During Black History Month, Fitz is saluting gospel royal families. This week he salutes the Hawkins family.

The Winans | Andraé and Sandra Crouch | The Hawkins

The Hawkins family Continuing this series looking at gospel's royal families, props has to go out to the Hawkins family. The Hawkins family are brothers Edwin & Walter + Tramaine, Walter's ex-wife.

It all started with older brother Edwin in the late 60s when he put out a song that was picked up by a local RnB station in California. That song was "Oh Happy Day", without doubt, the most popular gospel song that has been recorded in recent times. Both Walter and Tramaine featured on this song. In the 70s Walter Hawkins developed a choir called the Love Center choir and released this material through a series of albums called "Love Alive" over a 20 year period. Tramaine was very much a part of this, singing lead vocals on many of the songs. As well as being a former member of Andraé Crouch's group The Disciples, Tramaine went solo in the 80s. When both Edwin and Walter advanced the contemporary gospel sound through their choir, Tramaine took it to another level… the clubs. In 1983 Tramaine dropped a monster boogie track called "Fall Down". The clubs couldn't get enough of this tune, opening her to new mainstream audiences; however some in the traditional church didn't like the idea of one of their sacred artists performing in clubs. This loss of support from her gospel affected Tramaine deeply. She went back to a more traditional sound in later years, which to me was a bit of a shame because she was truly a pioneer and contemporary gospel might have developed a lot sooner if she'd have gained the support her movement towards the mainstream deserved.

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The Winans | Andraé and Sandra Crouch| The Hawkins

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