It’s Sunday, time for a little gentle gospel music from those 1970’s doyens of of the genre – The Staple Singers. They were an American singing group. Roebuck ‘Pops’ Staples, the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha, Pervis, and Mavis. Yvonne replaced her brother when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and again in 1970. While the family name is Staples, the group used “Staple” commercially.
Their first public singing appearance was at the Mount Zion Church, Chicago, where Roebuck’s brother, the Rev. Chester Staples, was pastor. They signed their first professional contract in 1952. During their early career, they recorded in an acoustic gospel-folk style with various labels: Their singles “Uncloudy Day” and “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?” were best sellers. Whilst their is no footage of either song beingsung by the wholec group, Mavis Stapes is still performing and leads a version of the latter song with Joan Osborne and Bonnie Raith and descibes it as the first song her father ever taught them.
The Staples’ move to Epic had a run of albums, including the live in-church Freedom Highway album produced by Billy Sherill; the title track of which was a civil rights movement protest song penned by Pops Staples. It was on Epic that the Staple Singers developed a style more accessible to mainstream audiences, with “Why (Am I Treated So Bad)” and “For What’s It’s Worth” by Stephen Stills in 1967. In 1968, the Staple Singers signed to Stax Records and released two albums with Steve Cropper—Soul Folk in Action and We’ll Get Over, Pervis returning for them. After Cropper left Stax, Al Bell produced their recordings, conducting the rhythm sessions at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.
The Staple Singers’ first Stax hit was “Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom-Boom)” in early 1971. Their late 1971 recording of “Respect Yourself”, peaked at number two on the Billboard R&B chart and number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Both hits sold over one million copies and were each awarded a gold disc. The song’s theme of self-empowerment had universal appeal, released in the period immediately following the intense civil rights movement of the 1960s. In 1972, “I’ll Take You There” topped both charts. In 1973, “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)” reached number 9 on the Hot 100 and number one on the R&B chart.
n 1999, The Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Pops Staples died of complications from a concussion suffered in December 2000. In 2005, the group was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Mavis has continued to carry on the family tradition and continues to add her vocal talents to both the projects of other artists and her own solo ventures. She appeared at Glostonbury in 2015 and 2019, and her 2016 album Living on a High Note includes a simple acoustic version of a Martin Luther King sermon in the track “MLK Song”.
