAA.com. Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
6. The Top 30 Digital Singles: February 22, 2016 | RoughStock
7. "Carrie Underwood – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Carrie Underwood. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
8. "Carrie Underwood – Chart history" Billboard Adult Contemporary for Carrie Underwood. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
9. "Carrie Underwood Album & Song Chart History - Christian Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
10. "Carrie Underwood – Chart history" Billboard Hot Country Songs for Carrie Underwood. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
11. "Top Hip-Hop and R&B Songs & Singles Charts". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2011-01-03.
12. "Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2010. Retrieved June 24, 2011.
13. Wilkening, Matthew (April 25, 2011). "Vince Gill Wins Carrie Underwood Over With 'Jesus, Take the Wheel' Cover During 'ACM Girls Night Out' Show". Taste of Country. Retrieved February 24, 2013.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics