For My Sunday Song #171, we are now going to spend the next 10 weeks talking about songs from another favorite band of mine, Collective Soul. And why not kick it off with the song that jump started the band to stardom…”Shine”. The song was the debut single of the band and their debut album ‘Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid’. The song came out in 1993 and was such a big hit for them as it went #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as winning a Billboard Award for Top Rock Track in 1994.
The song also caused problems for the band that were unexpected. First was the fact the song mentioned the word Heaven in the song and the chorus does come across as very church-like and almost sounding like a prayer. This caused people to think the band was a so called “Christian” band and let me tell you they are not. They are a genuine article rock band who happened to sing a song with heaven in the title. As Ed Roland likes to point out, Led Zeppelin had “heaven” in one of their songs and no one called them a Christian band. It did pigeoned-holed the band a little to be lumped in to Christian music.
The second problem was due to the song sounding like a Grunge song with its distorted guitar sounds and dark feel of the song. This was slab dab in the middle of that era and I can see why people thought they were a Grunge band as I even labeled them as that when I heard it. But when you really listen to the band, it is not all dark, sad, depressing music like Grunge (you know its true – Grunge is pretty damn depressing, not fun at all music). It is a solid rock album.
The song was written way back in 1989 from a riff that Ed had been tooling around with for years. He went home and he and his brother were noodling around on the guitars and they finished the song that day. Now it would be years later before the band was a band and recorded the debut. But when it was released, that riff was so memorable and so dirty that it grabbed hold of you and wouldn’t let go. Heaven let its light shine down on that riff!
The band is from just outside of Atlanta in Stockbridge and they were all over the radio down there. And since I lived in Atlanta at that time, I remember this song well and it grabbed my attention of the band. However, it was the next album that made me a fan for life.
Give the song a listen and let me know what you think! I hope you enjoy it and have a Happy Sunday!
“Shine”
Give me a sign.
Show me where to look,
Tell me what will I find?
What will I find?
Lay me on the ground,
Or fly me in the sky.
Show me where to look,
Tell me what will I find?
What will I find?
Whoa, heaven let your light shine down [4x]
Love is in the water,
Love is in the air.
Show me where to look,
Tell me will love be there?
Love be there?
Teach me how to speak,
Teach me how to share.
Teach me where to go,
Tell me will love be there?
Love be there?
Whoa, heaven let your light shine down [4x]
Give me a word,
Give me a sign.
Show me where to look,
Tell me what will I find?
What will I find?
Lay me on the ground,
Or fly me in the sky.
Show me where to look,
Tell me what will I find?
What will I find?
Whoa, heaven let your light shine down [4x]
I’m gonna let it shine
I’m gonna let it shine
Heaven’s little light, shine on me
Heaven’s little light, shine on me
(Shine) Shine on me
(Shine) C’mon and shine
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
I too remember this song when it came out. Lookiing forward to this series!
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Great! I hope you like the choices. I definitely go through their career with the choices.
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Cool post. I love the guitar sound on this song. I bought it at the time when I was having a lot of fun with grunge. There is joy and fun in a lot of the scene but you need to head away from the big miserablists and into bands like Mudhoney, Tad, L7 and their ilk for the fun stuff. This tune though. It’s pure sunshine.
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Thanks. Miserablists!! I love that term for some of the bands. That about covered it. Yes, there were some fun bands but i had a hard time finding them.
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I always liked the ‘yeah’ in the cutouts!
Nice choice for an artist – I’m quite famiiliar with their blue album but only the singles beyond that so I’m keen to learn more
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Thanks. I hope I bring you something new that you didn’t know.
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This song was mega and is still a great track today! I need to revisit this album as it has been years! I look forward to this series John! Lots of great tracks by this band!
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Cool pick. I never really got into Collective Soul, but I know this song. Haven’t heard it in over 20 years, though!
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Thanks. This album was really different than the rest. Some cool tracks on it.
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This is one of my all time most favourite alternative rock songs! Collective Soul are an absolutely fantastic alternative rock and post-grunge band! One of the most finest from the East Coast in these two genres (if not the most)! I really love their second self-titled studio album from 1995 as well ‘Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid’ from 1994. Great work on your website, keep it up! From this point forth you can consider me one of your dedicated visitors/readers! All the best and rock on! 🤘
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Thanks so much. Glad to have you on board. Please come back and comment some more. And I love Collective Soul. They were a local band from where I grew up so it was good to see the local boys hit it big.
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