My reaction to the "Greatest Gospel Family of All Time" Poll results and why I'm right and everyone else is wrong

All right already. The Gaithers won. BIG TIME! The Gaithers got six votes as compared to two for the Hawkins and one for the Winans. In dead last are the Rambos, the Speers, the LeFevres and the Chapmans, all with zero.

The solitary vote for the Winans was mine. The Winans family has 12 people in it and 11 of them are recording artists, not counting the grandkids. Six of them are GRAMMY winners and BeBe and CeCe Winans are soon to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And I know that doesn't mean everything, but they are undeniably talented. Anyone out there still like to jam "It's Time To Make a Change"?

How could this not be the gospel singinist family in history?

Of course the family that started the whole conversation in the first place was the Hawkins. It is said that the Winans were just a family who wanted to be like the Hawkins and succeeded. Walter, Edwin, Tramaine and Lynette. They have a total of five GRAMMYs and sold about seven million copies of "Oh Happy Day" way back in the 60's.

Apparently this picture belongs to Getty Images.

Regardless of our efforts, the fans of soul were not nearly enough to top the landslide winners. Bill and Gloria Gaither have been making Southern Gospel* music since the mid-60's. Songs like "He Touched Me", "Because He Lives" and "There's Something About That Name" have sung by congregations all over the world and recorded and re-recorded and re-re-recorded.

The faces of greatness

They've sold at least 40 million albums, which is not hard to do when you've released over 150 of 'em. They've won five GRAMMYs and sold millions of tickets to their Homecoming concert tours. And blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. OK. You win.


What's strange to me is that people would pass by a family like the Winans with 12 huge musical talents and vote for the Gaiths, who only have three (and Benjy). It's just not fair. Along with that, the Rambos, the LeFevres, the Chapmans and the Speers didn't get a single vote. Let me just apologize right now to Dottie and Reba and Eva Mae and Mylon and Ben and Steven and Mary Beth for everyone's poor judgment. These must be the same people who picked Chipotle over Five Guys.

Anyways, in case you are still reading this here's my footnote about Southern Gospel:
*Southern Gospel is a subgenre of music with Christian themes that incorporates style elements of country, bluegrass and barbershop. It is the opposite of cool. As the anonymous commenter said on the last post, "There's southern gospel, then there's black gospel. One is cool, the other is southern gospel." There are advantages to being a Southern Gospel music fan, though. The most obvious one is that you don't care what people think or say. You are completely comfortable with your Gaither-ness and have laid down your foolish pride at the altar. The next best benefit is having poofy hair.