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HALL of FAME INDUCTEE
JAKE HESS
1995 Inductee
Jake Hess
(Dec. 24, 1927-Jan. 4, 2004)
1995 Inductee (John Herbert Orr Pioneer Award)
Proclaimed “Mr. Gospel Music” by the genre he loved and served for more six decades, four-time Grammy Award winner Jake Hess became one of the most imitated singers, innovators and leaders in the field of Southern gospel music.
Born on Christmas Eve at Mount Pisgah in Limestone County, Hess began singing with his siblings in the Hess Brothers Quartet when he was only five years old. He borrowed his vocal approach from his father, who told him that singing was just talking on key – and that the secret to becoming a great gospel vocalist was learning to sing the words clearly.
Hess joined the popular John Daniel Quartet at the age of sixteen, making his recording debut on “Just a Prayer Away.” He later joined the Sunny South Quartet as well as the group’s chief rivals in the gospel market of the day, the Melody Masters Quartet. He studied at Nashville’s celebrated Stamps-Baxter School of Music
Hess graduated to lead vocals when he joined the Statesmen Quartet in 1947, remaining with that legendary gospel group through 1963. After leaving the Statesmen, Hess formed his own “dream” group of gospel singers, the Imperials. With their unconventional use of electric guitars and drums, the group was not immediately embraced by the traditional gospel world. The Imperials eventually found a loyal following of listeners who loved their progressive gospel sound. In addition to producing forty successful records, the group topped the Christian charts with fourteen singles and went on to star in their own Nashville television show.
After his years with the Imperials, Hess sang with two of his children, Becky and Chris, in a group he called the Sound of Youth. In the late 1970s, he and his son Chris became featured singers on the television broadcasts of evangelist Dr. Gene Scott.
In 1978, Hess reunited with the surviving members of the Statesmen – Hovie Lister, Doy Ott and Rosie Rozell – to perform Songs Elvis Loved. The reunited quartet brought in other gospel legends, including James Blackwood and J.D. Sumner, and eventually formed an all-star Southern gospel group called the Masters V. The group toured from 1981 until 1988, when illnesses forced several of its members to retire. During his years with the Masters V, Hess was elected to the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Hall of Fame in 1982.
“When people ask me what made Jake the legend he is,” Lister once said, “I tell them it was because he asked God to give him the tools, and he used those tools to his ultimate advantage.”
In 1989, Eugene Baker and Hess’ nephew Steve Hess visited Nashville to record several segments of the BET Network series Bobby Jones Gospel. Hess accompanied the two to the studio, liked what he heard, and asked if they would be interested in forming a new version of his syndicated gospel television program, Jake Hess and Friends. The group ultimately consisted of Hess, his nephew Steve, his son Chris and Baker.
Hess released the album Terry & Jake, a musical collaboration with NFL Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw in 1996. A year later, he was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 1997. He entered the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame a second time in 1998, this time as a member of the Imperials. He was a founding father of the National Quartet Convention and a director of the Gospel Music Association.
Hess won Grammy Awards for “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere” (Best Sacred Performance) in 1968, “Ain’t That Beautiful Singing?” (Best Non-Classical Sacred Performance) in 1969, “Everything is Beautiful” (Best Sacred Performance-Musical) in 1970 and The Masters V (Best Traditional Gospel Performance) in 1981.
Hess suffered a heart attack on Dec. 14, 2004, just days after a performance in Atlanta, George. Three days after the turn of the New Year, he died in Opelika at the age of 76. Hess’ death occurred only a week after the death of his friend and fellow gospel singer, Vestal Goodman of the Happy Goodman Family.