“I want to remind you that you are in church and this is a religious service.” So sayeth the Rev. James Cleveland of the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles as he introduces Aretha ...

Aretha Franklin sings in a scene from "Amazing Grace." Courtesy of Al's Records and Tapes Aretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace” documentary was long held up from release due to technical and then legal ...

You know those songs that you just kind of know? You sing along without even thinking about the lyrics. Well, we're going to explore the history of one of these songs today. It's heard around the ...

Amazing Grace. By James Walvin. University of California Press; 216 pages; $19.95 and £16.99 A short but fascinating book by James Walvin, a professor at the University of York and an expert on ...

Landon Jones was the Managing Editor of People magazine from 1989 to 1997. When President Obama turned to the soaring lyrics of Amazing Grace to comfort the grieving families in Charleston, South ...

Amazing Grace might be the ultimate song of redemption, steeped in two centuries of black history, but its writer had also been a slave ship captain. Amazing Grace was the perfect choice. It is easy ...

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. “Amazing Grace” is touching and beautiful, an apparent hymn of emancipation woven into the fabric of African-American ...

“Amazing grace,” intoned the eulogist, and repeated it. He began to sing: “how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me,” and the congregation, a bit startled, joined in, as the pianist scrambled ...