Gospel Classic “I Can Go to God in Prayer” Hits the Half-Century Mark

“I Can Go to God in Prayer”
Albertina Walker and the Evangelical Choir of Lighthouse Baptist Church
I Can Go to God in Prayer (Savoy, 1981)

By Robert M. Marovich

The now-classic gospel song “I Can Go to God in Prayer” turns fifty years old this year.

In December 2015, songwriter Calvin Bridges explained to me the genesis of his song:

“I began writing songs around the age of sixteen, but I started professionally in secular music. I wrote a lot of R&B and pop songs. I co-produced an album on Dee Dee Sharp, Happy ‘Bout the Whole Thing, and wrote songs for that.

“I only got serious about gospel in the early 1980s, right before my experience with Albertina [Walker]. I had done one album with a choir called Spirit of Love that came out in 1979. That was probably my first writing of any note, because that album kept me touring for three years. I wrote “Save Me Lord” and later recorded it for the I AM label. I got a Stellar Award for Best Male Vocalist for that song.

“‘I Can Go to God in Prayer’ came about on a Thursday evening [in 1976]. Deborah Clay, who was a member of the Spirit of Love Choir, her father had just been diagnosed with cancer. She called me very distraught. I spoke with her and prayed with her. After praying with her, I got up and went to the piano. I began to write the words, “Makes no difference what the problem / I can go to God in prayer.” I just wrote what was in my heart. God gave me a melody, and it all came together in under thirty minutes. I can’t take any of the credit for that whole experience.

“I showed the song to maybe one or two people, but I knew Albertina Walker was getting ready to record. So I went to her home one afternoon and played ‘I Can Go to God in Prayer’ and several other songs for her. She liked ‘I Can Go to God in Prayer’ and we began to work on it and develop it. She was going to record it with Rev. Jerry Goodloe and the Lighthouse Baptist Church Choir.

“Albertina and the choir did the song. I was on organ. Albertina was so masterful in her delivery. Her rhythm, how she paced the delivery, where she chose to hit high notes, where she chose to lay back—her whole interpretation taught me so much about delivering a song. As far as I can remember, we did the song in one take. At that time, though, I had no sense of what the song would become.

“In fact, there was a little controversy over the song with the record label [Savoy]. I own the publishing rights to the song and some people—I won’t call any names—were not happy about that. But Fred Mendelsohn [of Savoy] said to leave me alone and go ahead and put it out.

“The song began to climb the Billboard chart, and we began to travel. I toured with Tina for about two years. Every place we went, the song set the church on fire! It became, at least in my mind, her biggest hit. I wrote the notes, but she sang the song!

“God has blessed the song to be recorded by so many different people and to be popular for so many years. It was on the Be Glad album, which the Brooklyn Tabernacle [Choir] won a Grammy for in 2003. It’s been recorded by the Boys Choir of Harlem, Luciano Pavarotti, Bobby Jones. Alicia Keys used the song in her 2008 world tour. It is my biggest success in terms of popularity and the number of people who recorded it.”