Jesus Hits like the Atom Bomb is an album recorded by John Alexander’s Sterling Jubilee singers in 1998. The Sterling Jubilee Singers were founded in 1929 after African-Americans were leaving the steel mills and ore mines of Jefferson County, Alabama. This group is one of the most successful a cappella groups that came out of Jefferson County that best represent the traditional style founded there. They are considered one of the great a cappella groups that helped make what gospel music is today. The beginnings of black gospel a cappella groups began with the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Popularity of this kind of group gained momentum when the choir went out on tour and performed in Oberlin, Ohio at …show more content…
Lewis (bass voice) and Archie Garner. The performance is considered traditional according to New World Records but many of the songs feature a call-and-response style of singing that identifies more with the gospel style then just hymn style singing. Peace in the Valley is a very famous composition by Thomas Dorsey that the Sterling Jubilee singers worked on when they heard an arrangement for choir when Archie Garner joined the group. God Shall Wipe All Tears Away is originally a piece played by the Kings of Harmony of Birmingham and since then has become a repertoire piece for the Sterling Jubilee Singers. Little Wooden Church on the Hill is a song composed by Thomas Dorsey that the group arranged from a 1939 recording by another group called the Dixie Hummingbirds, on this song John Alexander is the lead voice. The Lord’s Prayer Sam Johnson is the spoken lead and John Alexander is the lead singer, this arrangement is based on a 1956 recording by the Swan Silvertone Singers. Will He Welcome Me There? Is a tune that Sam Johnson brought to the group that he had previously sang in a different group, which they had gotten from a hymnal. Archie Garner sings lead while Sam Johnson is the “swing” lead, in this recording it’s easy to see the jazz influence when Sam Johnson sings. Job was first recorded in 1937 by the Golden Gate Quartet but the