Notes

Introduction

  1. 1. The six hundred thousand calculation is mine and is based on figures cited in the trade press by Fred Mendelsohn. Anthony Heilbut puts the sales figure at more than eight hundred thousand units. The sales figures were reported, and the difference may not be inconsistent in fact. In any event, gauging record sales is an imprecise science. See Heilbut, Gospel Sound, 214.
  2. 2. Tom Fisher, “James Cleveland,” in McNeil, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, 84.
  3. 3. bell hooks quoted by Jeff Nelson in “I Was Pulled Over This Week Too,” LinkedIn, July 8, 2016, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-pulled-over-week-too-jeff-nelson.
  4. 4. Kelley Hoskins, “Community Organizations Band Together to Host “Peace Be Still” Week against Violence,” Fox2Now, February 23, 2020, https://fox2now.com/news/community-organizations-band-together-to-host-peace-be-still-week-against-violence/.
  5. 5. Yolanda DeBerry interview, October 12, 2020.

Chapter 1. The Reverend Lawrence C. Roberts and the First Baptist Church of Nutley

  1. 1. Nutley Sun, February 17, 1917, 1.
  2. 2. Birdie Johnson, Gospel Music, 19.
  3. 3. Clark, Dark Ghetto, 176.
  4. 4. Ancestry.com, 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line], Provo, UT.
  5. 5. Much of the First Baptist Church of Nutley history comes from Hattie Black and Bettye Timmons, “History of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, NJ,” First Baptist Church of Nutley Anniversary Booklet (Nutley, NJ: First Baptist Church, 2014). A Nutley Sun article dated April 8, 1965, states that the original mission at Chestnut Street was founded in 1905, a date that appears to be incongruent with the church’s own history. It is more likely that the 1905 date refers to the church membership’s securing of the Passaic Street facility.
  6. 6. Nutley Sun, January 13, 2000, A15.
  7. 7. Anonymous obituary, Rev. Dr. Lawrence C. Roberts (Paterson, NJ: Carnie P. Bragg Funeral Home, 2008, accessed January 26, 2021, https://www.braggfuneralhome.com/obituary/Rev.-Lawrence-C.-Roberts/Stone-Mountain-GA/561059.
  8. 8. Lawrence Roberts, video interview with Eric Majette Jr. of the Living Testimony Foundation, loaned by Majette to author, September 19, 2019.
  9. 9. Johnson, Gospel Music, 8; Ancestry.com, 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA. Year: 1940; Census Place: Newark, Essex, New Jersey; Roll: m-t0627–02425; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 25–457.
  10. 10. Ancestry.com, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 [database on-line], Registration State: Georgia, Registration County: Lee County 0157 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com).
  11. 11. Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line], Year: 1930; Census Place: Newark, Essex, New Jersey; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 01570157 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com); FHL microfilm: 2341073.
  12. 12. Mumford, Newark, 20–23, 27–28.
  13. 13. Houston, How Sweet, 35.
  14. 14. Mumford, Newark, 20.
  15. 15. Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line], Year: 1930; Census Place: Newark, Essex, New Jersey; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 0157 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com); FHL microfilm: 2341073; 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line], Year: 1940; Census Place: Newark, Essex, New Jersey; Roll: m-t0627–02425; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 25–457.
  16. 16. “‘We Patch Anything’: WPA Sewing Rooms in Fort Worth, Texas,” Living New Deal, May 27, 2013, https://livingnewdeal.org/we-patch-anything-wpa-sewing-rooms-in-fort-worth-texas/; Ancestry.com, 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line] (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, 2012).
  17. 17. Stancil interview.
  18. 18. Johnson, Gospel Music, 8.
  19. 19. Arts High School website, www.nps.k12.nj.us/ART/our-school/our-history/, accessed October 29, 2015.
  20. 20. Johnson, Gospel Music, 9–10.
  21. 21. Ancestry.com, U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900–1999 [database on-line], “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880–2012,” School Name: Arts High School; Year: 1954 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com).
  22. 22. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  23. 23. Ibid.
  24. 24. Johnson, Gospel Music, 10; “Our History,” Metropolitan Baptist Church website, www.mbcnewarknj.org/aboutus/whatwebelieve/history.php, accessed August 26, 2016.
  25. 25. Logan interview.
  26. 26. Johnson, Gospel Music, 11; Krupnick’s location personally confirmed in 1940 Newark City Directory by Glenn G. Geisheimer, webmaster of www.oldnewark.com.
  27. 27. Johnson, Gospel Music, 11.
  28. 28. Ibid., 11.
  29. 29. Ibid., 24. Johnson identifies “L & N” as signifying the Lincoln and Nash Railroad, but no such railroad company existed; I suspect she meant the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, commonly known as the L&N Railroad. It does not appear that this group is in any way connected to the L&N Gospel Singers that recorded for Federal Records in 1950.
  30. 30. Johnson, Gospel Music, 12.
  31. 31. Dolores Roberts interview.
  32. 32. Ibid.
  33. 33. Ibid.
  34. 34. Ibid.
  35. 35. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 1.
  36. 36. Logan interview.
  37. 37. Ibid.
  38. 38. Dolores Roberts interview.
  39. 39. Roberts anonymous obituary, 2008.

Chapter 2. Gospel Music in Newark

  1. 1. Funk album notes.
  2. 2. Ibid.
  3. 3. Biographical information on the Coleman Hotel, Coleman Records, and the Coleman Brothers comes from Tony Cummings, “The Coleman Brothers: The Newark Gospel Music Pioneers,” Cross Rhythms, http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/The_Coleman_Brothers_The_Newark_Gospel_music_pioneers/42801/p1/, accessed January 24, 2016; Houston, How Sweet, 38.
  4. 4. Houston, Remembering Whitney, 12.
  5. 5. Ibid., 14–16.
  6. 6. Houston, How Sweet, 66.
  7. 7. Houston, Remembering Whitney, 16–17.
  8. 8. “Our Church,” New Hope Baptist Church website, https://www.newhopenewark.org/our-church, accessed October 6, 2019.
  9. 9. Houston, How Sweet, 126; Freeman Johnson interview conducted by Dennis Bines, June 18, 2005, on Angelic Choir Reunion and Retirement Celebration, DVD, Interfaith TV Ministries, 2005.
  10. 10. Johnson, Gospel Music, 21.
  11. 11. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 2.
  12. 12. Lawrence Roberts, video interview with Eric Majette Jr. of the Living Testimony Foundation, date unknown; video clip from larger interview loaned to author by Majette, September 19, 2019.
  13. 13. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 2; Johnson, Gospel Music, 26.
  14. 14. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 2.
  15. 15. Pruter, Chicago Soul, 15.
  16. 16. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 371; according to the discography, each of the two recording sessions left two songs unissued: “Lord, What about Me” and “Lord We Trust in You” (1954) and “A Space for Me” and “Bless Us” (1958). The 1958 single was not released on Savoy but on the company’s new Gospel subsidiary.
  17. 17. Minatee interview.
  18. 18. Bostic album notes.
  19. 19. Dolores Roberts interview.
  20. 20. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 343–44.
  21. 21. Ibid., 351; Billboard, November 14, 1942, 60.
  22. 22. Broven, Record Makers, 57.
  23. 23. Radio Dealer, January 1923, 37, 56.
  24. 24. Ibid.; Jaker, Sulek, and Kanze, Airwaves, 140.
  25. 25. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 238, 343; Broven, Record Makers, 58; Kukla, Swing City, 242.
  26. 26. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 345.
  27. 27. Broven, Record Makers, 14.
  28. 28. Billboard, January 30, 1943, 64.
  29. 29. Billboard, November 14, 1942, 20, 60.
  30. 30. Although Savoy was formed in 1942, the company’s single record jackets announced it was organized in 1939. This recording is likely the rationale behind the assertion of a 1939 start. “Rhythm and Bugs,” on Savoy 100, concludes with a quickly-edited snippet of audience applause, suggesting that the audition discs are really recordings of live performances.
  31. 31. Savoy Records Discography, https://www.jazzdisco.org/savoy-records/catalog-78-rpm-100–5500-series/, accessed April 16, 2020.
  32. 32. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 344.
  33. 33. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 344; Billboard, January 30, 1943, 24.
  34. 34. Cherry and Griffith. “Down to Business,” 5n17.
  35. 35. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 356; Billboard, October 16, 1943, 65.
  36. 36. Jay Bruder, e-mail communication, July 15, 2018.
  37. 37. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 345.
  38. 38. Ibid., 356.
  39. 39. Fox, King of the Queen City, 87.
  40. 40. Broven, Record Makers, 56–57; Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 345.
  41. 41. Fox, King of the Queen City, 88.
  42. 42. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 353.
  43. 43. Billboard 1944 Music Year Book, 95.
  44. 44. Billboard, June 19, 1948, 13.
  45. 45. Broven, Record Makers, 56.
  46. 46. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 345.
  47. 47. Ben Ratliff, “Ozzie Cadena, 83, Producer for Jazz Musicians, Dies,” New York Times, April 21, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/arts/music/21cadena.html?_r=0.
  48. 48. Peter Keepnews, “Rudy Van Gelder, Audio Engineer Who Helped Define Sound of Jazz on Record, Dies at 91,” New York Times, August 25, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/arts/music/rudy-van-gelder-audio-engineer-who-helped-define-sound-of-jazz-on-record-dies-at-91.html?_r=0.
  49. 49. Billboard, February 2, 1957, 24.
  50. 50. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 353.
  51. 51. Lawrence Roberts interview 2006; Roberts, Gospel Truth, 2.
  52. 52. Lawrence Roberts Singers biography and list of singers from unknown gospel program, courtesy of Dennis Bines.
  53. 53. Osborne interview. The family still owns the piano.
  54. 54. Hankerson and Hicks interview.
  55. 55. Examples of 1950s novelty records about outer space include sampling pioneers Buchanan and Goodman’s “Flying Saucer” (Luniverse, 1956) and Sheb Wooley’s “Purple People Eater” (MGM, 1958).
  56. 56. The concern over Sputnik moved beyond questions of espionage. As Mark Thompson argues in his 2007 master’s thesis, Space Race, Sputnik also forced the United States to come to terms with having fallen behind the Soviet Union in science education. For African Americans, many of whom attended schools without science classes, the ultimate culprit of the country’s shortcomings in the space race was its obsession with segregation. Thompson quotes Charles H. Loeb, whose pointed question in the November 16, 1957, issue of the African American newsweekly, the Cleveland Call and Post, was telling: “Who can say that it was not the institution of the Jim-Crow school that has deprived this nation of the black scientist who might have solved the technological kinks delaying our satellite launching?” (Thompson, Space Race, 29).
  57. 57. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 2–3.
  58. 58. Ibid.; Lawrence Roberts interview.
  59. 59. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 140.
  60. 60. Billboard, March 24, 1958, 66. It is likely that radio listeners unfamiliar with the song’s formal title simply requested “the Sputnik Song.”
  61. 61. Billboard, March 31, 1958, 48–49.
  62. 62. Vocal harmony group authority Marv Goldberg provides details of the Apollo Theater appearance in his show-by-show list of programs at the historic theater, from its opening in January 1934 through 1960. www.uncamarvy.com/ ApolloTheaterShows/apollo.html, accessed March 15, 2019; Lawrence Roberts Singers bio from unknown gospel program, courtesy of Dennis Bines.
  63. 63. Hicks interview.
  64. 64. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 283.
  65. 65. The Chordettes were a female barbershop quartet from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Their 1958 pop hit, “Lollipop,” released on Archie Bleyer’s Cadence Records, was topping the pop charts at the time.
  66. 66. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  67. 67. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 3.
  68. 68. It is possible that the group Roberts accompanied on organ was the Davis Sisters, who recorded six sides in New York City on May 6, 1958 (Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 84), with their longtime pianist, Curtis Dublin. The May session date falls squarely between the Gospel Chordettes/Lawrence Roberts Singers’ two recording sessions and allows for sufficient time to have passed after the release of “I Can’t Believe It” for the record to have become popular and set in motion the successive events in Roberts’s narrative.
  69. 69. In multiple accounts, including the one on page three of his autobiography, The Gospel Truth, and his 2005 interview with the author, Lawrence Roberts noted that he began working for Savoy Records in 1954. This date is inconsistent with the 1958 recording date of the Gospel Chordettes disk, which first brought him to the company’s attention. He also claims to have left Savoy in 1978 (Gospel Truth, 8) and has referred to a twenty-year career with Savoy. This would make 1958 the more likely date of his hire by Lubinsky. Also, the Lawrence Roberts Singers’ 1958 single, “If You Make It to the Moon” and “Softly and Tenderly” (Savoy 4102), shows Roberts in the songwriting credits.
  70. 70. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 3.
  71. 71. Johnson, Gospel Music, 42–43.
  72. 72. Ibid., 44–45.
  73. 73. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  74. 74. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 4.
  75. 75. Johnson, Gospel Music, 45.
  76. 76. Billboard, February 16, 1959, 57.
  77. 77. Billboard, October 19, 1959, 10.

Chapter 3. The Birth of the Angelic Choir

  1. 1. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 5.
  2. 2. Ibid., 5.
  3. 3. Black and Timmons, “History of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, NJ”; Angelic Choir, It’s the Holy Ghost, uncredited album notes, Savoy MG 14049, 1961.
  4. 4. Nutley Sun, April 8, 1965, 20.
  5. 5. Anonymous obituary, Rev. Dr. Lawrence C. Roberts (Paterson, NJ: Carnie P. Bragg Funeral Home, 2008, accessed January 26, 2021, https://www.braggfuneralhome.com/obituary/Rev.-Lawrence-C.-Roberts/Stone-Mountain-GA/561059.
  6. 6. Logan telephone interview, August 14, 2019.
  7. 7. Dolores Roberts interview.
  8. 8. Hicks interview.
  9. 9. Ibid.
  10. 10. Dolores Roberts interview.
  11. 11. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007 [database on-line], Provo, UT. Original data: Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936–2007, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/33853346:60901.
  12. 12. Nunnally interview.
  13. 13. Ibid.
  14. 14. Logan interview.
  15. 15. Ibid. Inez Reid, who came to First Baptist as part of the Voices of Faith, in her interview also remembered the church having only a piano and organ initially.
  16. 16. Murphy interview.
  17. 17. Dolores Roberts interview.
  18. 18. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 404.
  19. 19. Johnson, Gospel Music, 40.
  20. 20. Murphy interview. Roberts may have changed the choir’s name to avoid confusion with Thurston Frazier’s Voices of Hope Choir, a Capitol recording artist. The last thing Roberts needed was another Gospel Chordettes conflict.
  21. 21. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 15.
  22. 22. The song would inspire other covers, most notably by the Barrett Sisters. As recently as 2012, Chicago’s Anita Wilson gave the song, retitled “Jesus Will,” a contemporary bounce. The following year, Wilson’s version reached number 13 on Billboard’s Top Gospel Charts (Jim Asker, “Big Daddy Weave Makes Big Move; Anita Wilson’s ‘Best of My Love’ Remake Hits Gospel Chart Top 10,” Billboard, November 6, 2015, https://www.billboard.com/index.php/articles/business/chart-beat/6753902/big-daddy-weave-anita-wilson-best-of-my-love.
  23. 23. Billboard, “The Hot 100,” July 24, 1961, 40.
  24. 24. Johnson, Gospel Music, 41.
  25. 25. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 385–86. It wasn’t Sam Windham’s first recorded solo on slide guitar. He took an extended solo on the Ward Singers’ “Didn’t It Rain,” recorded live at a 1958 program at New York’s Town Hall. Sam Windham also appeared with the Ward Singers on a September 1959 program at the Apollo Theater. Dot Records recorded the Town Hall event and Forum Circle released an LP of the Apollo program.
  26. 26. Billboard, May 19, 1962, 26.
  27. 27. Murphy interview.
  28. 28. Dolores Roberts interview.
  29. 29. Murphy interview.
  30. 30. Stancil interview.
  31. 31. Minatee interview.
  32. 32. Morris interview, March 14, 2017.
  33. 33. JaVan Hicks interview, March 14, 2017.
  34. 34. Billboard, April 14, 1962, 6.

Chapter 4. The Arrival of James Cleveland

  1. 1. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 353.
  2. 2. Billboard, May 23, 1960, 4.
  3. 3. Marv Goldberg’s R&B Notebooks—Apollo Theater Shows, www.uncamarvy.com/ApolloTheaterShows/apollo.html, accessed March 15, 2019.
  4. 4. The author is grateful to Rebecca “Betty” Brooks, Cleveland’s youngest sister, for providing this information.
  5. 5. Bil Carpenter, Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia (San Francisco: Backbeat, 2005), 87–88.
  6. 6. Heilbut, Gospel Sound, 207.
  7. 7. Ibid.; Heilbut, Fan Who Knew Too Much, 34.
  8. 8. Chicago Defender, December 19, 1942, 5.
  9. 9. Cleveland quote in Carpenter, Uncloudy Days, 87–88; “The Rev. James Cleveland, 59; Pastor Hailed as ‘King of Gospel,’” New York Times, February 11, 1991, http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/11/obituaries/the-rev-james-cleveland-59-pastor-hailed-as-king-of-gospel.html?mcubz=0.
  10. 10. Heilbut, Gospel Sound, 207.
  11. 11. Willis interview.
  12. 12. Evans interview.
  13. 13. Folk e-mail.
  14. 14. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 155.
  15. 15. Hayes and Laughton suggest that Cleveland may have accompanied the Roberta Martin Singers on some of their Apollo sessions (Gospel Discography, 229). Cleveland quote in Carpenter, Uncloudy Days, 88.
  16. 16. “Gospel’s James Cleveland’s Dead at 59,” Toronto Star, February 11, 1991, Entertainment D8, quoted in Darden, People Get Ready, 270.
  17. 17. Lorenza Brown Porter, December 2005 interview with author for Gospel Memories radio broadcast, aired on WLUW-FM, January 1, 2006.
  18. 18. Robert Sacre, “Meditation Singers,” Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, 254.
  19. 19. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 236.
  20. 20. Ibid., 137.
  21. 21. Daniels Smith interview; Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 51; Harrington, “Shirley Caesar,” 61.
  22. 22. The GMWA Score 1, no. 2 (February 1990): 3.
  23. 23. Heilbut, Fan Who Knew Too Much, 118.
  24. 24. Ebony, October 1967, 48.
  25. 25. Marovich, City Called Heaven, 261–62.
  26. 26. The Voices of Tabernacle, The Love of God, uncredited liner notes, HOB Records, LP-233, 1959.
  27. 27. Billboard, July 25, 1960, 38.
  28. 28. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 236, 287. It is likely Cleveland also produced the Meditations’ sides because he was back at Universal a week later to produce Chicago’s Helen Robinson Youth Choir for Specialty.
  29. 29. Unreleased Specialty cuts of Meditations and Helen Robinson Youth Chorus were later issued on Good News SPCD-7032–2, 1993, and Golden Age Gospel Choirs (1954–1963), Specialty SPCD-7068–2, 1997, respectively.
  30. 30. Billboard, October 26, 1959, 50.
  31. 31. Billboard, August 31, 1974, 18.
  32. 32. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 65.
  33. 33. Billboard, June 20, 1960, 67.
  34. 34. Thomas interview.
  35. 35. Later, James Cleveland would remedy this by using recording studios in Los Angeles, including Ray Charles’s RPM Studio.
  36. 36. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  37. 37. “Rev. Lawrence Roberts interview,” from the Malaco Music Group DVD Gospel Legends, 2007, interview available as Malaco Music Group Gospel Legends, “Rev. Lawrence Roberts interview,” on YouTube, May 13, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs_XaXBsu44.

Chapter 5. In Search of the Authentic: The Live In-Service Recording

  1. 1. Martin, Preaching on Wax, 2, 6.
  2. 2. Ibid., 98–100.
  3. 3. Ibid., 20.
  4. 4. Ibid., 60, 73.
  5. 5. Ibid., 89.
  6. 6. Ibid., 112–15.
  7. 7. “Sin-Killing Sanders: The Legacy of Bishop Oscar Haywood Sanders,” The Old Landmark: Celebrating Our Apostolic Heritage, February 14, 2007, https://oldlandmark.wordpress.com/category/people/oneness-pentecostals/oscar-sanders/.
  8. 8. Available on Negro Religious Field Recordings, vol. 1, Document DOCD-5312, 1994. Album notes by Ken Romanowski.
  9. 9. Ibid.
  10. 10. Braxton D. Shelley, “‘This Must Be the Single’: Valuing the Live Recording in Contemporary Gospel Performance,” in Living the Life I Sing: Gospel Music from the Dorsey Era to the Millennium, ed. Alphonso Simpson Jr. and Thomas A. Dorsey III (San Diego, CA: Cognella, 2017), 140.
  11. 11. Martin, Preaching on Wax, 172.
  12. 12. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 293–94.
  13. 13. Hildebrand and Nations liner notes.
  14. 14. The Jaxyson test pressing of “Get Back Jordan,” from the collection of Chris Strachwitz, can be heard on King Louis H. Narcisse, It’s So Nice to Be Nice, Gospel Friend OLN-2001, 2003.
  15. 15. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 73.
  16. 16. Billboard, July 14, 1951, 12; Wald, Shout, Sister, Shout!, 123.
  17. 17. Billboard, July 14, 1951, 12.
  18. 18. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 380.
  19. 19. Billboard, July 3, 1954, 27.
  20. 20. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 334.
  21. 21. Joe Richman and Samara Freemark, producers, “A Nephew’s Quest: Who Was Brother Claude Ely?” NPR’s Radio Diaries, May 5, 2011, https://www.npr.org/2011/05/05/136019632/a-nephews-quest-who-was-brother-claude-ely.
  22. 22. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 159.
  23. 23. Hildebrand and Nations liner notes.
  24. 24. Ibid.
  25. 25. Special thanks to Eli Husock for sharing this rare recording with the author.
  26. 26. Night with Daddy Grace, uncredited liner notes.
  27. 27. Several singers and musicians on “Great Day,” including Charles Craig, Hulah Gene Dunklin Hurley, and organist Francis Chandler, became part of the Voices of Tabernacle. “Great Day” would be licensed and distributed nationally by Vee Jay Records.
  28. 28. Growing up, popular vocalist and actor Ronnie Dyson (“Why Can’t I Touch You?,” 1970) was a member of the Washington Temple Celestial Choir.
  29. 29. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 385.
  30. 30. Pierce liner notes.
  31. 31. Mahalia Jackson’s Newport Jazz Festival performance appears on Moving On Up a Little Higher, Shanachie Entertainment / Spirit Feel 6066, 2016.
  32. 32. Heilbut, Fan Who Knew Too Much, 258.
  33. 33. Ibid., 15.
  34. 34. Marovich, City Called Heaven, 184.
  35. 35. Prial, Producer, 208.
  36. 36. Ibid., 210.
  37. 37. Ibid., 211.
  38. 38. Ibid.
  39. 39. Billboard, November 7, 1960, 39.
  40. 40. Billboard, May 16, 1960, 3.
  41. 41. Greater Abyssinian Baptist Church, “Our History,” http://www.greaterabyssinian.org/about-gabc.html, accessed December 18, 2019.
  42. 42. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 30; Bible Way Church of God Choir, Let the Church Roll On, King LP 736, 1960.
  43. 43. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 262.

Chapter 6. This Sunday—In Person

  1. 1. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 76.
  2. 2. Billboard, May 19, 1962, 26.
  3. 3. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 239.
  4. 4. Dolores Roberts interview.
  5. 5. Hicks interview.
  6. 6. Logan interview.
  7. 7. Broughton, Black Gospel, 112.
  8. 8. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 65; Cleveland, This Sunday, uncredited album notes; Marshall is the session drummer on Del Shannon’s 1960 pop hit “Runaway.” Information on Joe Marshall comes from Eugene Chadbourne, “Joseph Marshall,” Allmusic.com, http://www.allmusic.com/artist/joseph-marshan-mn0001757823, accessed March 20, 2016; and Howard Rye, “Marshall, Joe [Joseph, Jr. ],” Grove Music Online, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630article.J633400, accessed May 13, 2020.
  9. 9. Despite the “Reverend” honorific, Cleveland was not yet ordained at the time of this recording.
  10. 10. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 65.
  11. 11. Billboard, November 3, 1962, 1.
  12. 12. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 6.
  13. 13. Richard Harrington, “Inspiring the Multitudes: The Reverend James Cleveland and His Gospel Legacy,” Washington Post, February 17, 1991, Sunday Show G1, quoted in Darden, People Get Ready, 272.
  14. 14. Billboard, September 8, 1962, 14.
  15. 15. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 66. The December 12 album was released as Savoy LP 14068, The Soul of James Cleveland. In addition to Billy Preston on organ, Joe Marshall was on drums.
  16. 16. Cleveland, How Great Thou Art, uncredited album notes.
  17. 17. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 66.
  18. 18. Ibid.
  19. 19. Billboard, March 16, 1963, 68.
  20. 20. Billboard, August 19, 1989, 61.
  21. 21. Greer, Only a Look, 151.
  22. 22. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 230.
  23. 23. Reid interview.
  24. 24. Hicks interview.
  25. 25. Greer, Only a Look, 153.
  26. 26. Billboard, May 11, 1963, 26; October 19, 1963, 30.
  27. 27. Black and Timmons, “History of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, NJ.”
  28. 28. Logan interview, August 14, 2019.
  29. 29. Hicks interview.
  30. 30. Angelic Choir, uncredited liner notes; Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 15.
  31. 31. Angelic Choir, uncredited liner notes.
  32. 32. Bines interview.
  33. 33. Dolores Roberts interview.
  34. 34. Logan interview, June 13, 2018.

Chapter 7. Peace Be Still

  1. 1. Dolores Roberts interview.
  2. 2. Logan interview.
  3. 3. Reid interview.
  4. 4. Gospel choirs do not employ a bass section.
  5. 5. Reid interview.
  6. 6. Although he was not at Trinity Temple in 1963, the church’s current pastor, Dr. Norman Kenneth Miles Sr, told me that unless another event was taking place, he couldn’t see any reason the church would have declined a request from First Baptist to use its sanctuary on a Thursday evening (Miles interview). The Thursday, September 19, 1963, date used by Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, comes from Ruppli and Porter, Savoy, 196.
  7. 7. Broughton, Black Gospel, 112.
  8. 8. Porter e-mail.
  9. 9. Logan telephone conversation.
  10. 10. Ruppli and Porter, Savoy, 196.
  11. 11. Thomas interview.
  12. 12. Reid interview.
  13. 13. Murphy interview.
  14. 14. Broughton, Black Gospel, 112.
  15. 15. Bernadine Hankerson interview.
  16. 16. Murphy interview.
  17. 17. Johnson, Gospel Music, 43–44. A visual example of this technique can be seen in the 1972 film Amazing Grace, directed by Alan Elliott and Sydney Pollack. In the film, which documents the recording of Aretha Franklin’s Atlantic album Amazing Grace, a heavy blanket of the type movers use to protect furniture during transport is draped over the top of the piano.
  18. 18. Hicks interview.
  19. 19. Pickard interview. Pickard did play piano on volume 7 of the James Cleveland and Angelic Choir Sunday Service series (Savoy MG 14171), as well as on James Cleveland’s first recorded sermon, captured live in 1968 at First Baptist Church (Savoy MG 14220). Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 67–68.
  20. 20. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 168.
  21. 21. Ancestry.com, New York, New York, U.S., Birth Index, 1910–1965 [database on line], https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61457/images/47769_b353821–00131. Original data: New York City Department of Health, courtesy of VitalSearch Worldwide, www.vitalsearch-worldwide.comdigitalimages.
  22. 22. From a musical program dated Sunday, October 17, 1993, location unknown. Photo available on Discogs.com: https://www.discogs.com/artist/807441-Solomon-Herriott-Jr. The program spells his name “Heriott,” though the URL has it as “Herriott.”
  23. 23. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 169.
  24. 24. New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, “Pipe Organs of NYC: Mother A.M.E. Zion Church,” accessed October 14, 2018, http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/MotherAMEZion.html.
  25. 25. Rev. Dr. Malcolm Byrd interview.
  26. 26. Byrd interview.
  27. 27. Dr. Shelley listened to the Peace Be Still album and on October 28, 2018, emailed the author a document titled “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir: Peace Be Still, Analytic Observations,” a selection-by-selection musicological evaluation.
  28. 28. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 66.
  29. 29. All biblical references come from the King James Version.
  30. 30. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  31. 31. Ibid.
  32. 32. Hicks interview.
  33. 33. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  34. 34. Little Cedric and the Hailey Singers was a family quartet that took inspiration from contemporary gospel groups such as the Winans. Brothers Cedric and Joel went on to become half of the bestselling R&B vocal group Jodeci and later worked as the R&B duo K-Ci and JoJo.
  35. 35. Karen Lynn Davidson, Our Latter-day Hymns: The Stories and the Messages, quoted in the Tabernacle Choir blog in “‘Master, the Tempest Is Raging’: A Hymn about the Storms of Life,” July 6, 2018, https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/the-history-of-master-the-tempest-is-raging.html.
  36. 36. C. W. S., “Horatio R. Palmer,” Conjubilant with Song blogspot, Monday, April 26, 2010, http://conjubilant.blogspot.com/2010/04/horatio-r-palmer.html; Mary Ann Baker, “Master, the Tempest Is Raging!,” Cyber Hymnal, https://hymnary.org/text/master_the_tempest_is_raging.
  37. 37. Cyber Hymnal, “Master, the Tempest Is Raging,” accessed January 22, 2021, http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/m/a/s/t/mastertt.htm, and Cyber Hymnal, “Mary Ann Baker,” accessed January 22, 2021, http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/a/k/e/baker_ma.htm.
  38. 38. “Edison Artists.” Edison Phonograph Monthly 11, no. 2 (March 1913): 9, 10; Edison Amberola Monthly 11 (1913), 15l; USCB Cylinder Audio Archive, accessed April 9, 2020, http://www.library.ucsb.edu/OBJID/Cylinder0707.
  39. 39. The author is grateful to the Reverend Ewell’s daughter, Melodi Ewell Lovely, for providing biographical details on her father.
  40. 40. Jon Thurber, “Obituary: Gwendolyn Lightner; Choir Director Gave Gospel Music on West Coast a Modern Beat,” Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1999, http://articles.latimes.com/1999/sep/06/news/mn-7389.
  41. 41. Thurber, “Obituary: Gwendolyn Lightner.”
  42. 42. Dje Dje and Cogdell, “California Black Gospel,” 133, 141.
  43. 43. Lovely interview.
  44. 44. Joe Peay e-mail.
  45. 45. Dje Dje and Cogdell, “California Black Gospel,” 195–96, 53n.
  46. 46. No known recordings exist of “Peace Be Still” by the Voices of Victory.
  47. 47. Thomas interview.
  48. 48. Lovely interview.
  49. 49. It is interesting to note that even the Edison Mixed Quartet’s 1912 arrangement was recorded in 9/8.
  50. 50. Heilbut e-mail.
  51. 51. Nunnally interview.
  52. 52. Peay interview.
  53. 53. Vocal and instrumental techniques designed to engage and stimulate reactions of surprised delight from listeners are mainstays in African American music performance generally and gospel in particular.
  54. 54. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  55. 55. The crescendo and decrescendo can be heard on the Edison Mixed Quartette’s 1912 version, though not with the intensity of the Angelic Choir’s rendition.
  56. 56. Boone, “James Cleveland’s ‘Peace Be Still.’”
  57. 57. Dolores Roberts interview.
  58. 58. Minatee interview.
  59. 59. Heath interview.
  60. 60. Jabir, “‘Peace Be Still,’” 1.
  61. 61. Shelley, “This Must Be the Single,” 141, 144.
  62. 62. Unless otherwise noted, biographical information on Geraldine Griffin and Anna Quick comes from the Watlington interview.
  63. 63. “Only 11 and Eyeing Her Future,” New York Amsterdam News, March 14, 1964, 18. The author thanks Will Boone for providing this article.
  64. 64. “Only 11,” 18.
  65. 65. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 66.
  66. 66. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  67. 67. Boone, “James Cleveland’s ‘Peace Be Still.’”
  68. 68. Watlington interview.
  69. 69. Pruter, Chicago Soul, 103.
  70. 70. Cash Box, October 3, 1964, 24.
  71. 71. Pruter, Chicago Soul, 103–4. Collier has since entered the ministry and, as Pastor Mitty Collier, has gone back to gospel. Now when she sings “I Had a Talk,” she uses Cleveland’s original lyrics.
  72. 72. Watlington interview.
  73. 73. Cyber Hymnal, “Where He Leads Me,” accessed February 21, 2016, http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/w/h/e/r/wherehlm.htm; Cyber Hymnal, “John Samuel Norris,” accessed February 21, 2016, http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/n/o/r/r/norris_js.htm.
  74. 74. Dixon, Godrich, and Rye, Blues and Gospel Records, 362, 845.
  75. 75. The French Vogue label released selections from Mahalia Jackson Sings on a series of LPs (Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 190).
  76. 76. Southern Gospel History, “Where He Leads Me,” accessed March 4, 2019, http://www.sghistory.com/index.php?n=W.WhereHeLeadsMe.
  77. 77. Southern Gospel History, “Where He Leads Me.”
  78. 78. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  79. 79. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 15.
  80. 80. In April 2018, the author and Malaco Music Group’s longtime producer and archivist Wolf Stevenson searched the Malaco vault in Jackson, Mississippi. Although we came upon a few tapes of Peace Be Still, they were reproductions of the tape created to record the final album and presumably made for reissue purposes or to have extras on hand. None included the two unreleased matrices.
  81. 81. Dixon et al., Blues and Gospel Records, 226.
  82. 82. Billboard, July 29, 1950, 13.
  83. 83. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 343.
  84. 84. It is interesting to note that the original composition of “The Twist” was written by Jo Jo Wallace, guitarist and member of the gospel quartet the Sensational Nightingales.
  85. 85. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  86. 86. Ibid.
  87. 87. I Shall Wear a Crown, vol. 3, uncredited album notes (Miracle Valley, AZ: Miracle Revival Recordings 171, undated).
  88. 88. Thomas A. Whitfield and the Thomas Whitfield Company, Hallelujah Anyhow (Detroit, MI: Sound of Gospel 2D 140, 1983).
  89. 89. Spencer, Protest and Praise, 203, 217.
  90. 90. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  91. 91. Dixon et al., Blues and Gospel Records, 482. On the Wiseman side, the narrator explains that the song was sung by “the Negro soldiers, both in this country and over in France, during the war.”
  92. 92. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  93. 93. See Greene, Passion for Polka, esp. 88–89.
  94. 94. Woods interview.
  95. 95. Warren, Ev’ry Time, 135–39; Library of Congress, Catalog of Copyright Entries, 3rd series (1961), 231.
  96. 96. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 20.
  97. 97. Bessie Griffin and the Gospel Pearls recorded “Caught Up to Meet Him” for Liberty Records in a live program at Chicago’s “The Bear” club in May 1963. Other than its similar focus on happiness in the hereafter, the song bears little resemblance to either the Back Home Choir or Cleveland–Angelic Choir version. See Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 149.
  98. 98. Choirs of the Metropolitan Baptist Church, In Service (Atlanta: Faith LP 1001, ca. 1963).
  99. 99. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”
  100. 100. William Hunt, “Ken, Thomas,” Dictionary of National Biography.
  101. 101. One could argue, however, that the Lord’s Prayer and the pastoral sermon are also essential parts of the order of worship service and have been recorded.
  102. 102. Shelley, “James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir.”

Chapter 8. The Performativity of “Peace Be Still”

  1. 1. Darden, Nothing but Love, vol. 2, 107–8.
  2. 2. Castellini, “Sit In,” 25.
  3. 3. Ibid., 5.
  4. 4. Ibid., 6–7.
  5. 5. Ibid., 105.
  6. 6. Walker, Somebody’s Calling My Name, 17.
  7. 7. “Aretha and Her Father—the Reverend C. L. Franklin,” Jerry the Jazz Musician, August 17, 2018,” https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2018/08/aretha-and-her-father-the-reverend-c-l-franklin/.
  8. 8. Quoted in Castellini, “Sit In,” 70.
  9. 9. Walker, Somebody’s Calling My Name, 128.
  10. 10. Jabir, “Peace Be Still,” 2.
  11. 11. Boone, “James Cleveland’s ‘Peace Be Still.’”
  12. 12. Quoted in Darden, People Get Ready, 249.
  13. 13. Emily J. Lordi, The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020), 5.
  14. 14. Chekhov, “Sea Gull,” 168.
  15. 15. Lordi, The Meaning of Soul, 8.
  16. 16. Alain Locke, “Negro Youth Speaks,” in The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance, ed. Locke (New York: Touchstone, 1997), 47.
  17. 17. Wall Street Journal, May 18–19, 2019, C11.
  18. 18. Jabir, “Peace Be Still,” 2.
  19. 19. Locke, “Negro Youth Speaks,” 53.
  20. 20. Van Rijn, Roosevelt’s Blues, xv–xvi.
  21. 21. Ibid., xvi.
  22. 22. Independent record labels as producers of gospel songs with more explicit protest or freedom language is the crux of Castellini’s thesis, “Sit In.”
  23. 23. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 123.
  24. 24. There are rare exceptions, such as “I’m Grateful to the NAACP” by the Gospel Pilgrims, released in 1951 by Atlantic Records. Then again, in 1951, the now-behemoth Atlantic had yet to realize its biggest hits by the Clovers, the Drifters, Ruth Brown, and Ray Charles and therefore functioned more like an independent label.
  25. 25. Billingsley, Mighty like a River, 185.
  26. 26. Ibid., xxi, 10.
  27. 27. Ibid., 10.
  28. 28. Lincoln and Mamiya, Black Church, 347.
  29. 29. Ibid.
  30. 30. Schnable, “Singing the Gospel,” 1.
  31. 31. Castellini, “Sit In,” 27.
  32. 32. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 12.
  33. 33. Mumford. Newark, 34, 50, 52.
  34. 34. Ibid., 32.
  35. 35. Ibid., 38.
  36. 36. Ibid., 31, 36.
  37. 37. Ibid., 20, 23.
  38. 38. Ibid., 53, 54, 64.
  39. 39. Ibid., 37–38.
  40. 40. Ibid., 27.
  41. 41. Ibid., 64–65.
  42. 42. Ibid., 70–71.
  43. 43. Ibid., 60–61.
  44. 44. Ibid., 103; Boskin, Urban Racial Violence, 118.
  45. 45. Mumford. Newark, 78.
  46. 46. Ibid., 103.
  47. 47. Ibid., 80–82, 88–89, 94.
  48. 48. New Jersey Afro American, August 17, 1963, 1.
  49. 49. Dolores Roberts interview.
  50. 50. Stancil interview.
  51. 51. Cohodas, Spinning Blues into Gold, 196–97.
  52. 52. Billboard, October 12, 1968, 19, 88.
  53. 53. Checker 5048, 1968.
  54. 54. Ibid.
  55. 55. Checker 5046, 1968.
  56. 56. Checker 5043, 1967.
  57. 57. Nikki Giovanni and the New York Community Choir, Truth Is on Its Way, Right-On Records, 1971. Many thanks to Doctor Johari Jabir for introducing me to this selection.
  58. 58. The entire performance was captured on the album soundtrack, but only portions were included in the film.
  59. 59. Mel Stuart, dir., Wattstax (Culver City, CA: Columbia, 1973).
  60. 60. Heaven Dee-Etts, Designer DLP 7256.
  61. 61. Marovich album notes, 46, 50.
  62. 62. Billboard, July 11, 1992, 30.
  63. 63. James Cleveland and the Cleveland Singers with the New Jersey Mass Choir (Newark, NJ: Savoy SL-14761, 1984). It is probable that Gertrude Deadwyler Hicks, a member of the New Jersey Mass Choir, participated on this recording.
  64. 64. Minatee interview.
  65. 65. Billboard, February 1, 2020, 41.

Chapter 9. The Release of Peace Be Still

  1. 1. Cash Box, October 12, 1963, 42.
  2. 2. Hudson album notes.
  3. 3. Ruppli and Porter, Savoy, 196; Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 66.
  4. 4. SJC stands for Savoy, James Cleveland; 63 represents the year of recording (1963), and the number after the dash is the assigned matrix number.
  5. 5. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 353.
  6. 6. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  7. 7. Biographical information on Harvey Williams comes from the Williams interview and from Williams, “Harvey Scott Williams,” Personal Prologue: Family Roots and Personal Branches, July 30, 2018, https://margoleewilliamsbooks.com/tag/harvey-scott-williams/.
  8. 8. Phil Thomson, “Harvey: The Mysterious, Cult-Following Designer of Gospel Album Sleeves.” Cross Rhythms UK, http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Harvey_The_mysterious_cultfollowing_designer_of_gospel_album_sleeves/37762/p1/, accessed December 2, 2009; comments by Harvey Williams’s half-sister, Margo Lee Williams, and son Keith Williams, posted in reply to Thomson on December 10 and December 9, 2014, respectively. See also http://www.cvinyl.com/coverart/harvey.php, accessed September 10, 2018.
  9. 9. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  10. 10. John Glassburner’s website, Harvey, July 2010, www.harveyalbums.com, contains nearly a full list of Harvey-designed covers for Savoy.
  11. 11. Williams interview.
  12. 12. David Peterkofsky, prod. and host, “31. Robbie Rogers and the Mysterious Artist Harvey,” For Keeps: A Podcast about Collections and Connections, forkeeps podcast.com/s6e1-robbie-rogers-and-the-mysterious-artist-harvey, February 1, 2019.
  13. 13. Williams interview.
  14. 14. Peterkofsky, “Robbie Rogers.”
  15. 15. Margo Lee Williams, Facebook message to author, March 23, 2020.
  16. 16. Williams interview.
  17. 17. Williams Facebook message.
  18. 18. Peterkofsky, “Robbie Rogers.”
  19. 19. Williams interview.
  20. 20. Peterkofsky, “Robbie Rogers.”
  21. 21. Heath interview.
  22. 22. A. Jeffrey LaValley, Facebook message to author, July 7, 2016.
  23. 23. Smallwood interview.
  24. 24. Ibid.
  25. 25. Ibid.
  26. 26. Smallwood, Total Praise, 104–5.
  27. 27. Johnson, Gospel Music, 50.
  28. 28. Peay interview.
  29. 29. Billboard, August 22, 1964, 14.
  30. 30. Billboard, September 12, 1964, 12.
  31. 31. Billboard, July 10, 1965, 40.
  32. 32. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 332.
  33. 33. Billboard, February 27, 1965, 34, 44.
  34. 34. Robert M. Marovich, “Walter Hawkins,” Malaco Music Group, www.malaco.com/artists/gospel/walter-hawkins, accessed March 8, 2019.
  35. 35. Billboard, May 10, 1969, 34.
  36. 36. Dolores Roberts interview.
  37. 37. Logan interview.
  38. 38. Murphy interview.
  39. 39. Carroll interview.
  40. 40. Johnson, Gospel Music, 53.
  41. 41. Johnson, Gospel Music, 55–56. Dolores Roberts repeated the story during her interview.
  42. 42. Johnson, Gospel Music, 55.
  43. 43. “History of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, NJ.” 125th Anniversary Program; Johnson, Gospel Music, 20.
  44. 44. Logan telephone conversation with author, August 14, 2019.
  45. 45. O’Neal interview.
  46. 46. Johnson, Gospel Music, 51.
  47. 47. Hudson liner notes.
  48. 48. Logan, August 14, 2019, telephone conversation.
  49. 49. Reid interview.
  50. 50. Logan, August 14, 2019, telephone conversation.
  51. 51. Heath interview.
  52. 52. Viale, I Remember Gospel, 91.
  53. 53. Hicks and Murphy interviews.
  54. 54. Minatee interviews.
  55. 55. Brenda O’Neal, interview with author, March 14, 2017.
  56. 56. Ibid.
  57. 57. Stancil interview.
  58. 58. Ibid.
  59. 59. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 378.
  60. 60. Ibid., 325–26.
  61. 61. Peay interview; New Jersey Afro-American, April 14, 1979, 18. Such gold awards are for publicity and not the same as the certified Gold Records awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America, which are based on confirmed sales of five hundred thousand or more copies of albums or singles.
  62. 62. Billboard, March 5, 1966, 40, 42.
  63. 63. Ebony, November 1968, 80.
  64. 64. Billboard, August 16, 1969, S-16.
  65. 65. Heilbut, Gospel Sound, 214.

Chapter 10. I Stood on the Banks of Jordan

  1. 1. Glover album notes.
  2. 2. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 293.
  3. 3. Much gratitude to Nellie Suggs and Sylvia Hicks for information on St. John’s Baptist Church.
  4. 4. Hudson album notes to James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir, vol. 7 (Savoy MG 14171, 1968).
  5. 5. GMWA Score 1, no. 2 (February 1990): 3.
  6. 6. Cash Box, August 29, 1964, 7.
  7. 7. Hayes and Laughton, Gospel Discography, 66.
  8. 8. Dolores Roberts, personal communication to author, May 2020.
  9. 9. Billboard, March 6, 1965, 50.
  10. 10. Billboard, March 20, 1965, 6. The list refers to the album erroneously as Standin’ on the Banks of the River.
  11. 11. Eleventh Annual Grammy Awards (1968): https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/11th-annual-grammy-awards-1968, accessed January 15, 2021.
  12. 12. Billboard, January 28, 1967, 46, 50.
  13. 13. Dolores Roberts interview.
  14. 14. Walls interview.
  15. 15. Nutley Sun, April 8, 1965, 20.
  16. 16. Johnson, Gospel Music, 28–29.
  17. 17. Morris, October 13, 2013, interview.
  18. 18. Johnson, Gospel Music, 28.
  19. 19. Brown interview.
  20. 20. Morris, March 21, 2017, interview.
  21. 21. Gospel News Journal 2, no. 6 (March 1966): 3.
  22. 22. Anonymous obituary, Rev. Dr. Lawrence C. Roberts (Paterson, NJ: Carnie P. Bragg Funeral Home, 2008, accessed January 26, 2021, https://www.braggfuneralhome.com/obituary/Rev.-Lawrence-C.-Roberts/Stone-Mountain-GA/561059.
  23. 23. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  24. 24. Interview of Freeman Johnson from the DVD Angelic Choir Reunion and Retirement Celebration (Newark, NJ: Interfaith TV Ministries, 2005).
  25. 25. Logan interview.
  26. 26. Nunnally interview.
  27. 27. Brown interview.
  28. 28. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  29. 29. Nutley Sun, July 3, 1969, 5.
  30. 30. Brown interview.
  31. 31. Reese, Gospel Music Workshop, 10–13.
  32. 32. Bines interview.
  33. 33. Stancil interview.
  34. 34. Roberts, Gospel Truth, 8.
  35. 35. Watts-Greadington, March 21, 2017, interview.
  36. 36. O’Neal, March 21, 2017, interview.
  37. 37. Shaw, Honkers and Shouters, 356–57.
  38. 38. Cohen, Amazing Grace, 53–54.
  39. 39. Thomas interview.
  40. 40. Cohen, Amazing Grace, 9, 132; https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab _active=default-award&se=aretha+franklin#search_section, accessed March 25, 2019.
  41. 41. Watts-Greadington, March 21, 2017, interview.
  42. 42. Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board, “Registry Titles with Descriptions and Expanded Essays,” www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/descriptions-and-essays/, accessed March 8, 2019.
  43. 43. Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board, 2004 additions, https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2004/, accessed March 6, 2016.

Chapter 11. Doxology

  1. 1. Elaine Woo, “4,000 Give Cleveland a Gospel Farewell,” Los Angeles Times, February 17, 1991, http://articles.latimes.com/print/1991–02–17/local/me-2205_1_gospel-music.
  2. 2. Dolores Roberts interview.
  3. 3. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  4. 4. Freeman Johnson interview for Angelic Choir Reunion and Retirement Celebration, Interfaith TV Ministries, DVD, 2005.
  5. 5. Lawrence Roberts interview.
  6. 6. Walls interview.
  7. 7. “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Rev. Dr. Lawrence Curtis Roberts,” memorial service program, Barbara J. Kukla Papers, Newark Public Library, https://digital.npl.org/islandora/object/kukla%3A919877e4–631d-427e-9d86-6cc88d00bcb4#page/2/mode/2up, accessed January 16, 2021.
  8. 8. Stancil interview.
  9. 9. Morris interview.
  10. 10. Reid interview.
  11. 11. Nutley Public Library, “2009 Hall of Fame Inductee, Lawrence Curtis Roberts,” Nutley Hall of Fame, http://nutleyhalloffame.nutleypubliclibrary.org/2009-roberts/, accessed April 28, 2020.
  12. 12. Hicks interview.