Skip to main content
Sojourners
faith in action for social justice
Sojourners
About
About SojournersEventsOur TeamWork With UsMediaWays to GiveInvite a SpeakerContact Us
SojoAction
OverviewTake ActionIssue AreasResourcesFaith-Rooted AdvocatesChurch Engagement
Magazine
Current IssueArchivesManage My SubscriptionWrite for Sojourners
Sections
LatestPoliticsColumnsLiving FaithArts & CultureGlobalPodcastsVideoPreaching The Word
Subscribe
MagazineRenewPreaching the WordCustomer ServiceNewsletters
Donate
Login / Register

The Gospel Roots of the ‘Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll’

By Daniel Burke
RNS photo by Charles Peterson/courtesy PBS American Masters.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe performs in Cafe Society in 1940. RNS photo by Charles Peterson/courtesy PBS American Masters.
Feb 20, 2013
Share

Before Elvis and Chuck Berry and Johnny Cash. Before Aretha and Whitney and Beyonce. Before the blues met gospel and conceived rock ‘n’ roll, there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

The first gospel superstar, Tharpe was a guitar hero in a flower-print dress whose bluesy chops and strutting style would be mimicked by countless acolytes, both white and black.

“I mean, she’s singing religious music, but she is singing rock ‘n’ roll,” said one such devotee, Jerry Lee Lewis, of “Great Balls of Fire” fame. “She’s hitting that guitar, playing that guitar, and she is singing. I said, ‘Whoooo. Sister Rosetta Tharpe!’”

Though no longer a household name, Tharpe gets the star treatment in a new documentary for the PBS series American Masters. Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll will be broadcast Friday on PBS in honor of Black History Month.

The documentary offers an overdue coda to an unsung influence on American music. Tharpe died in 1973, and until 2008 her Philadelphia grave lay unmarked. But without the “original soul sister,” rock might never have rolled, says Tharpe biographer Gayle Wald.

“When you see Elvis Presley singing early songs in his career, I think you can imagine that he is channeling Rosetta Tharpe,” Wald says in the PBS documentary. “It’s not an image we’re used to thinking about when we think about rock ‘n’ roll history. We don’t think about the black woman behind the young white man.”

Born in 1921 in Cotton Plant, Ark., by age 6 Tharpe was playing tabernacles and tent revivals with her mother, an itinerant evangelist in the Church of God in Christ. If a Pentecostal fire kindled the congregation, the talented tot often fanned the flames.

“When she came and they saw the freedom she expressed in her singing and dancing, it woke up the congregation,” says COGIC Pastor Robert Hargrove in Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

But after divorcing a pastor who treated her more like a meal ticket than a helpmate, Tharpe set out for New York City, where she joined a big band and jammed with the likes of Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. “Singer Swings Same Songs in Church and Night Club,” reads a Life magazine headline from 1939.

Recording hits like Thomas Dorsey’s “This Train,” Tharpe became the first gospel singer to cross the divide between spiritual and secular music. She also sang saucier songs, to the chagrin of her churchgoing fans.

“It was like a bomb dropped on gospel music when she flipped,” says Ira Tucker Jr., whose father, a member of the gospel group The Dixie Hummingbirds, toured with Tharpe. “They viewed it almost like a death. ‘Rosetta, she’s gone, she went over.’”

Tharpe returned to her gospel roots, however, and stayed so famous that 20,000 paying fans crowded into Washington’s Griffith Stadium to watch her third wedding, in 1951. Still in her gown, the bride played electric guitar from a stage in center field.

Though Tharpe’s singing sold records, it was her blues-fueled guitar riffs that inspired upcoming axemen like Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Jeff Beck.

“She was a powerful force of nature, a guitar-playing singer and evangelist,” Bob Dylan has said. “There were a lot of young English guys who picked up the guitar after getting a look at her.”

Daniel Burke is associate editor and a national correspondent at Religion News Service. He joined RNS in May 2006. Via RNS.

Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!

Tell Us What You Think!

We value your feedback on the articles we post. Please fill out the form below, and a member of our online publication team will receive your message. By submitting this form, you consent to your comment being featured in our Letters section. 

Please do not include any non-text characters, such as emojis or other non-standard content, into your submission.  It may cause errors in submitting the form.  Thanks!

Don't Miss a Story!

Sojourners is committed to faith and justice even in polarized times. Will you join us on the journey?
Confirm Your Email Address.
By entering your email we'll send you our newsletter each Thursday. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe performs in Cafe Society in 1940. RNS photo by Charles Peterson/courtesy PBS American Masters.
Search Sojourners

Subscribe

Magazine Newsletters Preaching The Word
Follow on Facebook Follow on Bluesky Follow on Instagram Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Sojourners
Donate Products Editorial Policies Privacy Policy

Media

Advertising Press

Opportunities

Careers Fellowship Program

Contact

Office
408 C St. NE
Washington DC, 20002
Phone 202-328-8842
Fax 202-328-8757
Email sojourners@sojo.net
Unless otherwise noted, all material © Sojourners 2025