Mahalia Jackson: Consider Me (1953)

 |   |  <1 min read

Mahalia Jackson: Consider Me (1953)

Although widely recognised as the greatest of all American gospel singers and a prominent civil rights activist, Mahalia Jackson (1911 - 72) also flirted with some crossover chart success.

Her mentor and main songwriter was Thomas A Dorsey who found salvation after recovering from an illness. He left behind the juke joints and rent parties and in 1930 started to write gospel songs, among them Peace in the Valley and Take My Hand Precious Lord.

Jackson resisted singing secular music but her song Move On Up a Little Higher for the emerging Apollo label in '47 became a massive hit and thereafter her gospel songs were given wider coverage.

When Apollo's owner Bess Berman started an r'n'b offshoot label Lloyd Records in '53 Jackson's Consider Me was deemed secular enough to be released on it.

Although not one of Jackson's best known songs, it walks that delicate line between spiritual and secular. 

For more one-offs, oddities or songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Perrey and Kingsley; Strangers in the Night (1971)

Perrey and Kingsley; Strangers in the Night (1971)

Taken from the album Kaleidoscopic Variations; Electronic Pop Music of the Future by innovators and composers Jean Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley, this might be better subtitled "When... > Read more

April Stevens: Love Kitten (1961)

April Stevens: Love Kitten (1961)

Singer April Stevens found great fame when she teamed up with her brother, the producer/writer/singer Nino Tempo for their early Sixties hit Deep Purple. But before that she had briefly enjoyed... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Carolina Moon: East of the Sun (Global Routes)

Carolina Moon: East of the Sun (Global Routes)

Even more New Zealand jazz. And different again. Moon began her career in London more than a decade ago, moved to Australia (where as Caroline Lynn she won considerable media praise) and then came... > Read more

THE DURUTTI COLUMN: THE GUITAR AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS, CONSIDERED (1987): Man and machine music

THE DURUTTI COLUMN: THE GUITAR AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS, CONSIDERED (1987): Man and machine music

Manchester's Vini Reilly -- who steered Durutti Column through scores of studio albums and many side-projects from the late Seventies until fairly recently -- probably only ever earned enough to... > Read more