Dear Mr. Jesus

This is a child's plea about child abuse that became a #1 Top-40 hit back in November 1987. It broke through the market two years after its initial release, when it had been laughed at and tossed in trash cans, by most DJs. Later in 1987, there was a child abuse case going on in the Tampa FL area, and a morning drive traffic helicopter pilot heard it on a local Christian station while jumping back and forth between stations. He alerted DJ, Cleveland Wheeler to the song, at the big Top-40 station in Tampa, and said it would be great to play it once regarding the child abuse story in the local news. Cleveland played it once and it became the most requested song they've every had in the history of the station. The song hit the heart-strings of the local people and the requests began pouring into the station. It never stopped for weeks and weeks... Cleveland made a copy and sent it up to his sister station in New York City (KHTZ) which was the biggest Top-40 station in the USA, with DJ Scott Shannon. There was an ongoing NYC child abuse trial at the time about little Lisa Steinberg, who had been murdered by her stepdad, and when they played it, the same thing happened again; they received over 3,000 telephone calls, per day, to play the song.

Upon this success in NY, Scott Shannon sent a copy to their other sister station, KISS-FM, in Los Angeles. When DJ, Rick Dees played it one November morning, the same thing happened again. The people kept calling the station wanting to hear this song over and over. That December, the song broke all records for requests that KISS-FM had ever had. It continued to be voted the #1 song every night on their "8 at 8" hit countdown beating out songs like "Push It" by Salt & Peppa. From those 3 stations, the song exploded across the country, and even around the world, in a matter of days and became a national phenomenon that holiday. Our recording broke every rule in Radio... 1.] No promotional dollars behind it, 2.] it was sung by a 6-year old child, and 3.] it was a song using the name of "Jesus" in it. These types of songs never get secular airplay not to mention on Top-40 radio... Results unheard of in the music industry... I saw it as a Christmas miracle for children.

As a result of the song being such a big hit, I wanted to give back. I decided to start a foundation which I called "Day of the Child", which was to become a worldwide simulcast of the song just one year later, on Dec. 1, 1988. My collaborator, Bob Cusick, helped me organize, design and coordinate the event worldwide. We had a small team of volunteers. We rented an abandoned elementary school, as our offices for the year, in order to have a place where volunteers could come along side us, and help us help hurting children. For example, we created brochures, event posters, newsletters, databases, bounciest-back post cards and pressed 10,000 45-rpm records of the new single, sung by my 5-year old son, Corey. An Interview was pressed on the flip side so that radio stations could utilize a national interview along with their local event. Remember, this was all before the internet and social media. We had to print everything out and mail each piece snail mail, etc. We contacted and mailed to 10,000 radio stations - every station in the USA; the Armed Forces Radio and many other stations around the world, to become involved. The event was to become a way to raise the awareness of child abuse, while letting local child abuse agencies raise their own money, in their local towns from local radio promotions. Day of the Child was quite an undertaking. I used my ASCAP royalties to pay for printing and fund the project, as a way of giving back. We took a year off from what we were doing to work on this event without salaries. Long story short, the event was wildly successful. We ended up having over 2,400 radio stations participate, all playing this new Simulcast version (this version sung by Corey) at the very same moment across time-zones, to kick off that nationwide day of local promotions. Each station could run their event exactly the way they wanted. We provided event suggestions and let them decide how they wanted to raise awareness and help in their local area. It was a very successful event. In fact, Day of the Child continued for over 10 years with local child abuse agencies utilizing our Dec. 1st day as an annual fundraiser in their areas. A great deal of money was raised and it all stayed in the local towns. We didn't ever receive any of the funds so all the money stayed where it belonged, locally. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to start that national effort. President George Bush, Senior named our organization one of his 1000 points of light, which was a real honor. The song still receives some airplay each Christmas season.

Song Information

Length:

3:54

Artist:

Klender (feat. Corey Klender)

Written By:

Richard Klender - (feat. Corey Klender)

Published By:

Klenco Music (ASCAP)

Produced By:

Klender

Arranged By:

Klender

Credits:

Piano: Klender
Vocals: 5-year old Corey Klender & Klender
Orchestra & tracks Engineered by: Steve Hallmark
Hallmark Studios, Westlake Village, CA

Licensing Requests:

licensing@songtracker.com

View Lyrics

Dear Mr. Jesus

Dear Mr. Jesus, I just had to write to you
Something really scared me, when I saw it on the news
A story ‘bout a little girl, beaten black and blue
Jesus, thought I’d take this right to you

Dear Mr. Jesus, I don’t understand
Why they took her mom and dad away
I know that they don’t mean to hit, with wild and angry hands
Tell them just how big they are I pray

Please don’t let them hurt Your children
We need love and shelter from the storm
Please don’t let them hurt Your children
Won’t you keep us safe and warm

Dear Mr. Jesus, they say that she may die
Oh, I hope the doctors stop the pain
I know that you could save her and take her up to the sky
Where she would never have to hurt again

Please don’t let them hurt Your children
We need love and shelter from the storm
Please don’t let them hurt Your children
Won’t you keep us safe and warm

Dear Mr. Jesus, please tell me what to do
And please don’t tell my daddy, but my mommy hits me, too

Please don’t let them hurt Your children
We need love and shelter from the storm
Please don’t let them hurt Your children
Won’t you keep us safe and warm

Words and music by Richard Klender • Klenco Music (ASCAP)

Behind the Music

Early on, while all this was happening, it was unbeknownst to me... one of my collaborators called me from NYC and said, "Richard, are you sitting down?". I said, "ok, what's up?" He said, "your song is #1 on the biggest rock station in town!". My mouth dropped open, wondering which of my songs could even be a big Top-40 hit. When Kevin told me that it was "Dear Mr. Jesus", I was just shocked, blown away, and, of course, elated. That night, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and all the network news shows ran a segment, about my little song, on the national nightly news (watch the Backstory video here). I was just sitting on my couch watching the TV, shaking my head, while my song had become the biggest hit record in the nation. It was surreal... a dream come true... I could hardly believe it. The phone started ringing off the hook daily. I was invited to be interviewed often, and even made an appearance on the national "Hour Magazine" (w/ Gary Collins) show. It was a wild and crazy six week period in my life, for which I am still very grateful. It just goes to show, that if you diligently believe in the music you passionately create; once in a great while, anything can happen...

Short Klender Interview about "Dear Mr. Jesus"

Behind the Video

This powerful video was made and mostly donated by some devoted gentlemen from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. They were professionals in the field and did a nice job putting together a simple video which was really designed to be part of a Christian children's TV show named PowerSource. Fortunately, in that age of MTV, there was a video already prepared, even though it was not created to be a music video, so to speak. I remember being in the ending shot of the video with a number of volunteers from the organization supporting the children's show. We didn't have a lot of time or many takes to get it right so we just winged it and went for it. The children shown throughout the video were the cast members and their parents, of the children's show. It was filmed on 1" analog video tape and edited down to 3/4" dubs. That's how we distributed it to the masses once it became a hit. Stations were making copies of other people's copy since there were only a small number of videos to go around. It's amazing that it all came together, considering all the things we had to overcome. Enjoy...

click the cover to return to the album:

Studio Inquiry

Get In Touch