Little Richard himself once singled out the Original Gospel Harmonettes of Birmingham, Alabama, as a defining force, placing the ensemble among the most accomplished and commercially successful female gospel ensembles of the 1950s. Fronted by Dorothy Love Coates, who wrote many of the group’s signature pieces, the Harmonettes carried their sacred repertoire across into a broader secular audience just as the civil rights movement gained momentum.
Organized in the mid-1940s, the singers first performed under the name Harmoneers and later adopted the Lee Harmoneers after touring with soprano Georgia Lee Stafford. The original lineup consisted of pianist Evelyn Starks Hardy, contralto Odessa Edwards, soprano Vera Kalb, alto Willie Mae Newberry Garth, and mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller Howard, who served as the first lead vocalist. Coates entered the ranks in 1947 yet departed shortly afterward to attend to her infant daughter, who had been born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
By 1950 the ensemble had taken the name Gospel Harmonettes; an appearance on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts brought a contract with RCA Victor and prompted the insertion of “Original” into the group’s title. Those initial RCA sides failed to register, so the singers moved to Specialty in 1951, the same year Coates returned. Their earliest Specialty singles, “I’m Sealed” and “Get Away Jordan,” swiftly elevated them to national prominence. Onstage, the ceaselessly kinetic Coates stood in vivid contrast to her poised colleagues; her revisions of traditional material, crafted to address current social concerns, resonated deeply with listeners. Several of her compositions—“That’s Enough,” later recorded by everyone from Ray Charles to Johnny Cash, along with “He’s Right on Time,” “You Must Be Born Again,” “I Won’t Let Go,” and “You’ve Been Good to Me”—have entered the gospel canon.
Hardy stepped away from live performances in 1953 while still participating in recordings; Detroit pianist Herbert “Pee Wee” Pickard, who would later accompany James Cleveland, took her place on the road. Despite continued popularity, Edwards and Kalb both withdrew by decade’s end, leaving the group inactive between 1959 and 1961. During that interval Coates devoted herself to civil-rights work, frequently alongside Martin Luther King.
She reassembled the Harmonettes in 1961, bringing in her sister Lillian McGriff and soprano Cleo Edwards to join remaining originals Howard and Garth. The reunion single “Come On in My House” proved successful, and although the group never regained its earlier stature, it kept performing until 1971. In subsequent years Coates often appeared with McGriff and her daughter Carletta Coates, made festival appearances, and played a role in the 1990 film The Long Walk Home.
