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Welcome to Our Generation USA!
This web page covers
R&B, and Soul Musical Artists
based on awards and record sales, since 1950! (and in random order)
What are "Rhythm and Blues" vs. "Soul"? Pictured below: Some of the Leading R&B/Soul Artists of all Time
Rhythm and blues:
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s.
The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.
In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists.
R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations.
The term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records.
Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. From 1960s to 1970s, several British bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Animals were referred to and promoted as being R&B bands.
By the end of the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" had changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the late 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "contemporary R&B". It combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, disco, hip hop, and electronic music.
Etymology, definitions and description:
Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term "rhythm and blues" as a musical term in the United States in 1948, the term was used in Billboard as early as 1943. It replaced the term "race music", which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world.
The term "rhythm and blues" was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, when its "Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles" chart was renamed as "Best Selling Soul Singles".
Before the "Rhythm and Blues" name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term "race music" with "sepia series".
In the early 1950s, the term "rhythm & blues" was frequently applied to blues records. Writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans". He has used the term "R&B" as a synonym for jump blues.
However, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of R&B's stronger gospel influences. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that "rhythm and blues" was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience.
According to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use (in some contexts) to categorize music made by black musicians, as distinct from styles of music made by other musicians.
In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, and saxophone. Arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists.
Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, and often hypnotic textures while calling attention to no individual sound. While singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, a practice associated with the modern popular music that rhythm and blues performers aspired to dominate.
Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords and structure.
One publication of the Smithsonian Institution provided this summary of the origins of the genre in 2016:
"A distinctly African American music drawing from the deep tributaries of African American expressive culture, it is an amalgam of jump blues, big band swing, gospel, boogie, and blues that was initially developed during a thirty-year period that bridges the era of legally sanctioned racial segregation, international conflicts, and the struggle for civil rights".
The term "rock and roll" had a strong sexual connotation in jump blues and R&B, but when DJ Alan Freed referred to rock and roll on mainstream radio in the mid-1950s, "the sexual component had been dialed down enough that it simply became an acceptable term for dancing".
History: Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the History of R&B:
Jews in the business end of rhythm and blues:
Main article: Jewish influence in rhythm and blues
According to the Jewish writer, music publishing executive, and songwriter Arnold Shaw, during the 1940s in the US, there was generally little opportunity for Jews in the WASP-controlled realm of mass communications, but the music business was "wide open for Jews as it was for blacks."
Jews played a key role in developing and popularizing African American music, including rhythm and blues, and the independent record business was dominated by young Jewish men who promoted the sounds of black music.
British rhythm and blues:
Main article: British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues and blues rock developed in the early 1960s, largely as a response to the recordings of American artists, often brought over by African American servicemen stationed in Britain or seamen visiting ports such as London, Liverpool, Newcastle and Belfast.
Many bands, particularly in the developing London club scene, tried to emulate black rhythm and blues performers, resulting in a "rawer" or "grittier" sound than the more popular "beat groups". During the 1960s, Geno Washington, the Foundations, and the Equals gained pop hits.
Many British black musicians helped form the British R&B scene. These included Geno Washington, an American singer stationed in England with the Air Force. He was invited to join what became Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band by guitarist Pete Gage in 1965 and enjoyed top 40 hit singles and two top 10 albums before the band split up in 1969.
Another American GI, Jimmy James, born in Jamaica, moved to London after two local number one hits in 1960 with The Vagabonds, who built a strong reputation as a live act. They released a live album and their studio debut, The New Religion, in 1966 and achieved moderate success with a few singles before the original Vagabonds broke up in 1970.
White blues rock musician Alexis Korner formed new jazz rock band CCS in 1970. Interest in the blues would influence major British rock musicians, including Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, and John Mayall, the groups Free and Cream adopted an interest in a wider range of rhythm and blues styles.
The Rolling Stones became the second most popular UK band (after The Beatles) and led the "British Invasion" of the US pop charts. The Rolling Stones covered Bobby Womack & the Valentinos' song It's All Over Now", giving them their first UK number one in 1964.
Under the influence of blues and R&B, bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and the Animals, and more jazz-influenced bands like the Graham Bond Organization and Zoot Money, had blue-eyed soul albums.[
White R&B musicians popular in the UK included:
None of these bands exclusively played rhythm and blues, but it remained at the core of their early albums.
Champion Jack Dupree was a New Orleans blues and boogie woogie pianist who toured Europe and settled there from 1960, living in Switzerland and Denmark, then in Halifax, England in the 1970s and 1980s, before finally settling in Germany.
From the '70s to '80s, Carl Douglas, Hot Chocolate, Delegation, Junior, Central Line, Princess, Jacki Graham, David Grant, the Loose Ends, the Pasadenas and Soul II Soul gained hits on pop or R&B chart.
The music of the British mod subculture grew out of rhythm and blues and later soul performed by artists who were not available to the small London clubs where the scene originated.
In the late '60s, The Who performed American R&B songs such as the Motown hit "Heat Wave", a song which reflected the young mod lifestyle. Many of these bands enjoyed national success in the UK, but found it difficult to break into the American music market. The British White R&B bands produced music which was very different in tone from that of African-American artists.
See Also:
Soul music:
Soul music (often referred to simply as soul) is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music, as well as rhythm and blues.
Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music and the music of Africa.
According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying". Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music.
Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and an especially tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds. Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture.
The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black.
Soul music dominated the U.S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U.S., Britain, and elsewhere. By 1968, the soul music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, and in some cases more politically conscious varieties.
By the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic and progressive rock, among other genres, leading to psychedelic and progressive soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994. There are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music.
The key subgenres of soul include:
For the History of Soul, click on any of the following blue hyperlinks:
Notable labels and producers:
Motown Records
Main article: Motown Records
Berry Gordy's successful Tamla/Motown group of labels was notable for being African-American owned, unlike most of the earlier independent R&B labels.
Notable artists under this label were:
Hits were made using a quasi-industrial "production-line" approach. The producers and songwriters brought artistic sensitivity to the three-minute tunes. Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland were rarely out of the charts for their work as songwriters and record producers for the Supremes, the Four Tops and Martha and the Vandellas.
They allowed important elements to shine through the dense musical texture. The rhythm was emphasized by handclaps or tambourine.
Smokey Robinson was another writer and record producer who added lyrics to "The Tracks of My Tears" by his group the Miracles, which was one of the most important songs of the decade.
Stax Records and Atlantic Records:
Main articles: Stax Records and Atlantic Records
Stax Records and Atlantic Records were independent labels that produced high-quality dance records featuring many well-known singers of the day. They tended to have smaller ensembles marked by expressive gospel-tinged vocals. Brass and saxophones were also used extensively.
Stax Records, founded by siblings Estelle and James Stewart, was the second most successful record label behind Motown Records. They were responsible for releasing hits by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, and many more.
Ahmet Ertegun, who had anticipated being a diplomat until 1944 when his father died, founded Atlantic Records in 1947 with his friend Herb Abramson. Ertegun wrote many songs for Ray Charles and the Clovers. He even sang backup vocals for his artist Big Joe Turner on the song, "Shake Rattle and Roll".
Subgenres:
Detroit (Motown):
Further information: Motown
Dominated by Berry Gordy's Motown Records empire, Detroit soul is strongly rhythmic and influenced by gospel music. The Motown sound often includes hand clapping, a powerful bassline, strings, brass and vibraphone.
Motown Records' house band was the Funk Brothers. AllMusic cites Motown as the pioneering label of pop-soul, a style of soul music with raw vocals, but polished production and toned-down subject matter intended for pop radio and crossover success.
Artists of this style included:
Popular during the 1960s, the style became glossier during the 1970s and led to disco.
In the late 2000s, the style was revisited by contemporary soul singers such as:
Deep and southern:
Further information: Southern soul
The terms deep soul and southern soul generally refer to a driving, energetic soul style combining R&B's energy with pulsating southern United States gospel music sounds.
Memphis, Tennessee, label Stax Records nurtured a distinctive sound, which included putting vocals further back in the mix than most contemporary R&B records, using vibrant horn parts in place of background vocals, and a focus on the low end of the frequency spectrum.
The vast majority of Stax releases were backed by house bands:
Memphis:
Further information: Memphis soul
Memphis soul is a shimmering, sultry style of soul music produced in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax Records and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee. It featured melancholic and melodic horns, Hammond organ, bass, and drums, as heard in recordings by Hi's Al Green and Stax's Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The latter group also sometimes played in the harder-edged Southern soul style.
The Hi Records house band (Hi Rhythm Section) and producer Willie Mitchell developed a surging soul style heard in the label's 1970s hit recordings. Some Stax recordings fit into this style but had their own unique sound.
New Orleans:
Further information: New Orleans soul
The New Orleans soul scene directly came out of the rhythm and blues era, when such artists as Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Huey Piano Smith made a huge impact on the pop and R&B charts and a huge direct influence on the birth of Funk music.
The principal architect of Crescent City's soul was songwriter, arranger, and producer Allen Toussaint. He worked with such artists as Irma Thomas ("the Soul Queen of New Orleans"), Jessie Hill, Chris Kenner, Benny Spellman, and Ernie K. Doe on the Minit/Instant label complex to produce a distinctive New Orleans soul sound that generated a passel of national hits.
Other notable New Orleans hits came from Robert Parker, Betty Harris, and Aaron Neville. While record labels in New Orleans largely disappeared by the mid-1960s, producers in the city continued to record New Orleans soul artists for other mainly New York City- and Los Angeles-based record labels—notably Lee Dorsey for New York-based Amy Records and the Meters for New York-based Josie and then LA-based Reprise.
Chicago:
Further information: Chicago soul
Chicago soul generally had a light gospel-influenced sound, but the large number of record labels based in the city tended to produce a more diverse sound than other cities.
Philadelphia:
Further information: Philadelphia soul
Based primarily in the Philadelphia International record label, Philadelphia soul (or Philly Soul) had lush string and horn arrangements and doo-wop-inspired vocals.
Thom Bell, and Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff are considered the founders of Philadelphia soul, which produced hits for:
Progressive:
Main article: Progressive soul
By the 1970s, African-American popular musicians had drawn from the conceptual album-oriented approach of the then-burgeoning progressive rock development. This progressive-soul development inspired a newfound sophisticated musicality and ambitious lyricism in black pop.
Among these musicians were:
In discussing the progressive soul of the 1970s, Martin cites this period's albums:
Isaac Hayes's 1969 recording of "Walk on By" is considered a "classic" of prog-soul, according to City Pages journalist Jay Boller.
Later prog-soul music includes recordings by:
Psychedelic:
Main article: Psychedelic soul
Psychedelic soul, sometimes known as "black rock", was a blend of psychedelic rock and soul music in the late 1960s, which paved the way for the mainstream emergence of funk music a few years later.
Early pioneers of this subgenre of soul music include:
While psychedelic rock began its decline, the influence of psychedelic soul continued on and remained prevalent through the 1970s.
British:
Main article: British soul
In the early 1960s, small soul scenes began popping up around the UK. Liverpool in particular had an established black community from which artists such as Chants and Steve Aldo emerged and go on to record within the British music industry.
As a result, many recordings were commercially released by British soul acts during the 1960s which were unable to connect with the mainstream market.
Nevertheless, soul has been a major influence on British popular music since the 1960s including bands of the British Invasion, most significantly the Beatles. There were a handful of significant British blue-eyed soul acts, including Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones.
In the 1970s Carl Douglas, the Real Thing and Delegation had hits in the UK. American soul was extremely popular among some youth sub-cultures like the mod, Northern soul and modern soul movements, but a clear genre of British soul did not emerge until the 1980s when several artists including George Michael, Sade, Simply Red, Lisa Stansfield and Soul II Soul enjoyed commercial success.
The popularity of British soul artists in the U.S., most notably Amy Winehouse, Adele, Estelle, Duffy, Joss Stone and Leona Lewis, led to talk of a "Third British Invasion" or "British Soul Invasion" in the 2000s and 2010s.
Neo:
Further information: Neo soul
Neo soul is a blend of 1970s soul-style vocals and instrumentation with contemporary R&B sounds, hip-hop beats, and poetic interludes. The style was developed in the early to mid-1990s and the term was coined in the early 1990s by producer and record label executive Kedar Massenburg.
A key element in neo soul is a heavy dose of Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer electric piano "pads" over a mellow, grooving interplay between the drums (usually with a rim shot snare sound) and a muted, deep funky bass. The Fender Rhodes piano sound gives the music a warm, organic character.
Northern:
Further information: Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in the late 1960s out of the British mod subculture in Northern England and the English Midlands, based on a particular style of soul music with a heavy beat and fast tempo. The phrase northern soul was coined by a journalist Dave Godin and popularized through his column in Blues and Soul magazine.
The rare soul records were played by DJs at nightclubs, and included obscure 1960s and early 1970s American recordings with an uptempo beat, such as those on Motown and smaller labels, not necessarily from the Northern United States.
Hyper:
Hypersoul is a medley of soul and dance music. It maintains the vocal quality, techniques, and style, but includes a movement towards technology, materialism, and heightened sexuality, and sensationalism in the rhythm and lyricism.
These values represent a departure from the typical religious and spiritual undercurrents of traditional soul music. While the subgenre is still focused on human, often romantic, relationships, it presents these relationships as based on more artificial, material constructs.
These aspects of hypersoul are more in line with the ‘playa’ culture of hip-hop and modern R&B culture. In his 2001 article on the genre, Bat describes it as being “more like an accent than a genre”.
Hypersoul is also remarkable for possessing a more euro sound influence than the other subgenres of soul. The subgenre provides more roles that may be adopted by the song's female subjects and more space to express different facets of gender experience as compared to traditional soul, through the reversal of male-female dynamics and the embrace of dominating and confrontational attitudes.
These attitudes can be seen as success of the early blueswomen of the 1920s such as Ma Rainey. Performers included Timbaland, Aaliyah, Whitney Houston and Destiny's Child.
Hypersoul maybe also be seen as a precursor to modern R&B.
Nu-jazz and other influenced electronica:
Further information: Nu jazz and Electronica
Many artists in various genres of electronic music (such as house, drum n bass, UK garage, and downtempo) are heavily influenced by soul, and have produced many soul-inspired compositions.
Non-black musicians:
The impact of soul music was manifold; internationally, white and other non-black musicians were influenced by soul music. British soul and Northern soul, rare soul music played by DJs at nightclubs in Northern England, are examples.
Several terms were introduced, such as "blue-eyed soul", which is R&B or soul music performed by white artists. The meaning of blue-eyed soul has evolved over the decades.
Originally the term was associated with mid-1960s white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the music released by Motown Records and Stax Records.
The Righteous Brothers, the Rascals, Spencer Davis Group, Steve Winwood, Van Morrison & Them, and the Grass Roots were famous blue-eyed soul musicians in the 1960s.
The term continued to be used in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly by the British media to refer to a new generation of singers who adopted elements of the Stax and Motown sounds.
To a lesser extent, the term has been applied to singers in other music genres that are influenced by soul music. Artists are known as blue-eyed soul singers include:
Another term is brown-eyed soul, or soul music or R&B created and performed mainly by Latinos in Southern California during the 1960s, continuing through to the early 1980s.
The genre of soul music occasionally draws from Latin, and often contains rock music influences. This contrasts with blue-eyed soul, soul music performed by non-Hispanic white artists.
Ritchie Valens, one of the original pioneers of brown-eyed soul music, also became one of the first brown-eyed soul artists to bring traditional Latin music and rock and roll influences into the genre.
Latino groups on the East and West Coast also drew from the funk-influenced Philadelphia soul, or "Philly" soul. The West Coast Latin rock scene continued to influence brown-eyed soul artists as well.
Inspired by Valens, 1960s and 1970s bands such as Cannibal & the Headhunters ("Land of a Thousand Dances") and Thee Midniters played brown-eyed R&B music with a rebellious rock and roll edge.
Many of these artists drew from the frat rock and garage rock scenes. However, the large Hispanic population on the West Coast began gradually moving away from energetic R&B to romantic soul, and the results were "some of the sweetest soul music heard during the late '60s and '70s."
See also:
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s.
The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.
In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists.
R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations.
The term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records.
Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. From 1960s to 1970s, several British bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Animals were referred to and promoted as being R&B bands.
By the end of the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" had changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the late 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "contemporary R&B". It combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, disco, hip hop, and electronic music.
Etymology, definitions and description:
Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term "rhythm and blues" as a musical term in the United States in 1948, the term was used in Billboard as early as 1943. It replaced the term "race music", which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world.
The term "rhythm and blues" was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, when its "Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles" chart was renamed as "Best Selling Soul Singles".
Before the "Rhythm and Blues" name was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term "race music" with "sepia series".
In the early 1950s, the term "rhythm & blues" was frequently applied to blues records. Writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans". He has used the term "R&B" as a synonym for jump blues.
However, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of R&B's stronger gospel influences. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that "rhythm and blues" was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience.
According to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use (in some contexts) to categorize music made by black musicians, as distinct from styles of music made by other musicians.
In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, and saxophone. Arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists.
Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, and often hypnotic textures while calling attention to no individual sound. While singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, a practice associated with the modern popular music that rhythm and blues performers aspired to dominate.
Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords and structure.
One publication of the Smithsonian Institution provided this summary of the origins of the genre in 2016:
"A distinctly African American music drawing from the deep tributaries of African American expressive culture, it is an amalgam of jump blues, big band swing, gospel, boogie, and blues that was initially developed during a thirty-year period that bridges the era of legally sanctioned racial segregation, international conflicts, and the struggle for civil rights".
The term "rock and roll" had a strong sexual connotation in jump blues and R&B, but when DJ Alan Freed referred to rock and roll on mainstream radio in the mid-1950s, "the sexual component had been dialed down enough that it simply became an acceptable term for dancing".
History: Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the History of R&B:
Jews in the business end of rhythm and blues:
Main article: Jewish influence in rhythm and blues
According to the Jewish writer, music publishing executive, and songwriter Arnold Shaw, during the 1940s in the US, there was generally little opportunity for Jews in the WASP-controlled realm of mass communications, but the music business was "wide open for Jews as it was for blacks."
Jews played a key role in developing and popularizing African American music, including rhythm and blues, and the independent record business was dominated by young Jewish men who promoted the sounds of black music.
British rhythm and blues:
Main article: British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues and blues rock developed in the early 1960s, largely as a response to the recordings of American artists, often brought over by African American servicemen stationed in Britain or seamen visiting ports such as London, Liverpool, Newcastle and Belfast.
Many bands, particularly in the developing London club scene, tried to emulate black rhythm and blues performers, resulting in a "rawer" or "grittier" sound than the more popular "beat groups". During the 1960s, Geno Washington, the Foundations, and the Equals gained pop hits.
Many British black musicians helped form the British R&B scene. These included Geno Washington, an American singer stationed in England with the Air Force. He was invited to join what became Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band by guitarist Pete Gage in 1965 and enjoyed top 40 hit singles and two top 10 albums before the band split up in 1969.
Another American GI, Jimmy James, born in Jamaica, moved to London after two local number one hits in 1960 with The Vagabonds, who built a strong reputation as a live act. They released a live album and their studio debut, The New Religion, in 1966 and achieved moderate success with a few singles before the original Vagabonds broke up in 1970.
White blues rock musician Alexis Korner formed new jazz rock band CCS in 1970. Interest in the blues would influence major British rock musicians, including Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, and John Mayall, the groups Free and Cream adopted an interest in a wider range of rhythm and blues styles.
The Rolling Stones became the second most popular UK band (after The Beatles) and led the "British Invasion" of the US pop charts. The Rolling Stones covered Bobby Womack & the Valentinos' song It's All Over Now", giving them their first UK number one in 1964.
Under the influence of blues and R&B, bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and the Animals, and more jazz-influenced bands like the Graham Bond Organization and Zoot Money, had blue-eyed soul albums.[
White R&B musicians popular in the UK included:
- Steve Winwood,
- Frankie Miller,
- Scott Walker & the Walker Brothers,
- the Animals from Newcastle,
- the Spencer Davis Group,
- and Van Morrison & Them from Belfast.
None of these bands exclusively played rhythm and blues, but it remained at the core of their early albums.
Champion Jack Dupree was a New Orleans blues and boogie woogie pianist who toured Europe and settled there from 1960, living in Switzerland and Denmark, then in Halifax, England in the 1970s and 1980s, before finally settling in Germany.
From the '70s to '80s, Carl Douglas, Hot Chocolate, Delegation, Junior, Central Line, Princess, Jacki Graham, David Grant, the Loose Ends, the Pasadenas and Soul II Soul gained hits on pop or R&B chart.
The music of the British mod subculture grew out of rhythm and blues and later soul performed by artists who were not available to the small London clubs where the scene originated.
In the late '60s, The Who performed American R&B songs such as the Motown hit "Heat Wave", a song which reflected the young mod lifestyle. Many of these bands enjoyed national success in the UK, but found it difficult to break into the American music market. The British White R&B bands produced music which was very different in tone from that of African-American artists.
See Also:
- List of R&B musicians
- List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart
- List of number-one rhythm and blues hits (United States)
- Music of the United States
Soul music:
Soul music (often referred to simply as soul) is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music, as well as rhythm and blues.
Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music and the music of Africa.
According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying". Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music.
Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and an especially tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds. Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture.
The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black.
Soul music dominated the U.S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U.S., Britain, and elsewhere. By 1968, the soul music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, and in some cases more politically conscious varieties.
By the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic and progressive rock, among other genres, leading to psychedelic and progressive soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994. There are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music.
The key subgenres of soul include:
- the Motown style, a more pop-friendly and rhythmic style;
- deep soul and southern soul, driving, energetic soul styles combining R&B with southern gospel music sounds;
- Memphis soul, a shimmering, sultry style;
- New Orleans soul, which came out of the rhythm and blues style;
- Chicago soul, a lighter gospel-influenced sound;
- Philadelphia soul, a lush orchestral sound with doo-wop-inspired vocals;
- as well as psychedelic soul, a blend of psychedelic rock and soul music.
For the History of Soul, click on any of the following blue hyperlinks:
Notable labels and producers:
Motown Records
Main article: Motown Records
Berry Gordy's successful Tamla/Motown group of labels was notable for being African-American owned, unlike most of the earlier independent R&B labels.
Notable artists under this label were:
- Gladys Knight and the Pips,
- the Supremes,
- the Temptations,
- the Miracles,
- the Four Tops,
- the Marvelettes,
- Mary Wells,
- Jr. Walker & the All-Stars,
- Stevie Wonder,
- Marvin Gaye,
- Tammi Terrell,
- Martha and the Vandellas,
- and the Jackson Five.
Hits were made using a quasi-industrial "production-line" approach. The producers and songwriters brought artistic sensitivity to the three-minute tunes. Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland were rarely out of the charts for their work as songwriters and record producers for the Supremes, the Four Tops and Martha and the Vandellas.
They allowed important elements to shine through the dense musical texture. The rhythm was emphasized by handclaps or tambourine.
Smokey Robinson was another writer and record producer who added lyrics to "The Tracks of My Tears" by his group the Miracles, which was one of the most important songs of the decade.
Stax Records and Atlantic Records:
Main articles: Stax Records and Atlantic Records
Stax Records and Atlantic Records were independent labels that produced high-quality dance records featuring many well-known singers of the day. They tended to have smaller ensembles marked by expressive gospel-tinged vocals. Brass and saxophones were also used extensively.
Stax Records, founded by siblings Estelle and James Stewart, was the second most successful record label behind Motown Records. They were responsible for releasing hits by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, and many more.
Ahmet Ertegun, who had anticipated being a diplomat until 1944 when his father died, founded Atlantic Records in 1947 with his friend Herb Abramson. Ertegun wrote many songs for Ray Charles and the Clovers. He even sang backup vocals for his artist Big Joe Turner on the song, "Shake Rattle and Roll".
Subgenres:
Detroit (Motown):
Further information: Motown
Dominated by Berry Gordy's Motown Records empire, Detroit soul is strongly rhythmic and influenced by gospel music. The Motown sound often includes hand clapping, a powerful bassline, strings, brass and vibraphone.
Motown Records' house band was the Funk Brothers. AllMusic cites Motown as the pioneering label of pop-soul, a style of soul music with raw vocals, but polished production and toned-down subject matter intended for pop radio and crossover success.
Artists of this style included:
Popular during the 1960s, the style became glossier during the 1970s and led to disco.
In the late 2000s, the style was revisited by contemporary soul singers such as:
- Amy Winehouse,
- Raphael Saadiq (specifically his 2008 album The Way I See It)
- and Solange Knowles (her 2008 album Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams).
Deep and southern:
Further information: Southern soul
The terms deep soul and southern soul generally refer to a driving, energetic soul style combining R&B's energy with pulsating southern United States gospel music sounds.
Memphis, Tennessee, label Stax Records nurtured a distinctive sound, which included putting vocals further back in the mix than most contemporary R&B records, using vibrant horn parts in place of background vocals, and a focus on the low end of the frequency spectrum.
The vast majority of Stax releases were backed by house bands:
- Booker T & the MGs (with Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, and Al Jackson)
- and the Memphis Horns (the splinter horn section of the Mar-Keys, trumpeter Wayne Jackson and saxophonist Andrew Love).
Memphis:
Further information: Memphis soul
Memphis soul is a shimmering, sultry style of soul music produced in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax Records and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee. It featured melancholic and melodic horns, Hammond organ, bass, and drums, as heard in recordings by Hi's Al Green and Stax's Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The latter group also sometimes played in the harder-edged Southern soul style.
The Hi Records house band (Hi Rhythm Section) and producer Willie Mitchell developed a surging soul style heard in the label's 1970s hit recordings. Some Stax recordings fit into this style but had their own unique sound.
New Orleans:
Further information: New Orleans soul
The New Orleans soul scene directly came out of the rhythm and blues era, when such artists as Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Huey Piano Smith made a huge impact on the pop and R&B charts and a huge direct influence on the birth of Funk music.
The principal architect of Crescent City's soul was songwriter, arranger, and producer Allen Toussaint. He worked with such artists as Irma Thomas ("the Soul Queen of New Orleans"), Jessie Hill, Chris Kenner, Benny Spellman, and Ernie K. Doe on the Minit/Instant label complex to produce a distinctive New Orleans soul sound that generated a passel of national hits.
Other notable New Orleans hits came from Robert Parker, Betty Harris, and Aaron Neville. While record labels in New Orleans largely disappeared by the mid-1960s, producers in the city continued to record New Orleans soul artists for other mainly New York City- and Los Angeles-based record labels—notably Lee Dorsey for New York-based Amy Records and the Meters for New York-based Josie and then LA-based Reprise.
Chicago:
Further information: Chicago soul
Chicago soul generally had a light gospel-influenced sound, but the large number of record labels based in the city tended to produce a more diverse sound than other cities.
- Vee Jay Records, which lasted until 1966, produced recordings by Jerry Butler, Betty Everett, Dee Clark, and Gene Chandler.
- Chess Records, mainly a blues and rock and roll label, produced several major soul artists, including the Dells and Billy Stewart. Curtis Mayfield not only scored many hits with his group, the Impressions, but wrote many hit songs for Chicago artists and produced hits on his own labels for the Fascinations, Major Lance, and the Five Stairsteps.
Philadelphia:
Further information: Philadelphia soul
Based primarily in the Philadelphia International record label, Philadelphia soul (or Philly Soul) had lush string and horn arrangements and doo-wop-inspired vocals.
Thom Bell, and Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff are considered the founders of Philadelphia soul, which produced hits for:
- Patti LaBelle,
- the O'Jays,
- the Intruders,
- the Three Degrees,
- the Delfonics,
- the Stylistics,
- Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes,
- and the Spinners.
Progressive:
Main article: Progressive soul
By the 1970s, African-American popular musicians had drawn from the conceptual album-oriented approach of the then-burgeoning progressive rock development. This progressive-soul development inspired a newfound sophisticated musicality and ambitious lyricism in black pop.
Among these musicians were:
In discussing the progressive soul of the 1970s, Martin cites this period's albums:
- from Wonder:
- War:
- and the Isley Brothers
Isaac Hayes's 1969 recording of "Walk on By" is considered a "classic" of prog-soul, according to City Pages journalist Jay Boller.
Later prog-soul music includes recordings by:
- Prince,
- Peter Gabriel,
- Meshell Ndegeocello,
- Joi,
- Bilal,
- Dwele,
- Anthony David,
- Janelle Monáe,
- and the Soulquarians, an experimental black-music collective active during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Psychedelic:
Main article: Psychedelic soul
Psychedelic soul, sometimes known as "black rock", was a blend of psychedelic rock and soul music in the late 1960s, which paved the way for the mainstream emergence of funk music a few years later.
Early pioneers of this subgenre of soul music include:
While psychedelic rock began its decline, the influence of psychedelic soul continued on and remained prevalent through the 1970s.
British:
Main article: British soul
In the early 1960s, small soul scenes began popping up around the UK. Liverpool in particular had an established black community from which artists such as Chants and Steve Aldo emerged and go on to record within the British music industry.
As a result, many recordings were commercially released by British soul acts during the 1960s which were unable to connect with the mainstream market.
Nevertheless, soul has been a major influence on British popular music since the 1960s including bands of the British Invasion, most significantly the Beatles. There were a handful of significant British blue-eyed soul acts, including Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones.
In the 1970s Carl Douglas, the Real Thing and Delegation had hits in the UK. American soul was extremely popular among some youth sub-cultures like the mod, Northern soul and modern soul movements, but a clear genre of British soul did not emerge until the 1980s when several artists including George Michael, Sade, Simply Red, Lisa Stansfield and Soul II Soul enjoyed commercial success.
The popularity of British soul artists in the U.S., most notably Amy Winehouse, Adele, Estelle, Duffy, Joss Stone and Leona Lewis, led to talk of a "Third British Invasion" or "British Soul Invasion" in the 2000s and 2010s.
Neo:
Further information: Neo soul
Neo soul is a blend of 1970s soul-style vocals and instrumentation with contemporary R&B sounds, hip-hop beats, and poetic interludes. The style was developed in the early to mid-1990s and the term was coined in the early 1990s by producer and record label executive Kedar Massenburg.
A key element in neo soul is a heavy dose of Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer electric piano "pads" over a mellow, grooving interplay between the drums (usually with a rim shot snare sound) and a muted, deep funky bass. The Fender Rhodes piano sound gives the music a warm, organic character.
Northern:
Further information: Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in the late 1960s out of the British mod subculture in Northern England and the English Midlands, based on a particular style of soul music with a heavy beat and fast tempo. The phrase northern soul was coined by a journalist Dave Godin and popularized through his column in Blues and Soul magazine.
The rare soul records were played by DJs at nightclubs, and included obscure 1960s and early 1970s American recordings with an uptempo beat, such as those on Motown and smaller labels, not necessarily from the Northern United States.
Hyper:
Hypersoul is a medley of soul and dance music. It maintains the vocal quality, techniques, and style, but includes a movement towards technology, materialism, and heightened sexuality, and sensationalism in the rhythm and lyricism.
These values represent a departure from the typical religious and spiritual undercurrents of traditional soul music. While the subgenre is still focused on human, often romantic, relationships, it presents these relationships as based on more artificial, material constructs.
These aspects of hypersoul are more in line with the ‘playa’ culture of hip-hop and modern R&B culture. In his 2001 article on the genre, Bat describes it as being “more like an accent than a genre”.
Hypersoul is also remarkable for possessing a more euro sound influence than the other subgenres of soul. The subgenre provides more roles that may be adopted by the song's female subjects and more space to express different facets of gender experience as compared to traditional soul, through the reversal of male-female dynamics and the embrace of dominating and confrontational attitudes.
These attitudes can be seen as success of the early blueswomen of the 1920s such as Ma Rainey. Performers included Timbaland, Aaliyah, Whitney Houston and Destiny's Child.
Hypersoul maybe also be seen as a precursor to modern R&B.
Nu-jazz and other influenced electronica:
Further information: Nu jazz and Electronica
Many artists in various genres of electronic music (such as house, drum n bass, UK garage, and downtempo) are heavily influenced by soul, and have produced many soul-inspired compositions.
Non-black musicians:
The impact of soul music was manifold; internationally, white and other non-black musicians were influenced by soul music. British soul and Northern soul, rare soul music played by DJs at nightclubs in Northern England, are examples.
Several terms were introduced, such as "blue-eyed soul", which is R&B or soul music performed by white artists. The meaning of blue-eyed soul has evolved over the decades.
Originally the term was associated with mid-1960s white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the music released by Motown Records and Stax Records.
The Righteous Brothers, the Rascals, Spencer Davis Group, Steve Winwood, Van Morrison & Them, and the Grass Roots were famous blue-eyed soul musicians in the 1960s.
The term continued to be used in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly by the British media to refer to a new generation of singers who adopted elements of the Stax and Motown sounds.
To a lesser extent, the term has been applied to singers in other music genres that are influenced by soul music. Artists are known as blue-eyed soul singers include:
- Hall and Oates,
- David Bowie,
- Teena Marie,
- Hamilton,
- Joe Frank & Reynolds,
- Frankie Valli,
- Christina Aguilera,
- Amy Winehouse
- and Adele .
Another term is brown-eyed soul, or soul music or R&B created and performed mainly by Latinos in Southern California during the 1960s, continuing through to the early 1980s.
The genre of soul music occasionally draws from Latin, and often contains rock music influences. This contrasts with blue-eyed soul, soul music performed by non-Hispanic white artists.
Ritchie Valens, one of the original pioneers of brown-eyed soul music, also became one of the first brown-eyed soul artists to bring traditional Latin music and rock and roll influences into the genre.
Latino groups on the East and West Coast also drew from the funk-influenced Philadelphia soul, or "Philly" soul. The West Coast Latin rock scene continued to influence brown-eyed soul artists as well.
Inspired by Valens, 1960s and 1970s bands such as Cannibal & the Headhunters ("Land of a Thousand Dances") and Thee Midniters played brown-eyed R&B music with a rebellious rock and roll edge.
Many of these artists drew from the frat rock and garage rock scenes. However, the large Hispanic population on the West Coast began gradually moving away from energetic R&B to romantic soul, and the results were "some of the sweetest soul music heard during the late '60s and '70s."
See also:
Marie Dionne Warrick, known as Dionne Warwick (born December 12, 1940), is an American singer, actress and TV-show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health.
Having been in a partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era, based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts.
Dionne Warwick is second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female vocalist of all time, with 69 of Warwick's singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998.
For more about Dionne Warwick, click here.
Having been in a partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era, based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts.
Dionne Warwick is second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female vocalist of all time, with 69 of Warwick's singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998.
For more about Dionne Warwick, click here.
Aretha Franklin
- YouTube Video of Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Kennedy Center Honors Carole King
- YouTube Video: Aretha Franklin Singing 'Respect'
- YouTube Video: I NEVER LOVED A MAN (THE WAY I LOVE YOU), Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer and musician. Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church as a child.
In 1960, at the age of 18, Franklin embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but only achieving modest success. Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as "Respect", "You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Think". These hits and more helped her to gain the title The Queen of Soul by the end of the 1960s decade.
Franklin eventually recorded a total of 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and twenty number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart's history.
Franklin also recorded acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lady Soul, Young, Gifted & Black and Amazing Grace before experiencing problems with her record company by the mid-1970s.
After her father was shot in 1979, Franklin left Atlantic and signed with Arista Records, finding success with her part in the film, The Blues Brothers and with the albums, Jump to It and Who's Zoomin' Who?.
In 1998, Franklin won international acclaim for singing the opera aria, "Nessun Dorma", at the Grammys of that year replacing Luciano Pavarotti. Later that same year, she scored her final Top 40 recording with "A Rose Is Still a Rose".
Franklin's other popular and well known hits include:
Franklin has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and is one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide.
Franklin has been honored throughout her career including a 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which she became the first female performer to be inducted. She was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In August 2012, Franklin was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Franklin is listed in at least two all-time lists on Rolling Stone magazine, including the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, in which she placed number 9, and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in which she placed number 1!
In 1960, at the age of 18, Franklin embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but only achieving modest success. Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as "Respect", "You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Think". These hits and more helped her to gain the title The Queen of Soul by the end of the 1960s decade.
Franklin eventually recorded a total of 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and twenty number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart's history.
Franklin also recorded acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lady Soul, Young, Gifted & Black and Amazing Grace before experiencing problems with her record company by the mid-1970s.
After her father was shot in 1979, Franklin left Atlantic and signed with Arista Records, finding success with her part in the film, The Blues Brothers and with the albums, Jump to It and Who's Zoomin' Who?.
In 1998, Franklin won international acclaim for singing the opera aria, "Nessun Dorma", at the Grammys of that year replacing Luciano Pavarotti. Later that same year, she scored her final Top 40 recording with "A Rose Is Still a Rose".
Franklin's other popular and well known hits include:
- "Rock Steady",
- "Something He Can Feel" (from the soundtrack to the 1976 film Sparkle),
- "Jump to It",
- "Freeway of Love",
- "Who's Zoomin' Who",
- "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves",
- "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (with George Michael),
- "It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be" (with Whitney Houston)
- and a remake of The Rolling Stones song "Jumpin' Jack Flash".
Franklin has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and is one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide.
Franklin has been honored throughout her career including a 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which she became the first female performer to be inducted. She was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In August 2012, Franklin was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Franklin is listed in at least two all-time lists on Rolling Stone magazine, including the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, in which she placed number 9, and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in which she placed number 1!
Beyoncé Knowles and Destiny's Child
- YouTube: Beyoncé performs 'Run the World (Girls)' at the 2011 Billboard Music Award
- YouTube Video Beyoncé - Super Bowl (2013 Live) Half-time Performance
- YouTube Video Destiny's Child - "Bills, Bills, Bills"
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress.
Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child, and rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of R&B girl-group Destiny's Child (see below).
Managed by her father, Mathew Knowles, the group became one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. Their hiatus saw the release of Beyoncé's debut album, Dangerously in Love (2003), which established her as a solo artist worldwide, earned five Grammy Awards and featured the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy".
Following the disbandment of Destiny's Child in June 2005, she released her second solo album, B'Day (2006), which contained hits "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable", and "Beautiful Liar".
Beyoncé also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe-nominated performance in Dreamgirls (2006), and starring roles in The Pink Panther (2006) and Obsessed (2009).
Her marriage to rapper Jay Z and portrayal of Etta James in Cadillac Records (2008) influenced her third album, I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), which saw the birth of her alter-ego Sasha Fierce and earned a record-setting six Grammy Awards in 2010, including Song of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)".
Beyoncé took a hiatus from music in 2010 and took over management of her career; her fourth album 4 (2011) was subsequently mellower in tone, exploring 1970s funk, 1980s pop, and 1990s soul.
Her critically acclaimed fifth studio album, Beyoncé (2013), was distinguished from previous releases by its experimental production and exploration of darker themes.
A self-described "modern-day feminist", Beyoncé creates songs that are often characterized by themes of love, relationships, and monogamy, as well as female sexuality and empowerment. On stage, her dynamic, highly choreographed performances have led to critics hailing her as one of the best entertainers in contemporary popular music.
Throughout a career spanning 19 years, she has sold over 118 million records as a solo artist and a further 60 million with Destiny's Child, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
She has won 20 Grammy Awards and is the most nominated woman in the award's history. The Recording Industry Association of America recognized her as the Top Certified Artist in America during the 2000s decade.
In 2009, Billboard named her the Top Radio Songs Artist of the Decade, the Top Female Artist of the 2000s and their Artist of the Millennium in 2011. Time listed her among the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013 and 2014. Forbes magazine also listed her as the most powerful female musician of 2015.
___________________________________________________________________________
Destiny's Child was an American girl group whose final and best-known line-up comprised Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams.
Formed in 1990 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors as Girl's Tyme comprising, among others, Knowles, Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett.
After years of limited success, they were signed in 1996 to Columbia Records as Destiny's Child. Destiny's Child was launched into mainstream recognition following the 1999 release of their best-selling second album, The Writing's on the Wall, which contained the number-one singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name".
Despite critical and commercial success, the group was plagued by internal conflict and legal turmoil, as Roberson and Luckett attempted to split from the group's manager Mathew Knowles, citing favoritism of Knowles and Rowland.
Both Roberson and Luckett were soon replaced with Williams and Farrah Franklin; however, in 2000, Franklin left, leaving the group as a trio. Their third album, Survivor, which contains themes the public interpreted as a channel to the group's experience, contains the worldwide hits "Independent Women", "Survivor" and "Bootylicious".
In 2002, they announced a hiatus and re-united two years later for the release of their fourth and final studio album, Destiny Fulfilled (2004). Destiny's Child has sold more than 60 million records worldwide to date.
Billboard magazine ranks the group as one of the greatest musical trios of all time, the ninth most successful artist/band of the 2000s, and placed the group 68th in its All-Time Hot 100 Artists list in 2008.
Click here for more about Destiny's Child.
Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child, and rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of R&B girl-group Destiny's Child (see below).
Managed by her father, Mathew Knowles, the group became one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. Their hiatus saw the release of Beyoncé's debut album, Dangerously in Love (2003), which established her as a solo artist worldwide, earned five Grammy Awards and featured the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy".
Following the disbandment of Destiny's Child in June 2005, she released her second solo album, B'Day (2006), which contained hits "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable", and "Beautiful Liar".
Beyoncé also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe-nominated performance in Dreamgirls (2006), and starring roles in The Pink Panther (2006) and Obsessed (2009).
Her marriage to rapper Jay Z and portrayal of Etta James in Cadillac Records (2008) influenced her third album, I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), which saw the birth of her alter-ego Sasha Fierce and earned a record-setting six Grammy Awards in 2010, including Song of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)".
Beyoncé took a hiatus from music in 2010 and took over management of her career; her fourth album 4 (2011) was subsequently mellower in tone, exploring 1970s funk, 1980s pop, and 1990s soul.
Her critically acclaimed fifth studio album, Beyoncé (2013), was distinguished from previous releases by its experimental production and exploration of darker themes.
A self-described "modern-day feminist", Beyoncé creates songs that are often characterized by themes of love, relationships, and monogamy, as well as female sexuality and empowerment. On stage, her dynamic, highly choreographed performances have led to critics hailing her as one of the best entertainers in contemporary popular music.
Throughout a career spanning 19 years, she has sold over 118 million records as a solo artist and a further 60 million with Destiny's Child, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
She has won 20 Grammy Awards and is the most nominated woman in the award's history. The Recording Industry Association of America recognized her as the Top Certified Artist in America during the 2000s decade.
In 2009, Billboard named her the Top Radio Songs Artist of the Decade, the Top Female Artist of the 2000s and their Artist of the Millennium in 2011. Time listed her among the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013 and 2014. Forbes magazine also listed her as the most powerful female musician of 2015.
___________________________________________________________________________
Destiny's Child was an American girl group whose final and best-known line-up comprised Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams.
Formed in 1990 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors as Girl's Tyme comprising, among others, Knowles, Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett.
After years of limited success, they were signed in 1996 to Columbia Records as Destiny's Child. Destiny's Child was launched into mainstream recognition following the 1999 release of their best-selling second album, The Writing's on the Wall, which contained the number-one singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name".
Despite critical and commercial success, the group was plagued by internal conflict and legal turmoil, as Roberson and Luckett attempted to split from the group's manager Mathew Knowles, citing favoritism of Knowles and Rowland.
Both Roberson and Luckett were soon replaced with Williams and Farrah Franklin; however, in 2000, Franklin left, leaving the group as a trio. Their third album, Survivor, which contains themes the public interpreted as a channel to the group's experience, contains the worldwide hits "Independent Women", "Survivor" and "Bootylicious".
In 2002, they announced a hiatus and re-united two years later for the release of their fourth and final studio album, Destiny Fulfilled (2004). Destiny's Child has sold more than 60 million records worldwide to date.
Billboard magazine ranks the group as one of the greatest musical trios of all time, the ninth most successful artist/band of the 2000s, and placed the group 68th in its All-Time Hot 100 Artists list in 2008.
Click here for more about Destiny's Child.
Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies.
Formerly a quartet including bass Michael McCary, they are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris alongside tenors Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman. During the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet. McCary left the group in 2003 due to health issues.
During the 1990s, Boyz II Men gained international success. This began with the release of the number one single "End of the Road" in 1992, which reached the top of charts worldwide. "End of the Road" would set a new record for longevity, staying at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks, breaking the decades-old record held by Elvis Presley.
Boyz II Men proceeded to break this record with the subsequent releases of "I'll Make Love to You" and "One Sweet Day" (with Mariah Carey), which, at fourteen and sixteen weeks respectively, each set new records for the total number of weeks at number one. "I'll Make Love to You" also topped the charts in Australia (for four weeks) and garnered international success. As of 2015, "One Sweet Day" still holds the all-time record with sixteen weeks at the top of the Hot 100.
Consequently, Boyz II Men are top ranking members with regard to time spent at number one in Billboard history, ranking in the fourth spot with 50 weeks (as of 2014). Furthermore, when "On Bended Knee" took the number 1 spot away from "I'll Make Love to You", Boyz II Men became only the third artists ever (after The Beatles and Presley) to replace themselves at the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
Boyz II Men are among a select group of artists that have held at the number-one spot for at least 50 weeks cumulatively, placing them just fourth on that list behind Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Mariah Carey. These achievements were enough to earn Boyz II Men recognition as Billboard magazine's fourth most successful musical group of the 1990s.
Boyz II Men continue to perform worldwide, as a trio. Their most recent studio album, Collide, was released in 2014.
Click here for more about Boyz II Men.
Formerly a quartet including bass Michael McCary, they are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris alongside tenors Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman. During the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet. McCary left the group in 2003 due to health issues.
During the 1990s, Boyz II Men gained international success. This began with the release of the number one single "End of the Road" in 1992, which reached the top of charts worldwide. "End of the Road" would set a new record for longevity, staying at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks, breaking the decades-old record held by Elvis Presley.
Boyz II Men proceeded to break this record with the subsequent releases of "I'll Make Love to You" and "One Sweet Day" (with Mariah Carey), which, at fourteen and sixteen weeks respectively, each set new records for the total number of weeks at number one. "I'll Make Love to You" also topped the charts in Australia (for four weeks) and garnered international success. As of 2015, "One Sweet Day" still holds the all-time record with sixteen weeks at the top of the Hot 100.
Consequently, Boyz II Men are top ranking members with regard to time spent at number one in Billboard history, ranking in the fourth spot with 50 weeks (as of 2014). Furthermore, when "On Bended Knee" took the number 1 spot away from "I'll Make Love to You", Boyz II Men became only the third artists ever (after The Beatles and Presley) to replace themselves at the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
Boyz II Men are among a select group of artists that have held at the number-one spot for at least 50 weeks cumulatively, placing them just fourth on that list behind Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Mariah Carey. These achievements were enough to earn Boyz II Men recognition as Billboard magazine's fourth most successful musical group of the 1990s.
Boyz II Men continue to perform worldwide, as a trio. Their most recent studio album, Collide, was released in 2014.
Click here for more about Boyz II Men.
The Coasters
YouTube Video of the Coasters singing "Charlie Brown"
on America Bandstand
Pictured below: The classic Coasters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award Gala Meeting in New York January 21, 1987: Cornell Gunter, Billy Guy, Lester Sill (their original manager), Will "Dub" Jones, and Carl Gardner, (photo ctsy Todd Baptista).
YouTube Video of the Coasters singing "Charlie Brown"
on America Bandstand
Pictured below: The classic Coasters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award Gala Meeting in New York January 21, 1987: Cornell Gunter, Billy Guy, Lester Sill (their original manager), Will "Dub" Jones, and Carl Gardner, (photo ctsy Todd Baptista).
The Coasters was an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s.
Beginning with "Searchin'" and "Young Blood", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller.
Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo-wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo-wop legacy through the 1960s.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about The Coasters:
Beginning with "Searchin'" and "Young Blood", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller.
Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo-wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo-wop legacy through the 1960s.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about The Coasters:
- History
- Legacy
- Group members
- Session musicians
- Discography
- See also:
- Those Hoodlum Friends - The Coasters Web Site - Official website
- Leon Hughes and his Coasters - Group featuring original member Leon Hughes
- The Great R&B-files - The R&B Pioneers Series
- "The Coasters". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- The Coasters At Vocal Group Hall Of Fame
- The Robins - story and full discography
The Commodores
YouTube Video Commodores at the 1978 American Music Awards performing "Easy"
Pictured: Album Covers
YouTube Video Commodores at the 1978 American Music Awards performing "Easy"
Pictured: Album Covers
The Commodores is an American funk/soul band, which was at its peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s.
The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour.
The group's most successful period was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Lionel Richie was co-lead singer.
The band's biggest hit singles are ballads such as "Easy", "Three Times a Lady", and "Nightshift"; and funky dance hits which include "Brick House", "Fancy Dancer", "Lady (You Bring Me Up)", and "Too Hot ta Trot". In 1986 the Commodores won their first Grammy for the song "Nightshift".
For more about the Commodores, click here.
The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour.
The group's most successful period was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Lionel Richie was co-lead singer.
The band's biggest hit singles are ballads such as "Easy", "Three Times a Lady", and "Nightshift"; and funky dance hits which include "Brick House", "Fancy Dancer", "Lady (You Bring Me Up)", and "Too Hot ta Trot". In 1986 the Commodores won their first Grammy for the song "Nightshift".
For more about the Commodores, click here.
Ben E. King
YouTube Video Ben E. King - Stand By Me
Pictured: Ben E. King at a concert in New York, July 2007.
YouTube Video Ben E. King - Stand By Me
Pictured: Ben E. King at a concert in New York, July 2007.
Benjamin Earl King (September 28, 1938 – April 30, 2015), known as Ben E. King, was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer.
He was perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me"—a US Top 10 hit, both in 1961 and later in 1986 (when it was used as the theme to the film of the same name), a number one hit in the UK in 1987, and no. 25 on the RIAA's list of Songs of the Century—and as one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group the Drifters notably singing the lead vocals of one of their biggest global hit singles (and only U.S. #1 hit) "Save the Last Dance for Me".
Early life:
King was born, with the birth name of Benjamin Earl Nelson, on September 28, 1938, in Henderson, North Carolina, and moved to Harlem, New York, at the age of nine in 1947.
King began singing in church choirs, and in high school formed the Four B’s, a doo-wop group that occasionally performed at the Apollo.
Career:
The Drifters: In 1958, King (still using his birth name) joined a doo-wop group called the Five Crowns. Later that year, the Drifters' manager George Treadwell fired the members of the original Drifters, and replaced them with the members of the Five Crowns.
King had a string of R&B hits with the group on Atlantic Records. He co-wrote and sang lead on the first Atlantic hit by the new version of the Drifters, "There Goes My Baby" (1959).
He also sang lead on a succession of hits by the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, including "Save the Last Dance for Me", "This Magic Moment", and "I Count the Tears".
King only recorded thirteen songs with theDrifters--two backing other lead singers and eleven lead vocal performances--including a non-single called "Temptation" (later redone by Drifters vocalist Johnny Moore).
The last of the King-led Drifters singles to be released was "Sometimes I Wonder", which was recorded May 19, 1960, but not issued until June 1962. Due to contract disputes with Treadwell in which King and his manager, Lover Patterson, demanded greater compensation, King rarely performed with the Drifters on tour or on television. On television, fellow Drifters member Charlie Thomas usually lip-synched the songs that King had recorded with the Drifters.
Solo career:
In May 1960, King left the Drifters, assuming the stage name Ben E. King in preparation for a solo career. Remaining with Atlantic Records on its Atco imprint, King scored his first solo hit with the ballad "Spanish Harlem" (1961). His next single, "Stand by Me", written with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, ultimately would be voted as one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America.
King cited singers Brook Benton, Roy Hamilton and Sam Cooke as influences for his vocals of the song. "Stand by Me", "There Goes My Baby", "Spanish Harlem", and "Save the Last Dance for Me" were all named in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll; and each of those records has earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
King's other well-known songs include:
In the summer of 1963, King had a Top 30 hit with "I (Who Have Nothing)", which reached the Top 10 on New York's radio station, WMCA.
King's records continued to place well on the Billboard Hot 100 chart until 1965. British pop bands began to dominate the pop music scene, but King still continued to make R&B hits, including "What is Soul?" (1966), "Tears, Tears, Tears" (1967), and "Supernatural Thing" (1975).
A 1986 re-issue of "Stand by Me" followed the song's use as the theme song to the movie Stand By Me and re-entered the Billboard Top Ten after a 25-year absence. This reissue also reached Number 1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland for three weeks in February 1987.
In 1990, King and Bo Diddley, along with Doug Lazy, recorded a revamped hip hop version of the Monotones' 1958 hit song "Book of Love" for the soundtrack of the movie Book of Love. He also recorded a children's album, I Have Songs In My Pocket, written and produced by children's music artist Bobby Susser in 1998, which won the Early Childhood News Directors' Choice Award and Dr. Toy's/the Institute for Childhood Resources Award.
King performed "Stand by Me" on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2007. Ahmet Ertegun said, "King is one of the greatest singers in the history of rock and roll and rhythm and blues."
As a Drifter and as a solo artist, King had achieved five number one hits: "There Goes My Baby", "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Stand By Me", "Supernatural Thing", and the 1986 re-issue of "Stand By Me". He also earned 12 Top 10 hits and 26 Top 40 hits from 1959 to 1986. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Drifter; he was also nominated as a solo artist.
King performing at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 31, 2012.
King's "I (Who Have Nothing)" was selected for the Sopranos Peppers and Eggs Soundtrack CD (2001).
King was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
On March 27, 2012, the Songwriters Hall of Fame announced that "Stand By Me" would receive its 2012 Towering Song Award and that King would be honored with the 2012 Towering Performance Award for his recording of the song.
He was perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me"—a US Top 10 hit, both in 1961 and later in 1986 (when it was used as the theme to the film of the same name), a number one hit in the UK in 1987, and no. 25 on the RIAA's list of Songs of the Century—and as one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group the Drifters notably singing the lead vocals of one of their biggest global hit singles (and only U.S. #1 hit) "Save the Last Dance for Me".
Early life:
King was born, with the birth name of Benjamin Earl Nelson, on September 28, 1938, in Henderson, North Carolina, and moved to Harlem, New York, at the age of nine in 1947.
King began singing in church choirs, and in high school formed the Four B’s, a doo-wop group that occasionally performed at the Apollo.
Career:
The Drifters: In 1958, King (still using his birth name) joined a doo-wop group called the Five Crowns. Later that year, the Drifters' manager George Treadwell fired the members of the original Drifters, and replaced them with the members of the Five Crowns.
King had a string of R&B hits with the group on Atlantic Records. He co-wrote and sang lead on the first Atlantic hit by the new version of the Drifters, "There Goes My Baby" (1959).
He also sang lead on a succession of hits by the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, including "Save the Last Dance for Me", "This Magic Moment", and "I Count the Tears".
King only recorded thirteen songs with theDrifters--two backing other lead singers and eleven lead vocal performances--including a non-single called "Temptation" (later redone by Drifters vocalist Johnny Moore).
The last of the King-led Drifters singles to be released was "Sometimes I Wonder", which was recorded May 19, 1960, but not issued until June 1962. Due to contract disputes with Treadwell in which King and his manager, Lover Patterson, demanded greater compensation, King rarely performed with the Drifters on tour or on television. On television, fellow Drifters member Charlie Thomas usually lip-synched the songs that King had recorded with the Drifters.
Solo career:
In May 1960, King left the Drifters, assuming the stage name Ben E. King in preparation for a solo career. Remaining with Atlantic Records on its Atco imprint, King scored his first solo hit with the ballad "Spanish Harlem" (1961). His next single, "Stand by Me", written with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, ultimately would be voted as one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America.
King cited singers Brook Benton, Roy Hamilton and Sam Cooke as influences for his vocals of the song. "Stand by Me", "There Goes My Baby", "Spanish Harlem", and "Save the Last Dance for Me" were all named in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll; and each of those records has earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
King's other well-known songs include:
- "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)",
- "Amor",
- "Seven Letters",
- "How Can I Forget",
- "On the Horizon",
- "Young Boy Blues",
- "First Taste of Love",
- "Here Comes the Night",
- "Ecstasy",
- and "That's When It Hurts".
In the summer of 1963, King had a Top 30 hit with "I (Who Have Nothing)", which reached the Top 10 on New York's radio station, WMCA.
King's records continued to place well on the Billboard Hot 100 chart until 1965. British pop bands began to dominate the pop music scene, but King still continued to make R&B hits, including "What is Soul?" (1966), "Tears, Tears, Tears" (1967), and "Supernatural Thing" (1975).
A 1986 re-issue of "Stand by Me" followed the song's use as the theme song to the movie Stand By Me and re-entered the Billboard Top Ten after a 25-year absence. This reissue also reached Number 1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland for three weeks in February 1987.
In 1990, King and Bo Diddley, along with Doug Lazy, recorded a revamped hip hop version of the Monotones' 1958 hit song "Book of Love" for the soundtrack of the movie Book of Love. He also recorded a children's album, I Have Songs In My Pocket, written and produced by children's music artist Bobby Susser in 1998, which won the Early Childhood News Directors' Choice Award and Dr. Toy's/the Institute for Childhood Resources Award.
King performed "Stand by Me" on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2007. Ahmet Ertegun said, "King is one of the greatest singers in the history of rock and roll and rhythm and blues."
As a Drifter and as a solo artist, King had achieved five number one hits: "There Goes My Baby", "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Stand By Me", "Supernatural Thing", and the 1986 re-issue of "Stand By Me". He also earned 12 Top 10 hits and 26 Top 40 hits from 1959 to 1986. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Drifter; he was also nominated as a solo artist.
King performing at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 31, 2012.
King's "I (Who Have Nothing)" was selected for the Sopranos Peppers and Eggs Soundtrack CD (2001).
King was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
On March 27, 2012, the Songwriters Hall of Fame announced that "Stand By Me" would receive its 2012 Towering Song Award and that King would be honored with the 2012 Towering Performance Award for his recording of the song.
Bo Diddley
YouTube Video: Bo Diddley LIVE 1973 - "Hey, Bo Diddley"
Pictured: Bo Diddley performing in 2005
YouTube Video: Bo Diddley LIVE 1973 - "Hey, Bo Diddley"
Pictured: Bo Diddley performing in 2005
Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates, December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known as Bo Diddley, was an American R&B and Chicago blues singer, guitarist, songwriter and music producer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll, and influenced artists including:
His use of African rhythms and a signature beat, a simple five-accent hambone rhythm, is a cornerstone of hip hop, rock, and pop.
In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his distinctive rectangular guitar.
Early life and career:
Born in McComb, Mississippi, as Ellas Otha Bates, he was adopted and raised by his mother's cousin, Gussie McDaniel, whose surname he assumed. In 1934, the McDaniel family moved to the South Side of Chicago, where he dropped the Otha and became Ellas McDaniel.
He was an active member of Chicago's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he studied the trombone and the violin, becoming so proficient on the violin that the musical director invited him to join the orchestra. He performed until he was 18. However, he was more interested in the pulsating, rhythmic music he heard at a local Pentecostal church and took up the guitar.
Inspired by a performance by John Lee Hooker, he supplemented his income as a carpenter and mechanic by playing on street corners with friends, including Jerome Green (c. 1934–1973), in the Hipsters band, later renamed the Langley Avenue Jive Cats. Green became a near-constant member of McDaniel's backing band, the two often trading joking insults with each other during live shows.
During the summer of 1943–1944, he played at the Maxwell Street market in a band with Earl Hooker. By 1951 he was playing on the street with backing from Roosevelt Jackson on washtub bass and Jody Williams, whom he had taught to play the guitar. Williams later played lead guitar on "Who Do You Love?" (1956).
In 1951 he landed a regular spot at the 708 Club, on Chicago's South Side, with a repertoire influenced by Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. In late 1954, he teamed up with harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold, drummer Clifton James and bass player Roosevelt Jackson and recorded demos of "I'm a Man" and "Bo Diddley". They re-recorded the songs at Chess Studios, with a backing ensemble comprising Otis Spann (piano), Lester Davenport (harmonica), Frank Kirkland (drums), and Jerome Green (maracas). The record was released in March 1955, and the A-side, "Bo Diddley", became a number one R&B hit.
Origins of stage name:
The origin of the stage name Bo Diddley is unclear. McDaniel claimed that his peers gave him the name, which he suspected was an insult. He also said that the name first belonged to a singer his adoptive mother knew. Harmonicist Billy Boy Arnold said that it was a local comedian's name, which Leonard Chess adopted as McDaniel's stage name and the title of his first single. Guitar craftsman Ed Roman stated that it was McDaniel's nickname as a Golden Gloves boxer.
A diddley bow is a homemade single-string instrument played mainly by farm workers in the South. It probably has influences from the West African coast.In the American slang term bo diddly, bo is an intensifier and diddly is a truncation of diddly squat, which means "absolutely nothing".
Success in the 1950s and 1960s:
On November 20, 1955, Bo Diddley appeared on the popular television program The Ed Sullivan Show. When someone on the show's staff overheard him casually singing "Sixteen Tons" in the dressing room, he was asked to perform the song on the show.
Because he could not read, when he saw "Bo Diddley" on the cue card, he thought he was to perform both his hit single and "Sixteen Tons". Sullivan was furious and banned Bo Diddley from his show, reputedly saying that he wouldn't last six months. Chess Records included Bo Diddley's "Sixteen Tons" on the 1960 album Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger.
Bo Diddley's hit singles continued in the 1950s and 1960s: "Pretty Thing" (1956), "Say Man" (1959), and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" (1962). He also released numerous albums, including Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger and Have Guitar, Will Travel.
These bolstered his self-invented legend. Between 1958 and 1963, Checker Records released eleven full-length Bo Diddley albums. In the 1960s he broke through as a crossover artist with white audiences (appearing at the Alan Freed concerts, for example), but he rarely aimed his compositions at teenagers. The album title Surfing with Bo Diddley derived from his influence on surf guitarists rather than surfing per se.
In 1963, Bo Diddley starred in a UK concert tour with the Everly Brothers and Little Richard. The up-and-coming Rolling Stones were billed as a supporting act.
He wrote many songs for himself and also for others. In 1956 he and guitarist Jody Williams co-wrote the pop song "Love Is Strange", a hit for Mickey & Sylvia in 1957. He also wrote "Mama (Can I Go Out)", which was a minor hit for the pioneering rockabilly singer Jo Ann Campbell, who performed the song in the 1959 rock and roll film Go Johnny Go.
Bo Diddley included women in his band: Norma-Jean Wofford, also known as The Duchess; Gloria Jolivet; Peggy Jones, also known as Lady Bo, a lead guitarist (rare for a woman at that time); Cornelia Redmond, also known as Cookie V; Debby Hastings, who led his band for the final 25 years.
After moving from Chicago to Washington, D.C., he set up one of the first home recording studios, where he not only recorded the album Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger but produced and recorded his valet, Marvin Gaye. Bo Diddley co-wrote the Marquees' record "Wyatt Earp", the first single to feature Gaye. It was released on Okeh Records, after the Chess brothers turned it down. During this time, Moonglows' founder Harvey Fuqua sang backing vocals on many of Bo Diddley's home recordings. Gaye later joined the Moonglows and followed them to Motown.
Later years:
Over the decades, Bo Diddley's performing venues ranged from intimate clubs to stadiums. On March 25, 1972, he played with the Grateful Dead at the Academy of Music in New York City. The Grateful Dead released part of this concert as Volume 30 of the band's concert album series, Dick's Picks. Also in the early 1970s, the soundtrack of the ground-breaking animated film Fritz the Cat contained his song "Bo Diddley", in which a crow idly finger-pops to the track.
Bo Diddley spent some years in New Mexico, living in Los Lunas from 1971 to 1978, while continuing his musical career. He served for two and a half years as a deputy sheriff in the Valencia County Citizens' Patrol; during that time he purchased and donated three highway-patrol pursuit cars.
In the late 1970s, he left Los Lunas and moved to Hawthorne, Florida, where he lived on a large estate in a custom-made log cabin, which he helped to build. For the remainder of his life he divided his time between Albuquerque and Florida, living the last 13 years of his life in Archer, Florida, a small farming town near Gainesville.
In 1979, he appeared as an opening act for the Clash on their US tour and in Legends of Guitar (filmed live in Spain, 1991), with B.B. King, Les Paul, Albert Collins, and George Benson, among others. He joined the Rolling Stones on their 1994 concert broadcast of Voodoo Lounge, performing "Who Do You Love?" with the band. Sheryl Crow and Robert Cray also appeared on the pay-per-view special.
From 1985 until he died, his touring band consisted of Jim Satten (guitarist, band leader, musical director); Scott "Skyntyte" Free, Nunzio Signore or Frank Daley (guitar); Tom Major, Dave Johnson, Yoshi Shimada, Mike Fink or Sandy Gennaro (drums); John Margolis, Dave Keys or personal manager Margo Lewis (keyboards); and Debby Hastings (bassist and musical director).
Bo Diddley performed a number of shows around the country in 2005 and 2006 with fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Johnnie Johnson and his band, consisting of Johnson on keyboards, Richard Hunt on drums and Gus Thornton on bass.
In 2006, he participated as the headliner of a grassroots-organized fundraiser concert to benefit the town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
The "Florida Keys for Katrina Relief" had originally been set for October 23, 2005, when Hurricane Wilma barreled through the Florida Keys on October 24, causing flooding and economic mayhem. In January 2006, the Florida Keys had recovered enough to host the fundraising concert to benefit the more hard-hit community of Ocean Springs. When asked about the fundraiser, Bo Diddley stated, "This is the United States of America. We believe in helping one another".
In an interview with Holger Petersen, on Saturday Night Blues on CBC Radio in the fall of 2006, he commented on racism in the music industry establishment during his early career, which deprived him of royalties from the most successful part of his career.
His final guitar performance on a studio album was with the New York Dolls on their 2006 album One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. He contributed guitar work to the song "Seventeen", which was included as a bonus track on the limited-edition version of the disc.
Bo Diddley fought the sportswear brand Nike in his later years over alleged copyright infringement, specifically over the use of his likeness and the slogan "You don't know diddley." In 1989, he had worked with Nike on a commercial in the "Bo Knows" campaign and had entered into a licensing agreement with the company. The agreement ended in 1991.
When Nike began selling the apparel again in 1999, he felt that Nike should not continue to use the slogan or his likeness. Despite the fact that lawyers for both parties could not come to a renewed legal arrangement, Nike allegedly continued marketing the apparel and ignored cease-and-desist orders. The lawsuit was filed by attorney John Rosenberg in Manhattan Federal Court.
On May 13, 2007, Bo Diddley was admitted to intensive care in Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, following a stroke after a concert the previous day in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Starting the show, he had complained that he did not feel well. He referred to smoke from the wildfires that were ravaging south Georgia and blowing south to the area near his home in Archer, Florida.
Nonetheless, he delivered an energetic performance to an enthusiastic crowd. The next day, as he was heading back home, he seemed dazed and confused at the airport. His manager, Margo Lewis, called 911 and airport security, and the musician was immediately taken by ambulance to Creighton University Medical Center and admitted to the Intensive-care unit, where he stayed for several days. After tests, it was confirmed that he had suffered a stroke. Bo Diddley had a history of hypertension and diabetes, and the stroke affected the left side of his brain, causing receptive and expressive aphasia (speech impairment). The stroke was followed by a heart attack, which he suffered in Gainesville, Florida, on August 28, 2007.
While recovering from the stroke and heart attack, Bo Diddley came back to his home town of McComb, Mississippi, in early November 2007, for the unveiling of a plaque devoted to him on the Mississippi Blues Trail. This marked his achievements and noted that he was "acclaimed as a founder of rock-and-roll." He was not supposed to perform, but as he listened to the music of local musician Jesse Robinson, who sang a song written for this occasion, Robinson sensed that Bo Diddley wanted to perform and handed him a microphone, the only time that he performed publicly after his stroke.
His Death and Legacy:
Bo Diddley died on June 2, 2008, of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida.
Garry Mitchell, his grandson and one of more than 35 family members at the musician's home when he died at 1:45 a.m. EDT (05:45 GMT), said his death was not unexpected. "There was a gospel song that was sung (at his bedside) and (when it was done) he said 'wow' with a thumbs up," Mitchell told Reuters, when asked to describe the scene at the deathbed. "The song was 'Walk Around Heaven' and in his last words he said 'I'm going to heaven.'"
His funeral, a four-hour "homegoing" service, took place on June 7, 2008, at Showers of Blessings Church in Gainesville, Florida, and kept in tune with the vibrant spirit of Bo Diddley's life and career. The many in attendance chanted "Hey Bo Diddley" as a gospel band played the legend's music. A number of notable musicians sent flowers, including George Thorogood, Tom Petty and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Little Richard, who had been asking his audiences to pray for Bo Diddley throughout his illness, had to fulfill concert commitments in Westbury and New York City the weekend of the funeral. He took time at both concerts to remember his friend of a half-century, performing Bo's namesake tune in his honor.
After the funeral service, a tribute concert was held at the Martin Luther King Center in Gainesville, Florida and featured guest performances by his son and daughter, Ellas McDaniel Jr. and Evelyn "Tan" Cooper; long-time background vocalist Gloria Jolivet; and Eric Burdon. In the days following his death, tributes were paid by then-President George W. Bush, the United States House of Representatives, and many musicians and performers, including,
He was posthumously awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts degree by the University of Florida for his influence on American popular music. In its People in America radio series, about influential people in American history, the Voice of America radio service paid tribute to him, describing how "his influence was so widespread that it is hard to imagine what rock and roll would have sounded like without him."
Mick Jagger stated that "he was a wonderful, original musician who was an enormous force in music and was a big influence on the Rolling Stones. He was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him". Jagger also praised the late star as a one-of-a-kind musician, adding, "We will never see his like again".
The documentary film Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street by director Phil Ranstrom features Bo Diddley's last on-camera interview.
In November 2009, the guitar used by Bo Diddley in his final stage performance sold for $60,000 at auction.
- Elvis Presley,
- Buddy Holly,
- the Beatles,
- the Rolling Stones,
- the Yardbirds,
- Eric Clapton,
- the Who,
- Jimi Hendrix,
- and Parliament-Funkadelic.
His use of African rhythms and a signature beat, a simple five-accent hambone rhythm, is a cornerstone of hip hop, rock, and pop.
In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his distinctive rectangular guitar.
Early life and career:
Born in McComb, Mississippi, as Ellas Otha Bates, he was adopted and raised by his mother's cousin, Gussie McDaniel, whose surname he assumed. In 1934, the McDaniel family moved to the South Side of Chicago, where he dropped the Otha and became Ellas McDaniel.
He was an active member of Chicago's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he studied the trombone and the violin, becoming so proficient on the violin that the musical director invited him to join the orchestra. He performed until he was 18. However, he was more interested in the pulsating, rhythmic music he heard at a local Pentecostal church and took up the guitar.
Inspired by a performance by John Lee Hooker, he supplemented his income as a carpenter and mechanic by playing on street corners with friends, including Jerome Green (c. 1934–1973), in the Hipsters band, later renamed the Langley Avenue Jive Cats. Green became a near-constant member of McDaniel's backing band, the two often trading joking insults with each other during live shows.
During the summer of 1943–1944, he played at the Maxwell Street market in a band with Earl Hooker. By 1951 he was playing on the street with backing from Roosevelt Jackson on washtub bass and Jody Williams, whom he had taught to play the guitar. Williams later played lead guitar on "Who Do You Love?" (1956).
In 1951 he landed a regular spot at the 708 Club, on Chicago's South Side, with a repertoire influenced by Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. In late 1954, he teamed up with harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold, drummer Clifton James and bass player Roosevelt Jackson and recorded demos of "I'm a Man" and "Bo Diddley". They re-recorded the songs at Chess Studios, with a backing ensemble comprising Otis Spann (piano), Lester Davenport (harmonica), Frank Kirkland (drums), and Jerome Green (maracas). The record was released in March 1955, and the A-side, "Bo Diddley", became a number one R&B hit.
Origins of stage name:
The origin of the stage name Bo Diddley is unclear. McDaniel claimed that his peers gave him the name, which he suspected was an insult. He also said that the name first belonged to a singer his adoptive mother knew. Harmonicist Billy Boy Arnold said that it was a local comedian's name, which Leonard Chess adopted as McDaniel's stage name and the title of his first single. Guitar craftsman Ed Roman stated that it was McDaniel's nickname as a Golden Gloves boxer.
A diddley bow is a homemade single-string instrument played mainly by farm workers in the South. It probably has influences from the West African coast.In the American slang term bo diddly, bo is an intensifier and diddly is a truncation of diddly squat, which means "absolutely nothing".
Success in the 1950s and 1960s:
On November 20, 1955, Bo Diddley appeared on the popular television program The Ed Sullivan Show. When someone on the show's staff overheard him casually singing "Sixteen Tons" in the dressing room, he was asked to perform the song on the show.
Because he could not read, when he saw "Bo Diddley" on the cue card, he thought he was to perform both his hit single and "Sixteen Tons". Sullivan was furious and banned Bo Diddley from his show, reputedly saying that he wouldn't last six months. Chess Records included Bo Diddley's "Sixteen Tons" on the 1960 album Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger.
Bo Diddley's hit singles continued in the 1950s and 1960s: "Pretty Thing" (1956), "Say Man" (1959), and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" (1962). He also released numerous albums, including Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger and Have Guitar, Will Travel.
These bolstered his self-invented legend. Between 1958 and 1963, Checker Records released eleven full-length Bo Diddley albums. In the 1960s he broke through as a crossover artist with white audiences (appearing at the Alan Freed concerts, for example), but he rarely aimed his compositions at teenagers. The album title Surfing with Bo Diddley derived from his influence on surf guitarists rather than surfing per se.
In 1963, Bo Diddley starred in a UK concert tour with the Everly Brothers and Little Richard. The up-and-coming Rolling Stones were billed as a supporting act.
He wrote many songs for himself and also for others. In 1956 he and guitarist Jody Williams co-wrote the pop song "Love Is Strange", a hit for Mickey & Sylvia in 1957. He also wrote "Mama (Can I Go Out)", which was a minor hit for the pioneering rockabilly singer Jo Ann Campbell, who performed the song in the 1959 rock and roll film Go Johnny Go.
Bo Diddley included women in his band: Norma-Jean Wofford, also known as The Duchess; Gloria Jolivet; Peggy Jones, also known as Lady Bo, a lead guitarist (rare for a woman at that time); Cornelia Redmond, also known as Cookie V; Debby Hastings, who led his band for the final 25 years.
After moving from Chicago to Washington, D.C., he set up one of the first home recording studios, where he not only recorded the album Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger but produced and recorded his valet, Marvin Gaye. Bo Diddley co-wrote the Marquees' record "Wyatt Earp", the first single to feature Gaye. It was released on Okeh Records, after the Chess brothers turned it down. During this time, Moonglows' founder Harvey Fuqua sang backing vocals on many of Bo Diddley's home recordings. Gaye later joined the Moonglows and followed them to Motown.
Later years:
Over the decades, Bo Diddley's performing venues ranged from intimate clubs to stadiums. On March 25, 1972, he played with the Grateful Dead at the Academy of Music in New York City. The Grateful Dead released part of this concert as Volume 30 of the band's concert album series, Dick's Picks. Also in the early 1970s, the soundtrack of the ground-breaking animated film Fritz the Cat contained his song "Bo Diddley", in which a crow idly finger-pops to the track.
Bo Diddley spent some years in New Mexico, living in Los Lunas from 1971 to 1978, while continuing his musical career. He served for two and a half years as a deputy sheriff in the Valencia County Citizens' Patrol; during that time he purchased and donated three highway-patrol pursuit cars.
In the late 1970s, he left Los Lunas and moved to Hawthorne, Florida, where he lived on a large estate in a custom-made log cabin, which he helped to build. For the remainder of his life he divided his time between Albuquerque and Florida, living the last 13 years of his life in Archer, Florida, a small farming town near Gainesville.
In 1979, he appeared as an opening act for the Clash on their US tour and in Legends of Guitar (filmed live in Spain, 1991), with B.B. King, Les Paul, Albert Collins, and George Benson, among others. He joined the Rolling Stones on their 1994 concert broadcast of Voodoo Lounge, performing "Who Do You Love?" with the band. Sheryl Crow and Robert Cray also appeared on the pay-per-view special.
From 1985 until he died, his touring band consisted of Jim Satten (guitarist, band leader, musical director); Scott "Skyntyte" Free, Nunzio Signore or Frank Daley (guitar); Tom Major, Dave Johnson, Yoshi Shimada, Mike Fink or Sandy Gennaro (drums); John Margolis, Dave Keys or personal manager Margo Lewis (keyboards); and Debby Hastings (bassist and musical director).
Bo Diddley performed a number of shows around the country in 2005 and 2006 with fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Johnnie Johnson and his band, consisting of Johnson on keyboards, Richard Hunt on drums and Gus Thornton on bass.
In 2006, he participated as the headliner of a grassroots-organized fundraiser concert to benefit the town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
The "Florida Keys for Katrina Relief" had originally been set for October 23, 2005, when Hurricane Wilma barreled through the Florida Keys on October 24, causing flooding and economic mayhem. In January 2006, the Florida Keys had recovered enough to host the fundraising concert to benefit the more hard-hit community of Ocean Springs. When asked about the fundraiser, Bo Diddley stated, "This is the United States of America. We believe in helping one another".
In an interview with Holger Petersen, on Saturday Night Blues on CBC Radio in the fall of 2006, he commented on racism in the music industry establishment during his early career, which deprived him of royalties from the most successful part of his career.
His final guitar performance on a studio album was with the New York Dolls on their 2006 album One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. He contributed guitar work to the song "Seventeen", which was included as a bonus track on the limited-edition version of the disc.
Bo Diddley fought the sportswear brand Nike in his later years over alleged copyright infringement, specifically over the use of his likeness and the slogan "You don't know diddley." In 1989, he had worked with Nike on a commercial in the "Bo Knows" campaign and had entered into a licensing agreement with the company. The agreement ended in 1991.
When Nike began selling the apparel again in 1999, he felt that Nike should not continue to use the slogan or his likeness. Despite the fact that lawyers for both parties could not come to a renewed legal arrangement, Nike allegedly continued marketing the apparel and ignored cease-and-desist orders. The lawsuit was filed by attorney John Rosenberg in Manhattan Federal Court.
On May 13, 2007, Bo Diddley was admitted to intensive care in Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, following a stroke after a concert the previous day in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Starting the show, he had complained that he did not feel well. He referred to smoke from the wildfires that were ravaging south Georgia and blowing south to the area near his home in Archer, Florida.
Nonetheless, he delivered an energetic performance to an enthusiastic crowd. The next day, as he was heading back home, he seemed dazed and confused at the airport. His manager, Margo Lewis, called 911 and airport security, and the musician was immediately taken by ambulance to Creighton University Medical Center and admitted to the Intensive-care unit, where he stayed for several days. After tests, it was confirmed that he had suffered a stroke. Bo Diddley had a history of hypertension and diabetes, and the stroke affected the left side of his brain, causing receptive and expressive aphasia (speech impairment). The stroke was followed by a heart attack, which he suffered in Gainesville, Florida, on August 28, 2007.
While recovering from the stroke and heart attack, Bo Diddley came back to his home town of McComb, Mississippi, in early November 2007, for the unveiling of a plaque devoted to him on the Mississippi Blues Trail. This marked his achievements and noted that he was "acclaimed as a founder of rock-and-roll." He was not supposed to perform, but as he listened to the music of local musician Jesse Robinson, who sang a song written for this occasion, Robinson sensed that Bo Diddley wanted to perform and handed him a microphone, the only time that he performed publicly after his stroke.
His Death and Legacy:
Bo Diddley died on June 2, 2008, of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida.
Garry Mitchell, his grandson and one of more than 35 family members at the musician's home when he died at 1:45 a.m. EDT (05:45 GMT), said his death was not unexpected. "There was a gospel song that was sung (at his bedside) and (when it was done) he said 'wow' with a thumbs up," Mitchell told Reuters, when asked to describe the scene at the deathbed. "The song was 'Walk Around Heaven' and in his last words he said 'I'm going to heaven.'"
His funeral, a four-hour "homegoing" service, took place on June 7, 2008, at Showers of Blessings Church in Gainesville, Florida, and kept in tune with the vibrant spirit of Bo Diddley's life and career. The many in attendance chanted "Hey Bo Diddley" as a gospel band played the legend's music. A number of notable musicians sent flowers, including George Thorogood, Tom Petty and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Little Richard, who had been asking his audiences to pray for Bo Diddley throughout his illness, had to fulfill concert commitments in Westbury and New York City the weekend of the funeral. He took time at both concerts to remember his friend of a half-century, performing Bo's namesake tune in his honor.
After the funeral service, a tribute concert was held at the Martin Luther King Center in Gainesville, Florida and featured guest performances by his son and daughter, Ellas McDaniel Jr. and Evelyn "Tan" Cooper; long-time background vocalist Gloria Jolivet; and Eric Burdon. In the days following his death, tributes were paid by then-President George W. Bush, the United States House of Representatives, and many musicians and performers, including,
- B. B. King,
- Ronnie Hawkins,
- Mick Jagger,
- Ronnie Wood,
- George Thorogood,
- Eric Clapton,
- Tom Petty,
- Robert Plant, Elvis Costello,
- Bonnie Raitt, Robert Randolph and the Family Band,
- and Eric Burdon.
He was posthumously awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts degree by the University of Florida for his influence on American popular music. In its People in America radio series, about influential people in American history, the Voice of America radio service paid tribute to him, describing how "his influence was so widespread that it is hard to imagine what rock and roll would have sounded like without him."
Mick Jagger stated that "he was a wonderful, original musician who was an enormous force in music and was a big influence on the Rolling Stones. He was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him". Jagger also praised the late star as a one-of-a-kind musician, adding, "We will never see his like again".
The documentary film Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street by director Phil Ranstrom features Bo Diddley's last on-camera interview.
In November 2009, the guitar used by Bo Diddley in his final stage performance sold for $60,000 at auction.
B.B. King
YouTube Video: "B.B. King Calls This One Of His Best Performances"
Pictured: King at the 2009 North Sea Jazz Festival
YouTube Video: "B.B. King Calls This One Of His Best Performances"
Pictured: King at the 2009 North Sea Jazz Festival
Riley B. King, known professionally as B.B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015) was an American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that influenced many later electric blues guitarists.
King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of the Blues", and one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" along with Albert King and Freddie King.
King was known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing at more than 200 concerts per year on average into his 70s. In 1956, he reportedly appeared at 342 shows.
King died at the age of 89 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 14, 2015, from congestive heart failure and diabetic complications.
Early Life:
Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation called Berclair, near the town of Itta Bena, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King. He considered the nearby city of Indianola, Mississippi to be his home. When Riley was four years old, his mother left his father for another man, so the boy was raised by his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael, Mississippi.
While young, King sang in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael. King was attracted to the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ because of its music. The local minister led worship with a Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar. The minister taught King his first three chords. It seems that at the age of 12 he purchased his first guitar for $15.00, although another source indicates he was given his first guitar by Bukka White, his mother's first cousin (King's grandmother and White's mother were sisters).
In November 1941 "King Biscuit Time" first aired, broadcasting on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. It was a radio show featuring the Mississippi Delta blues. King listened to it while on break at a plantation. A self-taught guitarist, he then wanted to become a radio musician.
In 1943, King left Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and play guitar with the Famous St. John's Quartet of Inverness, Mississippi, performing at area churches and on WGRM in Greenwood, Mississippi.
In 1946, King followed Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee. White took him in for the next ten months. However, King returned to Mississippi shortly afterward, where he decided to prepare himself better for the next visit, and returned to West Memphis, Arkansas, two years later in 1948.
He performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he began to develop an audience. King's appearances led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten-minute spot on the Memphis radio station. The radio spot became so popular that it was expanded and became the Sepia Swing Club.
Initially he worked at WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, gaining the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy", which was later shortened to "Blues Boy" and finally to B.B. It was there that he first met T-Bone Walker. King said, "Once I'd heard him for the first time, I knew I'd have to have [an electric guitar] myself. 'Had' to have one, short of stealing!"
Career:
1949–2005:
In 1949, King began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. Before his RPM contract, King had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which did not chart well. "My very first recordings [in 1949] were for a company out of Nashville called Bullet, the Bullet Record Transcription company," King recalled. "I had horns that very first session. I had Phineas Newborn on piano; his father played drums, and his brother, Calvin, played guitar with me. I had Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch on tenor sax, his brother, Thomas Branch, on trumpet, and a lady trombone player. The Newborn family were the house band at the famous Plantation Inn in West Memphis."
King assembled his own band; the B.B. King Review, under the leadership of Millard Lee. The band initially consisted of Calvin Owens and Kenneth Sands (trumpet), Lawrence Burdin (alto saxophone), George Coleman (tenor saxophone), Floyd Newman (baritone saxophone), Millard Lee (piano), George Joyner (bass) and Earl Forest and Ted Curry (drums). Onzie Horne was a trained musician elicited as an arranger to assist King with his compositions. By his own admission, King could not play chords well and always relied on improvisation.
King's recording contract was followed by tours across the United States, with performances in major theaters in cities such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and St. Louis, as well as numerous gigs in small clubs and juke joints of the southern United States.
During one show in Twist, Arkansas, a brawl broke out between two men and caused a fire. He evacuated along with the rest of the crowd but went back to retrieve his guitar. He said he later found out that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. He named the guitar Lucille, as a reminder not to fight over women or run into any more burning buildings.
Following his first Billboard Rhythm and Blues chart number one, "3 O'Clock Blues" (February 1952), B.B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music in the 1950s, amassing an impressive list of hits including,
This led to a significant increase in his weekly earnings, from about $85 to $2,500, with appearances at major venues such as the Howard Theater in Washington and the Apollo in New York, as well as touring the entire "Chitlin' circuit".
1956 became a record-breaking year, with 342 concerts booked and three recording sessions. That same year he founded his own record label, Blues Boys Kingdom, with headquarters at Beale Street in Memphis. There, among other projects, he produced artists such as Millard Lee and Levi Seabury.
In 1962, King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records, and which itself was later absorbed into Geffen Records. In November 1964, King recorded the Live at the Regal album at the Regal Theater. King later said that Regal Live "is considered by some the best recording I've ever had . . . that particular day in Chicago everything came together . . .
From the late 1960s, new manager Sid Seidenberg pushed King into a different type of venue as blues-rock performers like Clapton and Paul Butterfield were popularizing an appreciation of blues music among white audiences.
King gained further visibility among rock audiences as an opening act on the Rolling Stones' 1969 American Tour.
He won a 1970 Grammy Award for the song "The Thrill Is Gone"; his version became a hit on both the pop and R&B charts. It also gained the number 183 spot in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
In 2004, he was awarded the international Polar Music Prize, given to artists "in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music."
From the 1980s to his death in 2015, he maintained a highly visible and active career, appearing on numerous television shows and performing 300 nights a year. In 1988, King reached a new generation of fans with the single "When Love Comes to Town", a collaborative effort between King and the Irish band U2 on their Rattle and Hum album.
In December 1997, he performed in the Vatican's fifth annual Christmas concert and presented his trademark guitar "Lucille" to Pope John Paul II. In 1998, he appeared in The Blues Brothers 2000, playing the part of the lead singer of the Louisiana Gator Boys, along with Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Koko Taylor and Bo Diddley. In 2000, he and Clapton teamed up again to record Riding With the King, which won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Discussing where he took the Blues, from "dirt floor, smoke in the air" joints to grand concert halls, King said the Blues belonged everywhere beautiful music belonged. He successfully worked both sides of the commercial divide, with sophisticated recordings and "raw, raucous" live performance.
2006–2014: farewell tour and later activities:
In 2006, King went on a "farewell" world tour, although he remained active afterward during the last years of his life. The tour was partly supported by Northern Irish guitarist Gary Moore, with whom King had previously toured and recorded, including the song "Since I Met You Baby".
It started in the United Kingdom, and continued with performances in the Montreux Jazz Festival and in Zürich at the Blues at Sunset. During his show in Montreux at the Stravinski Hall he jammed with Joe Sample, Randy Crawford, David Sanborn, Gladys Knight, Leela James, Andre Beeka, Earl Thomas, Stanley Clarke, John McLaughlin, Barbara Hendricks and George Duke.
In June 2006, King was present at a memorial of his first radio broadcast at the Three Deuces Building in Greenwood, Mississippi, where an official marker of the Mississippi Blues Trail was erected.
The same month, a groundbreaking was held for a new museum, dedicated to King in Indianola, Mississippi. The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened on September 13, 2008.
In late October 2006, King recorded a concert album and video entitled B.B. King: Live at his B.B. King Blues Clubs in Nashville and Memphis.
The four-night production featured his regular B.B. King Blues Band and captured his show as he performed it nightly around the world. Released in 2008, it was his first live performance recording in over a decade.
In 2007, King played at Eric Clapton's second Crossroads Guitar Festival and contributed the songs "Goin' Home", to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (with Ivan Neville's DumpstaPhunk) and "One Shoe Blues" to Sandra Boynton's children's album Blue Moo, accompanied by a pair of sock puppets in a music video for the song.
In the summer of 2008, King played at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where he was given a key to the city. Also in 2008, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.
King performed at the Mawazine festival in Rabat, Morocco, on May 27, 2010.
In June 2010, King performed at the Crossroads Guitar Festival with Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan, and Eric Clapton. He also contributed to Cyndi Lauper's album Memphis Blues, which was released on June 22, 2010.
In 2011, King played at the Glastonbury Music Festival, and in the Royal Albert Hall in London, where he recorded a concert video. Rolling Stone ranked King at No. 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
On February 21, 2012, King was among the performers of "In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues", during which President Barack Obama sang part of "Sweet Home Chicago". King recorded for the debut album of rapper and producer Big K.R.I.T., who also hails from Mississippi. On July 5, 2012, King performed a concert at the Byblos International Festival in Lebanon.
On May 26, 2013, King appeared at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.
On October 3, 2014, not feeling well enough, King had to stop his live performance at the House of Blues in Chicago, Illinois. A doctor diagnosed King with dehydration and exhaustion, and the eight remaining shows of his ongoing tour had to be cancelled. King didn't schedule any additional shows for the remainder of the year.
For Further Amplification, click on any of the following:
King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of the Blues", and one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" along with Albert King and Freddie King.
King was known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing at more than 200 concerts per year on average into his 70s. In 1956, he reportedly appeared at 342 shows.
King died at the age of 89 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 14, 2015, from congestive heart failure and diabetic complications.
Early Life:
Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation called Berclair, near the town of Itta Bena, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King. He considered the nearby city of Indianola, Mississippi to be his home. When Riley was four years old, his mother left his father for another man, so the boy was raised by his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael, Mississippi.
While young, King sang in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael. King was attracted to the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ because of its music. The local minister led worship with a Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar. The minister taught King his first three chords. It seems that at the age of 12 he purchased his first guitar for $15.00, although another source indicates he was given his first guitar by Bukka White, his mother's first cousin (King's grandmother and White's mother were sisters).
In November 1941 "King Biscuit Time" first aired, broadcasting on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. It was a radio show featuring the Mississippi Delta blues. King listened to it while on break at a plantation. A self-taught guitarist, he then wanted to become a radio musician.
In 1943, King left Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and play guitar with the Famous St. John's Quartet of Inverness, Mississippi, performing at area churches and on WGRM in Greenwood, Mississippi.
In 1946, King followed Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee. White took him in for the next ten months. However, King returned to Mississippi shortly afterward, where he decided to prepare himself better for the next visit, and returned to West Memphis, Arkansas, two years later in 1948.
He performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he began to develop an audience. King's appearances led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten-minute spot on the Memphis radio station. The radio spot became so popular that it was expanded and became the Sepia Swing Club.
Initially he worked at WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, gaining the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy", which was later shortened to "Blues Boy" and finally to B.B. It was there that he first met T-Bone Walker. King said, "Once I'd heard him for the first time, I knew I'd have to have [an electric guitar] myself. 'Had' to have one, short of stealing!"
Career:
1949–2005:
In 1949, King began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. Before his RPM contract, King had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which did not chart well. "My very first recordings [in 1949] were for a company out of Nashville called Bullet, the Bullet Record Transcription company," King recalled. "I had horns that very first session. I had Phineas Newborn on piano; his father played drums, and his brother, Calvin, played guitar with me. I had Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch on tenor sax, his brother, Thomas Branch, on trumpet, and a lady trombone player. The Newborn family were the house band at the famous Plantation Inn in West Memphis."
King assembled his own band; the B.B. King Review, under the leadership of Millard Lee. The band initially consisted of Calvin Owens and Kenneth Sands (trumpet), Lawrence Burdin (alto saxophone), George Coleman (tenor saxophone), Floyd Newman (baritone saxophone), Millard Lee (piano), George Joyner (bass) and Earl Forest and Ted Curry (drums). Onzie Horne was a trained musician elicited as an arranger to assist King with his compositions. By his own admission, King could not play chords well and always relied on improvisation.
King's recording contract was followed by tours across the United States, with performances in major theaters in cities such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and St. Louis, as well as numerous gigs in small clubs and juke joints of the southern United States.
During one show in Twist, Arkansas, a brawl broke out between two men and caused a fire. He evacuated along with the rest of the crowd but went back to retrieve his guitar. He said he later found out that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. He named the guitar Lucille, as a reminder not to fight over women or run into any more burning buildings.
Following his first Billboard Rhythm and Blues chart number one, "3 O'Clock Blues" (February 1952), B.B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music in the 1950s, amassing an impressive list of hits including,
- "You Know I Love You",
- "Woke Up This Morning",
- "Please Love Me",
- "When My Heart Beats like a Hammer",
- "Whole Lotta Love",
- "You Upset Me Baby",
- "Every Day I Have the Blues",
- "Sneakin' Around",
- "Ten Long Years",
- "Bad Luck",
- "Sweet Little Angel",
- "On My Word of Honor",
- and "Please Accept My Love".
This led to a significant increase in his weekly earnings, from about $85 to $2,500, with appearances at major venues such as the Howard Theater in Washington and the Apollo in New York, as well as touring the entire "Chitlin' circuit".
1956 became a record-breaking year, with 342 concerts booked and three recording sessions. That same year he founded his own record label, Blues Boys Kingdom, with headquarters at Beale Street in Memphis. There, among other projects, he produced artists such as Millard Lee and Levi Seabury.
In 1962, King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records, and which itself was later absorbed into Geffen Records. In November 1964, King recorded the Live at the Regal album at the Regal Theater. King later said that Regal Live "is considered by some the best recording I've ever had . . . that particular day in Chicago everything came together . . .
From the late 1960s, new manager Sid Seidenberg pushed King into a different type of venue as blues-rock performers like Clapton and Paul Butterfield were popularizing an appreciation of blues music among white audiences.
King gained further visibility among rock audiences as an opening act on the Rolling Stones' 1969 American Tour.
He won a 1970 Grammy Award for the song "The Thrill Is Gone"; his version became a hit on both the pop and R&B charts. It also gained the number 183 spot in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
In 2004, he was awarded the international Polar Music Prize, given to artists "in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music."
From the 1980s to his death in 2015, he maintained a highly visible and active career, appearing on numerous television shows and performing 300 nights a year. In 1988, King reached a new generation of fans with the single "When Love Comes to Town", a collaborative effort between King and the Irish band U2 on their Rattle and Hum album.
In December 1997, he performed in the Vatican's fifth annual Christmas concert and presented his trademark guitar "Lucille" to Pope John Paul II. In 1998, he appeared in The Blues Brothers 2000, playing the part of the lead singer of the Louisiana Gator Boys, along with Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Koko Taylor and Bo Diddley. In 2000, he and Clapton teamed up again to record Riding With the King, which won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Discussing where he took the Blues, from "dirt floor, smoke in the air" joints to grand concert halls, King said the Blues belonged everywhere beautiful music belonged. He successfully worked both sides of the commercial divide, with sophisticated recordings and "raw, raucous" live performance.
2006–2014: farewell tour and later activities:
In 2006, King went on a "farewell" world tour, although he remained active afterward during the last years of his life. The tour was partly supported by Northern Irish guitarist Gary Moore, with whom King had previously toured and recorded, including the song "Since I Met You Baby".
It started in the United Kingdom, and continued with performances in the Montreux Jazz Festival and in Zürich at the Blues at Sunset. During his show in Montreux at the Stravinski Hall he jammed with Joe Sample, Randy Crawford, David Sanborn, Gladys Knight, Leela James, Andre Beeka, Earl Thomas, Stanley Clarke, John McLaughlin, Barbara Hendricks and George Duke.
In June 2006, King was present at a memorial of his first radio broadcast at the Three Deuces Building in Greenwood, Mississippi, where an official marker of the Mississippi Blues Trail was erected.
The same month, a groundbreaking was held for a new museum, dedicated to King in Indianola, Mississippi. The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened on September 13, 2008.
In late October 2006, King recorded a concert album and video entitled B.B. King: Live at his B.B. King Blues Clubs in Nashville and Memphis.
The four-night production featured his regular B.B. King Blues Band and captured his show as he performed it nightly around the world. Released in 2008, it was his first live performance recording in over a decade.
In 2007, King played at Eric Clapton's second Crossroads Guitar Festival and contributed the songs "Goin' Home", to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (with Ivan Neville's DumpstaPhunk) and "One Shoe Blues" to Sandra Boynton's children's album Blue Moo, accompanied by a pair of sock puppets in a music video for the song.
In the summer of 2008, King played at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where he was given a key to the city. Also in 2008, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.
King performed at the Mawazine festival in Rabat, Morocco, on May 27, 2010.
In June 2010, King performed at the Crossroads Guitar Festival with Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan, and Eric Clapton. He also contributed to Cyndi Lauper's album Memphis Blues, which was released on June 22, 2010.
In 2011, King played at the Glastonbury Music Festival, and in the Royal Albert Hall in London, where he recorded a concert video. Rolling Stone ranked King at No. 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
On February 21, 2012, King was among the performers of "In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues", during which President Barack Obama sang part of "Sweet Home Chicago". King recorded for the debut album of rapper and producer Big K.R.I.T., who also hails from Mississippi. On July 5, 2012, King performed a concert at the Byblos International Festival in Lebanon.
On May 26, 2013, King appeared at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.
On October 3, 2014, not feeling well enough, King had to stop his live performance at the House of Blues in Chicago, Illinois. A doctor diagnosed King with dehydration and exhaustion, and the eight remaining shows of his ongoing tour had to be cancelled. King didn't schedule any additional shows for the remainder of the year.
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- B.B. King's Blues Club
- Television and other appearances
- Personal life
- Philanthropy
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- Aftermath
- Discography
- Accolades
- See also
Gladys Knight and the Pips
YouTube Video Gladys Knight & The Pips "Midnight Train To Georgia" (1974)
Pictured: Gladys Knight & The Pips perform aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger on November 1, 1981. Left to right: William Guest, Edward Patten, Merald "Bubba" Knight, and Gladys Knight.
YouTube Video Gladys Knight & The Pips "Midnight Train To Georgia" (1974)
Pictured: Gladys Knight & The Pips perform aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger on November 1, 1981. Left to right: William Guest, Edward Patten, Merald "Bubba" Knight, and Gladys Knight.
Gladys Knight & The Pips were an R&B/soul family musical act from Atlanta, Georgia that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for three decades.
Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins William and Eleanor Guest.
After a couple years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart.
Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest were eventually replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959.
This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & The Pips shortly afterwards.
Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.
The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. Struggling for a year and a half and being treated as a second-string act in the label, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including,
before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973, where they recorded the hits,
Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records.
Later hits included "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.
Gladys Knight & The Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.
Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins William and Eleanor Guest.
After a couple years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart.
Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest were eventually replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959.
This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & The Pips shortly afterwards.
Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.
The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. Struggling for a year and a half and being treated as a second-string act in the label, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including,
- "Nitty Gritty",
- "Friendship Train",
- "If I Were Your Woman"
- and "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)",
before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973, where they recorded the hits,
- "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me",
- "I've Got to Use My Imagination"
- and their number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia".
Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records.
Later hits included "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.
Gladys Knight & The Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.
Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American recording artist, voice actor, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his singing ability: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game".
Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his song "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine". He worked as a television, motion picture, and voice actor. He was also a three-time Grammy-winner, all for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
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Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his song "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine". He worked as a television, motion picture, and voice actor. He was also a three-time Grammy-winner, all for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
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James Brown
YouTube Video: James Brown - It's a Man's World
Pictured: James Brown LEFT: being interviewed by Dick Clark on American Bandstand and RIGHT: performing on Soul Train.
YouTube Video: James Brown - It's a Man's World
Pictured: James Brown LEFT: being interviewed by Dick Clark on American Bandstand and RIGHT: performing on Soul Train.
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and bandleader. The founding father of funk music and a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Soul".
In a career that spanned six decades, he influenced the development of several music genres.
Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined an R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters (which later evolved into the Flames), in which he was the lead singer.
First coming to national public attention in the late 1950s as a member of the singing group The Famous Flames with the hit ballads "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a tireless live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra.
His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".
During the late 1960s he moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music-making that influenced the development of funk music.
By the early 1970s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of the J.B.s with records such as "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and "The Payback". He also became noted for songs of social commentary, including the 1968 hit "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud".
Brown continued to perform and record until his death from congestive heart failure in 2006.
Brown recorded 16 singles that reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts.
He also holds the record for the most singles listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart which did not reach number one.
Brown has received honors from many institutions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In Joel Whitburn's analysis of the Billboard R&B charts from 1942 to 2010, James Brown is ranked as number one in The Top 500 Artists.
He is ranked seventh on the music magazine Rolling Stone's list of its 100 greatest artists of all time. Rolling Stone has also cited Brown as the most sampled artist of all time.
In a career that spanned six decades, he influenced the development of several music genres.
Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined an R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters (which later evolved into the Flames), in which he was the lead singer.
First coming to national public attention in the late 1950s as a member of the singing group The Famous Flames with the hit ballads "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a tireless live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra.
His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World".
During the late 1960s he moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music-making that influenced the development of funk music.
By the early 1970s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of the J.B.s with records such as "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and "The Payback". He also became noted for songs of social commentary, including the 1968 hit "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud".
Brown continued to perform and record until his death from congestive heart failure in 2006.
Brown recorded 16 singles that reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts.
He also holds the record for the most singles listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart which did not reach number one.
Brown has received honors from many institutions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In Joel Whitburn's analysis of the Billboard R&B charts from 1942 to 2010, James Brown is ranked as number one in The Top 500 Artists.
He is ranked seventh on the music magazine Rolling Stone's list of its 100 greatest artists of all time. Rolling Stone has also cited Brown as the most sampled artist of all time.
Otis Redding
YouTube Video Otis Redding - I Have Been Loving You (at the Monterey Pop Festival, June 17, 1967)
Pictured: Two Otis Redding Album Covers
YouTube Video Otis Redding - I Have Been Loving You (at the Monterey Pop Festival, June 17, 1967)
Pictured: Two Otis Redding Album Covers
Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues.
Redding's style of singing gained inspiration from the gospel music that preceded the genre. His singing style influenced many other soul artists of the 1960s. During his lifetime, his recordings were produced by Stax Records, based in Memphis, Tennessee.
Redding was born in Dawson, Georgia, and at the age of 2, moved to Macon, Georgia. Redding quit school at age 15 to support his family, working with Little Richard's backing band, the Upsetters, and by performing in talent shows at the historic Douglass Theatre in Macon, Georgia.
In 1958, Redding joined Johnny Jenkins's band, the Pinetoppers, with whom he toured the Southern states as a singer and driver. An unscheduled appearance on a Stax recording session led to a contract and his first single, "These Arms of Mine", in 1962.
Stax released Redding's debut album, Pain in My Heart, two years later. Initially popular mainly with African-Americans, Redding later reached a wider American pop music audience. Along with his group, he first played small gigs in the American South. He later performed at the popular Los Angeles night club Whisky a Go Go and toured Europe, performing in London, Paris and other major cities. He also performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
Shortly before his death in a plane crash, Redding wrote and recorded his iconic "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" with Steve Cropper. The song became the first posthumous number-one record on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts. The album The Dock of the Bay was the first posthumous album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Redding's premature death devastated Stax. Already on the verge of bankruptcy, the label soon discovered that the Atco division of Atlantic Records owned the rights to his entire song catalog.
Redding received many posthumous accolades, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In addition to "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," "Respect" and "Try a Little Tenderness" are among his best-known songs.
Click Here for more about Otis Redding.
Redding's style of singing gained inspiration from the gospel music that preceded the genre. His singing style influenced many other soul artists of the 1960s. During his lifetime, his recordings were produced by Stax Records, based in Memphis, Tennessee.
Redding was born in Dawson, Georgia, and at the age of 2, moved to Macon, Georgia. Redding quit school at age 15 to support his family, working with Little Richard's backing band, the Upsetters, and by performing in talent shows at the historic Douglass Theatre in Macon, Georgia.
In 1958, Redding joined Johnny Jenkins's band, the Pinetoppers, with whom he toured the Southern states as a singer and driver. An unscheduled appearance on a Stax recording session led to a contract and his first single, "These Arms of Mine", in 1962.
Stax released Redding's debut album, Pain in My Heart, two years later. Initially popular mainly with African-Americans, Redding later reached a wider American pop music audience. Along with his group, he first played small gigs in the American South. He later performed at the popular Los Angeles night club Whisky a Go Go and toured Europe, performing in London, Paris and other major cities. He also performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
Shortly before his death in a plane crash, Redding wrote and recorded his iconic "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" with Steve Cropper. The song became the first posthumous number-one record on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts. The album The Dock of the Bay was the first posthumous album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Redding's premature death devastated Stax. Already on the verge of bankruptcy, the label soon discovered that the Atco division of Atlantic Records owned the rights to his entire song catalog.
Redding received many posthumous accolades, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In addition to "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," "Respect" and "Try a Little Tenderness" are among his best-known songs.
Click Here for more about Otis Redding.
The 5th Dimension
YouTube Video The Fifth Dimension - Aquarius - Let The Sunshine In - Bubblerock Promo
Pictured: The 5th Dimension in 1969: Back row: Townson and McLemore; Front row: LaRue, Davis, and McCoo.
YouTube Video The Fifth Dimension - Aquarius - Let The Sunshine In - Bubblerock Promo
Pictured: The 5th Dimension in 1969: Back row: Townson and McLemore; Front row: LaRue, Davis, and McCoo.
The 5th Dimension is an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire includes pop, R&B, soul, jazz, light opera and Broadway—the melange was coined as "Champagne Soul."
Originally known as The Versatiles and formed in late 1965, according to founder, LaMonte McLemore's currently released autobiographical memoir, the group changed its name to the hipper moniker, The 5th Dimension, by 1966 and became best-known during the late 1960s through early 1970s for popularizing the hits,
The five original members were Billy Davis, Jr., Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, LaMonte McLemore, and Ron Townson.
They have recorded for several different labels over their long careers. Their first work appeared on the Soul City label, which was started by Imperial Records/United Artists Records recording artist Johnny Rivers. The group would later record for Bell/Arista Records, ABC Records, and Motown Records.
Some of the songwriters popularized by The 5th Dimension went on to careers of their own, especially Ashford & Simpson, who wrote "California Soul".
The group is also notable for having more success with the songs of Laura Nyro than Nyro did herself, particularly with "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Blowin' Away", and "Save the Country".
The group also covered music by well known songwriters such as the song "One Less Bell to Answer", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and the songs and music of Jimmy Webb, who penned their hit "Up, Up and Away", including an entire recording of Webb songs called The Magic Garden.
The 5th Dimension's famed producer, Bones Howe, utilized Bob Alcivar as the singers' vocal arranger, as well as The Wrecking Crew, a renowned group of studio musicians including drummer Hal Blaine, for their recording sessions.
Click here for more about the 5th Dimension.
Originally known as The Versatiles and formed in late 1965, according to founder, LaMonte McLemore's currently released autobiographical memoir, the group changed its name to the hipper moniker, The 5th Dimension, by 1966 and became best-known during the late 1960s through early 1970s for popularizing the hits,
- "Up, Up and Away",
- "Stoned Soul Picnic",
- " Medley: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures) ",
- "Wedding Bell Blues",
- "One Less Bell to Answer",
- "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All",
- and The Magic Garden LP.
The five original members were Billy Davis, Jr., Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, LaMonte McLemore, and Ron Townson.
They have recorded for several different labels over their long careers. Their first work appeared on the Soul City label, which was started by Imperial Records/United Artists Records recording artist Johnny Rivers. The group would later record for Bell/Arista Records, ABC Records, and Motown Records.
Some of the songwriters popularized by The 5th Dimension went on to careers of their own, especially Ashford & Simpson, who wrote "California Soul".
The group is also notable for having more success with the songs of Laura Nyro than Nyro did herself, particularly with "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Blowin' Away", and "Save the Country".
The group also covered music by well known songwriters such as the song "One Less Bell to Answer", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and the songs and music of Jimmy Webb, who penned their hit "Up, Up and Away", including an entire recording of Webb songs called The Magic Garden.
The 5th Dimension's famed producer, Bones Howe, utilized Bob Alcivar as the singers' vocal arranger, as well as The Wrecking Crew, a renowned group of studio musicians including drummer Hal Blaine, for their recording sessions.
Click here for more about the 5th Dimension.
Diana Ross
YouTube Video Ain't No Mountain High Enough -1996- Diana Ross live in Budapest
Pictured: Diana Ross performing at the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo
YouTube Video Ain't No Mountain High Enough -1996- Diana Ross live in Budapest
Pictured: Diana Ross performing at the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and record producer.
Born and raised in Detroit, she rose to fame as a founding member and lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes (see below), which, during the 1960s, became Motown's most successful act and is to this day America's most successful vocal group as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. As part of the Supremes, her success made it possible for future African American R&B and soul acts to find mainstream success.
The group released a record setting, twelve number-one hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 including the hits,
Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross released her debut solo album, Diana Ross, which contained the hits "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and the number-one hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
She released the album Touch Me in the Morning in 1973. Its title track reached number 1, becoming her second solo hit.
By 1975, the Mahogany soundtrack included her 3rd number-one hit "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)".
Her 1976 album Diana Ross included her fourth number-one hit "Love Hangover". In 1979, Ross released the album The Boss.
Her 1980 album Diana which reached number 2 on the Billboard albums chart and spawned the number-one hit "Upside Down" and the international hit "I'm Coming Out".
After leaving Motown, Ross achieved her sixth and final number-one hit with the duet "Endless Love".
Ross also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominated performance in Lady Sings the Blues (1972).
She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany (1975) and the The Wiz (1978); later acting included roles in the television films Out of Darkness (1994), for which she also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum (1999).
Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist. Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide when her releases with the Supremes and as a solo artist are tallied.
In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as member of the Supremes alongside Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard.
She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007. She is a 12-time Grammy nominee, later becoming the recipient of her only Grammy Award to date by being honored the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
For more about Diana Ross, click here.
___________________________________________________________________________
The Supremes:
Pictured below: (L–R): Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross (above) performing "My World Is Empty Without You" on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1966
Born and raised in Detroit, she rose to fame as a founding member and lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes (see below), which, during the 1960s, became Motown's most successful act and is to this day America's most successful vocal group as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. As part of the Supremes, her success made it possible for future African American R&B and soul acts to find mainstream success.
The group released a record setting, twelve number-one hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 including the hits,
- "Where Did Our Love Go",
- "Baby Love",
- "Come See About Me",
- "Stop! In the Name of Love",
- "You Can't Hurry Love",
- "You Keep Me Hangin' On",
- "Love Child"
- and "Someday We'll Be Together".
Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross released her debut solo album, Diana Ross, which contained the hits "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and the number-one hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
She released the album Touch Me in the Morning in 1973. Its title track reached number 1, becoming her second solo hit.
By 1975, the Mahogany soundtrack included her 3rd number-one hit "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)".
Her 1976 album Diana Ross included her fourth number-one hit "Love Hangover". In 1979, Ross released the album The Boss.
Her 1980 album Diana which reached number 2 on the Billboard albums chart and spawned the number-one hit "Upside Down" and the international hit "I'm Coming Out".
After leaving Motown, Ross achieved her sixth and final number-one hit with the duet "Endless Love".
Ross also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominated performance in Lady Sings the Blues (1972).
She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany (1975) and the The Wiz (1978); later acting included roles in the television films Out of Darkness (1994), for which she also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum (1999).
Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist. Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide when her releases with the Supremes and as a solo artist are tallied.
In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as member of the Supremes alongside Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard.
She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007. She is a 12-time Grammy nominee, later becoming the recipient of her only Grammy Award to date by being honored the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
For more about Diana Ross, click here.
___________________________________________________________________________
The Supremes:
Pictured below: (L–R): Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross (above) performing "My World Is Empty Without You" on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1966
The Supremes were an American female singing group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful American vocal group, with 12 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100.
Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland. It is said that their breakthrough made it possible for future African American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success. Billboard ranked the Supremes as the 16th greatest Hot 100 artist of all time.
Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown, the original group, were all from the Brewster-Douglass public housing project in Detroit. They formed the Primettes as the sister act to the Primes (with Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, who went on to form the Temptations). Barbara Martin replaced McGlown in 1960, and the group signed with Motown the following year as the Supremes. Martin left the act in early 1962, and Ross, Ballard, and Wilson carried on as a trio.
During the mid-1960s, the Supremes achieved mainstream success with Ross as lead singer and Holland–Dozier–Holland as its songwriting and production team.
In 1967, Motown president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, and replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong.
In 1970, Ross left to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Jean Terrell and the group reverted to being the Supremes again.
During the mid-1970s, the lineup changed with Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne and Susaye Greene joining until, after 18 years, the group disbanded in 1977.
Click here for more about the Supremes.
Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland. It is said that their breakthrough made it possible for future African American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success. Billboard ranked the Supremes as the 16th greatest Hot 100 artist of all time.
Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown, the original group, were all from the Brewster-Douglass public housing project in Detroit. They formed the Primettes as the sister act to the Primes (with Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, who went on to form the Temptations). Barbara Martin replaced McGlown in 1960, and the group signed with Motown the following year as the Supremes. Martin left the act in early 1962, and Ross, Ballard, and Wilson carried on as a trio.
During the mid-1960s, the Supremes achieved mainstream success with Ross as lead singer and Holland–Dozier–Holland as its songwriting and production team.
In 1967, Motown president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, and replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong.
In 1970, Ross left to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Jean Terrell and the group reverted to being the Supremes again.
During the mid-1970s, the lineup changed with Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne and Susaye Greene joining until, after 18 years, the group disbanded in 1977.
Click here for more about the Supremes.
The Temptations
- YouTube Video of the Temptations performing "Cloud Nine"
- YouTube Video: The Temptations Perform "My Girl" at the 2018 A Capitol Fourth
- YouTube Video: "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"
The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s.
The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single "Cloud Nine" in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music.
The band members are known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and dress style. Having sold tens of millions of albums, the Temptations are among the most successful groups in popular music.
Featuring five male vocalists and dancers (save for brief periods with fewer or more members), the group formed in 1960 in Detroit under the name the Elgins. The founding members came from two rival Detroit vocal groups: Otis Williams, Elbridge "Al" Bryant, and Melvin Franklin of Otis Williams & the Distants, and Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams of the Primes.
In 1964, Bryant was replaced by David Ruffin, who was the lead vocalist on a number of the group's biggest hits, including "My Girl" (1964), "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (1966), and "I Wish It Would Rain" (1967).
Ruffin was replaced in 1968 by Dennis Edwards, with whom the group continued to record hit records such as "Cloud Nine" (1968), "I Can't Get Next to You" (1969), and "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" (1970).
The group's lineup has changed frequently since the departures of Kendricks and Paul Williams from the act in 1971. Later members of the group have included singers such as Richard Street, Damon Harris, Ron Tyson, and Ali-Ollie Woodson, with whom the group scored a late-period hit in 1984 with "Treat Her Like a Lady" and in 1987 with the theme song for the children's movement program Kids in Motion.
Over the course of their career, the Temptations released four Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles and fourteen R&B number-one singles. Their music has earned three Grammy Awards.
The Temptations were the first Motown recording act to win a Grammy Award – for "Cloud Nine" in 1969 – and in 2013 received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Six of the Temptations (Edwards, Franklin, Kendricks, Ruffin, Otis Williams and Paul Williams) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
Three classic Temptations songs, "My Girl", "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", are among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Temptations were ranked at number 68 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of all time.
As of 2022, the Temptations continue to perform with founder Otis Williams in the lineup (Williams owns the rights to the Temptations name).
Click here for more about The Temptations.
The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single "Cloud Nine" in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music.
The band members are known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and dress style. Having sold tens of millions of albums, the Temptations are among the most successful groups in popular music.
Featuring five male vocalists and dancers (save for brief periods with fewer or more members), the group formed in 1960 in Detroit under the name the Elgins. The founding members came from two rival Detroit vocal groups: Otis Williams, Elbridge "Al" Bryant, and Melvin Franklin of Otis Williams & the Distants, and Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams of the Primes.
In 1964, Bryant was replaced by David Ruffin, who was the lead vocalist on a number of the group's biggest hits, including "My Girl" (1964), "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (1966), and "I Wish It Would Rain" (1967).
Ruffin was replaced in 1968 by Dennis Edwards, with whom the group continued to record hit records such as "Cloud Nine" (1968), "I Can't Get Next to You" (1969), and "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" (1970).
The group's lineup has changed frequently since the departures of Kendricks and Paul Williams from the act in 1971. Later members of the group have included singers such as Richard Street, Damon Harris, Ron Tyson, and Ali-Ollie Woodson, with whom the group scored a late-period hit in 1984 with "Treat Her Like a Lady" and in 1987 with the theme song for the children's movement program Kids in Motion.
Over the course of their career, the Temptations released four Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles and fourteen R&B number-one singles. Their music has earned three Grammy Awards.
The Temptations were the first Motown recording act to win a Grammy Award – for "Cloud Nine" in 1969 – and in 2013 received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Six of the Temptations (Edwards, Franklin, Kendricks, Ruffin, Otis Williams and Paul Williams) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
Three classic Temptations songs, "My Girl", "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", are among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Temptations were ranked at number 68 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of all time.
As of 2022, the Temptations continue to perform with founder Otis Williams in the lineup (Williams owns the rights to the Temptations name).
Click here for more about The Temptations.
Donna Summer
YouTube Video: A Hot Summer Night With Donna - 1983: singing "Last Dance"
Pictured: Album Covers
YouTube Video: A Hot Summer Night With Donna - 1983: singing "Last Dance"
Pictured: Album Covers
LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known by her stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer, songwriter, and painter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the late-1970s.
A five-time Grammy Award winner, she was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach No. 1 on the United States Billboard album chart and charted four number-one singles in the U.S. within a 12-month period.
Summer has reportedly sold over 140 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. She also charted two number-one singles on the R&B charts in the U.S. and one number-one in the U.K.
Summer earned a total of 32 hit singles on the Hot 100 in her lifetime, with 14 of those reaching the top 10. She claimed a top 40 hit every year between 1975 and 1984, and at the end of 1982, she had more top 10 hits with 12 than any other act.
She returned to the Hot 100's top 10 in 1983 and she claimed her final top 10 in 1989 with "This Time I Know Is For Real". Her most recent Hot 100 hit came in 1999 with "I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro)". While her fortunes on the Hot 100 waned through those decades, Summer remained a force on the Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs chart her entire career. Appropriate, for the Queen of Disco.
While influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, she became the front singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City.
Joining a touring version of the musical Hair, she left New York and spent several years living, acting, and singing in Europe, where she met music producers, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte.
Summer returned to the U.S., in 1975 with commercial success of the song 'Love to Love You Baby', followed by a string of other hits, such as;
She became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following.
Summer died on May 17, 2012, at her home in Naples, Florida. In her obituary in The Times, she was described as the "undisputed queen of the Seventies disco boom" who reached the status of "one of the world's leading female singers."
Moroder described Summer's work with him on the song 'I Feel Love' as "really the start of electronic dance" music.
In 2013, Summer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Click here for more about Donna Summer.
A five-time Grammy Award winner, she was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach No. 1 on the United States Billboard album chart and charted four number-one singles in the U.S. within a 12-month period.
Summer has reportedly sold over 140 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. She also charted two number-one singles on the R&B charts in the U.S. and one number-one in the U.K.
Summer earned a total of 32 hit singles on the Hot 100 in her lifetime, with 14 of those reaching the top 10. She claimed a top 40 hit every year between 1975 and 1984, and at the end of 1982, she had more top 10 hits with 12 than any other act.
She returned to the Hot 100's top 10 in 1983 and she claimed her final top 10 in 1989 with "This Time I Know Is For Real". Her most recent Hot 100 hit came in 1999 with "I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro)". While her fortunes on the Hot 100 waned through those decades, Summer remained a force on the Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs chart her entire career. Appropriate, for the Queen of Disco.
While influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, she became the front singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City.
Joining a touring version of the musical Hair, she left New York and spent several years living, acting, and singing in Europe, where she met music producers, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte.
Summer returned to the U.S., in 1975 with commercial success of the song 'Love to Love You Baby', followed by a string of other hits, such as;
- "I Feel Love",
- "Last Dance",
- "MacArthur Park",
- "Heaven Knows",
- "Hot Stuff",
- "Bad Girls",
- "Dim All the Lights",
- "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (duet with Barbra Streisand),
- and "On the Radio".
She became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following.
Summer died on May 17, 2012, at her home in Naples, Florida. In her obituary in The Times, she was described as the "undisputed queen of the Seventies disco boom" who reached the status of "one of the world's leading female singers."
Moroder described Summer's work with him on the song 'I Feel Love' as "really the start of electronic dance" music.
In 2013, Summer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Click here for more about Donna Summer.
Earth, Wind, and Fire
YouTube Video: Earth, Wind & Fire - Boogie Wonderland
Pictured: Earth, Wind & Fire performing in 2009
YouTube Video: Earth, Wind & Fire - Boogie Wonderland
Pictured: Earth, Wind & Fire performing in 2009
Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) is an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, Latin and African.
They are one of the most successful bands of the 20th century. Rolling Stone Magazine described them as "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and declared that the band "changed the sound of black pop".
The band was founded in Chicago by Maurice White in 1971, having grown out of a previous band known as The Salty Peppers.
Other members have included Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, Larry Dunn, Al McKay and Andrew Woolfolk.
The band has received 20 Grammy nominations; they won six as a group and two of its members, Maurice White and Bailey, won separate individual awards.
Earth, Wind & Fire have 12 American Music Awards nominations and four awards. They have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and sold over 100 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling bands of all time.
Five members of Earth, Wind & Fire were also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame: Maurice White, Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Larry Dunn and Al McKay. The music industry and fans have bestowed Lifetime Achievement honors from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award – 2002), NAACP (Hall of Fame – 1994) and the BET Awards (Lifetime Achievement Award – 2002).
Earth, Wind & Fire is known for the dynamic sound of their horn section, their energetic and elaborate stage shows, and the interplay between the contrasting vocals of Philip Bailey's falsetto and Maurice White's tenor. The kalimba (African thumb piano) is played on all of the band's albums.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the band had many hits, including,
Two Earth, Wind & Fire classic songs have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame: "That’s the Way of the World" (2004) and "Shining Star" (2007).
The band is also known as having been the first African-American act to sell out Madison Square Garden and to receive the MSG Gold Ticket Award.
President Barack Obama invited Earth, Wind & Fire to perform at the White House for the first social event of the new administration.
Click here for more about Earth, Wind & Fire.
They are one of the most successful bands of the 20th century. Rolling Stone Magazine described them as "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and declared that the band "changed the sound of black pop".
The band was founded in Chicago by Maurice White in 1971, having grown out of a previous band known as The Salty Peppers.
Other members have included Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, Larry Dunn, Al McKay and Andrew Woolfolk.
The band has received 20 Grammy nominations; they won six as a group and two of its members, Maurice White and Bailey, won separate individual awards.
Earth, Wind & Fire have 12 American Music Awards nominations and four awards. They have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and sold over 100 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling bands of all time.
Five members of Earth, Wind & Fire were also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame: Maurice White, Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Larry Dunn and Al McKay. The music industry and fans have bestowed Lifetime Achievement honors from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award – 2002), NAACP (Hall of Fame – 1994) and the BET Awards (Lifetime Achievement Award – 2002).
Earth, Wind & Fire is known for the dynamic sound of their horn section, their energetic and elaborate stage shows, and the interplay between the contrasting vocals of Philip Bailey's falsetto and Maurice White's tenor. The kalimba (African thumb piano) is played on all of the band's albums.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the band had many hits, including,
- "Shining Star",
- "That's the Way of the World",
- "Devotion",
- "Reasons",
- "Sing a Song",
- "Can't Hide Love",
- "Getaway",
- "Fantasy",
- "Love's Holiday",
- "September",
- "Boogie Wonderland",
- "After the Love Has Gone",
- and "Let's Groove".
Two Earth, Wind & Fire classic songs have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame: "That’s the Way of the World" (2004) and "Shining Star" (2007).
The band is also known as having been the first African-American act to sell out Madison Square Garden and to receive the MSG Gold Ticket Award.
President Barack Obama invited Earth, Wind & Fire to perform at the White House for the first social event of the new administration.
Click here for more about Earth, Wind & Fire.
Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr.; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer.
Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, including "Ain't That Peculiar", "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", and duet recordings with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Diana Ross and Tammi Terrell, later earning the titles "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
During the 1970s, he recorded the concept albums What's Going On and Let's Get It On and became one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of their production company.
Gaye's later recordings influenced several contemporary R&B subgenres, such as quiet storm and neo soul. Following a period in Europe as a tax exile in the early 1980s, Gaye released the 1982 Grammy Award-winning hit "Sexual Healing" and its parent album Midnight Love.
On April 1, 1984, Gaye's father, Marvin Gay Sr., fatally shot him at their house in the West Adams district of Los Angeles.
Since his death, many institutions have posthumously bestowed Gaye with awards and other honors—including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Marvin Gaye:
Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, including "Ain't That Peculiar", "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", and duet recordings with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Diana Ross and Tammi Terrell, later earning the titles "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
During the 1970s, he recorded the concept albums What's Going On and Let's Get It On and became one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of their production company.
Gaye's later recordings influenced several contemporary R&B subgenres, such as quiet storm and neo soul. Following a period in Europe as a tax exile in the early 1980s, Gaye released the 1982 Grammy Award-winning hit "Sexual Healing" and its parent album Midnight Love.
On April 1, 1984, Gaye's father, Marvin Gay Sr., fatally shot him at their house in the West Adams district of Los Angeles.
Since his death, many institutions have posthumously bestowed Gaye with awards and other honors—including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Marvin Gaye:
Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born 20 February 1988) is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados and raised in Bridgetown, during 2003, she recorded demo tapes under the direction of record producer Evan Rogers and signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its then-president, hip hop producer and rapper Jay-Z.
In 2005, Rihanna rose to fame with the release of her debut studio album Music of the Sun and its follow-up A Girl like Me (2006), which charted on the top 10 of the US Billboard 200 and respectively produced the successful singles "Pon de Replay", "SOS" and "Unfaithful".
Rihanna assumed creative control for her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) and adopted a public image as a sex symbol, while reinventing her music. Its lead single "Umbrella" became an international breakthrough in her career, as she won her first Grammy Award at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008. She then annually released four consecutive RIAA multi-platinum certified studio albums, including the Grammy Award winner Unapologetic (2012).
Rihanna's eighth studio album Anti (2016) topped the US Billboard 200 and became one of the most streamed albums of the year. Many of her songs rank among the world's best-selling singles of all time, including the singles:
Recognized as a pop icon of today's music, Rihanna is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with 250 million records sold worldwide. Rihanna is the youngest solo artist to earn fourteen number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and has a total of thirty one top-ten singles. She was named the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade, the top Hot 100 artist of the 2010s decade, as well as the all-time top Pop Songs artist by Billboard.
Additionally, Rihanna is Spotify's most streamed female artist of all time. Among numerous awards and accolades, Rihanna has won nine Grammy Awards, twelve American Music Awards and twelve Billboard Music Awards. Furthermore, she was awarded with the inaugural American Music Award for Icon in 2013 and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 2016.
Rihanna received the Fashion Icon lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2014. In 2012, Forbes ranked her the fourth most powerful celebrity, while Time included her on the annual list of the most influential people in the world.
Click here for more about Rihanna.
In 2005, Rihanna rose to fame with the release of her debut studio album Music of the Sun and its follow-up A Girl like Me (2006), which charted on the top 10 of the US Billboard 200 and respectively produced the successful singles "Pon de Replay", "SOS" and "Unfaithful".
Rihanna assumed creative control for her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) and adopted a public image as a sex symbol, while reinventing her music. Its lead single "Umbrella" became an international breakthrough in her career, as she won her first Grammy Award at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008. She then annually released four consecutive RIAA multi-platinum certified studio albums, including the Grammy Award winner Unapologetic (2012).
Rihanna's eighth studio album Anti (2016) topped the US Billboard 200 and became one of the most streamed albums of the year. Many of her songs rank among the world's best-selling singles of all time, including the singles:
- "Umbrella",
- "Take a Bow",
- "Disturbia",
- "Only Girl (In the World)",
- "S&M",
- "We Found Love",
- "Diamonds",
- "Stay"
- and "Work"
Recognized as a pop icon of today's music, Rihanna is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with 250 million records sold worldwide. Rihanna is the youngest solo artist to earn fourteen number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and has a total of thirty one top-ten singles. She was named the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade, the top Hot 100 artist of the 2010s decade, as well as the all-time top Pop Songs artist by Billboard.
Additionally, Rihanna is Spotify's most streamed female artist of all time. Among numerous awards and accolades, Rihanna has won nine Grammy Awards, twelve American Music Awards and twelve Billboard Music Awards. Furthermore, she was awarded with the inaugural American Music Award for Icon in 2013 and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 2016.
Rihanna received the Fashion Icon lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2014. In 2012, Forbes ranked her the fourth most powerful celebrity, while Time included her on the annual list of the most influential people in the world.
Click here for more about Rihanna.
The Righteous Brothers Pictured: The Righteous Brothers performing at Knott's Berry Farm as (L-R) Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley
The Righteous Brothers was an American musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. They began performing together in 1962 in the Los Angeles area as part of a five-member group called The Paramours, but adopted the name "The Righteous Brothers" when they embarked on their recording career as a duo.
Their most active recording period was in the 1960s and 70s, and although the duo was inactive for some years, Hatfield and Medley reunited in 1981 and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003.
Their emotive vocal style is sometimes dubbed "blue-eyed soul".
Hatfield and Medley have contrasting vocal range that helped them create a distinctive sound as a duet, but also strong vocal talent individually that allowed them to perform as soloists. Medley sang the low parts with his bass-baritone voice, with Hatfield taking the higher register vocals with his countertenor voice.
They had their first hit with the 1964 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced
by Phil Spector and often considered one of his finest works. Other notable hits include "Ebb Tide", "Soul and Inspiration", "Rock and Roll Heaven", and in particular, their version of "Unchained Melody". Both Hatfield and Medley also had for a time their own solo careers. In 2016, Medley reformed The Righteous Brothers with Bucky Heard and they continue to perform as a duo.
Click here for more about The Righteous Brothers.
Their most active recording period was in the 1960s and 70s, and although the duo was inactive for some years, Hatfield and Medley reunited in 1981 and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003.
Their emotive vocal style is sometimes dubbed "blue-eyed soul".
Hatfield and Medley have contrasting vocal range that helped them create a distinctive sound as a duet, but also strong vocal talent individually that allowed them to perform as soloists. Medley sang the low parts with his bass-baritone voice, with Hatfield taking the higher register vocals with his countertenor voice.
They had their first hit with the 1964 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced
by Phil Spector and often considered one of his finest works. Other notable hits include "Ebb Tide", "Soul and Inspiration", "Rock and Roll Heaven", and in particular, their version of "Unchained Melody". Both Hatfield and Medley also had for a time their own solo careers. In 2016, Medley reformed The Righteous Brothers with Bucky Heard and they continue to perform as a duo.
Click here for more about The Righteous Brothers.
Alicia Keys
YouTube Video of Alicia Keys singing "Girl On Fire" (Live on Letterman)
Pictured: Album Covers
YouTube Video of Alicia Keys singing "Girl On Fire" (Live on Letterman)
Pictured: Album Covers
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known by the pseudonym Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.
Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'" becoming the second American recording artist to win five Grammys in one night.
Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005.
Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
Keys has made guest appearances on several television series, beginning with The Cosby Show.
She made her film debut in Smokin' Aces and also went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her third studio album, As I Am, was released in the same year and sold five million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards.
The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards.
She released her fourth album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009, which became Keys' first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom. She released her fifth album, Girl on Fire, in November 2012, which became Keys' fifth chart-topping album in the United States. Keys released her second live album, VH1 Storytellers, in June 2013.
Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and sold over 55 million albums and 90 million singles worldwide making her one of the best selling artists of all time.
Billboard magazine named her the top R&B songs artist of the 2000s decade. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Billboard magazine placed her number ten on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years.
In February 2012, Keys was ranked 14th on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music list. Keys was ranked at number thirty-three on VH1's "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era" list.
Click Here For More Alicia Keys.
Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'" becoming the second American recording artist to win five Grammys in one night.
Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005.
Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
Keys has made guest appearances on several television series, beginning with The Cosby Show.
She made her film debut in Smokin' Aces and also went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her third studio album, As I Am, was released in the same year and sold five million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards.
The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards.
She released her fourth album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009, which became Keys' first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom. She released her fifth album, Girl on Fire, in November 2012, which became Keys' fifth chart-topping album in the United States. Keys released her second live album, VH1 Storytellers, in June 2013.
Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and sold over 55 million albums and 90 million singles worldwide making her one of the best selling artists of all time.
Billboard magazine named her the top R&B songs artist of the 2000s decade. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Billboard magazine placed her number ten on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years.
In February 2012, Keys was ranked 14th on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music list. Keys was ranked at number thirty-three on VH1's "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era" list.
Click Here For More Alicia Keys.
Marie Dionne Warrick, known as Dionne Warwick (born December 12, 1940), is an American singer, actress and TV-show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health.
Having been in a partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era, based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts.
Dionne Warwick is second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female vocalist of all time, with 69 of Warwick's singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998.
For more about Dionne Warwick, click here.
Having been in a partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era, based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts.
Dionne Warwick is second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female vocalist of all time, with 69 of Warwick's singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998.
For more about Dionne Warwick, click here.
The Commodores
YouTube Video Commodores at the 1978 American Music Awards performing "Easy"
Pictured: Album Covers
YouTube Video Commodores at the 1978 American Music Awards performing "Easy"
Pictured: Album Covers
The Commodores is an American funk/soul band, which was at its peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s.
The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour.
The group's most successful period was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Lionel Richie was co-lead singer.
The band's biggest hit singles are ballads such as "Easy", "Three Times a Lady", and "Nightshift"; and funky dance hits which include "Brick House", "Fancy Dancer", "Lady (You Bring Me Up)", and "Too Hot ta Trot". In 1986 the Commodores won their first Grammy for the song "Nightshift".
For more about the Commodores, click here.
The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour.
The group's most successful period was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Lionel Richie was co-lead singer.
The band's biggest hit singles are ballads such as "Easy", "Three Times a Lady", and "Nightshift"; and funky dance hits which include "Brick House", "Fancy Dancer", "Lady (You Bring Me Up)", and "Too Hot ta Trot". In 1986 the Commodores won their first Grammy for the song "Nightshift".
For more about the Commodores, click here.
Diana Ross
YouTube Video Ain't No Mountain High Enough -1996- Diana Ross live in Budapest
Pictured: Diana Ross performing at the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo
YouTube Video Ain't No Mountain High Enough -1996- Diana Ross live in Budapest
Pictured: Diana Ross performing at the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and record producer.
Born and raised in Detroit, she rose to fame as a founding member and lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes, which, during the 1960s, became Motown's most successful act and is to this day America's most successful vocal group as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. As part of the Supremes, her success made it possible for future African American R&B and soul acts to find mainstream success.
The group released a record setting, twelve number-one hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 including the hits,
Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross released her debut solo album, Diana Ross, which contained the hits "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and the number-one hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
She released the album Touch Me in the Morning in 1973. Its title track reached number 1, becoming her second solo hit.
By 1975, the Mahogany soundtrack included her 3rd number-one hit "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)".
Her 1976 album Diana Ross included her fourth number-one hit "Love Hangover". In 1979, Ross released the album The Boss.
Her 1980 album Diana which reached number 2 on the Billboard albums chart and spawned the number-one hit "Upside Down" and the international hit "I'm Coming Out".
After leaving Motown, Ross achieved her sixth and final number-one hit with the duet "Endless Love".
Ross also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominated performance in Lady Sings the Blues (1972).
She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany (1975) and the The Wiz (1978); later acting included roles in the television films Out of Darkness (1994), for which she also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum (1999).
Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist. Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide when her releases with the Supremes and as a solo artist are tallied.
In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as member of the Supremes alongside Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard.
She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007. She is a 12-time Grammy nominee, later becoming the recipient of her only Grammy Award to date by being honored the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
For more about Diana Ross, click here.
Born and raised in Detroit, she rose to fame as a founding member and lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes, which, during the 1960s, became Motown's most successful act and is to this day America's most successful vocal group as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. As part of the Supremes, her success made it possible for future African American R&B and soul acts to find mainstream success.
The group released a record setting, twelve number-one hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 including the hits,
- "Where Did Our Love Go",
- "Baby Love",
- "Come See About Me",
- "Stop! In the Name of Love",
- "You Can't Hurry Love",
- "You Keep Me Hangin' On",
- "Love Child"
- and "Someday We'll Be Together".
Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross released her debut solo album, Diana Ross, which contained the hits "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and the number-one hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
She released the album Touch Me in the Morning in 1973. Its title track reached number 1, becoming her second solo hit.
By 1975, the Mahogany soundtrack included her 3rd number-one hit "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)".
Her 1976 album Diana Ross included her fourth number-one hit "Love Hangover". In 1979, Ross released the album The Boss.
Her 1980 album Diana which reached number 2 on the Billboard albums chart and spawned the number-one hit "Upside Down" and the international hit "I'm Coming Out".
After leaving Motown, Ross achieved her sixth and final number-one hit with the duet "Endless Love".
Ross also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominated performance in Lady Sings the Blues (1972).
She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany (1975) and the The Wiz (1978); later acting included roles in the television films Out of Darkness (1994), for which she also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum (1999).
Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist. Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide when her releases with the Supremes and as a solo artist are tallied.
In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as member of the Supremes alongside Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard.
She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007. She is a 12-time Grammy nominee, later becoming the recipient of her only Grammy Award to date by being honored the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
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McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician who is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues".
Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, emulating the local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson.
He was recorded in Mississippi by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. In 1943, he moved to Chicago to become a full-time professional musician. In 1946, he recorded his first records for Columbia Records and then for Aristocrat Records, a newly formed label run by the brothers Leonard and Phil Chess.
In the early 1950s, Muddy Waters and his band--Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elgin Evans on drums and Otis Spann on piano—recorded several blues classics, some with the bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon. These songs included "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "I'm Ready".
In 1958, he traveled to England, laying the foundations of the resurgence of interest in the blues there. His performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960 was recorded and released as his first live album, At Newport 1960.
Muddy Waters' influence was tremendous, not just on blues and rhythm and blues but on rock and roll, hard rock, folk music, jazz, and country music. His use of amplification is often cited as the link between Delta blues and rock and roll.
Click Here for more about Muddy Waters.
Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, emulating the local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson.
He was recorded in Mississippi by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. In 1943, he moved to Chicago to become a full-time professional musician. In 1946, he recorded his first records for Columbia Records and then for Aristocrat Records, a newly formed label run by the brothers Leonard and Phil Chess.
In the early 1950s, Muddy Waters and his band--Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elgin Evans on drums and Otis Spann on piano—recorded several blues classics, some with the bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon. These songs included "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "I'm Ready".
In 1958, he traveled to England, laying the foundations of the resurgence of interest in the blues there. His performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960 was recorded and released as his first live album, At Newport 1960.
Muddy Waters' influence was tremendous, not just on blues and rhythm and blues but on rock and roll, hard rock, folk music, jazz, and country music. His use of amplification is often cited as the link between Delta blues and rock and roll.
Click Here for more about Muddy Waters.