January 1988 – A Look Back
As we ring in the new year of 2025, let’s ‘turn back the clock’ 37 years and take a look back at what was happening on the southern gospel music scene in January of 1988. As our guide, we’ll be using that month’s issue of the industry’s leading magazine, Singing News.
The group that appears on the cover of Singing News Magazine for January of 1988 is the Fox Brothers. As the name implies, the group consisted of three brothers: Randy, Roy, and Lynn Fox. Their names have fallen a bit ‘under the radar’ in recent years, and this is rather unfortunate, as the Fox Brothers were one of the pioneering groups of what would come to be known as ‘Christian County Music’ – an industry that would grow tremendously in the 1990s.
The Fox Brothers were based in Franklin, Tennessee, and here in early 1988 they were enjoying the success of their top-ten song “It’s Time For Love”. With their country stylings, the group was finding success not only on southern gospel radio, but a number of mainstream country music stations were beginning to play their songs. Roy Fox of the group commented, “if country stations want to play us, that’s fine. But we’re gospel music!”
January 1988 was a rather interesting time to see one of the premier southern gospel quartets, the Cathedrals, in concert. At the time, they were one member short. Their longtime bass singer, George Younce, was still recovering from a heart attack back in late November of 1987. Still, George insisted that the group fulfill all their dates, and so the Cathedrals performed without George. Their pianist, Gerald Wolfe, would fill in some of the bass vocals here and there, but they did not hire a ‘fill-in’ bass singer. George was the group’s emcee, and therefore lead singer Glen Payne had to step into the ‘master of ceremonies’ role.
I was personally gifted an audio recording of a Cathedrals concert from this time period, with Glen emceeing. Keep in mind that George typically did all the talking on-stage, but on this recording, Glen emcees the concert perfectly, as if he had been doing it for many years. I spoke to Mark Trammell, their baritone at the time, about this. He mentioned to me that it was rather interesting about Glen; he really never had to emcee, but he could, and he was perfect at it. George Younce would make a triumphant return to the Cathedrals just about two months after his heart attack and bypass surgery, on January 28, 1988.
1988 was to be another big year for Gold City. In January, the quartet achieved their fourth number-one song on the Singing News Top 80 Chart with a song that would quickly become their ‘signature song’ – “Midnight Cry”. Featuring lead singer Ivan Parker, it was written by two brothers, Greg and Chuck Day. Ivan Parker noted in an interview that the two were, “jewels in the songwriting business. They were covered up for a long time, but we suddenly found them, and they are writing a lot for us now.”
“Midnight Cry” would remain at the number-one spot for six months in a row. What’s more, it would then be voted ‘Song of the Year’ at the 1988 Singing News Fan Awards. (Gold City also took home the award in 1987 for the song “When I Get Carried Away”). “Midnight Cry”, with its timeless message, has become a well-known song across many different Christian music genres; Clay Crosse would introduce the song to Contemporary Christian audiences in the mid-1990s, and take it to number two on the contemporary charts.
A few more notes for January of 1988:
- It was announced that the McKameys are set to record a live album in Hendersonville, Tennessee, on March 24. That recording would bring about what has since become their ‘signature’ song, “God On The Mountain”.
- After a few years of experimenting with ‘progressive Christian country’ music, the Dixie Melody Boys were announcing a return to ‘traditional’ southern gospel music. A new recording, Back Home, would be released in just a few months.
