{ "slug": "gospel", "name": "Gospel", "aliases": [ "black gospel", "quartet gospel", "spirituals", "sanctified" ], "description": "Blues technique applied to sacred words, codified in Chicago churches from the early thirties. The training ground for almost every great American voice of the next fifty years, and the source of the vocabulary soul secularised.", "origin": { "place": "Chicago and the American South", "year": 1932 }, "lineage": [ { "genre": "blues", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/blues/", "inherited": "Thomas Dorsey spent the twenties as the blues pianist Georgia Tom before he wrote a note of sacred music, and he brought the whole vocabulary with him. Gospel is blues technique with the subject changed, which is exactly what the churches objected to at the time." } ], "bpm": { "min": 60, "max": 140 }, "updated": "2026-08-30", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/gospel/", "trackCount": 8, "curatedBy": [], "playlists": {}, "tracks": [ { "rank": 1, "trackKey": "mahalia-jackson--move-on-up-a-little-higher", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mahalia-jackson--move-on-up-a-little-higher/", "title": "Move On Up a Little Higher", "artist": "Mahalia Jackson", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mahalia-jackson/", "year": 1947, "label": "Apollo", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "It sold in the millions when gospel records were not supposed to sell at all. Jackson refused every offer to sing secular material, and never needed to.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mahalia%20Jackson%20Move%20On%20Up%20a%20Little%20Higher", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=06gAdro-62E", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 2, "trackKey": "sister-rosetta-tharpe--strange-things-happening-every-day", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/sister-rosetta-tharpe--strange-things-happening-every-day/", "title": "Strange Things Happening Every Day", "artist": "Sister Rosetta Tharpe", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/sister-rosetta-tharpe/", "year": 1944, "label": "Decca", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A distorted electric guitar, a boogie piano and a gospel lyric, a decade before anyone said rock and roll. The most consequential record almost nobody credits.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Sister%20Rosetta%20Tharpe%20Strange%20Things%20Happening%20Every%20Day", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZVq04akR3Q", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 3, "trackKey": "the-soul-stirrers--touch-the-hem-of-his-garment", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-soul-stirrers--touch-the-hem-of-his-garment/", "title": "Touch the Hem of His Garment", "artist": "The Soul Stirrers", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-soul-stirrers/", "year": 1956, "label": "Specialty", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Sam Cooke while he was still singing for the church, and already in complete command. Listen to this and then to A Change Is Gonna Come — the technique does not change at all.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Soul%20Stirrers%20Touch%20the%20Hem%20of%20His%20Garment", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xaSmjdWEK9E", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 4, "trackKey": "clara-ward-and-the-ward-singers--how-i-got-over", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/clara-ward-and-the-ward-singers--how-i-got-over/", "title": "How I Got Over", "artist": "Clara Ward & The Ward Singers", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/clara-ward-and-the-ward-singers/", "year": 1951, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Ward wrote it, sang the lead over her own group's responses, and sold a million copies. The call-and-response architecture every soul record on this site borrows.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Clara%20Ward%20%26%20The%20Ward%20Singers%20How%20I%20Got%20Over", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=g0F4IJeDQh4", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 5, "trackKey": "the-edwin-hawkins-singers--oh-happy-day", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-edwin-hawkins-singers--oh-happy-day/", "title": "Oh Happy Day", "artist": "The Edwin Hawkins Singers", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-edwin-hawkins-singers/", "year": 1969, "label": "Pavilion", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A choir arrangement of an eighteenth-century hymn that became an international pop hit without changing a word. Nobody has repeated the trick since.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Edwin%20Hawkins%20Singers%20Oh%20Happy%20Day", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=KJohGa66FJM", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 6, "trackKey": "rev-james-cleveland--peace-be-still", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/rev-james-cleveland--peace-be-still/", "title": "Peace Be Still", "artist": "Rev. James Cleveland", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/rev-james-cleveland/", "year": 1963, "label": "Savoy", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Recorded live with a congregation audibly losing composure. The best argument on this list that a gospel record is a documentary rather than a performance.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Rev.%20James%20Cleveland%20Peace%20Be%20Still", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=DNHda7R4o5k", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 7, "trackKey": "the-dixie-hummingbirds--lets-go-out-to-the-programs", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-dixie-hummingbirds--lets-go-out-to-the-programs/", "title": "Let's Go Out to the Programs", "artist": "The Dixie Hummingbirds", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-dixie-hummingbirds/", "year": 1953, "label": "Peacock", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "A quartet impersonating four rival quartets in turn, then themselves. Funny, technically astonishing, and a half-million seller — gospel was a competitive sport and this is the scoreboard.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Dixie%20Hummingbirds%20Let's%20Go%20Out%20to%20the%20Programs", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=GhlfnLxyjYM", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 8, "trackKey": "the-staple-singers--ill-take-you-there", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-staple-singers--ill-take-you-there/", "title": "I'll Take You There", "artist": "The Staple Singers", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-staple-singers/", "year": 1972, "label": "Stax", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The border crossed in both directions at once: a gospel family, a Muscle Shoals rhythm section, and a lyric that never names what it is about.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Staple%20Singers%20I'll%20Take%20You%20There", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=IhHBr7nMMio", "exact": true } } } ] }