1975: Best Soul Gospel Performance Grammy Nominees

A look at the five albums by James Cleveland, Andraé Crouch & The Disciples and James Cleveland that were nominated for this prestigious honor fifty years ago!

This week’s newsletter looks at the five albums released in 1975 that earned nominations for the 18th annual Grammy Awards ceremony in the Best Soul Gospel Performance category.

The Twenty-First Century Singers—The Storm Is Passing Over (Creed Records)

Of the five nominees from 1975, none have been more lost to history than Nashville’s Twenty-First Century Singers. The group’s debut album had presented the group was a larger ensemble, but in the years that followed, transporting a group of that size became unrealistic. The group’s founder, Johnny Whittaker, reduced the group to a trio made up of himself, Charles Miller and Lula Jordan and fine-tuned the group’s visual and aural presentation. (See my 2021 feature on the group below).

The Storm Is Passing Over, their first release as the trio, presented their many facets. Side A showcased them in the studio doing gospel standards like the title track which earned them airplay on secular radio, Broadway (“Gonna Build a Mountain”), and orchestrated inspirational tunes like “Oh What a Wonderful God We Serve.” Whittaker’s performance of “Blessed Assurance” is one of the most mesmerizing recordings committed to tape within the gospel genre. I’ve written before that Whittaker is one of the greatest gospel vocalists ever recorded, and this track proves that. His convergence of operatic technique with gospel fervor is unique enough, but that Whittaker is also a male soprano makes him even more of a rarity within the commercial world of gospel is an even greater anomaly.

Side B captures the group live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, giving listeners a chance to experience how the group translated the grand-scale production of their albums to the stage. Utilizing arrangements of traditional songs from their heroes, the Clara Ward Singers and the Barrett Sisters, and material by contemporary gospel innovator Harrison Johnson, the album presents a tour de force performance from a group that maintained gospel grit amidst their polish.

I was able to be a part of a tribute to this group here in Nashville last fall and you can hear that tribute, which includes a performance of “The Storm Is Passing Over,” here.

The Tennessean, February 5, 1976

James Cleveland with the Voices of Tabernacle—God Has Smiled On Me (Savoy Records)

James Cleveland with the Charles Fold Singers—Jesus Is The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me (Savoy Records)

James Cleveland with the Southern California Community Choir—To The Glory of God (Savoy Records)

It’s a testament to James Cleveland’s talents that he would land three nominations from three different projects in one category. Cleveland wasn’t just prolific, he was inspired. In 1975 alone, he was involved in no less than six recordings, in addition to his work as a pastor, founder and planner of the annual Gospel Music Workshop of America convention, and performer, who maintained a rigorous calendar.

His penchant for either writing or finding songs that tapped into simple, but hearty, expressions of faith that quickly hit the hearts of people around the world is something few other artists have been able to do. The three releases that earned Grammy nominations in 1975 each did that, quickly becoming Sunday morning standards. His adaptation of Gladys Knight’s “You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” (written by Jim Weatherly) was done so effectively that, for many, it wasn’t even a cover—it was now a gospel song.

While “God Has Smiled on Me” (written by Isaiah Jones, Jr.) and “You’re the Best Thing” were congregational favorites, To The Glory of God, recorded with his Southern California Community Choir, reflected Cleveland’s desire to keep up with the production advances that the next generation of gospel artists, like Andraé Crouch & The Disciples, were employing in their music. To The Glory of God presents young writers from Cleveland’s camp like Charles May and Stan Lee whose compositional styles had a theatrical flourish, and utilized horns and strings, making the sound larger and more progressive.

Cleveland didn’t earn the Grammy, but he gave the winner stiff competition with these three releases.

Don’t miss this year’s feature on Cleveland’s 1965 release, He Leadeth Me.

Oakland Tribune, May 23, 1975

Andraé Crouch & The Disciples—Take Me Back (Light Records)

I wrote extensively about Take Me Back, the album that took home the Grammy, in last week’s newsletter. See the link below or click here to read more about that album.

See that article below!

Los Angeles Times, Dec. 18, 1976