SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - Edwin Hawkins & the Music and Arts Seminar Mass Choir

Everybody knows “Oh Happy Day” – the once-in-several lifetimes out of the blue hit that elevated an obscure youth choir in Oakland to worldwide gospel and pop music fame. Edwin Hawkins released a lot of great music in his career but nothing ever rivaled “Oh Happy Day.” But then, how could it?

Hawkins continued recording albums until his death in 2018, though in later years most were collaborations with his popular Music & Arts Seminar mass choirs. The seminars and their live recordings were truly events.

In 1984, Hawkins and the choir released another live album, titled Angels Will be Singing. It’s notable for a number of reasons – for one, the legendary Sallie Martin sings one of her last solos on the traditional gospel song “No Not One.” And that’s Richard Smallwood on the keyboards. But check out the on the manic concert finale – an impressive triple time, stop and start rendition of “None But the Righteous”!

MUSIC: “None But the Righteous,” Edwin Hawkins & the Music & Arts Seminar Mass Choir, from the LP Angels Will be Singing, Side 2, Track 5

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU, the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries and is funded by generous support from the Prichard Foundation.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'Is There Anything Too Hard for God?' by The Kansas East Sunshine Band Children’s Choir’s

The Kansas East Sunshine Band Children’s Choir’s Young & Gifted Recorded Live! LP features a killer vocal by 9-year-old Crystal Morris on the funky “Is There Anything Too Hard for God?”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Old Ship of Zion" by Zion Missionary Baptist Church Music Department

From the Zion Sings LP by the venerable Zion Missionary Baptist Church of East Chicago, Indiana, comes this moving and reverent version of the spiritual, “The Old Ship of Zion.”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "People Get Ready" by The Chamber Brothers

For my 500th episode of “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” I’m sharing the first gospel 45 I ever bought, “People Get Ready” by the Chambers Brothers.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “Oh, Mother Tonight” by The Gospel Twins

The rare 45 “Oh, Mother Tonight” by the otherwise unknown Gospel Twins is a uniquely primitive addition to Baylor’s Black Gospel Archives.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Oh, Have You" by Evangelist Jessie Mae Renfro

Evangelist Jessie Mae Renfro was one of the last great traditional gospel voices, as her song “Oh, Have You” so beautifully displays.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “No Segregation in Heaven” by Jordan Jubilee

The Jordan Jubilee’s slow and brooding “No Segregation in Heaven” was a pretty grave statement to make in the early 1970s!

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Down by the Riverside" by The Rev. Cecil Harris and His Choir

Fort Worth’s Galatian Baptist Church tears into the old camp-meeting song, “Down by the Riverside.”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Pray on My Child" by Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Singers

That’s the powerful voice of Maggie Bell on the Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Choir’s version of “Pray on My Child.”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "No Hiding Place" by The Doves

The otherwise unknown Evening Doves deliver a spirited, rollicking version of the traditional gospel song “No Hiding Place."

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "No Friend Like the Lord" by The Silver Bells

The unknown Silver Bells of Macon, Georgia’s “No Friend Like the Lord” is a masterclass in a cappella doo-wop styled gospel singing.