The influence of gospel music stretches far and wide<\/strong><\/a>, into soul, rock\u2019n\u2019roll and R&B, and can be found in recordings by everyone from James Brown<\/strong><\/a> to Bob Dylan<\/strong><\/a> and The Rolling Stones<\/strong><\/a>. Unsurprisingly, then, the best gospel songs<\/strong><\/a> have been recorded by artists from all musical persuasions \u2013 and the best gospel singers, too, cover a wider range of styles than you might initially think.<\/p>\n The voices in this list might vary, but they\u2019re never less than impassioned when it comes to singing about their faith. From Reverends to rock\u2019n\u2019rollers, backwoods bluesmen to country ramblers, here\u2019s a list of the 15 best gospel singers of all time.<\/p>\n While you\u2019re reading, listen to our Praise And Worship playlist here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Gospel blues has a long tradition of notable performers \u2013 including Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, and Skip James \u2013 and perhaps the most distinguished was Reverend Gary Davis. Davis, who began as a street musician, was a powerful gospel singer whose simplicity of playing and deep pathos in his vocals brought out the mournful qualities of gospel songs such as \u201cI Heard The Angels Singing.\u201d The beauty and spirituality of this blind singer inspired countless musicians, including Bob Dylan and Ry Cooder. Dylan recorded several of his songs, including \u201cJesus Met The Woman At The Well.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Thomas A Dorsey was widely known as the father of gospel music, writing many of the world\u2019s greatest gospel songs. Moments before Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, in 1968, he asked to have Dorsey\u2019s best-known song, \u201cTake My Hand, Precious Lord,\u201d performed. In the following days it almost became the anthem of black America. Dorsey, a former jazz pianist and composer, helped create the first gospel chorus and added tabernacle song material and blues touches to his spiritual material. He would go on to co-found the National Convention Of Gospel Choirs And Choruses. Perhaps his most beautiful song, \u201cPeace In The Valley,\u201d was written on a train in 1939 while he was passing through a valley and thinking about the war that had just begun in Europe.\n<\/p>\n Mahalia Jackson\u2019s soulful renditions of gospel music thrilled fans the world over, including Presidents and royalty. Her powerful and melodious voice brought tears to the eyes of listeners. With the 1947 release of \u201cMove On Up A Little Higher,\u201d Jackson became the first gospel artist to sell one million copies, putting the genre into the mainstream. In 1961, Jackson sang the US national anthem at the inauguration of President Kennedy. She inspired countless singers to take up gospel, including the great Mavis Staples.<\/p>\n Georgia-born Sallie Martin was a contemporary of Dorsey and Jackson, and her show singing earned her the title of The Mother Of Gospel Music. She started singing in a Baptist church and later teamed up with Dorsey in Chicago. She founded a gospel publishing house and, with the Sallie Martin Singers, helped discover Ruth James, who became better known as Dinah Washington<\/strong><\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Rosetta Tharpe, raised by her mother, a travelling evangelist with The Church Of God In Christ, was performing from the age of six. She was spotted by John Hammond \u2013 who included her with Count Basie<\/strong><\/a> in his celebrated From Spirituals To Swing concert at Carnegie Hall \u2013 and soon after that she recorded \u201cGospel Train.\u201d In 1945, her song \u201cStrange Things Happening Every Day\u201d became the first gospel record to reach the R&B Top 10. Though she was also a guitarist and pioneer rock\u2019n\u2019roller, Tharpe\u2019s gospel singing was vibrant and sincere, and had a huge influence on Elvis Presley.\n<\/p>\n Though rightly celebrated as a giant of country music \u2013 and songwriting as a whole \u2013 Hank Williams<\/strong><\/a> was also one of the best gospel singers that country music produced. His lyrics often focussed on sin and redemption, torment and release, shown in masterpieces such as the 1948 song \u201cI Saw The Light,\u201d which has become a gospel standard. The gospel songs that Williams recorded, such as \u201cWhen God Comes And Gathers His Jewels,\u201d suited his maudlin, drawled delivery.<\/p>\n The Reverend James Cleveland, who taught Aretha Franklin to sing gospel, was hailed as the Crown Prince Of Gospel. As well as his heartfelt baritone gospel singing, he was a pianist, composer, arranger and producer. He won three Grammy awards and was credited with writing and arranging more than 400 gospel songs, including \u201cEverything Will Be All Right,\u201d \u201cThe Love Of God,\u201d and \u201cPeace Be Still,\u201d and he was the first gospel artist to receive a star on Hollywood\u2019s Walk Of Fame. Cleveland also founded the Gospel Music Workshop Of America in Detroit, which he said was his greatest accomplishment.\n<\/p>\n Like one or two others in this list of the best gospel singers, Same Cooke easily made the leap from spiritual to secular music. He learned his trade as a boy singing with the gospel group The Highway QCs, but he really made his name with The Soul Stirrers, with whom he recorded gems such as \u201cTouch The Hem Of His Garment.\u201d Cooke\u2019s smooth and soulful voice suited narrative gospel songs, some of which he wrote. Cooke later moved from gospel to pursue a solo with popular hits such as \u201c(What A) Wonderful World.\u201d Yet even some of his solo work was gospel-infused, as with his own song \u201cA Change Is Gonna Come.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Country music has always had strong links with gospel, not only in Hank Williams but in a host of performers, including Tennessee Ernie Ford<\/strong><\/a> (who ended his weekly television show with gospel songs). One of the most heartfelt gospel songs came from Johnny Cash, who recorded the first of several gospel albums with 1959\u2019s Hymns. Cash said, \u201cGospel music is so ingrained into my bones; I can\u2019t do a concert without singing a gospel song. It\u2019s what I was raised on. It was the thing that inspired me as a child, growing up on a cotton farm, where the work was drudgery.\u201d<\/p>\n Elvis Presley may have been the rightful King Of Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll, but he could also take his place among the best gospel singers, and even won a Grammy for his version of \u201cHe Touched Me,\u201d written by Andrea Crouch. Swedish musician Per-Erik Hallin, who toured with Presley for several years, said, \u201cElvis had a special relationship to gospel music. Elvis was exposed to an idolatry that had no limits, and gospel singing became a refuge for him. I also think it\u2019s pretty touching to think that a person being exposed to so much idolatry likes to just be one of the gang and sing songs like \u201cThere\u2019s Somebody Bigger Than You And I.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Shirley Caesar\u2019s singer father, Jim, died when she was 12. She followed in his footsteps and became a singer. After performing with the legendary Caravans, she launched a solo career that saw her become the first black female gospel singer to win a Grammy. She subsequently won ten more Grammys and landed three Gold albums. As well as a great gospel voice, she is knowledgeable about the music and, in 2008, gave a speech on the evolution of gospel music to the US Treasury Department.\n<\/p>\n Aretha Franklin was just 14 when she recorded the 1956 album Songs Of Faith at the New Bethel Baptist Church, where her father was the reverend. Before crossing over into the world of mainstream entertainment, Franklin was a talented gospel singer (in the same way as Amy Grant, for example) and her voice was able to cope with the demands of the high and powerful notes needed to become one of the best gospel gospel singers on record. Franklin\u2019s 1972 Amazing Grace album was one of her best-selling albums, cementing gospel\u2019s appeal as a commercial force in a rock era. In 2012 she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall Of Fame.<\/p>\n Andra\u00e9 Crouch was just 13 when he composed \u201cThe Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.\u201d Known as The Father Of Contemporary Gospel, Crouch was easily one of the best gospel singers of his generation, and was also a successful vocal arranger, songwriter and choir leader. His choral work for Michael Jackson<\/strong><\/a> and Madonna<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 and his work on the soundtrack for the movie The Lion King \u2013 brought him global fame. Crouch stammered as a child but said that gospel singing helped him overcome this, and he went on to pioneer a gospel sound with a contemporary feel.\n<\/p>\n Larnelle Harris won five Grammy awards in the 1980s, his majestic tenor voice gracing memorable top 10 hits such as \u201cHow Excellent Is Thy Name,\u201d \u201cI Miss My Time With You,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ve Just Seen Jesus.\u201d Harris is a hero in his home state of Kentucky, where the governor proclaimed a \u2018Larnelle Harris Day\u2019 in 1998. Harris, who published his best-selling memoir in 2018, entitled Shaped Notes: How Ordinary People with Extraordinary Gifts Influenced My Life and Career, is also renowned for his duet work, having released hit singles with soprano Sandi Patty and Trinidadian gospel singer Wintley Phipps.\n<\/p>\n Donnie McClurkin organized his first group, The McClurkin Singers, with four of his sisters, when he was just a teenager. He went on to become one of the world\u2019s most successful gospel singers, selling more than 12 million albums around the globe. One of his most successful records was Live in London and More\u2026 which spent 105 weeks on Billboard\u2019s Hot Gospel Albums chart in 2001, including 37 weeks in the top spot. McClurkin\u2019s radio program The Donnie McClurkin Show draws more than five million listeners every week. In 2018, he survived a serious car accident after wrecking his vehicle during a drive in the early hours of the morning. A year later he bounced back to release the live album A Different Song.<\/p>\n Adams said that, when she was starting out, successful gospel singers \u2013 especially Tramaine Hawkins and Shirley Caesar \u2013 gave her great encouragement. Adams, who has also gained fame as an actress, used to host her own nationally syndicated gospel radio show. She has sold nearly eight million records worldwide and is known as The Queen Of Contemporary Gospel. Just don\u2019t confuse her \u201cYes, Jesus Loves Me\u201d with the Whitney Houston gospel hit \u201cJesus Loves Me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Bishop Marvin L. Sapp, a serving pastor in Texas, has been singing gospel music since the age of four. Sapp released his first album in 1996 and went on to have million-selling single hits with his two most celebrated songs, \u201cBest in Me\u201d and \u201cNever Would Have Made It,\u201d the latter of which was written as a tribute after the death of his father. Sapp, who has received 13 Grammy nominations, sings with passion, in a distinctive raspy voice. Sapp is also a successful author, having penned eight books about faith, including 2018\u2019s Suitable. In a 2020 interview, Sapp said that gospel music was providing \u201ca message of hope\u201d during an era of pandemic worry.\n<\/p>\n By merging hip-hop with gospel, Kirk Franklin has created some controversy on his way to becoming perhaps the best-selling gospel artist of all time, with more than 13 million album sales. He has won 12 Grammys and enjoyed success leading urban gospel choirs such as The Family, God\u2019s Property and One Nation Crew (1NC). Franklin is just one example of how spiritual music is evolving at the hands of the 21st Century\u2019s best gospel singers. Stars such as Kim Burrell and Richard Smallwood, and young singers such as BeBe and CeCe Winans, Chance The Rapper, Todd Dulaney, and Dorinda Clark-Cole, are all interpreting modern gospel in different and vibrant ways.<\/p>\n The five-time Grammy Award-winning singer and producer Israel Houghton, who is usually credited as Israel & New Breed, was born in Carlsbad, California. After the successful release of his first album, 1997\u2019s Whisper It Loud, he went on to release 17 acclaimed albums, including Alive in South Africa and The Power Of One. Houghton, who has a honeyed voice, is also a successful arranger and producer, having worked on hit albums by Michael Gungor. Houghton\u2019s 2021 albums Feels Like Home, volumes 1 and 2, came after a period in the spotlight following his admission of marital infidelities. As well as being noted for his impressive vocals, Houghton is also a talented guitarist and keyboard player.\n<\/p>\n In December 2020, Tasha Cobbs Leonard was named Billboard\u2019s Top Gospel Artist of the Decade. The singer-songwriter, born in Jesup, Georgia, said she realized she had a special gift when, aged 15, she stood in for a youth choir member who had not shown up and wowed the crowd with a version of \u201cNow Behold the Lamb.\u201d She went on to perform professionally and her debut single, \u201cBreak Every Chain,\u201d recorded for the Motown Gospel label, earned her a Grammy. Harris, who has an awesome, powerhouse voice, now serves as one of the team pastors at dReam Center in Atlanta. In 2018, she appeared as herself in the made-for-television movie Sinners Wanted. She is one of modern gospel\u2019s most charismatic performers.\n<\/p>\nReverend Gary Davis (1896-1972)<\/h2>\n
Thomas A Dorsey (1899-1993)<\/h2>\n
Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972)<\/h2>\n
Sallie Martin (1895-1988)<\/h2>\n
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973)<\/h2>\n
Hank Williams (1923-1953)<\/h2>\n
James Cleveland (1931-1991)<\/h2>\n
Sam Cooke (1931-1964)<\/h2>\n
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)<\/h2>\n
Shirley Caesar (born 1938)<\/h2>\n
Aretha Franklin (1942-2018)<\/h2>\n
Andra\u00e9 Crouch (1942-2015)<\/h2>\n
Larnelle Harris (born 1947)<\/h2>\n
Donnie McClurkin (born 1959)<\/h2>\n
Yolanda Adams (born 1961)<\/h2>\n
Marvin Sapp (born 1967)<\/h2>\n
Kirk Franklin (born 1970)<\/h2>\n
Israel Houghton (born 1971)<\/h2>\n
Tasha Cobbs Leonard (born 1981)<\/h2>\n