Age to Age was Amy Grant's breakthrough album, finally earning her serious recognition within the burgeoning Contemporary Christian music community as it ushered her into stardom, and also contributed to the creation of the mold for the modern Contemporary Christian music star. The hit success of the album's first two singles, "Sing Your Praise to the Lord," featuring a piano intro based on J.S. Bach's "Fugue No. 2 in C Minor" from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1, and "El Shaddai," saw its sales take off, selling well over a million copies. It became the first Christian music album by a solo artist to be certified gold in 1983, and the first ever platinum Christian music album in 1985.
The album was listed at No. 92 in the 2001 book, CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music[4] and it was one of the fastest-selling specifically Christian albums ever released. It sold about 5,000 to 6,000 copies a week on average, which was unheard of for a Christian album at the time. Dan Harrell, one of Grant's managers, claimed that it was the fastest selling record in her record company's history. Indeed, it became the first Christian album by a solo artist to be certified gold (1983), and the first Christian album to be certified platinum. It became so popular that it topped Billboard's Christian albums chart for 85 weeks, including the entire year of 1983, and was named Gospel Album of the 1980s by Billboard. The album title comes from a prominent lyric in one of the album's most prominent tracks, "El Shaddai".
A live concert video cassette and LaserDisc was released by A&M Records which includes seven of this album's songs. A music video was produced for "Don't Run Away" featuring Michael W. Smith as the piano player.
