Alvin Darling & Celebration Debuts at #11 on Billboard’s Gospel Charts! (11/15/09)

“YOU CAN MAKE IT” CD COMES IN AT #11 ON BILLBOARD

Traditional gospel star, Alvin Darling and his group Celebration, have earned the biggest debut of their multi-decade career. The ensemble’s new CD “You Can Make It” has debuted at #11 on Billboard magazine’s gospel album sales chart. The churchy, old school radio single “Lord, Do It for Me” is also making its way up the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart where its currently perched at #24 on the survey.

The twelve-song CD was recorded live at Jehovah-Jireh Praise and Worship Ministries in Newark, NJ this past spring. Darling wrote or co- wrote nine of the dozen songs that range from praise and worship tunes such as “O Lord We Worship You” and ballads like “I Thank God for Knowing You” to traditional church fare such as “One More Day.”

Before his signature song “All Night” took off and became a Top 10 smash in 2005, Darling had considered quitting music. “I was retiring after `All Night’ but Troy Sneed [Emtro’s President] wanted me to do another album,” Darling says. “Alvin had been burned a lot,” Sneed says. “I think this was the last straw for Alvin. People had said that he couldn’t sing. He had written all of these hits for other artists but didn’t have a hit himself. He was about ready to throw in the towel and call it quits.”