Repost: A Golden Era Valentine's Day Word

By: Joseph Middleton

Originally posted February 14, 2010

During the Golden Era of Gospel, it was not uncommon to see entire albums dedicated solely to sermons. Some of these popular preachers of the day who recorded sermons included Rev. C.L. Franklin, Rev. Morgan Babb, and Rev. Willie Morganfield just to name a few. Yet, as time went on into the 1980s and 1990s, new sermon albums were rendered obsolete once churches began their own in-house production. Now, a preacher could preach a sermon and have it recorded live, and available for purchase on tape and CD immediately after service. No longer did one have to wait months for the record company to put a sermon out for home enjoyment. Now, you could have that same sermon in your hand just minutes after it ended.

On February 14, 1965, Valentine's Day at Friendship Baptist Church in Houston, TX, Rev. Omie Lee "O.L." Holliday, the father of Jennifer Holliday, preached a sermon titled "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You." In the sermon, Rev. Holliday makes it known that he borrowed the title of the sermon from Marvin Gaye's 1964 hit single of the same name. The sermon was released on LP for Jewel Records in 1966. Rev. Holliday recorded more sermons for Jewel and pastored many churches across America. Rev. Holliday died on June 1, 1987.

While the sermon is hard to find today for purchase, here are links to the entire sermon broken up into 4 parts. You'll notice how dated the sermon sounds today, with references to "modern" dances such as The Mashed Potato and The Dog. Still, it's a nice look into yesteryear, and a good example of old time preaching. Enjoy!

PART 1


PART 2



PART 3



PART 4

Congrats to Mavis Staples on her Grammy win!

It's been a long time coming, but after over 60 years in the music business, Mavis Staples has won her first ever Grammy. Staples took home the best Americana album for her latest release, "You Are Not Alone" during the pre-telecast portion of the Grammys. Pop & Hiss, the L.A. Times Music Blog, blogged Staples' win in real time. During her acceptance speech Staples thanked her Heavenly Father and her biological father, the late Roebuck "Pops" Staples.

"Give the honor to God and to my father, Pops Staples. It's because of you, Pops, that I stand here today. I tell you, you laid the foundation, and I am still working on the building ..."

At the end of her speech, Staples invoked the late Albertina Walker.

"You will not see the last of me. God is not through with me."

Congrats, Mavis!

Happy Birthday to Roberta Martin!

February 12, or 14th depending on your source, marks what would have been Roberta Martin's 104th birthday. Varying sources say she would have turned 99 today. Whatever the case, if we're off by a few days concerning the exact date or off by a few years concerning her age, we should still honor the special day of the Grand Lady, the Queen Mother, the Helen Hayes of gospel.

Check the link below for my January 2011 writeup on Martin, which contains a few links to some videos that may be of interest to Roberta Martin fans.
http://goldeneragospel.blogspot.com/2011/01/remembering-roberta-martin-42-years.html

Fantasia to play Mahalia Jackson in biopic about Jackson

News outlets are reporting that R&B singer and American Idol alum, Fantasia Barrino, has secured the lead role in an upcoming Mahalia Jackson biopic. The movie will be based on the 1993 book Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel, and directed by Euzhan Palcy from a script written by Jim Evering. Production will begin in April in Philadelphia and Chicago, and the movie will be released in December.

For more info, see the following:

http://www.artistdirect.com/entertainment-news/article/fantasia-barrino-to-play-mahalia-jackson-queen-of-gospel/8692730

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/idol-worship/fantasia-lands-lead-mahalia-jackson-97485

The Atlanta Post Interviews Dr. Portia Maultsby

For Black History Month, the Atlanta Post has interviewed Dr. Portia Maultsby, Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and Director of the Archives of African American Music and Culture at Indiana University Bloomington. When one discusses gospel music historians, Dr. Maultsby is among many of the names to be mentioned alongside Boyer, Mason, Heilbut, Marovich and Darden (perhaps one day, Middleton will be added to that list ;-)).

Like many of the others listed above, Dr. Maultsby's experience transcends gospel music, covering hip hop, rap, jazz, the blues, and any other genre classified as "black music."

You can read the interview with Dr. Maultsby at the following link:

Behind the Research: Ethnomusicologist Discusses The Legacy and Commodification of Black Music

2010 Footage of Albertina Walker at the DuSable Museum

Here's a gem of a video taken last year of the late Albertina Walker at the DuSable Museum in Chicago.

Repost: Op-Ed: It's Always a Good Day to Sing a "Good Old" Gospel Song!

In recognition of Black History Month, I felt it would be appropriate to repost this entry from April 2010. Please note that since the writeup, BET's Sunday Best has been canceled, and I have made a few minor edits to correct some issues and update a few things.

By: Joseph Middleton

As some of you may know, on Black Entertainment Television (BET), there's a program airing its third season titled "Sunday Best". The gospel duo Mary Mary and solo artist Donnie McClurkin are the judges on this gospel counterpart to Fox's "American Idol". It seems like BET is proving "The Boondocks" correct in their observation that BET is taking old reality shows from five years ago and making them over. However, that particular topic is for discussion on another day, on another blog.

I'm going to cut straight to the issue that's relevant to THIS blog. On the episode filmed in Detroit, which originally aired on Sunday, April 11, 2010, one person auditioned for the judges by singing the old song, "I Know I've Been Changed". Tina Campbell of Mary Mary dismissed the singer and delivered a one-liner in response, stating, “DEFINITELY take that to the Black History Program.”

While I realize the show is all about competition and choosing the person that best exhibits broad marketability and high profitability for the record company, both the lover of the traditional gospel sound in me, AND the Gospel Music Historian in me had to shake my head in response to Tina Campbell's words. That is NOT the type of message that should be put forth. Whether people like it or not, songs such as those have a rightly deserved place within gospel music. Despite their age, old songs still touch the hearts and souls of a great number of parishioners and listeners everywhere, young and old alike. Just as everyone isn't drawn to the old school sound, not everyone is drawn to the contemporary sounds of today, either. One also has to realize that gospel is not some monolithic, or homogeneous genre of music. It is QUITE diverse! Gospel contains many sub-genres which appeal to different people. For example, mass choirs, quartets, neo-soul influenced groups and small mixed vocal ensembles are all lumped into the gospel category for simplicity's sake, but they are all sub-genres within gospel music.

There are those who are still getting Saved off of those old songs, and that's probably one of the most important things to recognize. Upon that realization, I don't believe it's prudent to actually restrict OR to even suggest restricting such songs to only be trotted out for the annual "Black History Program." There are people who enjoy and cherish those songs and wish to sing and hear them year-round. Dorothy Norwood's "Ride On King Jesus", Eugene Smith's "I Know The Lord Will Make a Way", Andrae Crouch's "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power" and James Cleveland's "Walk on By Faith" are all songs which are all at least 45 years old in age, but they are still being sung and recorded by current gospel artists. Just look at Vickie Winans and how she scored a hit in late 2009 and early 2010 with her rendition of Rev. W. Herbert Brewster's legendary song, "How I Got Over", some 59 years after it was first published.

What I'm saying is, don't just recognize these songs during Black History Month, that is if they even get recognized at all (and they don't at some churches). Dust off some Golden Era goodies and give them a whirl. You may even want to start a choir or a group to exclusively sing these songs. These "good ole" Golden Era good news songs should be celebrated every day. After all, it's always a good time to give Praise!