"...gospel historian Anthony Heilbut once labeled Prof Hines the first bona fide gospel superstar. In the liner notes to the various artists album 'The Great Gospel Men' Heilbut wrote of the singer and choir director, "When he performed, audiences could not contain themselves. Men and women ran into each other, people fell out of balconies. Ambulances were summoned; overwrought ecstatics collapsed. Male quartets began scuffling, trying to get similar responses. After such frenetic showmen as Hines or Brother Joe May, it became clear that gospel involved more than singing. If you didn't move the people out of their seats, into the aisles and - ideally - leave them flat on their backs, you had not scored."... more
