Background
Sparrow Records was founded in 1976 by Billy Ray Hearn, then A&R director at Myrrh Records. Purchased by EMI in 1992, it is now part of the EMI Christian Music Group, and has been named by Billboard Magazine as "America's Best Christian Music Record Label". Sparrow Records rose to prominence with the signing of singer, songwriter, Contemporary Christian musician and minister Keith Green. Within a year of his 1976 signing by Sparrow, Keith Green was the top selling Christian artist in America.
As of 2009, Sparrow's artists include Britt Nicole, Chris Tomlin, Mandisa, Matt Redman, Matthew West, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Switchfoot. Since 1996, a popular production of Sparrow Records has been the annual WOW Hits CCM series. The WOW franchise then added the annual WOW Gospel series of albums in 1998. The WOW Worship series was introduced in 1999, an annual compilation of the greatest hits in Worship music. The WOW Worship series originally only focused on worship music, but now also includes Christian hits in rock, rap, gospel, and R&B music.
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