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Dorothy Love Coates
Dorothy Love Coates (née McGriff; January 30, 1928 – April 9, 2002) was an American gospel singer, composer and songwriter, and a civil rights activist.
Dorothy McGriff was born on January 30, 1928, in Birmingham, Alabama, as one of seven children. Her early years were hard (she later described them as "the same old thing"). Her father, Lillar McGriff, a minister, left the family when she was six, divorcing her mother thereafter. Dorothy began playing piano in the Baptist Church at age ten, then joined her sisters and brother in the McGriff Singers, who had a weekly live radio broadcast slot on WJLD radio station.
Dorothy quit high school after 10th grade to work "all the standard Negro jobs" available in Birmingham in the 1940s: scrubbing floors and working behind the counter in laundries and dry cleaners. She began singing with the Gospel Harmonettes, then known as the Gospel Harmoneers, in the early 1940s. She said of this time: "on weekdays I worked for the white man. On weekends I sang for the people."
On September 9, 1944, she married Willie Love of The Fairfield Four, one of the most popular quartets of the early years of gospel, but divorced him shortly thereafter. On September 24, 1959, she married Carl Coates, bassist and guitarist of the Sensational Nightingales. This marriage lasted until his death in 1999.
Coates rose to stardom in the 1950s as a member of The Original Gospel Harmonettes. With her "raggedy", "raspy" and "rough" voice and preacher's fire, Coates could outsing the most powerful, hard male gospel singers of the era. She helped the group become a powerhouse. Coates was also a notable composer, writing songs such as "You Can't Hurry God (He's Right On Time)", "99 and a Half Won't Do", and "That's Enough".
The Gospel Harmonettes — later renamed the Original Gospel Harmonettes — had achieved some fame in an early appearance when the National Baptist Convention came to Birmingham in 1940. Led by Evelyn Starks, a pianist whose style of playing was much imitated, its lead singer was Mildred Madison Miller, a mezzo-soprano who had a down-home sound that came to be a symbol of the group. The group included Odessa Edwards, Vera Conner Kolb, and Willie Mae Newberry Garth. The group had a regular half-hour radio show sponsored by A.G. Gaston, a local businessman and community leader.
The group first recorded for RCA in 1949, but without Love, after appearing on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television program. Those recordings, while not particularly memorable, are considered a rare jewel nowadays and include the songs "In the Upper Room" and "Move on Up a little Higher".
Their first sides for Specialty Records—"I'm Sealed" and "Get Away Jordan"—recorded with Love in 1951 were far more successful. The group recorded a series of hits in the years that followed before disbanding in 1958.
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Dorothy Love Coates
Dorothy Love Coates (née McGriff; January 30, 1928 – April 9, 2002) was an American gospel singer, composer and songwriter, and a civil rights activist.
Dorothy McGriff was born on January 30, 1928, in Birmingham, Alabama, as one of seven children. Her early years were hard (she later described them as "the same old thing"). Her father, Lillar McGriff, a minister, left the family when she was six, divorcing her mother thereafter. Dorothy began playing piano in the Baptist Church at age ten, then joined her sisters and brother in the McGriff Singers, who had a weekly live radio broadcast slot on WJLD radio station.
Dorothy quit high school after 10th grade to work "all the standard Negro jobs" available in Birmingham in the 1940s: scrubbing floors and working behind the counter in laundries and dry cleaners. She began singing with the Gospel Harmonettes, then known as the Gospel Harmoneers, in the early 1940s. She said of this time: "on weekdays I worked for the white man. On weekends I sang for the people."
On September 9, 1944, she married Willie Love of The Fairfield Four, one of the most popular quartets of the early years of gospel, but divorced him shortly thereafter. On September 24, 1959, she married Carl Coates, bassist and guitarist of the Sensational Nightingales. This marriage lasted until his death in 1999.
Coates rose to stardom in the 1950s as a member of The Original Gospel Harmonettes. With her "raggedy", "raspy" and "rough" voice and preacher's fire, Coates could outsing the most powerful, hard male gospel singers of the era. She helped the group become a powerhouse. Coates was also a notable composer, writing songs such as "You Can't Hurry God (He's Right On Time)", "99 and a Half Won't Do", and "That's Enough".
The Gospel Harmonettes — later renamed the Original Gospel Harmonettes — had achieved some fame in an early appearance when the National Baptist Convention came to Birmingham in 1940. Led by Evelyn Starks, a pianist whose style of playing was much imitated, its lead singer was Mildred Madison Miller, a mezzo-soprano who had a down-home sound that came to be a symbol of the group. The group included Odessa Edwards, Vera Conner Kolb, and Willie Mae Newberry Garth. The group had a regular half-hour radio show sponsored by A.G. Gaston, a local businessman and community leader.
The group first recorded for RCA in 1949, but without Love, after appearing on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television program. Those recordings, while not particularly memorable, are considered a rare jewel nowadays and include the songs "In the Upper Room" and "Move on Up a little Higher".
Their first sides for Specialty Records—"I'm Sealed" and "Get Away Jordan"—recorded with Love in 1951 were far more successful. The group recorded a series of hits in the years that followed before disbanding in 1958.