I Do, Don't You

Album: Through Many Dangers (1890)

Songfacts®:

  • This hymn - apparently with no question mark in its title - was responsible, indirectly, for the birth of a genre. Written by the white American composer, Baptist and choirmaster Edwin O. Excell, it was performed at the National Baptists Convention in 1921 (the year of Excell's death) by the Reverend A.W. Nix. Present at this meeting was jobbing musician Thomas A. Dorsey, and after hearing this he spent the rest of his life writing religious music, and founded the gospel genre as it is understood today.
  • "I Do, Don't You" has been recorded fairly widely, including by Mahalia Jackson, who also recorded what is recognised universally as Dorsey's greatest song, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord." >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

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