Music Legend Candi Staton says “Just Jesus” is All She Needs 

Music Legend Candi Staton says “Just Jesus” is All She Needs

After a dozen gospel albums, almost 30 Billboard R&B chart singles and four Grammy nominations, music legend Candi Staton is back on the gospel charts for the first time in a decade. Her new gospel radio single “Just Jesus” is currently # 32 on the Broadcast Data Systems Gospel Singles chart and winning over radio DJs nationwide. “Just Jesus is a powerful song that speaks to the saint and the sinner of the delivering power of that name,” says Robyn McCollum, Morning Show Host at WIMG-AM in Trenton, NJ. “Candi ministers it with heartfelt conviction that has listeners asking to `play it again9 9. In this season when trials and tribulations mount, `Just Jesus’ points us to the one we can depend on in these tumultuous times.”

The song is featured on Staton’s first-ever praise and worship CD, I Will Sing My Praise to You, on Troy Sneed’s Jacksonville, FL-based Emtro Gospel label. Staton has been carrying the song around in her mind since 1996. “Kathy Meyers and I recorded for the same label and she asked me to come to the studio and sing a song with her,” Staton recalls. “She gave me a copy of the CD and there was this other song on it called `Jesus Just Jesus’ and I fell in love with that song. You know sometimes you start listening to a song and you can’t get it out of your system. That song was like the bottom line to everything for me. Jesus is all I need. Just Jesus! I always like to play old songs when I’m at home. So, one day around the time that I started working on this new CD, I picked that CD up and I kept putting that song on repeat and I said to myself that I need to put this on the new CD.”

The song was written by Staton’s bass player, Anthony Lockett, who was once a member of funk band Cameo, and wrote their 1980 Top Ten smash hit “Sparkle.” Staton laughs, “Anthony didn’t even know I was going to record it until it was already done. I wasn’t even thinking of it as a radio single. Troy Sneed and Tawanda Shamley at Emtro thought it would be a good radio song. The way the CD starts off with that pretty worship music and then segues into the up-tempo praise songs, Just Jesus was a perfect bridge between those two different worship segments.”

Gospel radio programmers agree. Jackson, MS DJ Percy Davis says, “Candi Staton is back with a simple message of salvation that should strike a cord with all believers.” Sam Terry at WNOO in Chattanooga says the song is impeccable, Torrez Harris at WHLH in Jackson, MS calls it a classic and Dale Murray at WXEZ in Virginia Beach, calls Staton one of the most versatile gospel singers since Aretha. The former Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) host known for the 1976 million-seller “Young Hearts Run Free” and the gospel gem “Mama,” is happy to be back on the gospel chart. “It’s a great feeling to have people appreciate music that you made from the heart,” she says.