Myrrh was started in 1972 as a division of Word Records. It was established by Billy Ray Hearn, who four years later left Myrrh and founded Sparrow Recordsas a direct competitor to Word and Myrrh. Myrrh was the mainstay of Word's "popular music" sounding religious issues. At one point, Word was issuing more titles on Myrrh than Word itself, but in the year 2000, Word announced it was discontinuing the label and shifting the artist roster to Word.

Probably the biggest "find" for Myrrh was teenage singer Amy Grant, who hit the Contemporary Christian Music scene like a bomb in 1977. So popular were her albums, that Myrrh's parent company, Word, entered into an agreement with A&M Records to reissue her album catalog on A&M, a secular label. In addition, A&M promoted Amy Grant as a pop music artist, much to the annoyance of many in the CCM field. In 1985, her first concurrent Myrrh/A&M release featured the "star" treatment, with four different album covers (see pictures in discography, below).

Another Myrrh act which interested A&M was Petra, a popular Christian rock and roll group. Their back catalog was also reissued on A&M, but they never achieved the pop music status of Amy Grant. In addition to these two artists' CDs being issued in A&M's pop music series, hundreds of Word, Myrrh, and other Word-distributed labels' back and current catalog items were put out by A&M in a special WR-8100 series.

The logo has changed over the years, from simply the word "myrrh" in lower case, used during the 1970s and 1980s, to two different stylized "M" logos, used in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.



There were two major label designs. The first was green with a multicolored logo at the top. This was used from the start of the label in 1972 until about 1974. This was replaced by an orange label with black print, which was used from about 1975 and all throughout the 1980s.




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 Myrrh or Word Records. Should you be interested in acquiring albums listed in this discography (almost all 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 by Mike Callahan.