[THROWBACK REPEAT: DORSEY]

After formally studying music in Chicago, the then Paramount Records agent, Thomas Andrew Dorsey, put together a band for jazz singer Ma Rainey. After playing rent parties as Barrelhouse Tom, Texas Tommy && most famously Georgia Tom, Dorsey faced personal tragedy which led him to leave secular music behind. He then began composing and recording. what he was first to call, "gospel" music. Shortly after his first wife died during childbirth in 1932 along with his first child, Thomas wrote one of the most famous gospel songs of all time, Take My Hand, Precious Lord. Not only was the song a favorite of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but it was also recorded by many artists including Elvis Presley && Aretha Franklin. Fast forward to now, over 70 years later and, the now deceased, Dorsey is known as the Father of Gospel music. Check out these throwback clips [below]; Thomas Dorsey discusses the beginning of Gospel music && performs Precious Lord.