The legendary Don Robey’s Peacock and Song Bird gospel record labels were housed in the same building at 2809 Erastus Street in Houston ... along with his R&B and jazz labels, studio, night club, and flourishing gambling operation. Robey never paid his artists much, but his recording studio was pretty good, the session musicians always first-rate, and he pretty much left his artists alone to do whatever they wanted.
The Melody Kings were one such group. With producer Richard Simpson – who had just worked with Andrae Crouch and the COGICs --producing the session, the Kings recorded a dozen songs in just a few hours, including this sprightly quartet tune, “I Pray,” written by their manager and lead songwriter Lee Wallace.
I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.
