50 Fun Facts About Gospel Music

Which 'father of gospel music' wrote 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' and 'Peace in the Valley'?

He wrote about 3,000 songs in all, a third of them gospel, after years playing blues piano as 'Georgia Tom'.

Dorsey wrote 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' in 1932 after which personal tragedy?

Nettie Dorsey died in childbirth and the baby followed 24 hours later, the same week Dorsey co-founded what became the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses.

Before turning to gospel, Dorsey toured as pianist for which blues singer?

Billed as 'Georgia Tom', he then cut hokum records with guitarist Tampa Red before his spiritual awakening.

Dorsey served as music director of which Chicago congregation for 50 years?

He introduced improvisation, clapping and shouting to services at a time when they were widely condemned as unrefined.

Mahalia Jackson sang 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' at whose funeral in April 1968?

His last words before he was shot were a request that Ben Branch play it at that night's meeting.

Which 1947 Mahalia Jackson record sold two million copies and reached No. 2, both firsts for gospel?

The song was recorded in two parts, one for each side of the 78; it sold 50,000 copies in Chicago alone.

Mahalia Jackson was born and raised in poverty in which city?

She moved to Chicago as a teenager and joined the Johnson Singers, one of the earliest gospel groups.

Which blues singer's style did Mahalia Jackson adapt to hymns, according to her biographers?

As a girl she sang along to Smith's records while scrubbing floors for her Aunt Duke.

Mahalia Jackson became the first gospel artist to sign with which major label in 1954?

Mitch Miller offered her $50,000 a year; the label later added orchestras and electric guitars that pushed her toward light pop.

Which song did Mahalia Jackson sing at Dr. King's request at the 1963 March on Washington?

Legend has it that moments later she called out to King to 'tell them about the dream'.

Which guitar-playing gospel star of the 1930s and 40s is known as 'the Godmother of Rock and Roll'?

She was among the first popular artists to use heavy distortion on an electric guitar, and influenced Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis.

Which English clergyman and former slave-ship sailor published 'Amazing Grace' in 1779?

A violent storm at sea in 1748 began his conversion; he later supported the abolition movement.

Wallace Willis, probable composer of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot', was a freedman of which Native American nation?

The Fisk Jubilee Singers and Hampton Singers spread it; the 1894 Standard Quartette recording is the earliest known.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers, who took spirituals to concert halls, were students in which city?

The first group was organised in 1871 to raise money for the college; their 1909 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' is in the National Recording Registry.

The term 'gospel song' first appeared in print in 1874 in a songbook by which composer?

Bliss then teamed with Sankey on the Gospel Hymns series from 1875, songbooks still found in libraries today.

Which blind 'Queen of Gospel Song Writers' wrote more than 8,000 hymns including 'Blessed Assurance'?

Ira Sankey credited her hymns for much of the success of the Moody revivals.

Ira D. Sankey was the singing partner of which revivalist preacher from 1870 until 1899?

Moody heard Sankey sing at a convention and recruited him; the pair campaigned across America and Britain.

A hymn by Philadelphia minister Charles Albert Tindley underlies which civil rights anthem?

The Philadelphia minister, known as 'The Prince of Preachers', also wrote 'Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There'.

Sam Cooke was lead singer of which gospel quartet before going secular in 1956?

He recorded his first pop song under the alias Dale Cook to avoid the stigma, but his voice gave him away.

The Blind Boys of Alabama were founded in 1939 in which town?

Their cover of Tom Waits's 'Way Down in the Hole' was the theme for the first season of The Wire.

The Blind Boys of Alabama broke into the mainstream via which 1983 Obie-winning stage musical?

The show reset Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus as a Black Pentecostal service.

Where did the Golden Gate Quartet play Hammond's From Spirituals to Swing concert in 1938?

The group moved to Paris in 1959; a young Elvis, then in the Army, sought them out backstage there.

James Cleveland, the 'King of Gospel', was the first gospel musician to receive what honour?

He founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America in 1969 and won four Grammys for his mass-choir arrangements.

Aretha Franklin's live gospel album Amazing Grace was recorded in 1972 at a Baptist church in which city?

James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir backed her at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church; the film of it was finally released in 2018.

As a child at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Aretha Franklin made her solo debut with which hymn?

Her father C. L. Franklin was the church's famous pastor; she began singing solos there just after her mother's death.

All three of Elvis Presley's competitive Grammy wins were for what kind of recordings?

The 1967 album How Great Thou Art won the first; the title track's 1974 live version won the third and last.

Dorsey's 'Peace in the Valley' became a million-seller for which country singer in 1951?

Elvis matched the feat with his own million-selling version in 1957.

The Edwin Hawkins Singers' 1969 hit 'Oh Happy Day' arranges a hymn from which century?

Philip Doddridge wrote the words in 1755; the recording has sold more than 7 million copies, the second best-selling gospel song ever.

Who sang lead on the Edwin Hawkins Singers' 'Oh Happy Day'?

The choir began as the Northern California State Youth Choir of the Church of God in Christ; a San Francisco rock DJ made the record a hit.

Andrae Crouch wrote 'The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power' at what age?

His group The Disciples, with Billy Preston on keyboards, were the first to record it; Crouch later arranged choirs for 'Man in the Mirror' and 'Like a Prayer'.

Andrae Crouch received an Oscar nomination for his music arrangements in which film?

He also arranged for Disney's The Lion King and the NBC sitcom Amen, and won seven Grammys.

Which Detroit choral director was the mother of the five-sister act behind 'You Brought the Sunshine'?

Their crossover hit 'You Brought the Sunshine' reached No. 16 on the Hot Black Singles chart.

Kirk Franklin's 1997 hit 'Stomp' featured a remix guest verse by a member of which rap group?

Cheryl 'Salt' James rapped on it; God's Property sued Franklin the following year.

Kirk Franklin grew up in which Texas city?

Abandoned as a baby, he was raised by his aunt Gertrude; he has since won 20 Grammys.

Which gospel singer holds the record for most Grammy Awards by a female gospel artist, with 18?

She rose to fame in the 1980s in the duo BeBe & CeCe Winans with her brother.

Yolanda Adams was the first gospel artist to win which mainstream honour?

Billboard named her the No. 1 gospel artist of the 2000s.

Shirley Caesar signed her first record deal, with Federal Records, at what age?

Her career has run seven decades and 12 Grammys, and she sang at the White House for George H. W. Bush.

The a cappella group Take 6 formed in 1980 on the campus of which Alabama school?

All the original members grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which runs the school in Huntsville.

The gospel duo Mary Mary of 'Shackles (Praise You)' are sisters with what surname?

Erica and Tina formed the act in Inglewood in 1998; their debut Thankful sold two million copies.

Marvin Sapp's crossover hit 'Never Would Have Made It' came from which 2007 album?

The song spent months atop the gospel charts and crossed to R&B radio.

Tasha Cobbs's biggest hit, from her 2013 major-label debut Grace, was which song?

The album reached No. 61 on the Billboard 200, unusually high for a gospel debut.

The Dove Awards, established in 1969, are presented by which organisation?

The ceremony is held in Nashville, apart from 2011 and 2012 in Atlanta, and airs on TBN.

The first Stellar Awards ceremony, honouring Black gospel, was held in which year?

The Stellars were the first major gospel awards to be held annually; the first show honoured the music of 1983.

Southern gospel is often nicknamed 'quartet music' for what traditional line-up?

The predominantly white style began absorbing Black gospel stylings in the 1960s.

Which patriarch led the Staple Singers, who moved from gospel to hits like 'I'll Take You There'?

He formed the group with his children Cleotha, Pervis and Mavis; the family name is Staples but the group dropped the 's'.

Which publisher used radio and travelling quartets in the 1920s to sell his gospel songbooks?

Rivals Virgil O. Stamps and Jesse R. Baxter copied the model and were competing hard with him by the late 1920s.

In which year was the Gospel Music Association established?

It went on to create the Dove Awards in 1969 and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1972.

Which Christian rapper's 2014 album Anomaly debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200?

He founded Reach Records, whose artists have had perhaps the most commercial success of anyone in the gospel genre.

In which decade did Christian country music reach its peak popularity?

Mainstream stars such as Larry Gatlin, Charlie Daniels and Barbara Mandrell began cutting records with a positive Christian country flair.

Which group was among the first to have gospel records marketed in the 1920s?

Radio in the same decade vastly widened gospel's audience beyond church walls.