Top 10 Beth Nielsen Chapman Songs

Photo: Bryan Ledgard, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Our top 10 Beth Nielsen Chapman songs list looks at a Nashville singer and songwriter nominated twice for Grammy Awards throughout her music career. As an incredibly gifted solo artist, she is also well known for writing songs for both pop and country performers. Some of the artists this Texan has written songs for include; Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Trisha Yearwood, Amy Grant, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and Faith Hill.

Beth Nielsen Chapman is a woman with many talents, achievements, and commitments. Besides her flourishing songwriting career, Beth Nielsen Chapman is an environmental activist, a breast cancer survivor, and a teacher. She has lectured on creativity at institutions such as the Royal Scottish Music and Drama Academy, Berklee School of music, and the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.

Beth Nielsen Chapman did not just write music for others; Beth is a highly successful and respected solo artist. Her voice is sweet and controlled, and even if it doesn’t hit you as striking, her words, stressed by restrained, splendid arrangements, will definitely impress you.

This is also what makes her extraordinary in the industry. The choice of words in her music is not sophisticated, witty rhymes, but extremely personal, heartfelt remarks about love and loss.

In this article, we shall explore the top ten Beth Nielsen Chapman songs, and we hope you enjoy them just as much as we do!

#10 – In the Time It Takes

“In The Time It Takes” is a song released as a radio-only single from Beth Nielsen Chapman’s second album, You Hold The Key, which she wrote and performed herself.
The song features a romantic duet with one Paul Carrack. It gives some perky-major key vocals, and the saxophone incorporation showcases lyrics of commitment and temptation.

The single peaked number twenty-five on the Billboard Adult contemporary singles chart in 1993, and staying on the chart for fourteen weeks probably shows just how great this tune is. On top of that, It reached number thirty-four on the Canadian Singles Chart and spent a good two weeks in the position.

#9 – The Color Of Roses

“The Color Of Roses” is the first song on Nielsen’s fourth album, Sand and Water, released in 1997 by Reprise records.

In her sweet soothing voice, Beth Nielsen Chapman, in this song, imagines a dream where her husband returned to her, a situation which recurs severally in the record while identifying the source of her grief in his absence.

“It’s so hard to touch what is out of our hands,” she sings, “To know and to trust what the heart understands.”

#8 – Sand and Water

The single is from the 1997 album of the same name, Sand and Water. It was written as a dedication to her late husband, Ernest Chapman, who passed on in 1994 after battling cancer.

Beth Nielsen Chapman’s “Sand and Water” has become one of the best-known modern-day grief songs. After Princess Diana’s death, Elton John sang this song in concert to express his pain. Some television shows like Providence and ER used it to show the emotions of their characters.

If this isn’t evidence of how raw and relatable this song is, I don’t know what is.

#7 – This Kiss

“The Kiss” was a single that Beth Nielsen Chapman wrote and was recorded by American country music singer, Faith Hill, for her third studio album, Faith.

She wrote it besides Robin Lerner and Annie Roboff while Byron Gallimore and Hill helped produce it. The single was released on 23rd February 1998 as the first track on the album.

It went ahead to become a fan favorite and a crossover hit, reaching number one on the American and Canadian country charts. In addition, it reached the top ten on the Adult Contemporary Charts and the US Billboard Hot 100.

#6 – All I Have

From her Beth Nielsen Chapman album, “All I have” is a single she composed alongside Eric Kaz. This track has got to be one of the best known from this album, telling blissfully of everlasting love.

The lovely, soothing, romantic melody on this song has made it a people’s favorite, for not only weddings but even soap operas like Days of Our Lives.

#5- Life Holds On

“Life Hold On” is the first track from Beth Nielsen Chapman’s second album entitled Beth Nielsen Chapman. The ballad, which she composed herself, begins with a child narrator who notes some grass in the cracks on the concrete. Hence the conclusion that “Where there’s a will, there’s a way around anything.” She then leaps ahead in the song to reflect on her own fears and hope for her children. This is such an amazing piece of music.

#4 – You Hold The Key

This track was from Beth Nielsen Chapman’s third album entitled You Hold The Key. The album was released in 1993 by Reprise Records.

There is some jazz influence on the song, and Beth Nielsen Chapman goes ahead to pour out her heart and emotions, singing, “All I know is what I feel Baby, what I feel I can’t conceal.” Strings and trumpets accompany her great vocals to make the song a complete masterpiece.

#3- Say Goodnight

“Say Goodnight” is the album-closing track frOM the album Sand and Water. On this particular track Chapman, fancies her husband comforting her and reaching out to her when she cannot.

The track will definitely get you in your feels, heartbreaking to hear yet consoling all together. “Say goodnight, not good-bye; You will never leave my heart behind, Like the path of a star, I’ll be anywhere you are.”

Her vocals are well-coordinated, modulation after lines and a subtle yet dramatic change in keys, which allows the song to burst open. On an album full of exquisite moments, it’s definitely among the most beautiful tracks.

#2- Beyond The Blues

“Beyond the Blues” is another track from the Sand and Water album, released November 2009. The single is from the movie Places In The Heart and is a beautiful composition about a young lady realizing she did love the man in her life after all. This is one of the most outstanding songs in the Beth Nielsen Chapman catalog.

#1- Only So Many Tears

“Only so Many Tears” by Nielsen is from her album You Hold The Key, released in December 2008. It’s a breezy arrangement with some light-jazz feel.

Offering a jollier view of a dysfunctional relationship, Nielsen, through this piece, tries to console and spread some hope; “The sun reappears in the blink of an eye, And there’s only so many tears you can cry.”