There are those who would deny Rev. Billy Graham any place at all in the history of commercial recordings, if only he because he has railed against rock & roll and possibly even encouraged mobs to burn a few Beatles albums after John Lennon made fun of Jesus. There would still be plenty of Graham's stuff in used record stores even if rock & roll had never happened, however, and some of it would have the good Reverend's name and face on it. To be fair, the entertainment medium that he took the greatest advantage of was television: His specialty was the sermon and his backers seemed to feel Graham came across best when his visual image was present, especially in an actual live tent meeting.

Performers from the white gospel scene did not, as a rule, embrace the kind of vibrant rhythm & blues structures that are part of the Black gospel environment. The natural route to go used country & western and bluegrass, but interestingly enough, Graham supposedly detested the C&W. For decades, Graham sermons were pressed on album and cassette for radio syndication and sales to his faithful following, but it wasn't until the new millennium that lavish sets collecting old and new performances began competing for space in the Christian music record racks. The dignified voice of Graham was featured in a recording of Haydn's "Seven Last Words of Christ". A somewhat less dignified side of the man appears on a declassified White House recording of him and former President Richard Nixon running down Jewish people and African-Americans. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi