Virgil Oliver Stamps

Virgil Oliver Stamps (1892–1940) was a shape note promoter, singer, composer, and singing school teacher. He was the first to promote southern-style gospel singing across America using radio and published the most song books in America for decades.^[1]

V. O. Stamps was born in and raised in the Stamps Community in Upshur County, Texas, and was a key individual in early gospel music publishing. As a youth, he worked with his father in a sawmill, and used his earnings to purchase every gospel songbook he could find. In 1907 he attended the singing school of Richard M. Morgan. Sometime after that, his father bought a small store and V. O. worked there while teaching singing schools until 1914.^[2]

In 1914 he became a field representative for the James D. Vaughan Music Company of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Stamps worked for the Tennessee Music Company, Samuel Beazley and J. D. Vaughan from 1914–24, including singing in a quartet representing the Vaughan company. Around 1915 he composed his first song, entitled "The Man Behind the Plow”. Stamps also had organized a gospel quartet in 1924 with his younger brother^[1] Frank Stamps called The Frank Stamps All-Star Quartet (or Stamps Quartet) in which he sang bass.^[3]

In 1924 he founded the V. O. Stamps Music Company in Jacksonville, Texas.^[2] In that year the first session of the V. O. Stamps School of Music was held, with a faculty that included Thomas Benton, C. C. Stafford, R. B. Vaughan, and Otis Deaton.^[2] They became the largest developer of gospel singers in the south for decades.^[1] In 1924 he published Harbor Bells - his first song book.^[2] In 1927, with J. R. Baxter, Stamps formed the Stamps-Baxter Music Company, based in Dallas, Texas. By the late 1930’s, it published the most shape note songbooks in America.^[1]

He was a pioneer is the use of radio for promoting Southern gospel music and quartet singing.^[1] Radio station KRLD gave the Stamps-Baxter Quartet a daily show in 1936, after a large response from their radio performance at the Texas Centennial Exposition.^[2] They also had a regular program on WFFA.^[4] At one point they represented over 100 quartets on radio stations across America.^[2] Frank Stamps would leave the quartet in 1945 to start his own Stamps Quartet Music Company, creating some confusion.^[4]

V.O. Stamps died in 1940.^[1]

Virgil Stamps wrote the music and melody for the famous gospel song "When the Saints Go Marching In", in 1937, while Luther G. Presley wrote the lyrics.^[5]

Among the songs written by V. O. Stamps are "Love Is the Key," "Singing on My Way," and "I Am Going."^[2] V. O. Stamps was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1973^[6] along with his brother Frank Stamps.^[7] The pair were also both inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Southern Gospel Music Association in 1997 along with J.R. Baxter and his wife Clarice.^[8]

Virgil O. Stamps and Frank Stamps started The Frank Stamps All Star Quartet (also referred to as Stamps Quartet) in Gilmer, Texas in 1924 in which V.O. Stamps sang base.^[3] They were the first gospel group to record for RCA-Victor in 1927.^[2] They also recorded with Victor in Atlanta at Egleston Hall in 1932 under the direction of Ralph Peer.^[9] Frank Stamps also taught in the music school for decades before dying in 1965.^[2] The popularity of the quartet increased dramatically after the group toured with Elvis Presley from 1971-1977. The group was inducted in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998.^[3]

• V. O. Stamps - from Texas Gospel Music Hall of Fame