YouTube Gold: Bedside Of A Neighbor

The Dixie HummingbirdsMany people came to know the gospel group Dixie Hummingbirds when they backed up Paul Simon’s “Loves Me Like A Rock” in 1973.

It was a good thing for the group of course. Simon introduced them to a wider audience and presumably they made some money off the recording as well, including from their own version.

But this was a dynamic group with a vast and accomplished repertoire of its own. While the members have obviously changed, the group, having started in 1928, is nearly 100 years old. It’s less a group than an institution at this point. Ira B. Tucker, who became the lead singer in 1938, stayed with group for an astounding 70 years, until his death in 2008.

They…