The pride of St. Louis, the Rev. Cleophus Robinson, lends his silky voice to the traditional ballad, "God by With You".
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Welcome to Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments. I’m Robert Darden.
The Rev. Cleophus Robinson could have been one of gospel music’s superstars – but darn it, St. Louis was just too good to leave for very long. The Mississippi native spent 40 year as pastor of the famed Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church in St. Loo. He had a weekly television show that aired for 20 years. And that’s on top of multiple, long-running radio shows.
Robinson, who started as a gospel prodigy in his teens in the 1940s, bounced around through several gospel labels. Along with “Solemn Prayer,” for Nashboro, he had several other charting songs for the Savoy label. Today, he’s best known for the crossover hit, “Wrapped Up, Tied Up, Tangled Up” for Nashboro.
But Robinson had several other songs that generated a lot of radio for the label, including this one, “God be With You (Until We Meet Again),” from 1976 ... his silky-smooth crooning stretches this comforting ballad over nearly 6 minutes – aided and abetted by the soothing background vocals of the Christian Harmonizers. Robinson was still singing right up until his death in 1998 at the way too young age of 66.
MUSIC: “God be With You (Until We Meet Again),” Rev. Cleophus Robinson, 45
I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU, the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor University Libraries and is funded by generous support from the Prichard Foundation.