Sunday, July 11, 2021

The background story of how Oh Happy Day became an underground hit from the grassroots - spread like wildfire: Dorothy Morrison=George Harrison

Someone reports:

 I remember the day i first heard the tune as a teenage kid driving in my car,,i had to pull over,,I said "This is the stuff!" I canceled all my plans, school college whatever,,my only mission that day was to buy that 45 single.I played that sucker day and night for the next 2 or 3 months.I could not believe the emotion I was hearing.That was the introduction to Gospel music to this sunburned ,surfboard riding California Irish kid ,,,,I could never get enough of the Edwin Hawkins Singers,,,that recording is MAGIC and it stands on its own to this day,,,,I have not heard better,,,,and it stands unsurpassed, in my belief,,,,,,,,,

25 year old female singer (Dorothy Morrison) sang both lead parts on the original hit record.

 Eddy G

Very few people know (let alone remember) how this song broke out and who the credit should go to. Edwin Hawkins was the pianist at a small church in Berkeley, California and he did an arrangement in 1968 of the Gospel song Oh Happy Day for the Northern California Youth Choir. The original record was cheaply recorded and pressed in 500 copies with the intent of selling them in churches to fund the choir's participation in a competition. At the time I was a precoscius 15 year old working at KMPX in San Francisco, one of the country's first underground FM radio stations. I ran the board for a wizened Armenian disc jockey Voco (real name Abe Kesheshian) who chain-smoked Philip Morris Commanders, knew everything about music and did the wildly popular late night "Lights Out" show. One night Abe came in an told me excitedly "Eddy, wait until you hear this!", somehow one of those 500 records had found its way to Voco and be played it that night . The next few days the station was flooded with telephone requests and began to play the song over and over, within a few days the song started to get airplay on the local soul stations and the rest is history. I don't think that Abe ever really got the credit he deserved.

 San Franciscoan Jack Barry recalls it spilled over to AM airplay and really caught the public's attention: "To most in San Francisco, it was the inimitable Dan Sorkin, the morning deejay on KSFO-560 who spread the word on all this. His audience was all of northern California. He played those songs daily and made the Northern California State Youth Choir into the legends they deserved to be."

 wiki:

In 1969, "John Lingel, rock promotion director at Chatton Distributors in Oakland, was going through some gospel product lying around when he stumbled onto the Hawkins LP [...]. He gave it to Abe 'Voco' Kesh at KSAN-FM, who, he says, 'immediately flipped,' and the rush of phone calls confirmed gospel-fan Lingel's hunch: 'Oh Happy Day' was hit material."[8] Based on the reaction to Kesh's airing, Buddah Records signed the Edwin Hawkins Singers, gave them a $5,000 advance, and the single "Oh Happy Day" became an international hit.

Edward Hawkins:

 

 Oh Happy Day - the playlist

The Edwin Hawkins Singers were never the same without Dorothy Morrison! They were a church choir a few miles down the road. The energy of that non-professional group with Dorothy out front was amazing!

 Oh Happy Day Oh happy day (oh happy day) Oh happy day (oh happy day) When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed) When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed) When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed) He washed my sins away (oh happy day) Oh happy day (oh happy day) He taught me how to watch, fight and pray, fight and pray And live rejoicing every, everyday Oh happy day He taught me how Oh happy day (oh happy day) Oh happy day (oh happy day) Oh happy day (oh happy day)

 "My Sweet Lord"

Harrison began writing the song while touring in Europe with Delaney & Bonnie in December 1969. His primary inspiration was Edwin Hawkins’ funk and gospel arrangement of the 18th century hymn ‘Oh Happy Day’, which was an international chart hit in 1969.

I remember Eric [Clapton] and Delaney & Bonnie were doing interviews with somebody in either Copenhagen or Gothenburg, somewhere in Sweden and I was so thrilled with ‘Oh Happy Day’ by The Edwin Hawkins Singers. It really just knocked me out, the idea of that song and I just felt a great feeling of the Lord. So I thought, ‘I’ll write another ‘Oh Happy Day’,’ which became ‘My Sweet Lord’.

 Not enough people mix these tunes. George Harrison learned Oh Happy Day from Doris Troy and Billy Preston and adapted it into My Sweet Lord not long afterward.

 So it's a basic Five of Five chord progression

So you play 1 to 4 starting out. But then you substitute the 4 with a FIVE of Five - to go to the ii chord as the "new" 1 to 4. So it's quite fascinating because by USING the FIVE of five then it creates a key change feeling while STAYING in the same key!! So that the "five" chord feels like another four chord.

 

 @rocket e  yeah that makes sense - that Shirley's singing PROVES the specific reason why this song spread like wild fire. haha. I think also the chord progression is crucial because there's a V of ii that sounds like a key change. So the basic verse is a 1 to 4 sequence and then ii to V but the "ii to V" sounds like another 1 to 4 due to the V of ii chord transition. imho
 @Voidisyinyang Voidisyinyang  In Dorothy's recording, and her performance at Big Sur, the lower register notes have real strength and bite. So unusual for a female singer. Shirley definitely is struggling on the low notes. When Aretha Franklin covered this song she had some other singer handle the low part of the melody. Dorothy was like the Righteous Brothers all in one vocalist. In retrospect, her leaving the Edwin Hawkins Singers for solo stardom hurt both the singers and her imho. They were so perfect together and once separated that magic seemed to disappear. (Interesting breakdown on the chord progression btw)
 @rocket e  yeah makes sense again. The Frisson tingles from that original recording is the rich wall of sound an octave higher. Or I suppose two octaves higher in some parts. yes Mavis Staples apparently had her part turned down in post-production since Aretha thought Mavis was dominating the song too much. haha. I guess that makes sense as the lower register has higher amplitude. "So a wave of a particular amplitude will transmit more energy per second if it has a higher frequency, simply because more waves are passing by in a given period of time." My theory based on the harmonics is that essentially we have a nonlinear undertone because the Perfect Fifth in the opposite direction as an undertone is a change in the pitch to the root tonic. So that again the Five of ii chord transition turns the ii-V sequence into a new I-IV sequence as the undertone by Dorothy is working as a new Root Tonic. In other words as an overtone you have C to G Perfect Fifth or 3/2 but as 2/3 then it is C to F as undertone Perfect Fifth (which is again a Perfect Fourth if doubled as the octave with the same C root tonic).

 

 Edwin and Walter, along with two sisters, now live in a modern mansion, surrounded by cornfields and almond orchards, outside Ripon, a Central Valley town between Manteca and Modesto.

A new edition of the Edwin Hawkins Singers is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the success of "Oh Happy Day" with a projected two-year Hope for the World Tour that kicks off Saturday at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco.

 https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Oh-Happy-Day-changed-Edwin-Hawkins-life-3283093.php

 https://scandalmedia.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/fellow-artist-say-the-late-gospel-legend-edwin-hawkins-was-a-promiscuous-homosexual-who-turned-him-out-when-he-was-a-teen/

Fellow Artist Say The Late Gospel Legend Edwin Hawkins Was A Promiscuous Homosexual Who Turned Him Out When He Was A Teen

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PLEASANTON, Calif. – Grammy award winner Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known for the hit “Oh Happy Day,” has died at age 74.

Hawkins died early Monday at his home in Pleasanton, California.

While the world is remembering Hawkins for his major contributions to the gospel music industry, at least one gospel artist is blaming Hawkins for pursuing him and turning him out as a homosexual.

The artist (who asked to remain anonymous) say Hawkins pursued him as a teen and introduced him to the dark world of homosexuality.   He said  Hawkins, who referred to him as “cutie pie” once made him perform oral sex on him in his car in a church parking lot.

The artist said the late Walter Hawkins was gay and knew his brother Edwin was having sex with young men in his church

The artist says he hopes both Edwin and his brother Walter are rotting in hell.

 Dorothy Morrison says, "No Hard Feelings at all" - video interview

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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