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Blessid Union of Souls were founded in Cincinnati by vocalist/songwriter Eliot Sloan and guitarist/songwriter Jeff Pence in 1990; keyboardist C.P. Roth, who had played in Ozzy Osbourne's touring band, and drummer Eddie Hedges, who toured with several R&B acts, soon completed the band's early lineup. Sloan and Hedges had played together in the mid-'80s in an R&B band called the Movies, and briefly signed with CBS. Taking their name from a line in an episode of M*A*S*H (and misspelling the first word to ensure correct pronunciation), Blessid Union of Souls recorded a demo tape in 1992 that found its way to EMI Records, which immediately offered the group a contract. Their debut album, Home, took over two years to craft properly, and was finally released in March of 1995; it was an immediate success, thanks to Cincinnati DJs who had already begun playing the then-unreleased lead single, "I Believe," and spread the word about the band. "I Believe" eventually reached number eight on the Billboard singles chart and became one of the most played songs of the year; like many of Sloan's songs, the lyrics reflected subtly Christian sentiments, but never became overbearing or preachy. The follow-up, "Let Me Be the One," also reached the Top 40 and was featured prominently in the soap opera All My Children.

'I Believe' was written after vocalist Eliot Sloan's girlfriend "Lisa" was forced by her father to stop dating Sloan:

According to the "I Believe Story" from Blessid Union of Souls's compilation album Almost Acoustic (Volume 1), the song was written by vocalist Eliot Sloan in the early morning when he imagined the main piano sample which would be used in the song and then played it.

“ I always tell people, and it's the truth, 'I Believe' was written in the middle of the night at about three in the morning. I always used to live in downtown Cincinnati, a really cool spiral staircase up to my bedroom, which kind of ended up as my studio. I kept a piano there that my mother got me when I was nine. In the middle of the night I was hearing the melody and I thought, 'this is pretty.' I just had to get up and play it. ” 

Eliot Sloan stated in an interview with The Celebrity Cafe that he wrote the song about his relationship with "Lisa", a girl he once dated. Lisa's father allegedly threatened to cut off her college tuition if she continued to see Eliot. They said good-bye and went their separate ways. He said that he still very much missed her, and placed a message in the liner notes of Home: "Lisa, give me a call sometime just to say hello, my number is still the same."


On the third verse of the edited version, the word "Nigger" is replaced with "Brother"...

Blessid Unions Of Souls is wellicht bekender van 'Hey Leonardo', een hit in 1999.
Dat 'I Believe' niet in de hitlijst kwam, maakt 'm wellicht juist mooier...

4 tracks - CDM - 1994