Back to God
The piano plunks out a few chords, the snare picks up the beat, a bongo drum is tapped infectiously, and a low, husky female voice calls out to a chorus of men and women, which answers each phrase:
Oh happy day,
Oh happy day,
When Jesus washed,
Oh when he washed,
When Jesus washed,
He washed the sins away.
Words to clap hands by in a Negro church on Sunday night? Not really. They just happen to be the stuff of the nation's No. 5 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Composed, arranged and conducted by Edwin Hawkins, the 25-year-old son of an Oakland, Calif., long shoreman, Oh Happy Day is far and away the surprise hit of the year. From Los Angeles to Boston, its bubbling, infectious sound is being aired ten to 20 times a day on Negro rhythm-and-blues stations, easy-listening stations, even rock stations. The LP from which the single was taken, Let Us Go into the House of the Lord, is doing almost as well. "It is good for gospel to go pop," says Hawkins. "It might bring the kids back to God."
Hawkins and Soprano Betty Watson founded the Northern California State Youth Choir in April 1967, drawing upon leading singers from Pentecostal choirs throughout the San Francisco area. Last year they made a private recording (1,000 copies) of Hawkins' gospel-song arrangements. San Francisco Chronicle Columnist Ralph J. Gleason heard it, gave it a plug or two, and record companies started a bidding war for the album. New York's Buddah Records got there first and capped the deal with a $55,000 advance and a $25,-000 bonus. Buddah changed the group's name to the Edwin Hawkins Singers, put the record out--and the world smiled.
Success has not brought Hawkins all the peace and quiet he might have expected. For one thing, several R. & B. stations have refused to play Oh Happy Day on their soul shows because they regard gospel as too sacred for dancing. For another, the success of Oh Happy Day has spawned a rash of imitators. The biggest shock of all, however, is that two of Hawkins' soloists have quit and gone out on their own. One of them, Betty Watson, has even organized her own group, taken the old name of Hawkins' chorus, and agreed to appear at the West Coast's leading rock palace, the Fillmore West.
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