Gospel Spotlight: Trio puts new take on gospel classic

T o God Be the Glory, a single by Richie Stephens, Randy Rich and Ding Dong, is being hailed for its timeliness.

Known as a traditional gospel favourite, the song has been reworked by Stephens and thrust into the dancehall space, where it has lodged in the hearts and feet of the massive who are kept dancing as selectors pull it up on repeat.

“It connected with the people immediately,” Stephens told Gospel Spotlight. “The first time To God Be The Glory was played was at Boasy Tuesdays and the dancers responded like they had heard it before. And then there was a money pull up, just like that. Everybody is saying that this song drop at the right time.”

For Stephens, this is more than just a song that he recorded because a Japanese gospel label requested him to do a gospel song.

He says he is very conscious of the fact that at this time in Earth’s history, we need God as a guide like never before.

“We came close to World War III, then there is this disease (coronavirus) that is more than an epidemic, and to top it off, we had the big earthquake this week. It never really hit us, but it was big enough to shake us up and send a signal to us to straighten up,” he said soberly.

After recording To God Be The Glory, while in Japan, he said that he started thinking about the message and decided to ask Stone Love selector Randy Rich, who is a very spiritual person, to do part on the song.

Randy Rich, although not a recording artiste, agreed. At that time, Stephens’ main concern was that “the crime and violence in the country really killing the people dem vibes”, and he wanted something uplifting to fight back.

Not long after the single was dropped and quickly picked up traction, a surprising thing happened.

“Ding Dong saw me at a session and said it was the time for the remix. And I really have to big up Ding Dong for this. It’s not the norm for an artiste who have things a gwaan at a high level to approach somebody about a remix. And, of course, we do the remix and send it out and the response again has been overwhelming,” Stephens said.

Even the dancers have made their contribution by creating a special dance routine for the single.