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Skylite
Skylite Recording Company is a Memphis based gospel music label started by The Statesmen Quartet and The Blackwood Brothers in 1959. Along with The Blackwood Brothers and The Statesmen Quartet, Skylite signed, among others, The Speer Family, and the Oak Ridge Quartet (later renamed The Oak Ridge Boys). In 1966, the Statesmen-Blackwood team sold the record company to a group of investors led by Joel Gentry, with main offices on Music Row in Nashville, Tenn. History Amidst the popularity of The Oak Ridge Boys (specifically when they switched to country music and the hit Elvira), many compilations were made with some of the material from their Skylite recordings. Even though Oaks baritone William Lee Golden only appeared on two Skylite recordings, and Oaks lead Duane Allen only appeared on part of one, and Oaks bass Richard Sterban and Oaks tenor Joe Bonsall appeared on none of these, these covers often showed the current group. Nonetheless, often the same songs are rehashed over s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Statesmen Quartet
The Statesmen Quartet (also known as Hovie Lister and The Statesmen Quartet) were an American southern gospel quartet founded in 1948 by Baptist Minister Hovie Lister. Along with the Blackwood Brothers, the Statesmen Quartet were considered the most successful and influential gospel quartet of the 1950s and 1960s and had a wide influence on artists during that time from the gospel, country, pop, and rock and roll genre. Along with hits spanning many decades, The Statesmen Quartet had many notable successes including being the first Gospel group to receive endorsement deals. Additionally, they made television commercials, appeared on numerous radio and TV shows, and were signed to RCA Victor before launching their own record label, Skylite Records, with The Blackwood Brothers. Formation (1948) The Statesmen Quartet was founded in 1948 in Atlanta, Georgia by Hovie Lister, a Baptist minister and convention-style piano player. Lister constructed the quartet as a hand-picked group o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speer Family
The Speer Family was a Southern gospel family musical group. It was founded in 1921 by George Thomas ("Dad") Speer (1891–1966), his wife, Lena Darling ("Mom") Speer (née Brock; 1899–1967), and his sister and brother-in-law, Pearl Claborn (1902–1979) and Logan Claborn (William Logan Claborn; 1896–1981). Harold Lane was also member of this group Early years Both George Thomas and Lena came from musical families. G.T. and Lena began the group to supplement their income, which otherwise came from farming. Before them, almost all gospel groups were made up solely of men. The Speer Family are considered pioneers in featuring women singers. Within two years, the group had become so successful that G.T. Speer decided to make the group full-time. In the late 1920s, the group established a working relationship with the James David Vaughan Music Company, selling songbooks. However, the group's success proved to be insufficient to support two families' budgets. In 1925, Logan and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Oak Ridge Boys
The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet originating in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The group was founded in the 1940s 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.Carter, Walter"Oak Ridge Boys: Inducted 2015," 2015, (adapted from the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum's ''Encyclopedia of Country Music,'' Oxford University Press) Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, retrieved September 6, 2020"Country Music Hall Of Fame Inductees: Jim Ed Bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jake Hess
Jake Hess (December 24, 1927 – January 4, 2004) was an American Grammy Award-winning southern gospel singer.McNeil, W.K., Ed. (2010). ''Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music''. Routledge. . Pp. 201-202. Life The son of "a sharecropper who was a shape-note singing-school teacher," Hess was born in Mt. Pisgah, near Athens, in Limestone County, Alabama. His parents were Stovall and Lydia Hess. He was the youngest of 12 children. Hess's entry on the Encyclopedia of Alabama's website says of his name: "His parents did not officially name him, so the attending physician entered his name as 'Man Child' Hess in official documents." When he registered with the draft board in Lincoln, Nebraska, he gave his name as "William Jesse Hess." In 1997, when Hess was preparing to get a passport to travel overseas, he discovered that his birth certificate actually read Manchild Hess. His son, Jake Jr., named his recording company Manchild Records in honor of his father. Career Hess' career star ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Blackwood Brothers
The Blackwood Brothers are an American southern gospel quartet. Pioneers of the Christian music industry, they are 8-time Grammy Award winners in addition to winning 7 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. They are also members of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame. Group beginnings The Blackwood Brothers Quartet were formed in 1934 in the midst of the Great Depression when preacher Roy Blackwood (1900–71) moved his family back home to Choctaw County, Mississippi. His brothers, Doyle Blackwood (1911–74) and 15-year-old James Blackwood (1919–2002), already had some experience singing with Vardaman Ray and Gene Catledge. After adding Roy's 13-year-old son, R.W. Blackwood (1921–54), to sing baritone, the brothers began to travel and sing locally. By 1940, they were affiliated with the Stamps-Baxter Music Company to sell songbooks and were appearing on 50,000-watt radio station KMA (AM) in Shenandoah, Iowa. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the global music industry, after Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME). Formerly part of Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery), WMG was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 2005 until 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries. It later had its second IPO on Nasdaq in 2020, once again becoming a public company. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs more than 3,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world. The company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful labels in the world, including Elektra Records, Reprise Records, Warner Records, Parlophone Records (formerly owned by EMI), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-most populous city in Tennessee, after Nashville. Memphis is the fifth-most populous city in the Southeast, the nation's 28th-largest overall, as well as the largest city bordering the Mississippi River. The Memphis metropolitan area includes West Tennessee and the greater Mid-South region, which includes portions of neighboring Arkansas, Mississippi and the Missouri Bootheel. One of the more historic and culturally significant cities of the Southern United States, Memphis has a wide variety of landscapes and distinct neighborhoods. The first European explorer to visit the area of present-day Memphis was Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541. The high Chickasaw Bluffs protecting the location from the waters of the Mississipp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gospel Music
Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music is characterized by dominant vocals and strong use of harmony with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century. Hymns and sacred songs were often repeated in a call and response fashion, heavily influenced by ancestral African music. Most of the churches relied on hand-clapping and foot-stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella.Jackson, Joyce Marie. "The changing nature of gospel music: A southern case study." ''African American Review'' 29.2 (1995): 185. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. October 5, 2010. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elvira (song)
"Elvira" is a song written and originally recorded by Dallas Frazier in 1966 on his album of the same name. Though a minor hit for Frazier at the time of release, the song became a bigger and much more famous country and pop hit by The Oak Ridge Boys in 1981. "Elvira" is now considered one of the Oak Ridge Boys' signature songs. Song history Songwriter Dallas Frazier wrote "Elvira" in 1966 and included it as the title track of an album he released that year. The title of the song was inspired not by the name of a woman, but by the name of a street in East Nashville, Tennessee. The song's chorus bears a resemblance to the song " Searchin" written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and recorded famously by the Coasters. Frazier's version peaked at No. 72 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and was a top 40 hit in Canada, reaching No. 27. A number of other artists recorded the song through the years with varying degrees of success, most notably Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. Rogers' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The LeFevres
The LeFevres, or The Singing LeFevres, were an American Southern gospel singing group, active for nearly 50 years in the middle of the twentieth century. The LeFevres were a family from Smithville, Tennessee, and their singing group centered on brothers Urias (1910–1979) and Alphus (1912–1988). As children, they sang with their sister Maude until she married, then their sister Omega (Peggy) until she married; their career as an ensemble began in 1921. Both sang in quartets at the Bible Training School in Cleveland, Tennessee. Urias and Eva Mae Whittington (1917–2009) married in 1934; she became the pianist and alto in their newly formed trio. They moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1937 and then Atlanta in 1939, where they would remain for the rest of their professional career, aside from a short stint in Philadelphia in the middle of the 1950s. They won slots performing on WGST radio as The LeFevre Trio, but as they added other family members and accompanists, they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bibletone Records
Bibletone Records was organized in 1942 in New York City by Arthur L. Becker. In 1944 the company home office was listed as 354 Fourth Avenue, NY. Home office executives were Arthur L. Becker, home office president; C. B. Slade, executive manager; and George Shackley, musical director. The company was the first all-gospel label to release 33 rpm albums of their releases. It was also one of the first labels to release 10-inch as well as 12-inch long-play albums and one of the first companies to release their singles on 45, as well as 78 rpm. Early years Initially, the early albums were of choirs, sacred music and children's music. The company also produced recorded "selected passages of the scriptures ncludingTwenty-Third Psalm -- Ten Commandments -- Sermon on the Mount and others" that were sold at $1.05 each in 1943. The success of the earliest records of The LeFevres on 78 rpm (in the 1940s), caused the company to shift its focus to Southern Gospel. The company changed owners ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
