Sensational Nightingales
Encyclopedia
The Sensational Nightingales is a Gospel music
quartet that reached its peak of popularity in the 1950s, when it featured Julius Cheeks as its lead singer. The Nightingales, with several changes of membership, continue to tour and record today.
. Julius "June" Cheeks joined the group in 1946. Cheeks left and returned to the group several times during its heyday, then left in 1960 to form his own group, "the Sensational Knights".
The group presently consists of Joseph 'JoJo' Wallace, Larry Moore, Horace "Sug" Thompson, and guitarist Darrell Luster.
Horace "Sug" Thompson is also the grandfather of R&B singer Patrice Jones (www.patricejonesmusic.com). Patrice credits her grandfather and the group on being one of her most influential mentors. She claims "Sug" taught her stage performance and learning to "build" her show.
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
quartet that reached its peak of popularity in the 1950s, when it featured Julius Cheeks as its lead singer. The Nightingales, with several changes of membership, continue to tour and record today.
Musical career
The group was founded in 1942 by Barney Parks, who had formerly sung with the Dixie HummingbirdsThe Dixie Hummingbirds
The Dixie Hummingbirds are an influential American gospel music group, spanning more than 80 years from the jubilee quartet style of the 1920s, through the "hard gospel" quartet style of Gospel's golden age in the 1940s and 1950s, to the eclectic pop-tinged songs of today.-History:Formed in 1928 in...
. Julius "June" Cheeks joined the group in 1946. Cheeks left and returned to the group several times during its heyday, then left in 1960 to form his own group, "the Sensational Knights".
The group presently consists of Joseph 'JoJo' Wallace, Larry Moore, Horace "Sug" Thompson, and guitarist Darrell Luster.
Horace "Sug" Thompson is also the grandfather of R&B singer Patrice Jones (www.patricejonesmusic.com). Patrice credits her grandfather and the group on being one of her most influential mentors. She claims "Sug" taught her stage performance and learning to "build" her show.
Further reading
- Boyer, Horace Clarence,How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel Elliott and Clark, 1995, ISBN 0-252-06877-7.
- Heilbut, TonyAnthony HeilbutAnthony Heilbut , is an American writer, and record producer of gospel music. He is noted for his biography of Thomas Mann, and has also won a Grammy Award.-Life:He has a doctorate in English from Harvard University....
, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times Limelight Editions, 1997, ISBN 0-87910-034-6.