Customer Reviews

The Best of the Sensational nightingales

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This disc contains some of the scariest cheesegrater-throated screaming you will hear this side of Napalm Death, courtesy of the great Rev. Julius Cheeks. This is set alongside some contrastingly laidback gospel grooves that chug along, leaving room for lycanthropic interjections like "one for the father, one for the son, one more time for the holy ghost". There are some catchy toons too, like "The Storm is Passing" and "Standing in the Judgement", that you won't be able to get out of your head, but the main attraction is Cheeks' microphone-shattering howling on tracks like "Burying Ground" and "A Closer Walk with Thee". Not too pricey either - just shove it in your trolley now and get some hard religion into ya.

Almost all of the tracks on this album feature the awesome and terrifying vocals of the Reverend Julius Cheeks, the greatest gospel shouter of them all. He's the man who taught Sam Cooke to shout and was the principal inspiration for a young Wilson Pickett.

The Sensational Nightingales were briefly one of the greatest quartets of gospel's golden age, and this album proves it. Cheeks was as great an arranger as any other in quartet music (check out "Standing At The Judgement") and peppered his best work with soulful and downhome ad-libbed interjections, anticipating James Brown's funk preaching by more than ten years.

A great tribute to one of the unsung heroes of American music.

This golden gospel classic is worth its weight in gold. Back when the sensational nightingales were known as the four knights, they had the hottest lead singer in the country...bar none. This was the hard driving Rev. Julius Cheeks. He never got his just dues, o but listen to these classic that someone ,thank God saved. Listen and be enriched. Throw your head back and listen and then listen some more. This CD is in my top 10. It is a must have, no excuse..get this CD and be blessed.

I bought this album on vinyl back in the fifties and I still love this music. The group lives up to its name, and the lead singer is truly extraordinary. On this cd reissue, however, the original, up-tempo "To the End", has been replaced by a completely different slow tune. Admirers of this wonderful music owe it to themselves to hunt this title down online and marvel at the powerful rhythmn, the complex hand-clapping, and the inspired shouting. You won't hear anything else like it. I would buy the cd again just to get this track.

Rev. Julius Cheeks gets excited about his love for Jesus and proclaims to the mountaintops on this great (and super inexpensive) group of songs. His background singers are very sedate, but he rocks, creating a tension of opposites that is very moving. He is one of the pioneers of the hard-gospel style, along with Rev. Ruben Wilingham (Swanee Quintet), Silas Steele (Spirit of Memphis), Leroy Barnes (Detoiters) and if you know & love these groups, you are gonna love this CD.

Rev. Julius Cheeks makes every one of these gospel songs and hymns a new creation with his wailing and soulful singing. The background singers punctuate and accentuate the funky rhythms. If you like old time hard gospel quartets, you'll LOVE this. It's one of my favorite CDs.

Listening to the Sensational Nightingales was like taking a trip back to a time when this great group was on perpetual tour and we were buying their wax records and spinning the grooves off them! This was a time when we felt that the vocalists were products of a spiritual commitment, and their songs, though entertaining were reverent! If you want to experience a spiritual uplifting, this is a record that can take you there. I am glad to have found this CD at Amazon.

This is one of my favorites. I love this type of music. My mother use to play these records when I was young and I'm glad they are now on CD. I have almost collected most of the music she played. I still have a few more to get. I need the Staple singer singing John Brown, the Swan Silvertones with I remember and Oh Mary don't you weep and Sam Cooke sing Oh Mary don't you weep and a few more.

The nightingales sing with such authority and spirit, they songs are from the bible which you can relate to. You can feel the spirits in the songs and in thier voices. Very few gospel groups can give you such a inspirational feeling in song. I love the down home gospel better than todays music, it too modern and some of it has lost the true meaning.