Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (born March 20, 1915, Cotton Plant, Arkansas, U.S.—died October 9, 1973, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American guitar player and gospel and blues singer who was popular in the 1930s and ’40s. She sang traditional gospel songs with contemporary jazz tempos that she played on her electric guitar. With these performances, she introduced gospel into nightclubs and concert venues. Her work influenced early rock and rollers such as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley.

Tharpe was the daughter of farm laborer Willis Atkins and singer, mandolin player, and evangelist Katie Harper Atkins (later Katie Bell Nubin or “Mother Bell”). Because no official birth certificate was issued, there is uncertainty regarding her given name, and at various times she was called Rosa, Rosie Etta, and Rosabell before becoming known to the world as Sister Rosetta Tharpe (the last name of her first husband). She began singing and playing the guitar when she was four. At age six she and her mother sang gospel songs with an evangelist troupe that traveled throughout the South. In the 1920s the two settled in Chicago, where they continued to perform in churches and at other religious gatherings, often attracting large crowds in the gospel community. As she grew older, Rosetta was influenced by the jazz and blues she heard in Chicago, and she began to blend those elements into her gospel performances.

In 1934 she married a minister, Thomas J. Tharpe (some records spell his last name as Thorpe), to whose sermons she drew crowds with her singing and playing. The couple separated in 1938 (divorced 1943), and, although she remarried twice, she kept Tharpe as her stage name. Also in 1938 she began performing at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, where she focused on jazz songs and became a hit with the predominantly white audience. That year she signed a recording contract with Decca Records. Her first single for Decca was “Rock Me,” a version of the gospel song “Hide Me in Thy Bosom,” written by Thomas Andrew Dorsey (the “Father of Gospel Music”), which she enlivened with blues and jazz undertones. That recording was a big hit for Tharpe, as was her version of Dorsey’s “This Train.” Tharpe’s combination of spiritual songs mixed with blues-style guitar playing and a jazz band accompaniment became her trademark.

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In 1941 Tharpe officially joined Lucky Millinder’s swing band, with which she toured throughout the early 1940s. In 1944 she recorded “Strange Things Happening Every Day” with jazz and boogie-woogie pianist Sammy Price. It was the first gospel song to reach the top 10 in Billboard’s “race” (later rhythm and blues) records chart. Some music scholars have argued that Tharpe’s rendition of “Strange Things Happening Every Day” can be viewed as the first rock-and-roll song and have branded her the “Godmother of Rock and Roll.” In Lost Highway: Journeys & Arrivals of American Musicians (1979), historian Peter Guralnick notes that early rockabilly performer Sleepy LaBeef believed that Tharpe provided “the bedrock for rock ’n’ roll” and that Jerry Lee Lewis derived his piano style from Tharpe’s “blithely bluesy guitar work,” especially on “Strange Things Happening Every Day.” Among the other songs for which Tharpe is remembered are “Didn’t It Rain,” “Down by the Riverside,” and “Precious Lord.”

In the late 1940s Tharpe returned to her gospel roots. She toured with gospel singer Marie Knight, whose subdued vocal approach provided an effective contrast to Tharpe’s more emotive phrasing. The duo made several successful recordings together, including “Beams of Heaven” (1947) and “He Watches Me” (1948). Their decision to release a number of straightforward blues singles backfired, however, alienating many among their core audience of gospel music fans, and Tharpe’s popularity in the United States declined. She spent most of her later years touring in Europe. In 1964 she participated in the Blues and Gospel Caravan, which was filmed as a television special. Although suffering from ill health in the early 1970s, she continued to perform up to her death in 1973.

Tharpe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence in 2018. Her story is told in Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (2007) by Gayle F. Wald.