“Credit will have to be given to such pioneers as Don Robey out of Houston, Texas, starting the ball rolling with the Blind Boys of Mississippi. Peacock Records is one of the largest recording companies in the country today, owned by a Black man,” Brother Sylvester Henderson, a preferred gospel disc jockey, producer, and promoter, proclaimed in a 1970 column within the Soul newspaper. Peacock Information was, by then, an establishment, one which listeners, radio announcers, and retailers alike trusted for the perfect in gospel, blues, and soul recordings.
Robey started Peacock Information in 1949 and for the subsequent thirty years, recorded artists that will form the worldwide trajectory of standard music, starting, most immediately with Massive Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog,” one of many foundational songs in rock and roll historical past. Robey helped shift the general public’s perceptions of R&B music, which individuals “felt to be degrading…low, and not to be heard by respectable people. People believed that for years,” he advised Billboard.
Hearken to the perfect gospel from Peacock Information now.
Whereas the label’s R&B and blues roster boasted Memphis Slim, Clarence “Gatemouth” Carter, Bobby “Blue” Bland, O.V. Wright, and Billy Davis & The Legends (previous to The Fifth Dimension), Robey developed a sprawling gospel division that ultimately turned generally known as Songbird, getting in on the bottom flooring of the careers of standard gospel acts like The Mighty Clouds of Pleasure, The Williams Brothers, The Jackson Southernaires, The O’Neil Twins, and Rev. Cleophus Robinson. As gospel developed, Peacock didn’t restrict itself to conventional gospel. They helped a few of their artists like Tessie Hill, Josh Albert Hailey, and Liz Dargan and the Gospelettes domesticate a up to date edge.
Robey bought the label to ABC-Dunhill Information in 1973, turning over 2,700 composition copyrights, and everything of the grasp recording catalog which included over 2,000 unreleased recordings. In 1998, the Peacock Gospel Classics sequence made a number of the gospel division’s output obtainable digitally for the primary time. Listed below are just a few highlights to start with.
5 Blind Boys of Mississippi – Our Father
The 5 Blind Boys of Mississippi had solely recorded just a few sides previous to becoming a member of the Peacock roster in 1950, however they struck gold at their first session with “Our Father,” which took all of them the way in which to #10 on the R&B charts in January of 1951, promoting an estimated half 1,000,000 copies. With lead vocalists Archie Brownlee and Rev. Percell Perkins, the group turned stars within the gospel world. Gospel historian Anthony Heilbut wrote that Brownlee would “demolish huge auditoriums with the bluesiest version of the Lord’s Prayer ever recorded.”
The artists that they influenced would make their sound a necessary ingredient in standard music. Ray Charles’ bandmate and musician, Renald Richard, stated, “[Ray] used to talk all the time about Archie Brownlee, how much he liked him. Then he started to sound like him, turning his notes, playing with them to work the audience into a frenzy!” The group’s final recording with Peacock, My Want, earned a Grammy nomination in 1974. They continued to tour internationally into the Nineteen Nineties.
Inez Andrews – Lord Don’t Transfer the Mountain
From the second her 1958 recording of “Mary Don’t You Weep” with The Caravans hit the airwaves, Inez Andrews was believed to be the subsequent huge factor in gospel music, a singer/songwriter with a multi-octave vary. She signed with Peacock in 1964 together with her group The Andrewettes, however by 1967 was a solo act.
Her recording of Doris Akers’ “Lord Don’t Move the Mountain ” cracked the Prime 50 of the R&B chart in 1973 and was the #2 gospel album on Ebony’s music ballot that 12 months simply behind Aretha Franklin’s Wonderful Grace (which contained Andrews’ association of “Mary, Don’t You Weep”). Vogue wrote, “She erupts from an initial, polite, Sunday-best gentility into a screaming, ranting revivalist…recommended for anyone who loves great singing.” Andrews stayed with Peacock till 1978, incomes a Grammy nomination for 1976’s Conflict on Sin.
Dixie Hummingbirds – Loves Me Like a Rock
By the point the Dixie Hummingbirds hit the #2 spot on the pop charts in 1973 becoming a member of Paul Simon on his single, “Loves Me Like a Rock,” the group had been singing collectively for forty-five years. They signed with Peacock in 1952, simply three years into its existence, and remained with the label till 1978. Credited as inspirations for R&B legends Jackie Wilson, James Brown, and the Temptations, the Hummingbirds had been one of many few teams who managed to take gospel into unconventional venues like Cafe Society and the Newport Folks and Jazz Festivals with out alienating their gospel base. Lead singer Ira Tucker advised Blues & Soul, “Don Robey spent 25 years trying to persuade us to get into R&B. But everybody in the group chose to make financial sacrifices to stay in gospel.” The group earned a Grammy Award for his or her recording of “Loves Me Like a Rock” sans Simon in 1973.
Carl Bean and Common Love – One thing for Nothing
Carl Bean got here to Peacock with a wealth of expertise with gospel heavyweights beneath his belt: he was in Bishop William Morris O’Neil’s choir at Harlem’s Christian Tabernacle, recorded with Calvin White’s Gospel Wonders on their 1965 hit “Long As I’ve Got Jesus,” in addition to with the Gospel Chimes at Atlantic Information and toured with Alex Bradford. He moved to Los Angeles within the early 70s and with O’Neil’s choir director Alahaundra Romeo and Craig Pearson fashioned Common Love. The group’s solely Peacock album, All We Want is Love, took a flip in direction of the progressive aspect with a set of message songs aimed on the normal market that failed to succeed in the plenty. Younger, nevertheless, remembered Bean when he turned an government at Motown and facilitated Bean’s recording of the homosexual disco anthem, “I Was Born This Way,” which impressed Girl Gaga’s hit of the identical title.
Hearken to the perfect gospel from Peacock Information now.
