Guess The Genre #2964 (Gathered by Mike Diehl)

ArethaFranklin-SongsOfFaith NinaSimone-GospelAccordingTo
The Queen of Soul began her legendary career in her father's church, New Bethel Baptist. Her dad, Minister C.L. Franklin, encouraged her to sing in the choir, and she began performing solos at an early age. More info

New Bethel Baptist Church is a Baptist church located at 8430 C. L. Franklin Boulevard (also called Linwood Street) in Detroit, Michigan. It is affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA. Founded in 1932, the church was led by C. L. Franklin from 1946 until 1979 and was at the center of the civil rights movement in Detroit. More info

All the different covers! 		Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. Her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher and housekeeper, and her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as an entertainer, barber, and dry-cleaner. The family's home was filled with music and Simone's mother encouraged her musical pursuits but did not approve of nonreligious music like blues and jazz. Simone took up the piano before her feet could reach the pedals, and by the age of six, she was playing during church services. More info

Both John and Mary "Kate" Waymon were committed Christians. At some point in their life, each had become an ordained minister in the Methodist-Episcopal Church in North Carolina. Rev. Mary Kate Waymon was a "great preacher, pastor and evangelist, known throughout the Carolinas," according to Rev. Charles Roman, pastor of the Good Shepherd Methodist-Episcopal Church in Tryon, North Carolina, who presided over John Waymon's funeral there. "Brother John" (Waymon)'s specialty was public prayer: "Could that man pray!" said Rev. Roman. More info
SamCooke-GospelRoots OtisRedding-Amen
Legendary soul singer Sam Cooke, born in Mississippi and raised in Chicago, was the son of a reverend. Cooke sang in the choir of his father"s church and began his career in a group called the Singing Children with his siblings at age 6. More info

The Reverend Cook led a congregation at the Christ Temple Church in Chicago Heights More info 		Otis Redding's father was a Baptist minister in Georgia. Otis got his musical start singing in the choir of his Macon church, More info

Father of singer Otis Redding, Jr., married to Fannie Roseman Redding around 1937. In 1946, the family moved to the Tindal Heights Housing Project in Macon, Georgia. Otis Sr. worked at Robins Air Force Base, one of the local places of employment for blacks, and preached on the weekends. His son Otis, Jr. began singing in choir of the Vineville Baptist Church. Rev Otis Ray Redding Sr.
StapleSingers-SwingLow WhitneyHouston-Gospel
Their first public singing appearance was at the Mount Zion Church, Chicago, where Roebuck's brother, the Rev. Chester Staples, was pastor. More info At age 5, Whitney joined the New Hope Baptist Church in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey. Her first solo performance in the venue was at age 12, singing the hymn "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah." More info
MarvinGaye-LordsPrayer WyclefJean-PreachersSon
Marvin Gaye was born to a minister father and began singing in church at 4 years old. More info

On one of his first missions as preacher at a church in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Gay impressed the congregation, and his church later made him Bishop. According to his son Marvin, his father was known as a healer. Gay eventually settled as a minister of a local House of God church. When his son was around four or five, his father brought him to church congregations and revivals to sing for audiences. 		My roots are planted in Caribbean Gospel Music, so tonight I bring in 2020 where it all started for me, my daddy's church. FYI, that's him sitting behind me when I am singing. 10pm at Good Shepherd Church of Nazarene - 1108 south Orange Avenue Newark NJ, I will sing for my father More info
PointerSisters-SweetSoulful JonasBrothers
As children in West Oakland, the Pointer sisters and brothers were encouraged to listen to and sing gospel music by their parents Reverend Elton and Sarah Pointer, both natives of Arkansas. However, they were told rock and roll and the blues were "the devil's music", and it was only when they were away from their watchful parents that they could sing these styles. They regularly sang at a local Church of God in Christ congregation in West Oakland, but as the sisters grew older their love of other styles of music began to grow. More info When Joe, Kevin, and Nick were growing up, Kevin Jonas, Sr. was the senior pastor at Wyckoff Assembly of God. More info
Wilson Pickett

Pickett was born March 18, 1941, in Prattville, Alabama, and sang in Baptist church choirs.

Pickett's forceful, passionate style of singing was developed in the church and on the streets of Detroit, under the influence of recording stars such as Little Richard, whom he referred to as "the architect of rock and roll."

In 1955, Pickett joined the Violinaires, a gospel group. The Violinaires played with another gospel group on concert tour in America. After singing for four years in the popular gospel-harmony group, Pickett, lured by the success of gospel singers who had moved to the lucrative secular music market, joined the Falcons in 1959. More info

While picking cotton in the fields, Pickett became fascinated by the "moan," a vocal tradition in African American culture that stretches back to early spirituals and became central to gospel, rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music. He sang at his local Baptist church, but even in childhood, Pickett-who became known as "The Wicked Pickett" for much of his career-displayed a wild streak that would later bring him great notoriety. He dared to quarrel with the white field boss who supervised his family's farm, and both his preacher grandfather and his mother (whom Pickett described as "the baddest woman in my book") repeatedly subjected Pickett to beatings. More info

Violinaires


Diana Ross

The legendary Diana Ross, born in Detroit, also had humble beginnings in the Lord's house. According to her 1993 autobiography, she first sang in her grandfather's church, Bessemer Baptist in Alabama, where 7-year-old Diana, along with her siblings, were raised by her grandparents while her mother healed from tuberculosis. More info

When Ross was seven, her mother contracted tuberculosis, causing her to become seriously ill. Ross's parents sent their children to live with Ernestine's parents, the Reverend (pastor of Bessemer Baptist Church) and Mrs. William Moton in Bessemer, Alabama. More info


Katy Perry

While not strictly identifying as religious, she has stated, "I pray all the time - for self-control, for humility." Wanting to be like her sister Angela, Perry began singing by practicing with her sister's cassette tapes. She performed the tracks in front of her parents, who let her take vocal lessons like Angela was doing at the time. She began training at age nine and was incorporated into her parents' ministry, singing in church from ages nine to 17. More info


Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1919. He had three brothers: Eddie (1910-1970), Ike (1927-2001), and Freddy (1931-2020), and a half-sister, Joyce Coles. Each of the Coles brothers pursued careers in music. When Cole was four years old, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward, became a Baptist minister.


Kings of Leon

Caleb, Nathan, and Jared's father (and Matthew's uncle) was a Pentecostal preacher who traveled the South, spreading the word in tent revivals across several states. More info

Answer: They First Sang In Church - Next is Guess the Genre #2965

Roll over a photo of a church to see its location.

Or, I don't want to guess - Show Me A List