Gospel Music Anthology: The Staple Singers

The history of the world famous Staple Singers goes back a couple of decades before their biggest successes when patriarch Pop Staples, a Delta bluesman who studied under the great Charley Patton, escaped the oppression of the Jim Crow south and moved to Chicago in 1935. By 1948 Pops assembled his family into a gospel singing group with himself on guitar. The group, consisting of Pops' son Purvis and daughters Cleotha and Mavis, soon became national sensations. Purvis left in 1969 and was replaced by daughter Yvonne. Presented here is a collection of some of their early gospel recordings from 1954 to 1964, when they were well on their way to becoming America's most popular gospel group. All selections newly remastered.