Benny Hester

A digitally remastered version was released on February 19, 2016, made from the artists own promotional copy of the original vinyl. A track from the album, "No the End is Not Near" was featured in the season opener of the fifth season of the HBO show Girls.

The Walt Disney Company and Disney ABC Cable Networks Group agreed to settle the legal claim regarding Hannah Montana and Rock and Roland less than four weeks before the jury trial was to begin in Los Angeles Superior Court on August 26, 2008.

Ross and Bonnett were subsequently promoted at Disney, along with others from the Disney Channel, and credited for Hannah Montana’s broad reaching success across TV, music, and live tours, the model first proposed and put into motion by Roundhouse producers at Nickelodeon, but blocked by the network during the time Ross and Bonnett were there. That decision turned out to be shortsighted by Nickelodeon, and when proposed again to the then underutilized Disney Channel as a tie-in to the underperforming Hollywood Records (Disney Music Group), the concept proved inherently valuable enough that, as the complaint filed against Disney in 2007 in Los Angeles claimed, Rock and Roland was misappropriated by Disney and produced under the name Hannah Montana. For their key roles in bringing Hannah Montana to Disney, Rich Ross was elevated from the Disney Channel to Chairman of Walt Disney Studios in October 2009, forced to resign April 2012, and Adam Bonnett upped to Senior Vice President, Original Programming, Disney Channel.

After a pitch to the Disney Channel by Roundhouse producers in 2001 of the show Rock and Roland, in which a junior high boy was a "normal kid by day, rock star by night” (gender option given during the pitch), and after providing additional written scenes and a plan for marketing the music from the show through Disney's Hollywood Records, the Disney Channel’s Rich Ross publicly took credit for the success of Disney’s gender-reversed multibillion-dollar franchise Hannah Montana, as did the channel's Adam Bonnett. Ross and Bonnett were both former Nickelodeon executives who worked with, among others, the award-winning Roundhouse and its newly acquired age 9 to 17 demographic, airing in Nickelodeon’s first prime time block, SNICK. SNICK was later revamped as TEENick to target the newly found tween/teen audience. Ross was Nickelodeon Talent Booker turned VP Of Program Enterprises, involved in all Nickelodeon original programming deals and, Bonnett, Production Coordinator becoming Director Of Current Programming for Nickelodeon.

From 1992 to 1996 Hester was Co-Executive Producer, Music Producer/Musical Director and Songwriter for the award-winning Nickelodeon/MTV Networks television series Roundhouse. He was nominated for seven songwriting and music producer awards, winning for “I Can Dream” (Cable Ace Award) and “Can’t Let Go” (Hollywood Foreign Press Youth In Film Award) in the best Original Song for television categories. He also received three television Cable Ace Award nominations for best Variety Special or Series as Co-Executive Producer of Roundhouse.

Hester has since released a string of hit albums and chart topping songs, and performed thousands of concerts. His recording of his song “When God Ran” is the longest running number one song in Contemporary Christian Music history, spending 13 weeks at number one on Christian Radio and topping both the AC and CHR Charts. When another single from the same album, "Secret Thoughts", made it to number one on the Rock Charts, Hester had three simultaneous chart toppers, a feat which had never been achieved up to that point in Christian music. “When God Ran” was the number one most played Christian Adult Contemporary radio hit of 1986, and number three for the entire decade. “When God Ran” continues to be rerecorded by artists in many languages and musical genres, including Adult Contemporary, Pop, Rock, Alternative Rock, and Southern Gospel, making it to the top of the charts repeatedly. A version recorded by The Kingsmen took the number one spot on the Southern Gospel Charts in February 2009 and was nominated Gospel Music Song Of The Year and Album Of The Year.

The title track from his third album, "Nobody Knows Me Like You", reached number one on Christian Music Charts and became the first Contemporary Christian music song to break the Billboard Top 50 Adult Contemporary Chart, debuting at number 44 on November 7, 1981.

Hester's first Contemporary Christian music singles, "Jesus Came Into My Life" and "Be A Receiver", were breakthrough recordings for radio, blurring the lines between pop, rock, and inspirational music, and becoming the first contemporary pop rock songs to be universally accepted and widely played across all Christian Radio formats. His 1978 self-titled debut album Benny Hester, re-released in 1982 as Be A Receiver, influenced the burgeoning Contemporary Christian music scene, and ranks among the first "Contemporary Christian Music" albums as the musical landscape shifted with the end of the Jesus Music era and the birth of the industry known as Contemporary Christian music.

Hester recovered from the fire that claimed his first major recording project. In 1975, Monument Records released "Good Night, Good Day" and "Country Boy". Decca Records followed with the release of "Jamaica Way" and "Melody Man", in 1978. Decca later released a 1980 compilation album featuring Hester as the only new emerging artist on the record, and the first song on side B, with an eclectic group of established artists, Jimmy Buffett, Tex Williams, Ray Stevens, and others. While labels continued to explore music genres, with the release of his 1978 CCM debut album on Sparrow Records, which he recorded with his Las Vegas formed live concert band, Hester was able to emerge with an album that showcased his instantly recognizable pop rock vocals and songwriting style, and his, by now, finely tuned, spiritually driven themes. This period proved to be defining, and helped set the course for his music and future.

Benny Ray Hester (born May 3, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and recording artist. He is perhaps best known for his songs "When God Ran" and "Nobody Knows Me Like You", and for producing the groundbreaking tween/teen music-driven sketch comedy and dance television series Roundhouse on Nickelodeon. Hester received a television Cable Ace Award for the song "I Can Dream" and a collection of nominations for writing and producing a featured original song for each weekly episode of Roundhouse during its successful four-year run. He has written and recorded more than 25 number one and top ten songs.