Chris Rice News

(11/6/98, 12 p.m. PST)- Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery seem to have eclectic tastes in music. Musical wake-up calls, a long-standing tradition with NASA space flights, have been a varied bunch on this flight, including everything from a university cheering song to rocker Stevie Ray Vaughan to Andy Williams, according to NASA.

Crew members or their families each get to pick a wake-up song, and most have a space theme. John Glenn's pick, heard Monday morning, was "Moon River" performed by Williams. Scott Parazynski chose an appropriate "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.

So what's it like to have your music sent into outer space? For contemporary Christian artist Chris Rice, whose "Hallelujahs" was picked by the family of shuttle pilot Steve Linsey, it's been a huge thrill. Rice, who devotes a large part of his non-music time to teaching, first heard about the honor from some of his students, who were watching the crew on CNN when they heard Rice's song come over the airwaves.

"He's thrilled, just ecstatic," said Rice's spokesperson at his label--the aptly titled Rocketown Records. "It's something that you don't even think about happening."

"Hallelujahs" was written by Rice, but it was first recorded by Christian/ pop singer Kathy Troccoli. Rice recorded it on his Rocketown debut, Deep Enough To Dream. Rocketown execs, which include label owner Michael W. Smith, don't expect to release the song as a single and capitalize on the, er, universal publicity: Rice's second album was released in September, and attention has naturally shifted to that project.

Other tunes lost in space on this flight are Nat King Cole's "Cachito," Stevie Ray Vaughan's "If The House Is A-Rockin'", and "Wakaki Chi," a Keio University cheer.

-- Lisa Zhito, Nashville