The 101 strangest records on Spotify: Blackwood Brothers Quartet – Paradise Island

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Imagine the A&R meeting at RCA in 1959 when some bright spark came up with the idea of asking this legendary Memphis gospel quartet if they'd like to record Hawaiian-themed spirituals. This was a group who'd already been going for 20 years when Elvis (who, like Johnny Cash, was a huge fan) first appeared. They were the first ever gospel group to appear on American TV and the first to tour widely in Europe and the Holy Land (in an actual tour bus – a concept they invented). Of course, to our wildly overstimulated ears some 50-odd years later, the mix of glossily sweeping pedal steel guitars, lazily thrummed ukuleles, tinkly, backwoods pianos and the Blackwoods' beautiful, Bible-scented harmonies (listen out for the incredible JD Sumner, "the world's lowest bass singer") seems like one of humankind's greatest ideas, but it must have been a big ask back then. To be fair, as a bandwagon-jumping moment it's second to none – Martin Denny, to name just one, had a string of huge-selling "exotica" LPs out on Liberty Records at the same time. Then there's the wonderful play on "paradise" – both earthly and heavenly – that a Hawaiian theme allows. Whatever the logistics, the upshot is this record (one of five LPs they recorded that year) is simply and defiantly gorgeous. Still going – though, naturally, with a totally different lineup – the Blackwood Brothers are now celebrating 78 years in the business. Eat that, Rolling Stones.