How They Got Over tells the story of how Black gospel quartet music became a primary source for the birth of rock & roll, and in the process helped to break down racial walls in 1950s America. Now on Tubi >>

Beginning in the 1920s, Black singers across the country took to the highways as the new technology of radio and records made it possible to reach a wider audience. Intense competition brought new ways to entertain, first with guitars, later with full bands, then with a performance style that would inspire Mick Jagger and a host of other rock and rollers. Their music was infectious, first on the Chitlin’ Circuit before graduating to the Apollo and other major auditoriums across the country. Their success inspired record labels to form doo-wop groups that enticed gospel singers like Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls and Wilson Pickett to cross over to greater fame.

How They Got Over features classic performance footage of the Soul Stirrers, Dixie Hummingbirds, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Blind Boys of Mississippi, the Davis Sisters and many more. Some of the greatest names in quartet music are interviewed in the film, giving vivid accounts of how they “got over” in their performances: shouting, bending over backwards, dancing, jumping off the stage: what came to be known as “gospel drama” – and a huge influence on future rock 'n' rollers.