Every single album in my Top 100 was recorded by a group of at least three vocalists. (Greater Vision and the Mark Trammell Trio were the only ones with less than four.) We’ve already looked at the list broken down by group, but today I wanted to share how the list broke down by the individuals in those groups. Because I don’t know off the top of my head in a lot of cases whether a quartet’s pianist actually played on a recording, I only included vocalists here, with one exception. Roger Bennett sang on a lot of albums for the Cathedrals and Legacy Five, so I made the executive decision (it’s my list after all) to include him on any album recorded by them when he was a member.
The dominant figure here is obviously Mark Trammell. It is no secret that he’s my all-time favorite singer, but the truth is that I loved the Cathedrals and Gold City albums at the top of the countdown before I really knew much about him. It seems like wherever he goes, he makes exactly the kind of music I like. While I obviously don’t claim to be in his league or stratosphere as a musician, I do think we’re cut out of the same cloth when it comes to our taste in music.
I’m not going to list every album for every individual, because that would be way too long. If for some reason you want to see a full list for someone, let me know in the comments. For now I will list each individual, followed by the number of Top 20 albums, the number of Top 50 albums, the total number of Top 100 albums, and their highest-ranked album. For brevity’s sake, I will only list the ones that appeared on multiple albums.
13 comments
Skip to comment form
Seriously, Brian, if you’re not in a career as a statistician, I think you missed your calling. I might be the only other one who tries, and in this position, I can say definitively that NOBODY in our genre’s media crunches numbers like you do. 🙂
Author
Oh, Daniel, you have no idea. I’ve got dozens, maybe even a hundred spreadsheets I’ve made on a variety of subjects, mostly baseball. But some gospel music, too. I’m truly an OCD Excel nut.
I’m not in statistics as a career, but I am in the math/science genre, and stats was one of my specialties in school.
Author
Hmm…I do see one interesting error. On the “Collingsworths” entry (I did them all at one time instead of listing each individual separately, I have their highest album as “I Do Believe (30)”. That’s a GVB album. It should be “We Still Believe (17)”.
Question: Since there are no solo albums or Weatherford albums, how can Glen Payne have one more than George Younce? Furthermore, how can they both have 15 top 100, but the others be off by one? 😀
Author
Glen and George were on 14 of the same albums in this countdown: 13 Cathedrals albms and one Gaither Homecoming.
The 15th album for each was different:
Glen is featured on one song “I Believe” from Greater Vision’s Far Beyond This Place (#13).
George is on “Who Can Do Anything” from Greater Vision’s Quartets (#59).
I never thought about the Homecoming album nor guest appearances. 😀
Author
Hey, I’m just glad you’re paying attention!
Honestly, I was thinking some people would notice that, and I’m glad you brought it up.
The Gaither homecomings were tricky. I only put a person in if they were really featured on something. Glen and George sang “Sinner Saved by Grace” on Joy in the Camp.
Joy In the Camp is one of my favorite Homecoming recordings. The reason is pretty much the block “Sinner Saved By Grace” and “The Night Before Easter” and to a lesser degree “Master of the Wind” as well as “The Haven of Rest”. “I Know”, “Thank God I Am Free” and “The Fourth Man” are good too . I am not a fan of the group singing usually, and am into the group performances, impromptu group performances and sometimes solos within the choir performances. “Sinner Saved By Grace” and “The Night Before Easter” have the added bonuses of George and J.D. doing the glissandos down to low As. 🙂
Author
Yep, it’s my favorite Homecoming.
I’ll tell you another really good one: “The Gatlin Brothers Come Home”
Author
I’ve seen the truncated hour-long version of that on TV, but I don’t have the recording. If I remember correctly, the best song on there was a Weatherfords song that Lily Fern, Glen, George, and Larry sing together.
I like that, but there are others: “He Touched Me”, “Child of the King”, “Walk With Me”, “The Robe of Calvary” are three that come to mind that I like better.
Oh, and “I Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey”, “I Want To Be More Like Jesus”, “Somebody Loves Me”, The Prodigal Son”, ” Heartbreak Ridge And New Hope Road”, “Who Am I?”, “Heaven’s Jubilee” and “Alleluia” 🙂 “Hide Me Rock of Ages” is pretty good.