The Soul Stirrers were an American gospel music group, whose career spans over eighty years. The group was a pioneer in the development of the quartet style of gospel, and a major influence on Soul, R&B, Doo wop, and Southern soul, some of the secular music that owed much to gospel.
The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet originating in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Since 2024, the group consists of Duane Allen, William Lee Golden, Richard Sterban, and Ben James. The group was founded in 1943 as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in Southern gospel during the 1950s. Their name was changed to the Oak Ridge Boys in the early 1960s, and they remained a gospel group until the mid-1970s, when they changed their image and concentrated on country music.
The Dixie Hummingbirds are an influential American gospel music group, spanning more than 80 years from the jubilee quartet style of the 1920s, through the "hard gospel" quartet style of gospel's golden age in the 1940s and 1950s, to the eclectic pop-tinged songs of today. The Hummingbirds inspired a number of imitators, such as Jackie Wilson and James Brown, who adapted the shouting style and enthusiastic showmanship of hard gospel to secular themes to help create soul music in the 1960s.
The Golden Gate Quartet is an American vocal group. It was formed in 1934 and, with changes in membership, remains active.
Jubilee quartets were popular African-American religious musical groups in the first half of the 20th century. The name derives from the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a group of singers organized by George L. White at Fisk University in 1871 to sing Negro spirituals. The members of the original Fisk Jubilee Quartet (1909–1916) were Alfred G. King, James A. Myers, Noah W. Ryder, and John W. Work II. Students at other historically black schools, such as Hampton Institute, Tuskegee Institute and Wilberforce University, followed suit. Many independent jubilee troupes also found inspiration in the Fisk Jubilee Singers, such as the Original Nashville Students.
The Pilgrim Travelers were an American gospel group, popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
King Pleasure was an American jazz vocalist and an early master of vocalese, where a singer sings words to a well-known instrumental solo.
The Jordanaires were an American vocal quartet that formed as a gospel group in 1948. Over the years, they recorded both sacred and secular music for recording companies such as Capitol Records, RCA Victor, Columbia Records, Decca Records, Vocalion Records, Stop Records, and many other smaller independent labels.
Willmer M. "Little Axe" Broadnax was an American hard gospel quartet singer during the golden age of traditional black gospel. His most common nickname was "Little Axe," due to both his small stature and his brother William "Big Axe" Broadnax, who was a popular baritone.
The Blind Boys of Alabama, also billed as The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama, is an American gospel group. The group was founded in 1939 in Talladega, Alabama, and has featured a changing roster of musicians over its history, the majority of whom are or were vision impaired.
John Daniel Sumner was an American gospel singer, songwriter, and music promoter noted for his bass voice, and his innovation in the Christian and Gospel music fields. Sumner sang in five quartets and was a member of the Blackwood Brothers during their 1950s heyday. Aside from his incredibly low bass voice, Sumner's business acumen helped promote Southern Gospel and move it into the mainstream of American culture and music during the 1950s and 1960s.
James Webre Blackwood was an American gospel singer and one of the founding members of legendary Southern gospel quartet The Blackwood Brothers. He is the only person in any field of music to have been nominated for a Grammy Award for 28 consecutive years. He received 31 nominations and won nine Grammy Awards.
"I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" is a 1967 single released by American soul singer Aretha Franklin. Released on Atlantic Records as the first big hit of her career and the lead single from her tenth studio album of the same name, it became a defining song for Franklin, peaking at number one on the rhythm and blues charts and number nine on the pop charts. The B-side was "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". Before this Franklin had placed only two Top 40 singles on the pop chart during her modest tenure with Columbia Records.
"Don't Blame Me" is a popular song with music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. The song was part of the 1932 show Clowns in Clover and was published in 1933. Popular versions that year were recorded by: Ethel Waters, Guy Lombardo, and Charles Agnew.
The Larks were an American vocal group, active in the early 1950s. They were not the same group as the Los Angeles–based Larks featuring Don Julian, nor the Philadelphia-based group The Four Larks.
"Down by the Riverside" is an African-American spiritual. Its roots date back to before the American Civil War, though it was first published in 1918 in Plantation Melodies: A Collection of Modern, Popular and Old-time Negro-Songs of the Southland, Chicago, the Rodeheaver Company. The song has alternatively been known as "Ain' go'n' to study war no mo'", "Ain't Gwine to Study War No More", "Down by de Ribberside", "Going to Pull My War-Clothes" and "Study war no more". The song was first recorded by the Fisk University jubilee quartet in 1920, and there are at least 14 black gospel recordings before World War II.
The Jubalaires were an American gospel group active between 1935 and 1950. Previously known as the Royal Harmony Singers in 1936, the band was known for song verses delivered in a rhythmic, rhyming style that has been described as an early version of rapping. Their 1946 song "Noah" is often named as the first recorded instance of rap.
The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed The Four Mills Brothers and originally known as Four Boys and a Guitar, were an American jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies and garnered at least three dozen gold records.
"Milky White Way" is a gospel standard written by Lander Coleman, who was a quartet singer for the Coleman Brothers. The song became a million-selling hit record in 1947 when the CBS Trumpeteers, a black quartet from Baltimore, recorded it. In the late 1940s the CBS Trumpeteers had a popular morning radio show over the CBS network called 7:15 A.M.! and "Milky White Way" was their theme song. Elvis Presley also recorded a version on October 30–31, 1960, at RCA's Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Coleman Brothers were an American gospel group formed in Newark, New Jersey, in 1932. Influenced by family members and Southern black gospel traditions, the ensemble recorded 18 singles during the peak of their popularity in the 1940s under the leadership of singer-songwriter Lander Coleman. In their heyday, the Coleman Brothers were a pioneering presence on music radio and received extended notice when their song "Milky White Way" was covered by the Trumpeteers to huge commercial success.
