Oh, Happy Day

Oh, Happy Day

Mr. Hawkins, part of a musical family, was studying interior design at Laney College in Oakland, Calif., in the late 1960s and working with a group he and his friend Betty Watson had put together, the Northern California State Youth Choir. The group recorded an album, “Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord,” which they intended to sell locally to raise money for a trip to Southern California for a gospel competition.

“It was recorded on a friend’s little two-track machine,” Mr. Hawkins told The Modesto Bee in 2008. “It was never intended for commercial purposes at all.”

The record rendered songs of praise with a rhythm-and-blues sensibility. A disc jockey at the Bay Area FM station KSAN, Abe Kesh, began playing one particular track, “Oh Happy Day.”

The catchy song spread, and, with the group renamed the Edwin Hawkins Singers, it was released as a single and eventually reached No. 4 on the Billboard pop chart and No. 2 on the R&B chart. More than seven million copies were sold, Mr. Carpenter said, and “Oh Happy Day” won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance.

“I wasn’t planning to go into the music business,” Mr. Hawkins once said, adding, “The record’s success decided my fate.”

Mr. Hawkins passed away, earlier this year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/obituaries/edwin-hawkins-dead-gospel-singer.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrjLRvkYTqc

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