Results: BeBe & CeCe Winans: Pioneers of Upwardly Mobile Soul Gospel Music?

BeBe (born Benjamin) and CeCe (short for Priscilla) Winans are a brother and sister in a family from which came a soul--or black, if one insists--gospel brother quartet, The Winans, the duos of parents Mom & Pop Winans and younger siblings Angie & Debbie Winans and in-law soloist Vickie Winans, mother to r & b singer Mario Winans. Before becoming a duo unto themselves, BeBe and CeCe were part of the choir on televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's PTL Club show. BeBe & CeCe had their first gospel radio hit in 1984 by remaking Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes' soundtrack contribution to the 1982 movie An Officer And A Gentleman, "Up Where We Belong." BeBe and CeCe's version is, as one might imagine, re-contextualized the song to be about their faith. Do you appreciate it when gospel singers re-contextualize non-gospel songs?

Breaking off from PTL and signing to labels whose suits saw their crossover potential, BeBe & CeCe's success on gospel, r & b, adult contemporary various contemporary Christian radio formats grew steadily. One of their catchiest and most musically sophisticated hits is 1988's "Heaven." In one interviews I had or was privy to with CeCe, she spoke of how one hope she and BeBe had for their music's broad reach is that it could be be played in clubs and impress on some partiers their need for Christ. Does that seems like a valid approach to you?

BeBe & CeCe's peaked commercially with 1991's Different Lifestyles. The album and two singles from it hit #1 r & b-wise. Perhaps curiously, secular pop radio didn't show the duo much love. One Different Lifestyles single that didn't reach heavy rotation on urban contemporary stations seems like a flex of BeBe & CeCe's popularity and their collaborator's spiritual/religious profession: "The Blood," with rapper M.C. Hammer. The latter was enjoying great popularity at the tine, too. Are you comfortable with popular music figures being open about their spiritual beliefs or convictions?

BeBe & CeCe's r&b crossover streak presaged the arguably bigger impact of choir director Kirk Franklin in a similar way. But the way these two were presented lyrically and visually seems like a way to pitch Christianity as a "you can have it all" proposition: an upwardly mobile material lifestyle and deep relationship with God. It's not that there've not been rich believers throughout Christianity's history, but neither are faith and financial fortune promised in the Bible to be synonymous. For me, the tension. or lack of it, in BeBe & CeCe's branding at this time doesn't take away from the quality of their music. How about you?

Not many weeks prior to my writing these questions, neo-soul singers Angela Blessett and Anthony David's stripped down remake of BeBe & CeCe's "Heaven" hit #1 on soul gospel radio; and, as do numerous big songs in that genre, it also became a sizeable adult r & b radio hit. I've no knowledge of David's and Blessett's spiritual commitment nor background, but I enjoy their take on the song. Which do you prefer?