Pollard’s top 10 gospel records from Detroit

From the Detroit Free Press, February 18, 2005:

Gospel radio DJ and historian Deborah Smith Pollard names the 10 most significant gospel songs or albums to come out of Detroit, which is considered one of the world’s great gospel-producing cities:

The Voices of Tabernacle, “The Love of God” (1960)
“This is a song that makes the Rev. James Cleveland an acclaimed national soloist. It allows the country to hear the disciplined Detroit chorale sound. The Voices of Tabernacle were unbelievable.”

Mattie Moss Clark and the Southwest Michigan Choir of the Church of God in Christ, “Climbing Up the Mountain” (1965)
“This is so important because of Mattie Moss Clark. She becomes the national president of the music department for the Church of God in Christ. She starts all these youth choirs. She’s really always ahead of her time. To this day, people cite Mattie Moss Clark as having such an incredible influence. She was a songwriter, a producer, an arranger and she certainly knew talent beyond her daughters.”

Aretha Franklin, “Amazing Grace” (1972)
“This is still one of the all-time best-selling albums in gospel. And it was a fantastic coming together of Aretha Franklin and James Cleveland, who was a gospel mentor of hers. You hear a whole trajectory of gospel come through. It’s traditional gospel cut in the best and most vibrant sense of it. And it’s just Aretha being Aretha.”

The Clark Sisters, “You Brought the Sunshine” (1981)
“It was initially a hard sell. But it became a big hit. It has a crossover audience, which brought some controversy because it was being played in clubs. All the stuff that BeBe and CeCe” Winans “and Kirk” Franklin “did, they got that too and they got it first.”

The Winans, “The Question Is” (1981)
“That single is so important because it also gets crossed over. I remember us calling each other saying ‘Have you heard that song?’ Before my friend Tim Smith died, we were talking about how the audience for gospel seemed to change overnight. I remember they would have these concerts at the Fox and they would sell out and we would look around and we would be like ‘We don’t know these people. Who are these people?’ All of a sudden it wasn’t a church crowd. These were folks who listened to radio. This was an R&B-influenced gospel. The Winans all of a sudden just gave us a different kind of presence in gospel. This also opened the door for Detroit to become this urban gospel mecca.”

Thomas Whitfield and the Thomas Whitfield Company, above, “We Need a Word From the Lord” (1990)
“Tommy was doing praise and worship when nobody was doing praise and worship. He’s so ahead of many of us in many things. By the time he died at an early age — he died before he was 40 — people had caught up. He’s in this list because praise and worship is so big in the community now and because so many of these leading artists cite him.”

BeBe and CeCe Winans, “Different Lifestyles” (1991)
“It’s R&B gospel. I can remember Bryant Gumbel interviewing them and saying, ‘I don’t like gospel, but I like you guys. Why is that?’ And it was because this is a song that sounded familiar. CeCe was wearing pants and church folks were buzzing about that. It was a new day in gospel.”

Fred Hammond and Radical for Christ, “The Inner Court” (1995)
“This is where praise and worship gets the Detroit urban sound. Fred is a guitarist first of all. So it’s the kinds of licks he brings to the music, the kind of energy he brings to the music. This is a really important album that he brings to us.”

Evelyn Turrentine Agee and the Gospel Warriors, “God Did It” (2000)
“Detroit has always had good quartets. But mainly people think about Detroit as producing great choirs and urban contemporary music. Evelyn, in the last five years, has become the first lady of quartets.”

Donnie McClurkin, “We Fall Down” (2000)
“We claim Donnie because he was here for so long. This song takes him around the world, and makes his album go almost double platinum. It was interesting how he said it changed his whole life. It also changed radio. There were so many places in this country, including right here in Detroit, where that would be the most requested song for weeks and weeks and weeks. People can relate to the message.”

By Kelley L. Carter