Andraé Crouch, who has died aged 72, was the foremost gospel singer of his generation as well as a successful vocal arranger, songwriter, choir leader and pastor. Although he was best known to the wider public for his choral work on Michael Jackson’s hit Man in the Mirror (1988), Madonna’s Like a Prayer (1989) and the soundtrack to the Disney film The Lion King (1994), his passion was for music that expressed his faith and for the less glamorous work of preaching and teaching at his home church in Pacoima, California.
Crouch was inspired as much by contemporary pop, rock and R&B as he was by traditional gospel, and his performing career took off on the white church circuit. Consequently, to some gospel music purists he sounded less authentic than grittier contemporaries such as James Cleveland, who played almost exclusively within their own community.
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