In Search of the Clark Sisters

April 11 2020 – The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel (2020) Lifetime

I didn’t expect a Lifetime movie to show up in this blog diary, but I have been looking forward to this movie for weeks. We pass a billboard for the Clark Sisters movie on San Vicente when I am out driving with Henry practicing for that eventual day when the DMV resumes giving out driving tests. Henry makes fun of me because I get so excited about the movie every time we pass the billboard. I have loved the Clark Sisters – a great Gospel music group from Detroit – for a long time, ever since 1983 when I first heard their crossover hit “You Brought the Sunshine” in a dance club in Ann Arbor. Pam Kisch and I once went on a search for the Clark Sisters in Detroit which brought us to an African-American church in Detroit because we were told incorrectly by a clerk in a Gospel record shop that they were going to sing there. Pam and I were ashamed to be in jeans and t-shirts when everyone else in the church was in fancy suits and dresses, but the people in the church couldn’t have been nicer or more welcoming. I did later see the Clark Sisters in concert with the Winans in Boston in the 1990s, and they did not disappoint — unlike the movie, which was truly awful, moving quickly through emotional confrontations between family members and wedding proposals without build-up, repercussions or any character development at all. The musical performances in the movie were great though, a nice recreation of the Clark Sisters sound. Still, if you want an introduction to the Clark Sisters, I suggest watching this live concert clip instead of the Lifetime movie.