Rosary Tapes
September 24, 1993
THE CATHOLIC WEEKLY
For centuries, all anyone needed to pray the rosary was, well, a rosary.
But now, a former rock radio disc jockey who kept losing his place in the rosary while praying it in the car has come up with a series of musical tapes intended to keep the devout praying.
Bill Gildenstern, 47, who started as an album-rock radio announcer 20 years ago in Detroit, says 10,000 copies of “The Rosary Tapes” have been sold, largely through word of mouth.
In September, Ave Maria Press widened distribution of the tapes to 2,000 bookstores across the U.S.
The musical selections, written by Gildenstern and John Giaier, a suburban Detoit commercial jingle writer, would find a home on “light rock” radio stations. Musically, Gildenstern said, they run the gamut from Frankie Laine to Led Zeppelin.
“Of course, that’s my perception. I could be entirely wrong,” he told CNS in a phone interview from Saginaw, Mich. And each tape has a rendition of Schubert’s “Ave Maria” to close it.
Each mystery of the rosary is introduced with a narrative followed by Gildenstern speaking in the person of Jesus. All three series - - the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries - - are done in the same fashion.
Gildenstern, a lay minister at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Saginaw, wrote the narratives. “I ran it by my bishop” (Bishop Kenneth Untener), he said, to make sure their theology was correct.
He said he gleaned ideas for the introductions from various retreats, retreat directors and spiritual directors.
He remembered one spiritual director saying, “What are the most important times of our lives? Now, and at the hour of our death. This is when we pray to Mary” in the Hail Mary.
“I knew I could work that in somehow,” Gildenstern said.
Giaier’s and Gildenstern’s wives narrate the introductions and lead the rosary recitations through each decade. Giaier sings the lead vocals on each of the 15 songs.
“I haven’t heard any complaints” about “The Rosary Tapes” switching the “thous” and “thys” of the Hail Mary to “you” and “yours.”
“I got a letter from someone suggesting we do the same with the Our Father”, Gildenstern said. “For now we’ll pass.”