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Musical inspiration from religion

Religion and secular music don’t often cross paths, but many a pop singer and song has a religious inspiration … George Harrison raised some eyebrows with his 1967 composition “Within You Without You”, with lyrics that reflected the teachings of Hinduism.

From the Buddhist message of The Lion King’s “Circle of Life” to the uplifting spiritual “Oh Happy Day, we have tolerated and embraced religious meaning in our pop tunes.

It’s no secret that Aretha Franklin started out singing in church, her father was a respected preacher in Detroit, and it was there that she honed her iconic voice. Many of her pop songs were influenced by the gospel sounds she grew up with, including “I Say a Little Prayer”. Here’s a live clip of Aretha Franklin performing the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STKkWj2WpWM

Another icon with a long history in the church is Little Richard, who was one of the architects of rock and roll music, paving the way for people like James Brown and Elvis Presley. In 1957, after a string of hits that included “Tutti Frutti” and “Good Golly Miss Molly”, he abruptly left the music business and trained to be an ordained minister. Although he was a successful gospel artist, the demand for him to perform his secular hits was huge, and over the decades he has gone back and forth between pop and gospel music. Here is a clip of Little Richard performing one of his biggest hits “Keep A-Knockin’”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZkYWdt4yqg

Harry Belafonte has always included songs from different cultures in his performances, and almost always sang “Hava Nagila”. He once said, “Most American Jews learned that song from me”. Here is a fun clip of Harry Belafonte and Danny Kaye singing “Hava Nagila”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B971FNuLgQo

 

 

 

A professional bassist for over 20 years, John has been at KNKX since 1999 where he hosts All Blues on Saturday and Sunday nights. He was previously a senior producer of BirdNote for 19 years, and the primary recording engineer for hundreds of KNKX Studio Sessions.
John Maynard started working in radio in the seventies as a DJ at Seattle’s KJR AM which at the time was the dominant AM station in the Seattle market. After a brief stint as a restaurateur and night club owner, Maynard returned to radio with Robin Erickson, creating the hugely popular “Robin and Maynard Show.” In the more than 20 years under that marquee, Maynard flew with the Blue Angels, piloted the Goodyear Blimp, sang with Donny Osmond and hung out in a Universal Studios bar with Kojak (Telly Savalas).