MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Andrae Crouch wrote contemporary gospel music that bridged the black and white Christian communities, and beyond. Andrae Crouch's choir backed Madonna's song "Like A Prayer." He arranged and conducted on "The Lion King" soundtrack. Crouch died yesterday in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack last weekend. He was 72. NPR's Frannie Kelley has an appreciation of the man known as the father of modern gospel.
FRANNIE KELLEY, BYLINE: Andrae Crouch was the son of a preacher man. When he was nine his dad opened a Pentecostal church in a garage in California's San Fernando Valley.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ANDRAE CROUCH: My father needed a piano player in his church. Then he prayed for me one Sunday, and I started playing the piano about three weeks later.
KELLEY: That's Andrae Crouch in a 1980s TV special. By then he'd already played a major role in creating a more contemporary, conservative gospel sound. The demonstrative shouts of the sanctified church were toned down to appeal to the broadest possible audience. Crouch was on "The Jeffersons" and he played Billy Graham crusades, the White House, even the Grand Ole Opry.
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TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD: Now, the man I'm about to introduce is a rare talent. He not only sings, but he's a fantastic writer.
KELLEY: That's Tennessee Ernie Ford introducing Crouch at the Opry.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOON AND VERY SOON")
CROUCH: (Singing) Soon and very soon we are going to see the king.
KELLEY: Songs Crouch wrote in the 1960s are still in use. Brian Courtney Wilson is a gospel singer and the music director of Covenant Glen United Methodist Church in Missouri City, Texas.
BRIAN COURTNEY WILSON: Just this Sunday we're singing "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power." So I was leaning on him to make sure we had something to sing on Sunday.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BLOOD WILL NEVER LOSE ITS POWER")
CROUCH: (Singing) Oh, the blood that gives me strength from day to day, it will never lose its power.
WILSON: There's a certain clarity to what he's doing. Like, he's being very clear about the truths he's trying to communicate.
KELLEY: That clarity has at times been dismissed by critics and academics as bland.
ANTHONY HEILBUT: Andrae himself was, I think, by the kindest yardstick, a gentle vocalist, not a housewrecker.
KELLEY: Nevertheless, Anthony Heilbut, who wrote a definitive history of gospel music called "The Gospel Sound," says Crouch knew how to move a congregation.
HEILBUT: His compositions have had extreme importance and are very, very popular and the responses to the songs are very emotional.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THROUGH IT ALL")
CROUCH: (Singing) Through it all, through it all I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Let me tell you that through it all...
HEILBUT: He really was a visionary then in taking the theology combined with these ambitious melodies.
KELLEY: For his part, Andrae Crouch would insist those melodies weren't all his, as he told NPR in 2006.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
CROUCH: I don't think that it will ever drain out of me. I think that as long as I want to do music I think that God will continually pour into me.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) Don't forget his benefit.
KELLEY: And Brian Courtney Wilson says he's seen the music of Andrae Crouch at work.
WILSON: I don't have a degree in gospel music. I don't have a degree in gospel music history. It's just something that I've lived and I've seen impact people's lives.
KELLEY: What Andrae Crouch made retained its potency, even when he grafted it onto pop music. You may have felt it too. That was his choir behind Michael Jackson at the 1988 Grammy Awards. Frannie Kelley, NPR news.
(SOUNDBITE OF MICHAEL JACKSON SONG, "MAN IN THE MIRROR")
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing) I'm starting with the man in the mirror. Oh, yeah. I'm asking him to change his ways and no message could've been any clearer. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change. You got to get it right while you got the time...