Shirley Caesar, No Charge | Music Lifts 🎶 🏋

In the 30th edition of Music Lifts (2024), we’re uplifted by Pastor Shirley Caesar performing her gospel classic, “No Charge.”

Welcome to Music Lifts 🎶 🏋, a column highlighting songs that encourage, inspire, and uplift the spirit; songs exuding fortitude, positivity, and resolve, even in the face of adversity.  Featured songs aren’t genre-specific; songs may or may not be faith-based. The goal is for these songs to make you feel better – be LIFTED to new heights!  So, for the 30^th edition of Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 (2024), we highlight “No Charge” as performed by Shirley Caesar.

“For the nine months I carried you holding you inside me, no charge.” “No Charge” is one of the best songs from the illustrious Shirley Caesar catalog.  The pastor and gospel music legend recorded it in 1975.  Notably, “No Charge” was a Melba Montgomery cover (🤯).  The thoughtful song was penned by the late Harlan Howard, known primarily for his country songwriting  (“The Chokin’ Kind” comes to mind). Amazingly, “No Charge” is the only song by Caesar that reached the Billboard Hot 100.  It peaked at no. 91. Caesar rerecorded “No Charge” on her 1983 album, Jesus I Love Calling Your Name.

The premise of the song is simple. Caesar narrates a tale of a little boy bringing a bill charging his mother for his chores and things he’s done to pitch in.  Some of the charges included mowing the yard, making up his bed, playing with his little brother, and getting a good report card.  At the end of the list, the total owed by mom was $14.75.  The mother’s response is to remind the boy of everything she’s done for him and charge him nothing.  Caesar sings these lyrics expressively, bringing a Southern gospel vibe:

“For the nine months, I carried you holding you inside me, no charge

For the nights I sat up with you, doctored you, and prayed for you, no charge

For the time and tears and the costs through the years

There is no charge

When you add it all up the full cost of my love is no charge.”

Caesar doesn’t stop there either.  She sings more about the specifics and the future: “For the advice and the knowledge / And the costs of your college / There is no charge.”  Being a gospel artist, Shirley brings Jesus into the mix at the end of the record:

“I like to think about the very minute that he shedded his blood

My debt was paid in full

And I want you to know today

When you add it all up

The full cost of real love is no charge.”

“No Charge” is a powerful, timeless country gospel classic.  Shirley Caesar at her best.

Shirley Caesar // Jesus I Love Calling Your Name // Word, Incorporated // 1983

Shirley Caesar, No Charge: Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 No. 30 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Word, Incorporated; Monstera Production, Qamar Rehman, RDNE Stock Project, Thomas Ronveaux, Wolrider YURTSEVEN from Pexels; OpenClipart-Vectors, Quốc Hùng Hầu from Pixabay]