Thanksgiving Week – Day 1

There are SO many songs about giving thanks that it is hard to whittle them down to fourteen or twenty-one so I can post two or three each day this week, but I think I have some real gems here. Some of these songs the choir has sung in years past, some might be new to folks, all are great songs.

  1. O Give Thanks Charles Nicks and The St. James Baptist Church Choir 4:02

Embed

Copy and paste this code to your site to embed.

To kick things off I’m introducing my new favorite gospel song. The only problem is I don’t know who sings it. Can’t find the lyrics online, can’t Shazam it, it’s not on iTunes. What the heck..so what.

Clearly not your typical gospel song, the intro starts out with an intro of organ and HARP..a REAL harp I think (not electronic) with the choir falling in with some ooooh’s. That’s different.

This gives way to the verse and chorus that has a sort of Duke Ellington “Come Sunday” vibe married with a Broadway show tune…think “A Chorus Line”. All that is followed be a lyrically simple bridge of “Loo Loo Loo Loo Loo’s, but the bridge tune isn’t’ simple. It goes a couple of places you don’t think it will, and then the song returns and repeats the verse/chorus/bridge a couple of times. Finally the bridge gives way to a build that starts with the men and that runs into the final vamp.  The song ends with an outro similar to the intro, but ends with just a simple piano instead of a heavy organ.  BRILLIANT!

  1. Oh Give Thanks T.D. Jakes 5:04

Embed

Copy and paste this code to your site to embed.

Because I have so many songs I want to share with you, I’m adding one more to this post. This is also titled “Oh Give Thanks”, but this is a simple praise and worship song lead by Judith Christie McAllister, often referred to as “The First Lady of Praise and Worship.” The group of only 12 intrepid JVOI singers who traveled to Holland in the summer of 2004 sang this song, beautifully!