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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - Willie Banks

Willie Banks’ titanic sermon song “Things I Can’t Change” features one of the most powerful vocal performances in gospel music.

From his earliest days with Edna Gallmon Cook, the Violinaires, and the Jackson Southernaires, Willie Banks possessed one of the mightiest, most commanding voices in all of gospel music – what a powerhouse! With his own Messengers, Banks’ recorded a dozen albums, filled with hits like “God’s Goodness,” “Heaven Must Be a Beautiful Place,” “God is Still in Charge,” “Too Late” and the Grammy nominated “For the Wrong I’ve Done.”

But my all-time favorite song by Willie Banks is his commanding “Things I Can’t Change” – his first gospel hit. Here’s a powerful sermon in song, a thundering declaration of faith that must have wrecked every church every time he sang it!

Willie Banks - Things I Can't Change

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.

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Robert F. Darden is the author of two dozen books, most recently: Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume II: Black Sacred Music from Sit-In to Resurrection City (Penn State University Press, 2016); Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume I: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement(Penn State University Press, 2014); Jesus Laughed: The Redemptive Power of Humor(Abingdon Press, 2008), Reluctant Prophets and Clueless Disciples: Understanding the Bible by Telling Its Stories(Abingdon Press, 2006); and People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music(Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2004).