AccuRadio Song Of The Day-The Winans

Artist:The Winans

Song:A Friend

Album:Gospel Greats

The Winans is a large gospel music family from Detroit. There are ten siblings and most of them record and perform gospel with varying degrees of success. The Winans were four of the Winans brothers. There was Ronald Winans (2nd oldest), Marvin and Carvin Winans (twins) and Michael Winans (5th oldest). The oldest brother David Winans II didn't sing but he was in the band. All four sang but Marvin was the best singer and frequently sang lead as he does on A Friend. The Winans were a big part of the modernization of gospel music after Andrae Crouch discovered them and got them a record deal with Light Records. I think it's fair to say that Crouch was the father of contemporary gospel music. At first The Winans worked with Crouch producing with Bill Maxwell. They topped the gospel charts and won a couple of Grammys. The thinking was that they could cross over to R&B and pop similar to Amy Grant. So they signed with Quincy Jones' Qwest label with Warner Bros. distribution. They had some commercial success. But they crossed over to R&B bigtime with the 1990 album The Return and the hit singles It's Time and A Friend. The key figure for both songs was producer Teddy Riley. Riley was already known as the producer of Guy and the creator of New Jack Swing. So they were looking to mix gospel with Riley's very popular sound. Michael J. Powell was the main album producer. He had worked with Anita Baker and Regina Belle. Riley was brought in to write and produce three songs. It's Time and A Friend were two of those songs. It's Time reached #5 on the R&B Singles chart and A Friend reached #11 on the R&B Singles chart. The album The Return was certified Gold. They didn't work with Riley on the albums All Out (1993) and Heart & Soul (1995). They did work with R.Kelly and George Duke. But the albums didn't do as well. And that was The Winans' final album. You can get their hits on this budget comp. Marvin Winans has concentrated on pastoring The Perfecting Church in Detroit. He last recorded in 2007. Ronald Winans owned an Atlanta restaurant until his 2005 death. Michael has recorded three albums with his wife Regina, most recently in 2008. Carvin Winans didn't seem to do much for years. He did appear on the Winans Family Reunion tours. But he released the 2019 album In the Softest Way mostly produced by Tommy Sims with family members making guest appearances. Here's the video for A Friend by The Winans. R&B singer Aaron Hall appears in the video.