Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Although you have probably never heard of Dorothy Morrison, there's a very strong chance that you will have heard her sing. She was the barely credited lead vocalist on the most popular gospel song of all time "Oh Happy Day" by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. She'd actually left the choir that recorded the song before it was a hit and has largely been airbrushed out of gospel music history which is a travesty. Dorothy is still singing today and recently popped up on a Huey Lewis & The News album. As a soloist, she has recorded very little apart from this 1970 album which is long overdue for CD re-release. This most excellent of singers was guided by producers away from solid gospel material to record songs that could be interpreted as being "spiritual". This was not unusual for the times and the choice of material is creative. The title cut is a cover of Van Morrison with whom she later toured and there's a brilliant cover of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In the Sky". "Top Of The Mountain" is soulful gospel with Morrison proving she could moan and wail as well as the best of them. Songs Like "Get High On Jesus" and "Black California" are very much of their day and the infectious rhythms and vocals are simply a perfect example of what happened at the intersection of soul and gospel in the early '70s before the contemporary gospel of Andrae Crouch and Jessy Dixon really took off.

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