Crouch, Andraé

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Andraé Crouch

Singer, composer, pianist, producer

For the Record…

The Disciples Discovered

“Long before Amy Grant, Chris Christian, and B. J. Thomas were thinking about it, Andraé Crouch was doing it, “wrote Bob Darden in Billboard magazine.”Along with Larry Norman, Crouch is one of religious music’s original groundbreakers.“Indeed, as contemporary gospel’s perennial frontrunner, Crouch is most widely recognized as the first black gospel artist to appeal to both religious and secular audiences across multiracial lines. A prolific songwriter with some 300 titles to his credit—many of which have become industry standards—Crouch has been a driving force since he appeared on the music scene in the late 1960s. Darden elaborated by noting that the six-time Grammy winner was the first to receive significant airplay and sales in the mainstream marketplace, the first contemporary gospel act (as Andraé Crouch and the Disciples) to appear on national television, and the first to accumulate more than a million in sales. According to Walter Rico Burrell in Ebony magazine, Crouch has”cleverly combined elements of disco, progressive jazz, rhythm and blues, pop and even rock, while at the same time walking a fine line between his traditional grass roots gospel background and outright top-40 funk.... He has carved a niche for himself in the music world usually reserved for non-religious artists.”

Perhaps because of his enormous success, Crouch has had his share of detractors who, according to Ed Ochs in Billboard, “say that [he] is not a gospel artist anymore, but a pop artist singing gospel lyrics.” His use of electronic and acoustic instruments as well as his nontraditional lyrics have garnered a significant amount of criticism from those who think he has strayed too far from his roots. In particular, Crouch’s 1981 venture with Warner Bros.—resulting in the release of the heavily commercial album Don’t Give Up —elicited accusations that Crouch had “sold out.” Yet Crouch remains faithful to his interpretation of gospel music and his mission as a singer: “God gave me my talent to use for Him and I’ll use it for Him all my life,” he was quoted as saying in a publicity release from his agent. “My reward is my music. Love is the main message of the Bible, and that’s what I want to portray in my music.”

Crouch was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. As children, he and his twin sister, Sandra, and their older brother, Benjamin, formed a group called “The Crouch Trio.” Their father was a street preacher who eventually wound up with a church of his own in Val Verde, California. At the age of nine Crouch became a Christian, and at age eleven he“received the gift of music,” as he put it in his autobiography, Through It All, which enabled him to become the pianist at his father’s small church. Though he had no formal training, Crouch

For the Record…

Born Andraé Edward Crouch, July 1, 1942, in Los Angeles, CA; son of Benjamin Jerome (a preacher and owner of a dry-cleaning business) and Catherine Dorothea (maiden name, Hodnett; a homemaker and dry cleaner) Crouch. Education: Studied elementary education, Valley Junior College, San Fernando, CA; studied personal evangelism and scripture, LIFE Bible College, Los Angeles. Religion: Pentecostal Church of God in Christ.

Gospel singer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer. Debuted as gospel singer with the COGICS (Church of God in Christ Singers) while in high school; organized group the Disciples, 1965, and toured with them as lead singer and pianist until 1980; first album, Take the Message Everywhere, released by Light Records, 1971; recorded 12 additional albums for Light featuring contemporary gospel music, including No Time to Lose, produced by Crouch Music Corporation, 1984; recorded nontraditional gospel album for Warner Bros., Don’t Give Up, 1981. Formed Andraé Crouch Choir; performed and collaborated with other artists, 1981—. Author of autobiography, Through It All, Word Books, 1974.

Selected awards: Grammy awards with the Disciples, 1975, for Take Me Back, 1978, for Live in London, 1979, for I’LL Be Thinking of You, 1980, for “The Lord’s Prayer,” and 1981, for Don’t Give Up; Grammy Award for solo work, 1984, for No Time to Lose; Dove awards, 1976, for This Is Another Day, 1978, for Live in London, and 1984, for No Time to Lose; Daviticus Award, 1979, for I’ll Be Thinking of You; Gospel Music Excellence Award for best male vocalist, 1982, for More of the Best; ASCAP Special Songwriter Award; two NAACP Image awards; Golden Halo Award; Oscar nomination.

Addresses: Agent —Triad Artists, Inc., 10100 Santa Monica Blvd., 16th floor, Los Angeles, CA 90067. Management —The Hervey Company, 9034 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90069.

played at all services and later started a choir. By the time he was 14, Crouch had written his first song, “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.” When he was in junior high school, the family moved to Pacoima near the San Fernando Valley, where Crouch’s father became the pastor of the fledgling Christ Memorial Church.

While in high school Crouch formed his first group, the COGICS (Church of God in Christ Singers), featuring his twin sister, Sandra, and future Grammy winner Billy Preston. The group recorded an album and received several awards but eventually split up when Preston left to pursue a career in secular music. Following graduation Crouch attended Valley Junior College for two years and later took courses at the LIFE Bible College in Los Angeles. During this time he worked as a counselor and choir director for recovering drug addicts at the local Teen Challenge Center. In the mid-1960s Crouch organized his second group, the Disciples, with whom he would perform as lead singer and pianist for eleven years.

The Disciples Discovered

The Disciples, which included Crouch’s sister and Danniebelle Hall as vocalists, were discovered in 1968 by Ralph Carmichael, founder of gospel-oriented Light Records. Their first album, Take the Message Every-where, was released in 1971 to critical acclaim; Crouch debuted as a soloist on the Light label in 1972 with Just Andraé. The Disciples recorded more than half a dozen additional albums for Light before they disbanded in 1980. Their tours throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Far East helped establish a strong foothold in both the traditional gospel and secular soul markets. “Andraé Crouch insists he isn’t an entertainer,” wrote Burrell in Ebony. “If you ask him, he’ll tell you he’s ’a minister spreading God’s word through song.’… The simple truth of the matter is that Crouch has concocted a winning formula of highly energized rhythm and blues production values and techniques of song construction with explosively charged religious messages, and has emerged as one of the hottest, most commercially successful practitioners of gospel music in the country, if not the entire world.”

In 1975 Andraé Crouch and the Disciples became the first gospel group to perform for sold-out crowds at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, to which they returned in 1979 with similar fanfare. The group was also the first of its kind to perform at the Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Royal Albert Hall in London. Later, Crouch became the first gospel artist to perform in New York’s Radio City Music Hall. In 1980 Crouch and the Disciples broke ground again as the first gospel group to perform on NBC-TV’s Saturday Night Live; a second solo performance by Crouch followed four years later when then-presidential candidate Jesse Jackson hosted the show. During their decade-long roll Crouch and the Disciples were honored with multiple awards including four consecutive Grammies for each original work produced between 1978 and 1981, and several Dove awards, gospel music’s equivalent of the Grammy.

Broadened Scope

In 1981 Crouch’s first album without the Disciples, Don’t Give Up, was released by Warner Brothers amid much controversy. It was the first of a planned four-record deal negotiated in an attempt to broaden Crouch’s foothold in the secular market. The album included songs about abortion and prostitution and was the product of more sophisticated sound engineering. At the same time, Crouch signed with Light Records for another four albums so as not to lose his main audience. “Every album I’ve done has been controversial,” Crouch told Billboard’s Cary Darling. “I feel this album [Don’t Give Up] has the potential to reach a different kind of person than the Light Records audience….It’s not anything new for me. It’s just time for me to say it.”

Reviews were generally positive: “With a vocal style and arrangements reminiscent of [Motown legend] Stevie Wonder, Crouch lets his message flow naturally on upbeat numbers like I Can’t Keep It to Myself,” Don’t Give Up, ’ and ’Start All Over Again, ’” People magazine noted. “His convictions are unmistakable, but this is also a classy R&B work.” In 1984 Crouch released No Time to Lose, the first record distributed by Light on the Crouch Music Corporation label. Peter Gross of the Christian Herald deemed it a hit, noting that the album had a “refined, polished sound that dances off the grooves.”

Sometimes Crouch’s music translated better on vinyl than in person, however. “Gospel-goes-disco and ends up a wallflower best describes Andraé Crouch’s 60-minute turn of pop/secular music,” a Variety reviewer commented about a 1982 concert. “The band rocked, in the rock ’n’ roll sense rather than in the gospel tradition, much to the chagrin of the audience, who were as quiet as the proverbial church mouse throughout several tunes.” Several years later another concert was reviewed in Variety that deemed Crouch “straightforward and big-voiced—but there was an element of calculation about his performance.”

Explored Other Media

In 1986 Crouch became the first contemporary religious artist to receive an Oscar nomination for his work as gospel historian on the film adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple. Working under the direction of famed record producer Quincy Jones, the film’s executive producer and music supervisor, Crouch wrote 15 songs and directed and sang with all gospel choirs on the soundtrack. The “rousing Gospel sound” was praised by Chris Albertson in Stereo Review. This collaboration led to future work on Jones’s Back on the Block album, as well as to work with pop artists Michael Jackson (on his Bad and Dangerous albums) and Madonna (on Like a Prayer). Crouch ventured into the television market when he wrote and produced the theme song “Shine on Me” for NBC’s long-running sitcom Amen.

In addition to orchestrating his own successful career, Crouch helped launch the careers of other gospel artists. He and his sister Sandra co-produced her Grammy-winning debut album, We Sing Praises, as well as her follow-up album, We’re Waiting. He also produced Introducing the Winans, the debut album of the three-time Grammy-winning group. Other musicians Crouch has assisted include Walter and Tremaine Hawkins, Gloria Jones, and Tata Vega, who is most recognized for her vocals in the film The Color Purple. Mainstream chart-topping artists who have recorded Crouch’s songs include Elvis Presley, Barbara Mandrell, and Paul Simon.

Crouch has been sporadically working on material for a new album since 1984. In his autobiography, Crouch wrote of his music: “God just happens to use me. I’m not His first choice, not His second, maybe not even His hundredth; but so be it, He chose me. He gave me some songs and you just happen to hear those songs. I trust that through it all, something I write or sing will be a blessing to you.”