Who is The Angelic Gospel Singers?
The Angelic Gospel Singers were an American gospel group from Philadelphia founded and led by Margaret Wells Allison. The group continued through Allison's death in 2008; the group was called "the longest consistently selling female gospel group in African American history" by the Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music. Allison and her sister, Josephine McDowell, formed the group in 1944 along with two friends, Ella Mae Norris and Lucille Shird, who had sung with Allison in the group Spiritual Echoes of Philadelphia. The group toured extensively on the East Coast and central United States in the 1940s and 1950s and signed a recording contract with Philadelphia-based Gotham Records in 1947. Their recording "Touch Me, Lord Jesus" was a hit on R&B stations in 1949 and sold over a million records. They recorded several songs with the Dixie Hummingbirds and toured with them as well. In 1955 Gotham Records shut down due to an impending tax evasion charge; the group signed with Chess Records a...