Hawkins died at his home in Pleasanton, California. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, said publicist Bill Carpenter.

Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music.

Paying tribute, Rev Bazil Meade, founder of the London Community Gospel Choir told Premier: "Edwin Hawkins has probably been the most influential gospel artist of our time and I believe that has primarily happened via his song Oh Happy Day.

Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and numerous other singers had become mainstream stars by adapting gospel sounds to pop lyrics. Hawkins stood out for enjoying commercial success while still performing music that openly celebrated religious faith.

Rev Meade, who performed with Hawkins and his band during the 1970s, went on to say: "He gave it [Oh Happy Day] that completely different vibe; he made it contemporary and, in doing so, he then made the message of hope, joy and happiness that the song contains available to those who were not thinking about God."

An Oakland native and one of eight siblings, Hawkins was a composer, keyboardist, arranger and choir master. He had been performing with his family and in church groups since childhood and in his 20s helped form the Northern California State Youth Choir.

Their first album, Let Us Go Into The House of the Lord, came out in 1968 and was intended for local audiences. But radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area began playing one of the album's eight tracks, Oh Happy Day, an 18th century hymn arranged by Hawkins in call-and-response style.

Oh Happy Day, featuring the vocals of Dorothy Combs Morrison, was released as a single credited to the Edwin Hawkins Singers and became a million-seller in 1969, showing there was a large market for gospel songs and for inspirational music during the turbulent era of the late 1960s.

"I think our music was probably a blend and a crossover of everything that I was hearing during that time," Hawkins told blackmusic.com in 2015. "We grew up hearing all kinds of music in our home. My mother, who was a devout Christian, loved the Lord and displayed that in her lifestyle.

"My father was not a committed Christian at that time but was what you'd call a good man," he said. "And, of course, we heard from him some R&B music but also a lot of country and western when we were younger kids."

In 1970, the Hawkins singers backed Melanie on her top 10 hit Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) and won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance for Oh Happy Day.

Meanwhile, former Beatle George Harrison would cite Oh Happy Day as inspiration for his hit My Sweet Lord, and Glen Campbell reached the adult contemporary charts with his own version of the Hawkins performance. Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and numerous others would also record it.

Hawkins went on to make dozens of records and won four Grammys in all, including for the songs Every Man Wants to Be Free and "Wonderful!" In 2007, he was voted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. He also toured on occasion with younger brother Walter Hawkins, a Grammy winner who died in 2010.

Edwin Hawkins is survived by his siblings Carol, Feddie, Daniel and Lynette.

Click here to listen to Premier's Alex Williams speaking with Rev Bazil Meade:

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