Famous Blue Jay Singers

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The Famous Blue Jay Singers was an Gospel quartet founded in 1926 by bass vocalist Clarence "Tooter" Parnell with Silas Steele. Other members included baritone Charles Beale, Jimmie Hollingsworth and Charles Bridges.

The Famous Blue Jay Singers invited the Kings of Harmony to join them on tour in the 1930s. In 1932 the group recorded 10 titles for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin. After Paramount folded in 1934 those recordings were republished under several other labels.

Bridges founded a new group, The Blue Jay Gospel Singers with Beale, Holliingsworth, and Steele in Chicago, Illinois in 1940. Steele left in 1947 to join the Spirit of Memphis Quartet. During the 1940s, Bridges befriended W. D. Andrews of Jackson, Mississippi's St Andrews Gospelaires, and the Blue Jay Singers often shared programs with them. At his urging, the Blue Jay Gospel Singers signed with Jackson's Trumpet Records in 1951. Meanwhile in 1950 the same group, billed as The Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama recorded several singles in New York for Decca Records

In 1954 the Blue-Jay Singers were billed with Willie Rose, Charles Beale, Jimmie Hollingsworth, Leandrew Wauford, and Charles Bridges. David Davney was another later member of the group.

Discography

  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "Clanka A Lanka (Sleep On Mother)" / "I'm Leaning On The Lord." Paramount Records L 1231
  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "I Am Standing On The Highway" / "There Is Plenty Good Room." Paramount Records
  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "In The Upper Room" / "I'm Bound For Canaan Land." Paramount Records
  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "Something Sweet About The Lord" / "He's Never Left Me Alone." Paramount Records
  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "Standing by the Bedside of a Neighbor" / "Oh My Lord Didn't It Rain." Paramount Records L 1244
  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "I Declare My Mother Ought to Live Right." Paramount Records L 1245
  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "Children Wade in the Water." Paramount Records L 1246
  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "Brother Jonah." Paramount Records L 1265
  • Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham (1932) "Sleep, Baby, Sleep." Paramount Records L 1266
  • The Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama (1950) "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb" / "I Feel Like My Time Ain't Long." Decca Records 48150
  • The Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama (1950) "Jesus Gave Me Water" / "Jesus Met the Women at the Well." Decca Records 48178
  • The Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama (1950) "Everybody Talking 'Bout Heaven Ain't Going There" / "Born In Bethlehem." Decca Records 48180
  • The Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama (1950) "While The Blood Runs Warm In Your Veins" / "Open My Mouth to the Lord." Decca Records 48228
  • The Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama (1950) "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" / "I Been 'Buked, I Been Scorned." Decca Records 48240
  • Blue Jay Gospel Singers (1952) "Shall I Meet You Over Yonder" / "Pilgrim Of Sorrow." Trumpet Records 178

References

  • Seroff, Doug (October 12, 1980) "Birmingham Quarter Scrapbook" for a Quartet Reunion in Jefferson County. Birmingham City Auditorium

External links

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