- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- In her later years, she toured regularly with evangelist Billy Graham, and His Eye Is on the Sparrow is evidently the only gospel album that she made then.
Ethel Waters – His Eye Is on the Sparrow (1960): Ethel Waters is one of the early blues and jazz vocalists, and I do mean early – some of her singles are more than 100 years old. On the strength of her talent and bravado, Ethel Waters became a major star of the 1920’s and 1930’s in nightclubs, on recordings, in the movies, and on stage. From Wikipedia: “Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award. She was the first African American to star in her own television show, The Ethel Waters Show (1939) – possibly the first Black person ever to appear on television – and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.”
Three of her early hit records have been admitted to the Grammy Hall of Fame: “Dinah” (1925), “Am I Blue?” (1929), and “Stormy Weather” (1933). In her later years, she toured regularly with evangelist Billy Graham, and His Eye Is on the Sparrow is evidently the only gospel album that she made in that time period. “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” is the best-known gospel song by Ethel Waters; other gospel favorites on the album include “Just a Closer Walk with Thee”, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See”, “Joy to My Soul”, and “When the Trumpet Sounds”.