Word Records

After reading an article by Jimmy Allen, he recorded a fictitious football match between the forces of Good and Evil, with Jesus and Satan coaching the two teams called "The Game of Life." McCracken presented the piece to various churches around central Texas and got so many requests for copies that he had a short run of records pressed and he offered them to the churches he would visit. The fictional radio station in the recording had the call letters "WORD," so that was what was printed on the disc. Word Records was born.

After Marvin Norcross came on board, Word branched out even further, becoming a publishing house as well as a record label. In 1964, Norcross took the next step by establishing the Canaan Records label to feature Southern Gospel music.

The '70s saw even more growth and change. In 1972, Billy Ray Hearn conceived and headed up Myrrh Records for Word. Two years later, McCracken sold part interest of his company to ABC but he remained president until 1986.

By 2002, Word had new owners yet again. AOL/Time Warner bought the company this time and did some restructuring of their own by absorbing Myrrh Records, Squint Entertainment and Everland Entertainment into the Word Label Group. In 2004, the Warner Music Group bought the entire Time Warner music group, including Word, for $2.6 billion.

The Word Label Group includes Word Records, Fervent Records, Myrrh Records, and Canaan Records.

Word Publishing has close to 50 Christian songwriters under contract and administers a catalog of more than 40,000 copyrighted songs.

Word Music is the industry's top source for church hymnals, choral music, and associated instrumental music and accompaniment tracks.

Word Distribution provides sales, marketing and distribution services for the Word family of labels as well as several other labels.

• Essential Music by Word Records Artists

• David Phelps
• Diamond Rio
• Mark Schultz
• Meredith Andrews
• Nicole C. Mullen
• Point Of Grace
• Randy Travis
• Remedy Drive
• Salvador
• Stellar Kart

Signature Word Artists

• BarlowGirl
• Big Daddy Weave
• CADIA
• Francesca Battistelli
• Group 1 Crew
• pureNRG

Canaan

• The Hoppers
• Kim Hopper
• Mike & Kelly Bowling
• The Mike LeFevre Quartet

Myrrh

• Pocket Full Of Rocks
• Women Of Faith Worship Team

• 4Him
• Amy Grant
• Bruce Carroll
• Bryan Duncan
• Carolyn Arends
• Mark Lowry
• Petra
• Rich Mullins
• Russ Taff
• Sandi Patty
• Sixpence None The Richer
• The Cathedrals
• The Imperials
• The Inspirations Quartet
• The Kingsmen
• Wes King