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Dorothy Love Coates

Born : January 30, 1928 in Birmingham (USA)

Died : April 9, 2002 due to heart failure, in Birmingham (USA)

Coates was an American Gospel Singer who rose to stardom in the 1950s as a member of The Original Gospel Harmonettes. With her "raggedy" voice and preacher's fire she could outsing the most powerful hard gospel male singers of the era. Her gruff delivery and blazing theatrics made her one of the giants of the Gospel genre. She was also a notable composer, writing songs such as "You Can't Hurry God (He's Right On Time)", "99 and a Half Won't Do" and "That's Enough". Married to Willie Love (member of the [a=Fairfield Four]). She's singing with Original Gospel Harmonettes in 1951 until 1971. In 1960, she married Carl Coates (singer of the Sensational Nightingales). During the years of her retirement, from 1959 to 1961, (then) Dorothy Love became active in the civil rights movement, working with Martin Luther King Jr. As she was fond of telling church audiences, "The Lord has blessed our going out and our coming in. He's blessed our sitting in, too." While many other gospel artists were slow to address political issues head-on, Coates spoke out against the war in Vietnam, racism and other evils.

Coates was just as plainspoken when criticizing the exploitative treatment that she and other gospel singers received from gospel promoters, both white and black. She reformed the Harmonettes in 1961 and when that group disbanded later in the decade, continued touring with a group known as the Dorothy Love Coates Singers. She recorded, both individually and with her group, on Savoy Records, Vee-Jay Records and Columbia Records in the 1960s and made occasional appearances, but no recordings, after 1980. She appeared in the films "The Long Walk Home”, “Ghost”, and "Beloved" at the end of her career. While Coates vigorously rejected all offers to cross over to pop or soul music, a number of artists, including Little Richard, who often imitated her sanctified singing style. Other secular songwriters drew on her songs for inspiration, sometimes simply taking the title including Mavis Staples and Wilson Pickett.

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