Calvin Bridges Marks 50 Years of a Gospel Classic That Still Knows Where to Find the Soul
Some songs arrive as music. Others arrive as medicine.
For five decades, Calvin Bridges’ “I Can Go To God In Prayer” has lived in that rare second category: a gospel standard passed from choir lofts to concert stages, from Sunday mornings to moments when people needed more than a melody. Written in 1976, the song began not as an industry calculation but as an act of care.
Bridges, the celebrated gospel songwriter, composer and recording artist, recalls receiving a phone call from a choir member whose father had just been diagnosed with cancer. She was crying. He did what he knew to do.
“The first thing I did—the only thing I knew to do—was pray,” Bridges said.
That prayer became the seed of one of traditional gospel music’s most enduring anthems. Bridges sat at the piano, and within minutes the song began to take shape. Soon after, acclaimed pianist John McNeal introduced him to the legendary Albertina Walker. Once Walker heard “I Can Go To God In Prayer,” she embraced it immediately.
“The rest,” Bridges said, “is history.”
Recorded by Albertina Walker and the Lighthouse Baptist Church Choir of Chicago, the song became one of Walker’s signature recordings and a cornerstone of gospel tradition. Its reach has only grown. Over the years, it has been recorded or performed by The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Ann Nesby, the Oslo Gospel Choir, Corey Henry, Luciano Pavarotti with the Boys Choir of Harlem, and Alicia Keys, who performed the song as a child during her 2009 world tour.
To mark the 50th anniversary, Bridges has released a tribute video honoring the song’s long life and astonishing journey. The video features unforgettable moments with Albertina Walker, including her performance from the PBS national television special Going Home To Gospel alongside Patti LaBelle. It also includes highlights from Germany’s POGO Music Festival, where the song was performed before a 400-voice choir, and an orchestral presentation at Chicago’s Millennium Park during the 40th anniversary celebration of Walt Whitman’s Soul Children of Chicago, featuring Vanessa Brown Dukes.
The numbers tell one story. According to The Mechanical Licensing Collective, more than 300 recording licenses have been issued for “I Can Go To God In Prayer.” The Smithsonian Institution’s Folkways Recordings has also archived a version recorded by the New Orleans-based, family-led gospel choir The Johnson Extension, preserving the song as part of America’s musical and cultural record.
But the deeper story is what the song has done across generations. It has traveled with Bridges through performances and workshops across Europe, Africa and the United States, including appearances at The American Cathedral in Paris, The Millennium Dome and the American Embassy in London, as well as during the 1996 Olympic Games.
For Bridges, the honor is not measured by prestige alone. It is measured in people reached, faith renewed and voices lifted.
“I thank God, Gospel radio, and Gospel music lovers around the world for giving me the privilege of sharing the message of traditional Gospel music with the nations,” Bridges said. “For more than 30 years, I’ve been blessed to travel and sing about the joy of knowing, serving, and loving Jesus Christ. Gospel music lives forever—and there’s no God like our God.”
Fifty years later, “I Can Go To God In Prayer” remains what it was from the beginning: a song born in crisis, carried by faith, and kept alive by the people who still know every word.
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