Walter Hawkins and his groups were frequent musical collaborators, and recorded with Van Morrison, Diahann Carroll, Sylvester, and Jeffrey Osborne, among many others. In all, Walter Hawkins produced and/or collaborated on 116 hit songs which were listed on the Billboard Gospel Music charts. 1 on the Billboard Gospel Album charts, where it stayed for 33 weeks.
Edwin hawkins albums series#
He and his Love Center Choir had considerable success with their Love Alive series of recordings, which sold well over a million copies from the 1970s through the 1990s. Walter Hawkins left the Edwin Hawkins Singers in the early 1970s to establish the Love Center Church in Oakland, California. This led to him accompanying his brother Edwin to establish the Edwin Hawkins Singers. When a song from that album, "Oh Happy Day", became a crossover hit, Buddah Records purchased the master and released it as "the Edwin Hawkins Singers". The choir recorded an album in 1968 as a local fundraiser. Bishop Hawkins also had a granddaughter, Jahve Neru Deana Hawkins, and a grandson, Jamie Daniel Hawkins.īishop Hawkins started his career in one of his brother's chorales, the Northern California State Youth Choir of the Church of God in Christ. They had two children, a son Walter Lee "Jamie" Hawkins, Jr., who is married to Myiia "Sunny" Davis-Hawkins, and a daughter Trystan Lynette Hawkins. Bishop Hawkins was married to Tramaine Hawkins from 1971 until their divorce in 1994. 1952), Daniel Lee Hawkins (Marcia) and Lynette Gail Hawkins-Stephens (Reginald). 2020), Feddie Joyce Hawkins, Jervis Ersell Hawkins (d. Hawkins was the brother of Edwin Hawkins (d. The 7th of 8 children born to the late Dan Lee and Mamie Vivian Hawkins, Walter Lee Hawkins was born on May 18, 1949, in Oakland, California. He was consecrated to the bishopric in 2000. An influential figure in urban contemporary gospel music, his career spanned more than four decades.
Edwin hawkins albums movie#
In the 1992 movie Leap of Faith, Hawkins is the choir master for the gospel songs.Walter Lee Hawkins (– July 11, 2010) was an American gospel singer, songwriter, composer, and pastor. Their second Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts was the 1970 Melanie single 'Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),' on which the label listed the performers as Melanie with The Edwin Hawkins Singers. Hawkins' arrangement of the song was eventually covered by The Four Seasons on their 1970 album Half & Half. It then became an international success, selling more than 7 million copies worldwide, and Hawkins was awarded his first Grammy for it. It crossed over to the pop charts making U.S. Featuring the lead vocal of Dorothy Combs Morrison, the subsequently released single (on the newly created Pavilion label distributed by Buddah) rocketed to sales of over a million copies within two months. When radio stations of the San Francisco Bay area started playing 'Oh Happy Day', it became very popular. (The soloists in the album were Elaine Kelly, Margarette Branch, Dorothy Combs Morrison, Tramaine Davis (Hawkins), Reuben Franklin, Donald Cashmere, Betty Watson, and Ruth Lyons.) 'Oh Happy Day' was just one of the eight songs on the album. This ensemble recorded its first album Let Us Go into the House of the Lord at the Ephesian Church of God in Christ in Berkeley, California privately (on the Century 70 custom label), hoping to sell 500 copies. Together with Betty Watson, he was the co-founder of the Northern California State Youth Choir of the Church of God in Christ, which included almost fifty members.
The Edwin Hawkins Singers made a second foray into the charts exactly one year later, backing folk singer Melanie on 'Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)'.Īt the age of seven Hawkins was already the keyboardist to accompany the family's gospel choir. He (as leader of the Edwin Hawkins Singers) is probably best known for his arrangement of 'Oh Happy Day' (1968–69), which was included on the Songs of the Century list.
He is one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. Americas singers > Edwin Hawkins( Edwin Reuben Hawkins ) > Singer IntroĮdwin Reuben Hawkins (born August 19, 1943, Oakland, California) is an American gospel musician, pianist, choir master, composer, and arranger.
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