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This week, the Gospel world lost a legend: Richard Smallwood.
Richard Smallwood, 77, Choral Leader and Composer of Gospel Hits, Dies
By Clay Risen
Dec. 31, 2025, 1:44 p.m. ET
He sold millions of albums with the Richard Smallwood Singers, and his songs, many influenced by classical music, were recorded by stars like Whitney Houston.
Richard Smallwood, a classically trained composer and singer who grafted Baroque influences onto traditional gospel sounds to create a steady stream of hits, many of which were later recorded by a long list of stars, including Stevie Wonder, Destiny’s Child and Whitney Houston, died on Tuesday in Sandy Spring, Md. He was 77.
His publicist, Bill Carpenter, said the death, in a rehabilitation facility, was from complications of kidney failure.
Mr. Smallwood emerged in the late 1970s as the head of his group the Richard Smallwood Singers, part of a wave of “progressive” gospel musicians who brought the sounds of the Black church into the musical mainstream.
After several years performing in Washington, their hometown, and other cities, the group released their first album, “The Richard Smallwood Singers,” in 1982. It spent 87 weeks on the Billboard Gospel charts.
Mr. Smallwood’s music was grounded in gospel traditions, and his lyrics always dealt with religious themes. But he also wove in secular and classical influences, making his work more widely appreciated but also somewhat controversial among gospel music purists.
“People in the industry said, ‘Why do you put that classical stuff in there?’” he said in a 2016 interview for the Grammy Awards website. “And I just said, ‘That’s me, that’s what I write.’”
At the same time, he resisted pressure to take out explicit references to Jesus and God in order to make his music palatable to more listeners.
“Then the song is completely watered down, and by the time they’re finished doctoring it so it can be accepted on a pop station, it’s actually not a gospel song anymore, as far as the message is concerned,” he told The Washington Post in 1989.
Mr. Smallwood was multitalented: He wrote and arranged the music, played piano and sang baritone. He was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, and he received four Dove Awards, given by the Gospel Music Association.
