Wynona Carr (Cleveland, Ohio, August 23, 1923 – May 12, 1976) was a gospel,… Read Full Bio ↴Wynona Carr (Cleveland, Ohio, August 23, 1923 – May 12, 1976) was a gospel, rhythm & blues and rock & roll singer-songwriter, who recorded as Sister Wynona Carr when performing gospel material.
Wynona Merceris Carr was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where she started out as a gospel singer, forming her own five-piece group The Carr Singers around 1945 and touring the Cleveland/Detroit area. Being tipped by The Pilgrim Travelers, who shared a bill with Carr in the late 1940s, Art Rupe signed her to his Specialty label, giving Carr her new stage name “Sister” Wynona Carr (modelled after pioneering gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and cutting some twenty sides with her from 1949 to 1954, including a couple of duets with Specialty’s biggest gospel star at the time, Brother Joe May.
Not having too much success on the charts (except for “The Ball Game” (1952), which became one of Specialty’s best selling gospel records), Carr grew increasingly unhappy with the straight gospel direction of her career and pleaded with Rupe to let her record “pops, jumps, ballads, and semi-blues”. Rupe relented and from 1955 to 1959 Carr recorded two dozen rock & roll and R&B sides for Specialty, which, like her gospel songs, she mostly wrote herself. Despite scoring an R&B hit with “Should I Ever Love Again?” in 1957, overall the change from spiritual to secular music didn’t help Carr much in terms of sales or recognition. Unfortunately she also contracted tuberculosis around this time, which kept her from doing the necessary promotional work and touring for two years, effectively ending her tenure with Specialty in the summer of 1959.
In 1961 Carr signed with Frank Sinatra’s Reprise Records and released an unsuccessful pop album. She moved back to Cleveland, sinking into obscurity and suffering from declining health and depression; she died there in 1976.
Carr’s contralto vocals have a sensual, husky quality quite unusual (or even inappropriate) for gospel singers in her day, which made her eventual switch to R&B and rock & roll seem a logical choice in retrospect. The same goes for her idiosyncratic use of metaphors and themes in her gospel songs: Baseball (“The Ball Game”), boxing (“15 Rounds For Jesus”) and a popular TV show (“Dragnet For Jesus”). This penchant for novelty-like songs also shows in Carr’s later R&B repertoire, for instance “Ding Dong Daddy”, “Nursery Rhyme Rock” and “Boppity Bop (Boogity Boog)”.
Carr’s gospel recordings are very much influenced by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, incorporating blues and jazz stylings and already touching on R&B with her take on Roy Brown’s / Wynonie Harris’ “Good Rockin’ Tonight”, entitled “I Heard The News (Jesus Is Coming Again)”. Her early R&B material (for which she is probably best remembered now) was often uptempo, rock & roll-styled and similar in sound to fellow R&B / rock & roll artists on the Specialty roster like Little Richard, Lloyd Price and Larry Williams, with a strong New Orleans-style backbeat and a rich, warm production. Her final Specialty sessions, conducted by Sonny Bono in 1959, cut down on the rock & roll influences.
Both Carr’s gospel and R&B recordings went largely unappreciated during the time they were released, but found a new audience when Specialty Records released two CDs, covering Carr’s entire output on the label and adding previously unreleased material, such as a recording with Rev. C.L. Franklin (father of Aretha Franklin) and his New Bethel Baptist Church Choir in Detroit.
Sister Wynona Carr
Dragnet For Jesus (Specialty SPCD-7016-2, 1992)
Wynona Carr
Jump Jack Jump! (Specialty SPCD-7048-2, 1993)
Wynona Merceris Carr was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where she started out as a gospel singer, forming her own five-piece group The Carr Singers around 1945 and touring the Cleveland/Detroit area. Being tipped by The Pilgrim Travelers, who shared a bill with Carr in the late 1940s, Art Rupe signed her to his Specialty label, giving Carr her new stage name “Sister” Wynona Carr (modelled after pioneering gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and cutting some twenty sides with her from 1949 to 1954, including a couple of duets with Specialty’s biggest gospel star at the time, Brother Joe May.
Not having too much success on the charts (except for “The Ball Game” (1952), which became one of Specialty’s best selling gospel records), Carr grew increasingly unhappy with the straight gospel direction of her career and pleaded with Rupe to let her record “pops, jumps, ballads, and semi-blues”. Rupe relented and from 1955 to 1959 Carr recorded two dozen rock & roll and R&B sides for Specialty, which, like her gospel songs, she mostly wrote herself. Despite scoring an R&B hit with “Should I Ever Love Again?” in 1957, overall the change from spiritual to secular music didn’t help Carr much in terms of sales or recognition. Unfortunately she also contracted tuberculosis around this time, which kept her from doing the necessary promotional work and touring for two years, effectively ending her tenure with Specialty in the summer of 1959.
In 1961 Carr signed with Frank Sinatra’s Reprise Records and released an unsuccessful pop album. She moved back to Cleveland, sinking into obscurity and suffering from declining health and depression; she died there in 1976.
Carr’s contralto vocals have a sensual, husky quality quite unusual (or even inappropriate) for gospel singers in her day, which made her eventual switch to R&B and rock & roll seem a logical choice in retrospect. The same goes for her idiosyncratic use of metaphors and themes in her gospel songs: Baseball (“The Ball Game”), boxing (“15 Rounds For Jesus”) and a popular TV show (“Dragnet For Jesus”). This penchant for novelty-like songs also shows in Carr’s later R&B repertoire, for instance “Ding Dong Daddy”, “Nursery Rhyme Rock” and “Boppity Bop (Boogity Boog)”.
Carr’s gospel recordings are very much influenced by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, incorporating blues and jazz stylings and already touching on R&B with her take on Roy Brown’s / Wynonie Harris’ “Good Rockin’ Tonight”, entitled “I Heard The News (Jesus Is Coming Again)”. Her early R&B material (for which she is probably best remembered now) was often uptempo, rock & roll-styled and similar in sound to fellow R&B / rock & roll artists on the Specialty roster like Little Richard, Lloyd Price and Larry Williams, with a strong New Orleans-style backbeat and a rich, warm production. Her final Specialty sessions, conducted by Sonny Bono in 1959, cut down on the rock & roll influences.
Both Carr’s gospel and R&B recordings went largely unappreciated during the time they were released, but found a new audience when Specialty Records released two CDs, covering Carr’s entire output on the label and adding previously unreleased material, such as a recording with Rev. C.L. Franklin (father of Aretha Franklin) and his New Bethel Baptist Church Choir in Detroit.
Sister Wynona Carr
Dragnet For Jesus (Specialty SPCD-7016-2, 1992)
Wynona Carr
Jump Jack Jump! (Specialty SPCD-7048-2, 1993)
Old Fashioned Love
Wynona Carr Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'Old Fashioned Love' by these artists:
Alberta Hunter I've got that old fashioned love in my heart There it…
Alex Hill I'm in love with a plain old-fashion girl (love with…
Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson I've got that old fashioned love in my heart And there…
Art Tatum Got that old fashioned love in my heart And there it…
B.J. Thomas We live in the modern age Where love is fast like…
Bechet-Mezzrow Feetwarmers I'm in love with a plain old-fashion girl (love with…
Benny Carter Got that old fashioned love in my heart And there it…
Cecil Mack James P. Johnson I take my love seriously 'Cause I don't believe that love…
Cindy Church I’ve got that old fashioned love in my heart There it…
Clyde McCoy & His Orchestra I am not such a clever one About the latest fads I…
Don Ewell Got that old fashioned love in my heart And there it…
Eddy Howard and His Orchestra I am not such a clever one About the latest fads I…
Fiddle Fever Got that old fashioned love in my heart And there it…
Good Lovelies Old-fashioned love Letters you will write me Bedtime stories…
Guy Van Duser & Billy Novick Got that old fashioned love in my heart And there it…
Howard Alden;Byron Stripling;Ken Peplowski;Joel Helleny;Dick Hyman;Kelly Fr I am not such a clever one About the latest fads I…
Howard Alden;Byron Stripling;Ken Peplowski;Joel Helleny;Dick Hyman;Kelly Friesen;Ted Sommer I am not such a clever one About the latest fads I…
hunter alberta Most folks now days say old fashioned ways Should give place…
Jacques Gauthe I'm in love with a plain old-fashion girl (love with…
James P Johnson & His Orchestra I am not such a clever one About the latest fads I…
James P. Johnson I take my love seriously 'Cause I don't believe that love…
Jimmy Johnson & His Orchestra I am not such a clever one About the latest fads I…
Jimmy Rushing I've got that old-fashioned love in my heart And there, it…
Joe Haymes and His Orchestra I am not such a clever one About the latest fads I…
Lena Horne I've got that old-fashioned love in my heart And there, it…
Lonnie Johnson I've got that ol' fashioned love in my heart. And there…
Merle Haggard OLD FASHIONED LOVE (Cecil Mack â€" James P. Johnson) …
Mezz Mezzrow I'm in love with a plain old-fashion girl (love with…
Michael Allen Harrison & Julianne R. Johnson I take my love seriously 'Cause I don't believe that love…
Michael Johnson I take my love seriously 'Cause I don't believe that love…
Rachele Lynae Changing out the pictures on the wall It’s funny you were No…
RAY CHARLES Gonna give you some Old fashioned passion Gonna give you som…
Roy Acuff Got that old fashioned love in my heart And there it…
Shaimus Old fashioned love, you stole my heart again, again Old fas…
Sidney Bechet I'm in love with a plain old-fashion girl (love with…
Tatiana Manaois I don't want the world I don't care about the fame…
The Kendalls It's an old time kind of love way down in…
The Mills Brothers I've got that old-fashioned love in my heart And there, it…
Van Duser Guy & Billy Novick Got that old fashioned love in my heart And there it…
Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard I've got that old fashioned love in my heart There it…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Wynona Carr:
'Til The Well Runs Dry You said you love me And then you left You broke every…
Ding Dong Daddy I wanna ding dong daddy I wanna ding dong daddy I wanna…
Finders Keepers Finders, keepers, losers, weepers I won′t weep and I won't m…
Hurt Me Ooohhhh hurt me, hurt me if you choose Come on and…
Now That I'm Free I had a man faithful and true I put him down…
Please Mr Jailer Please Mr. Jailer Won′t you let my man go free Please Mr.…
Please Mr. Jailer Please Mr. Jailer Won′t you let my man go free Please Mr.…
Should I Ever Love Again? machi eoje mannan geoscheoreom As if we saw each other yeste…
The Ball Game Life is a ball game Bein' played each day Life is a…
Til the Well Runs Dry You said you love me And then you left You broke every…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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