GOSPEL GETS SOME SPECIAL ATTENTION

Paul Simon stared into a camera videotaping a rehearsal at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. Then the diminutive pop singer-songwriter looked at the hefty gospel bandleader standing next to him wearing a worn sweat shirt and mustard-colored trousers.

“Andrae Crouch has earned over $23 million in gospel music,” deadpanned Simon into the lens, “and spent almost all of it on clothes.”

After a round of laughter, Simon went back to the real introduction printed on his cue cards. But his joke captured something of the spirit of “A Gospel Session: Everybody Say Yeah,” a television show taped Thursday in Hollywood and due out in early 1987 on Cinemax, the pay-cable channel.

Not only was the taping full of good-natured camaraderie between acts as disparate as Simon, Crouch, Luther Vandross, Jennifer Holliday and the country-based Oak Ridge Boys, but it was underscored by the sense that gospel music may also be good box office.

“Everybody Say Yeah” is the third of Cinemax’s “Sessions” shows, an intermittent music series launched by a Carl Perkins program that earned the Home Box Office-owned channel’s highest ratings ever.

While they don’t predict a similar showing this time, the Cinemax staff is optimistic. “We know there’s a lot of interest in gospel music right now,” said Betty Bitterman, HBO’s music programming vice president (Cinemax is owned by the cable giant).

Added Crouch, who’s been singing gospel for decades: “Five or six years ago, we were praying and begging for TV to make room for gospel. And now they’re calling us and devoting whole shows to our music.”

But the program, booked mostly by producer Ken Erlich, bases its commercial hopes on a mixture of old-time gospel (the Mighty Clouds of Joy), more commercial gospel (the Edwin Hawkins Singers with “Oh, Happy Day” and the Oak Ridge Boys with an old Southern gospel tune), religious songs from church-singer-turned-Broadway-star Holliday (who did Mahalia Jackson’s “Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow”) and inspirational but not explicitly religious pop music (Vandross’ rendition of Sam Cooke’s secular hymn “A Change Is Gonna Come”).

Even the host, in his dressing room before the show, admitted that he never listened to gospel while growing up.

“I wasn’t really aware of it until around the time of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water,’ which I wrote after listening to gospel quartets like the Swan Silvertones,” said Simon after attending to last-minute details that included condensing and improving most of the dialogue he’d been given. “But when I become interested in a form of music, it really becomes an obsession. So I turned into a big fan.”

Even so, Simon was clearly uncomfortable with explicitly religious sentiments, switching to “ooh’s” when the rest of the performers began singing “Praise God” at the end of “Amazing Grace.”

But his was the biggest name on the bill--”This is an HBO show,” he shrugged by way of explanation--and he said even he was surprised to find so many suitable songs in his catalogue. He performed “Slip Slidin’ Away” with the Oaks, “Gone at Last” with the entire cast and a rousing version of “Bridge” with Holliday and Vandross.

Other highlights included Holliday’s dramatic tribute to Mahalia Jackson, Crouch’s fiery rave-up “Right Now” and the exquisite harmonies of the Mighty Clouds of Joy. The singing was extraordinary throughout, backing up Crouch’s boast that “Maybe this show will make people aware that church folks can do hot licks better than the hottest rock ‘n’ roll lickers out there.”

But the real show-stopper proved to be as much pop as gospel. Vandross didn’t grow up singing in the church or even listening to gospel music--and, he admitted, “At first I felt a little out of my element on this show. But everybody that I loved came straight from the church: Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, the Sweet Inspirations . . . and who’s to say that even if Frankie Avalon had been my favorite singer, that I still wouldn’t have a gospel-tinged voice?”

So the most gripping moment of a gospel show, oddly enough, was a tune that includes the lines “I’m afraid to die / ‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky.” But Vandross’ rendition of “A Change Is Gonna Come” was remarkable and galvanizing nonetheless.

As he said before the show: “It doesn’t really matter whether or not you’ve actually sung in a physical church building. If you’re of the mind, spirit and gospel bent, you’ll be fine.”

LIVE ACTION: Lionel Richie will be at the Forum with Sheila E. on Dec. 9 and 10. Tickets go on sale Monday. . . . Tickets also go on sale Monday for Maze’s Dec. 12 and 13 stops at the Beverly Theatre. . . . Tickets go on sale Sunday for a second Journey show (Dec. 27) at the Long Beach Arena and for Ashford & Simpson’s Dec. 5 appearance at the Universal Amphitheatre.

Walk the West will open for the Smithereens on Nov. 22 at the Roxy. . . . The BoDeans will be at Campbell Hall in Santa Barbara on Nov. 22, the Roxy on Nov. 25 and the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Nov. 29. . . . Former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor will be at the Palomino on Nov. 15. . . . The Beat Farmers headline the Palace on Nov. 20.