Roebuck "Pop" Staples was born December 28, 1914 in Winnona, Mississippi. He learned to play the blues at a young age playing guitar and singing in gospel groups.
He took his love of gospel to his children, Mavis, Yvonne, Cleotha and son Pervis and formed the Staple Singers and began a recording career with United Records, moving to Vee Jay and several other labels before joining the legendary Stax label. By this time they had added protest songs to their repertoire of inspirational and contemporary music to acknowledge the civil rights and anti-war sentiments at the time.
Their debut Stax LP was "Be Altitude:Respect Yourself" with "Respect Yourself" issued as the first single became a #12 Pop hit. The second single was "I'll Take You There" and it hit #1 on the Hot100 and the R&B chart where it spent four weeks at the top.
Pop related "We always tried to do material that was inspirational and uplifting in addition to whatever else it was and I guess the DJ's picked up on that. We were accepted for that and even after we started doing material that was not strictly gospel, we've always tried to make music that is affirmative, happy music that makes a positive point. Our aim is to get across a message while we're entertaining people. We want people to enjoy the music, but we also want them to hear the lyrics and hear our message.....love."
That is exactly what is missing in music today...so here is a classic to remind you of the power of music in an extended version like you never heard before.