Blessed Assurance
Mahalia Jackson's reading of Fanny Crosby's 1873 hymn turns a text about certainty into a performance that argues for it, note by note, rather than simply stating it.
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Mahalia Jackson
American gospel singer (1911-1972) widely called the "Queen of Gospel," and a prominent voice in the civil rights movement who performed at the 1963 March on Washington shortly before Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Her recording of "It Is Well with My Soul" appeared on 1968's A Mighty Fortress.
Reviews
It Is Well with My Soul
Mahalia Jackson's 1968 recording treats Horatio Spafford's grief-forged hymn with the same restraint Spafford's own words ask for -- and lets the power stay in reserve until the very end.
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Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Mahalia Jackson's 1956 recording of Thomas Dorsey's grief-born plea, made with just a piano and an organ, is the version that fixed the song in American memory -- Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite, and a 2012 Grammy Hall of Fame inductee.
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