Maranatha! Records was started in 1971, and is indelibly connected with the "Jesus Movement" of the early 1970s that grew into Contemporary Christian Music. The record label was an extension of the praise and worship music of the Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, not far from Los Angeles. The Pastor was Chuck Smith.

Russ Stevens, Peter Jacobs, and sisters Wendy and Marsha Carter [later Stevens] were four singers who had been singing at Calvary Chapel since 1969. The four were known informally as "the group." They did some outside appearances, and when asked what the group's name was, they realized they didn't have one, so they came up with "Children of the Day." People kept asking for them to record their songs, and finally they borrowed about 900 dollars from Chuck Smith to make an album. They incorporated the group as Children of the Day, Inc., with Smith as Vice-President. This corporation financed and produced the first four albums on the label.

The first album recorded was Children of the Day's Come to the Waters, although Smith wanted The Everlastin' Living Jesus Concert to be released first, so the latter became Maranatha! album #1 and the former #2. Come to the Waters was produced by Buck Herring, the husband of Annie Herring and brother-in-law of Annie's younger siblings Matthew and Nelly Ward (the three would later become 2nd Chapter of Acts). Come to the Waters was recorded at Abbey Sound, Ltd. in Hollywood. The sound is somewhat primitive by today's standards, but the songs are an interesting soft- rock vocal/instrumental blend vaguely reminicent of the Mamas and Papas.

Many of the subsequent albums were praise and worship albums by various artists, sometimes lumped together as "The Maranatha Singers," "The Maranatha Strings," etc. Many times these groups had involvement from Tommy Coomes (of Love Song) and/or Peter Jacobs (of Children of the Day).

Chuck Smith, who originally ran the label, sold it eventually to Chuck Fromm. Fromm recently reflected on the label's early years and noted that in the late 1970s, they had signed a number of Christian pop acts (e.g., Daniel Amos) and were being spread very thin trying to promote different types of music. In the 1980s, they released the remaining pop acts and decided to concentrate on praise and worship music, which they believed was their forte. This proved a good move, as Maranatha! has become, along with Hosanna/Integrity, one of the largest and best-known praise and worship labels.

In 1982, Maranatha started a subsidiary label, A&S. We have included that label's discography at the end of this page.

The numbering system used several different prefixes for the albums. The early issues used the prefix HS-777/xx, where "xx" is the record number starting with 1. Later, on some albums, this was just 77-xx, and then MM0xxA was used. We are not certain of the transition points between numbering systems, but many of the early albums were reissued using the MM0xxA format. Maranatha! has had a long association with Word Records as their distributor.

Maranatha used a dove as its logo, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Usually this dove is downward-flying. The downward-flying red dove silhouette logo appeared on the cover of the first album, as well as the label of the first few albums. All Maranatha! Music album cover artwork graphics were custom-designed and printed by staff artists (in the early days including Barry Malone and Kernie Erickson), who made them look like they were from a major label like Columbia Records, on a very low budget. They also designed the Maranatha! Music logo Holy Spirit Dove, which became a trademark of Maranatha! Music and Calvary Chapels all over the world.The first Maranatha! label was white with black print, with the red dove logo above the center hole. Along the bottom of the label, it said in red letters, "MARANATHA MUSIC/COSTA MESA, CALIF. 92626/AN OUTREACH OF CALVARY CHAPEL".


The next Maranatha! label was creme color, with the dove logo as an outline rather than a solid silhouette. Interestingly, the dove was flying upwards on side one and downwards on side two of these labels. By this time, the information on the bottom of the label gave a post office box in Costa Mesa as the label's address.






A later label design was blue, again with the dove logo.








We would appreciate any additions or corrections to this discography. Just send them to us via e-mail. Both Sides Now Publications is an information web page. We are not a catalog, nor can we provide the records listed below. We have no association with Maranatha or Word Records. Should you be interested in acquiring albums listed in this discography (many of which are out of print), we suggest you see our Frequently Asked Questions page and follow the instructions found there. This story and discography are copyright 2001, 2003, 2013 by Mike Callahan.