Best Gospel

James Cleveland's celebrated gospel recording featuring his iconic rendition of the title song with the Angelic Choir, one of the best-selling gospel albums of its era.

A gospel album sharing its title with the Edwin Hawkins Singers' landmark 1969 hymn arrangement, celebrating joyful praise within the African American gospel tradition.

Newport 1958 is a live album documenting Mahalia Jackson's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island in July 1958. Released by Columbia Records, it presents Jackson with pianist Mildred Falls and organist Lilton Mitchell before a festival audience more commonly associated with jazz. Th...

Mahalia Jackson's landmark early-1950s recording for Apollo Records, widely regarded as one of the most influential and best-selling gospel albums ever made.

Aretha Franklin was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist widely recognized as the 'Queen of Soul.' Beginning her career singing gospel at her father's church in Detroit, she signed with Atlantic Records in the late 1960s and recorded definitive hits like 'Respect' and 'Chain of Fools.' Her po...

A Mahalia Jackson gospel album named after one of her signature songs, documenting her mastery of traditional African American sacred music and the Baptist church tradition.

Sam Cooke was an American soul and gospel singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur who became a foundational figure in the development of soul music. He began his career as the lead singer of the gospel group the Soul Stirrers before crossing over into secular pop music in the late 1950s. Cooke wrote an...

Love Alive is a live gospel album by Walter Hawkins and the Love Center Choir, released in the 1970s. Recorded in a church setting, it combines choir arrangements, featured soloists, keyboards, rhythm section, and congregational energy associated with contemporary Black gospel. The album helped esta...

You Brought the Sunshine is a gospel album by the Clark Sisters, released in 1981, and it includes the title song written by group member Twinkie Clark. The recording combines the sisters' close vocal harmonies and church-rooted singing with contemporary keyboard, rhythm, and synthesizer textures. I...

Kirk Franklin and the Family is the 1993 debut album credited to Kirk Franklin and his vocal ensemble, the Family. Franklin served as songwriter, arranger, and musical director, shaping a choir-centered form of contemporary gospel that incorporated elements of R&B and hip-hop production. The album i...

The Rabbula Gospels is an illuminated Syriac manuscript containing the four canonical Gospels. A scribal colophon dates its completion to 586 at a monastery associated with the monk Rabbula, although the precise relationship between its text and surviving painted leaves has been debated. Its illustr...

Let Us Go into the House of the Lord is a gospel album associated with the Edwin Hawkins Singers and released during the group's early recording history. Its title comes from the opening words of Psalm 122, linking the recording to congregational worship. The album is rooted in African American gosp...

Al Green is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer recognized as a foundational figure in Southern soul music. During the 1970s, he released a highly influential catalog of records on Hi Records, crafted in collaboration with producer Willie Mitchell. These recordings utilized the tight...

The Gospels of Henry the Lion is a richly illuminated Romanesque Gospel book commissioned by Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, and his wife Matilda. It was produced at the Benedictine abbey of Helmarshausen in the late twelfth century for the altar of the Church of St. Blaise at Brunswick....

The Codex Aureus of Lorsch, also called the Lorsch Gospels, is an illuminated Carolingian Gospel book produced around the beginning of the ninth century, probably at the court of Charlemagne. Its text is written in gold ink, accompanied by decorated pages, canon tables, and evangelist portraits infl...

Believe for It is a gospel album by American singer CeCe Winans, released in 2021 and recorded in a live worship setting. Its songs combine contemporary Christian worship writing with Winans's established gospel vocal style, and the title track became one of the album's central recordings. The album...

The Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram is a richly illuminated Carolingian Gospel book produced around 870 for Emperor Charles the Bald. Written extensively in gold ink, it contains portraits of the Evangelists, decorated canon tables, and images connecting imperial authority with Christian rulership. Its...

Thirsty is a contemporary gospel album by American singer and pastor Marvin Sapp, released in 2007. Its songs center on spiritual longing, worship, reliance on God, and perseverance through grief and hardship. The album includes "Never Would Have Made It," a testimony-oriented song that became close...

The Gospels of Otto III is an Ottonian illuminated Gospel book produced around the year 1000, probably at the monastery of Reichenau, for Emperor Otto III. Its full-page images include portraits of the four evangelists and an imperial scene showing the enthroned ruler receiving homage from personifi...

The Vienna Coronation Gospels is a richly produced Carolingian Gospel book made around 800, probably for Charlemagne's court. Written in gold ink on purple-dyed parchment, it is distinguished by evangelist portraits modeled on classical and Late Antique painting rather than the more linear style of...

The Syriac Sinaiticus, also called the Sinaitic Palimpsest, is a manuscript containing an early Syriac translation of the four canonical Gospels. The Gospel text, generally dated to the late 4th or early 5th century, was erased and overwritten with a later religious text, but much of it remains reco...

God's Property from Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation is a 1997 gospel album credited to the Dallas-based choir God's Property, with Kirk Franklin serving as producer and a prominent creative presence. It combines massed choir singing with contemporary R&B, funk, and hip-hop elements, reflecting the crossov...

The Lorsch Gospels, also called the Codex Aureus of Lorsch, is a richly illuminated Gospel book made around the beginning of the ninth century during the Carolingian Renaissance. Written in gold ink and associated with the court school of Charlemagne, it contains portraits, decorated canon tables, a...

Mountain High... Valley Low is a 1999 studio album by American gospel singer Yolanda Adams. It combines contemporary gospel with elements of rhythm and blues and includes Open My Heart, one of the recordings closely associated with Adams's wider crossover audience. The album received the Grammy Awar...

The Ebbo Gospels is an illuminated Carolingian Gospel book made at the Abbey of Hautvillers for Ebbo, archbishop of Reims, during the first half of the 9th century. Its portraits of the four Evangelists use rapid, agitated lines, swirling drapery, and intensely expressive poses rather than the calme...

A Columbia Records album by Mahalia Jackson featuring her powerful contralto voice on a collection of hymns and spirituals from her prolific 1950s recording period.

Is My Living in Vain is a gospel album by the Clark Sisters, a vocal group from Detroit composed of daughters of choir director Mattie Moss Clark. Released in 1980, it includes the title song, which frames questions about Christian service through lead vocals, ensemble responses, and layered family...

The Nu Nation Project is a 1998 gospel album credited to Kirk Franklin. It combines choir-based gospel writing with elements of hip-hop, rhythm and blues, and spoken dramatic interludes, while addressing faith, social pressure, family, and personal struggle. Guest performers include Mary J. Blige, R...

Take Me Back is a gospel album by Andrae Crouch and the Disciples, released by Light Records in 1975. Its title song became an enduring part of contemporary gospel repertoire and has been recorded or performed by numerous Christian artists and choirs. The album reflects Crouch's combination of gospe...