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Gospel, Soul, Doo Wop, R&B, Disco, Funk, Groove
1950s-2020s Jamaica, UK, USA
The Platters - The Great Pretender (Original Footage HD) Music video
"The Great Pretender" is a popular song recorded by The Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single on November 3, 1955.
The words and music were created by Buck Ram, the Platters' manager and producer who was a successful songwriter before moving into producing and management.
The Great Pretender reached the number one position on both the R&B and pop charts in 1956.
YouTube > Solrac Etnevic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEzfhclKO8Q
Bettye LaVette USA
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/16/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/07/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/27/
Candi Staton
https://www.npr.org/artists/15399577/
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/
Yvette Marie Stevens / Chaka Khan USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/
Womack & Womack USA 1980s-2000s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Kool & the Gang
Over nearly six decades, Kool & the Gang have recorded more than 20 albums and toured worldwide.
Photograph: Echoes/Redferns, via Getty Images
Kool & the Gang Get the Dance Floor Moving. Have They Gotten Their Due? The group’s funk, disco and pop songs have been sampled over 1,800 times, but haven’t collected the same accolades as many contemporaries. A new boxed set takes a look back. NYT July 4, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/04/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/04/
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/07/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/11/
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/
Herbie Hancock
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/
The Gap Band
(Ronnie) Wilson formed The Gap Band in the early 1970s in Tulsa, Okla., with his brothers Charlie and Robert Wilson.
The name was inspired by three streets in their hometown — Greenwood, Archer and Pine — that had defined the "Black Wall Street" district destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
The brothers grew up with a love of music, raised by a music teacher mother and a preacher father.
Ronnie would develop into an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, contributing keyboards, horns and percussion in addition to vocals on several of the band's albums.
The Gap Band released its debut album, Magicians Holiday, in 1974.
But it was in the 1980s that the group's distinctive electro-funk style would come to define the era's increasingly synth-heavy R&B sound.
The band produced a number of hit songs, including "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" and "Outstanding."
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/03/
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/03/
Gladys Knight
B.B. King and Gladys Knight The Thrill Is Gone (Midnight Special - Oct 1973) YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DYHm1a9RNg
Smokey Robinson
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/06/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/
The Supremes
Diana Ross performing at the Country Club of Detroit. June 18, 1965.
Photograph: Allyn Baum The New York Times
For One Night in 1965, the Supremes Brought the Two Detroits Together The queens of Motown play the posh suburbs. NYT Feb. 13, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/
https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/
https://www.npr.org/2021/02/09/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/09/
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/aug/06/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/
The Marvelettes 1960s
From left, Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson and Wanda Young of the Marvelettes in an undated photo.
Ms. Young and Ms. Horton shared lead vocal duties with the group.
Photograph: Evening News/ANL, via Shutterstock
Wanda Young, Motown Hitmaker With the Marvelettes, Dies at 78 She was the lead voice on “Don’t Mess With Bill” and other songs written by Smokey Robinson, who said she “had this little voice that was sexy to me.” NYT Dec. 25, 2021, 10:50 a.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/25/
girl group whose 1961 song “Please Mr. Postman,” recorded when they were teenagers, was Motown’s first No. 1 hit
(...)
The Marvelettes began recording in 1961, two years after Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records.
They signed the same year as the Supremes and a year before Martha and the Vandellas, all-female groups who eventually overshadowed them at Motown.
Ms. Young (who was also known as Wanda Rogers) and Gladys Horton shared lead singer duties.
“Don’t Mess With Bill,” which rose to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966, was one of several hits written by Smokey Robinson on which Ms. Young sang lead.
(Ms. Horton was the lead singer on “Please Mr. Postman,” “Beechwood 4-5789” and other songs.)
(...)
The Marvelettes, who recorded for Motown’s Tamla label, released more than 20 singles that made the charts.
The group, which started with five members and later became a quartet and eventually a trio, disbanded around 1970.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/25/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/25/
The Delfonics 1960s-2020s
William Hart, center, and the other members of the Delfonics — his brother Wilbert, left, and Randy Cain — behind the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1968, the year they had their first hit records.
Photograph: Don Paulsen Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty Images
William Hart, Driving Force Behind the Delfonics, Dies at 77 With hits like “La-La (Means I Love You)” and “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time),” his group pioneered the soulful Philadelphia sound. NYT July 20, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/
With hits like “La-La (Means I Love You)” and “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time),” (the Delfonics) pioneered the soulful Philadelphia sound.
5...)
romantic lyrics, falsetto vocals and velvety string arrangements (...) defined the Philadelphia sound of the 1960s and ’70s,
(...)
The Delfonics combined the harmonies of doo-wop, the sweep of orchestral pop and the crispness of funk to churn out a string of hits, 20 of which reached the Billboard Hot 100. (Two made the Top 10.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/29/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/
The Stylistics
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/29/
The Spinners / The Detroit Spinners
rhythm and blues vocal group that formed in Ferndale, Michigan in 1954.
They enjoyed a string of hit singles and albums during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly with producer Thom Bell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Their first big hit for Motown was "It's A Shame," which peaked at No. 14 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1970.
The Spinners would later sign with Atlantic Records and turn out a string of hits that included "Then Came You," which featured singer Dionne Warwick and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974.
Their songs received six Grammy Award nominations and earned 18 platinum and gold albums.
Originally called The Domingoes, the group was formed in 1954 just north of Detroit in Ferndale.
The Spinners joined Motown Records 10 years later.
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/08/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/08/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/29/
The Platters
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/16/
John Legend
https://www.theguardian.com/music/johnlegend
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/19/
Janelle Monáe
https://www.theguardian.com/music/janelle-monae
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jul/04/
R&B / R'n'B
The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip
https://www.loc.gov/collections/
T-Pain
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/mar/04/
Chris Brown
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jul/21/
Vagabond
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/20/
Zarif
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/20/
Estelle
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/mar/28/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/mar/28/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/audio/2008/mar/28/
Bootsy Collins
https://www.npr.org/2021/02/12/
Nile Rodgers & CHIC
http://www.theguardian.com/music/
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/26/
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/feb/05/
Al Green
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/oct/17/
The Staples
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/15/
The Staples > Pervis Staples
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/
The Staples > Mavis Staples
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/15/
Diane Ernestine Earle Ross / Diana Ross
https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/diana-ross
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/04/
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2021/jun/23/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/jun/30/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/mar/16/
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/11/
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/10/
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/07/25/
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/09/
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/07/09/
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/07/
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/24/
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/19
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/27/
https://www.nytimes.com/1967/07/23/
Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
MARTHA and THE VANDELLAS Dancing In The Street 1964 Video WarnerMusicVideos
MARTHA and THE VANDELLAS - Dancing In The Street (1964)
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Uv959QuCg
https://www.theguardian.com/music/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/01/
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/28/
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/feb/09/
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/16/
http://www.newmorning.com/20140507
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/books/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/25/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/
The Commodores
https://www.nytimes.com/1980/09/23/
Earth, Wind & Fire
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/02/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/
http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2016/02/05/
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/04/
Parliament-Funkadelic / P-Funk USA 1970s-2010s
https://www.npr.org/tags/1164574048/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/18/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/04/
https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/05/22/
https://www.npr.org/event/music/
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/24/
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/06/24/
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/17/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/
Fatback Band USA 1970s-2020s
formed in New York City in 1970
Their raw dancefloor sound yielded a string of hits – and the first ever hip-hop track.
Still touring in their 90s, they chart a career from Marvin Gaye to Glastonbury
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/sep/05/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/sep/05/
Clarence Eugene "Fuzzy" Haskins USA 1941-2023
original member of the influential musical collective Parliament-Funkadelic
(...)
Born in Elkins, W.V., in 1941, Haskins started out singing in the 1950s and '60s in New Jersey in the doo-wop vocal quintet The Parliaments.
Named after the American cigarette brand and led by charismatic musician and producer George Clinton, the group didn't achieve great success until they scored a hit in 1967 with "I Wanna Testify."
After their small Detroit record label dissolved, Clinton teamed The Parliaments up with a group called Funkadelic.
Eventually known as Parliament-Funkadelic or P-Funk the musical collective made a big impact on the 1970s R&B and funk scenes.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/18/
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/18/
The Four Tops > Lawrence Payton
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/21/
The Four Tops > Obie Benson
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/02/
The Raelettes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raelettes
Barrett Strong USA 1941-2023
singer, songwriter and Motown’s first star
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/30/
one of Motown's founding artists and most gifted songwriters who sang lead on the company's breakthrough single "Money (That's What I Want)" and later collaborated with Norman Whitfield on such classics as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "War" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone,"
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/30/
Anita Marie Pointer USA 1948-2022
Anita was the second-oldest of four sisters who started performing as the duo of June and Bonnie in 1969 and soon became a trio when Anita quit her job as a secretary to join the group, according to an official biography.
The Pointer Sisters later became a quartet for a while with Ruth, the only one of the original singing sisters still alive.
Anita’s daughter Jada died in 2003, leading Anita to take over raising her granddaughter, Roxie McKain Pointer.
The sisters grew up singing in the church of their father, a preacher in Oakland, California.
Their debut album in 1973 produced their first hit single, Yes We Can Can.
Among their bigger hits were Fire in 1978, He’s So Shy in 1980, Slow Hand in 1981, and Neutron Dance, Automatic and Jump in 1983. I’m So Excited from 1982 remains a standard.
In recent years, the group continued performing with Ruth singing along with her daughter Iss and granddaughter Sadako.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/01/
https://www.npr.org/tags/1146506547
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/01/
Inez Foxx (1937-2022) and her elder brother Charlie Foxx (1933-1998)
The US singer Inez Foxx helped popularise soul music in the UK and, from the mid-1960s to early 70s, was a regular performer in Britain. Inez, who has died aged 84, sang in a duo with her brother, Charlie, and they were often mistakenly thought to be husband and wife rather than siblings.
They were best known for their 1963 hit single, Mockingbird, a witty back-and-forth between Charlie’s deep voice and Inez’s wry gospel wail.
Together, the Foxxes recorded more than 50 memorable songs, and Inez also enjoyed a brief solo career.
They were far more popular as a live act than as recording artists.
The Beatles praised them and the Rolling Stones booked them as support for a 1964 UK tour.
Dusty Springfield recorded a cover of Mockingbird for her album A Girl Called Dusty (and, in 1968, sang it on her ITV television show It Must Be Dusty, with Jimi Hendrix as her duet partner).
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/02/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/02/
Mable John 1930-2022
First female singer signed to Motown whose later hit for Stax, Your Good Thing, became a classic of deep soul
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/02/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/02/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/may/09/
Lamont Herbert Dozier 1941-2022
Along with Brian and Eddie Holland, Dozier co-wrote dozens hits for The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops and others.
(...)
"Heat Wave," "How Sweet It Is," "Stop In The Name of Love," "You Keep Me Hangin' On," "Nowhere To Run," "Bernadette"... Holland-Dozier-Holland were talented, prolific songwriters who were instrumental in making Motown "the home of Hitsville, U.S.A."
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/09/
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/09/
Betty Davis (née Mabry) 1944-2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/09/
http://www.npr.org/2016/07/06/
Roy Charles Hammond 1939-2020
soul singer, songwriter and producer with an impressive catalog in the 1960s and ’70s who produced a song that became one of hip-hop’s foundational samples
(...)
Mr. Hammond wrote and produced the Honey Drippers’ “Impeach the President,” a political funk barnstormer released in 1973 as the Watergate scandal unfolded around President Richard M. Nixon.
It was resuscitated just over a decade later by the Queens hip-hop producer Marley Marl, who sampled its crisp drum intro for MC Shan’s “The Bridge.”
Released in 1986, that track caused a tectonic shift in the sound of New York rap.
“That snare? Crack,” Marley Marl said in a phone interview. “Any song that used it, that was a hit.”
“Impeach the President” became one of sample-based hip-hop’s foundational breakbeats and was used hundreds of times.
The renown of the song, though, tended to overshadow Mr. Hammond’s long, rich soul music career, which predated that track and lasted decades beyond it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/
Patricia Eva "Bonnie" Pointer 1950-2020
a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter who was a founding member of vocal group the Pointer Sisters
(...)
The Pointer Sisters evolved from The Pointers – A Pair, a San Francisco-based group Bonnie formed in 1969 with her younger sister, June.
The duo performed R&B covers in Oakland clubs and was part of the Northern California State Youth Choir.
Anita Pointer saw her sisters singing with the choir at the Fillmore West and immediately quit her legal secretary job to sing with them.
The Pointers grew up singing in the choir at their father's Oakland church, and had clandestine sessions listening to secular radio when their parents weren't home: Nina Simone, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Etta James.
Later, the siblings worked tirelessly on their music — rehearsing, writing and arranging vocals, and penning original songs — and soaking up the revolutionary politics, culture and music galvanizing late-'60s San Francisco.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/09/
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/09/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/09/
Bessie Regina Norris 1953-2020
better known by her stage name Betty Wright
luminary R&B singer known for her hits "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight is the Night,"
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/10/
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/10/
Donald Ray Fritts 1942-2019
songwriter, singer and piano player who helped shape both the soul music made in Muscle Shoals, Ala., in the 1960s and the outlaw country sensibility that bucked Nashville norms in the 1970s
(...)
Though better known to enthusiasts of American roots music than to the general public — and probably better known as the pianist in Kris Kristofferson’s band than as a performer in his own right — Mr. Frittswas a creative force in Southern popular music for more than two decades.
As part of a close circle of songwriters working in Northern Alabama in the ’60s, he wrote or co-wrote signature songs for the likes of the soul singer Arthur Alexander (“Rainbow Road,” with Dan Penn) and the Box Tops (“Choo Choo Train,” with Eddie Hinton). “Choo Choo Train” is also featured on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, “Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/
Charles Edward Bradley 1948-2018
Eugene Pitt 1937-2018
lead singer of the Jive Five, a doo-wop group that reached the Top 10 in 1961 with “My True Story” and endured long past doo-wop’s heyday by mingling their sound with ascendant genres like funk, disco and soul
(...)
Mr. Pitt formed the Jive Five in the late 1950s with Jerome Hanna, Thurmon Prophet, Richard Harris and Norman Johnson — four friends with whom he sang on the streets of Brooklyn.
Like many young vocalists of the era, they sang doo-wop, the romantic, harmonic brand of pop music that became popular alongside early rock ’n’ roll and contributed to the sound of soul.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/
Sharon Lafaye Jones 1956-2016
soul singer and powerful voice of the band the Dap-Kings
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/18/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/
http://www.npr.org/2016/07/28/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/
Wayne Lamar Jackson 1941-2016
Wayne Lamar Jackson was born (...) in Memphis and grew up across the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Ark.
He got his first trumpet when he was 11.
“I opened up the case, and it smelled like oil and brass,” he wrote on his website.
“I loved that, so I put it together, blew, and out came a pretty noise.”
(...)
Mr. Jackson had his first gold record when he was still in high school, performing on the instrumental “Last Night” with the Mar-Keys.
Released in 1961, it rose to No. 3 on the pop charts and was included on the first album issued by Stax, a label that helped create the Memphis sound in soul music.
As part of the house band at Stax, with Booker T. and the M.G.’s, the Mar-Keys played on records by Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Sam and Dave, Albert King, and Carla and Rufus Thomas.
At American Sound Studio in Memphis and FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., Mr. Jackson and Mr. Love performed with artists including Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and Percy Sledge.
After incorporating themselves in 1969 as the Memphis Horns, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Love became roving ambassadors of the Memphis sound, in constant demand by artists as varied as Elvis Presley, Al Green, Rod Stewart, Steve Winwood, Bonnie Raitt, U2 and Willie Nelson.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/
Natalie Cole 1950-2015
buoyantly jazzy singer who became a million-selling, Grammy Award-winning pop hitmaker with her 1975 debut album and went on to even greater popularity when she followed the example of her father, Nat King Cole, in interpreting pre-rock pop standards
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/
http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2016/01/01/
Ben E. King 1938-2015
(born Benjamin Earl Nelson)
smooth, soulful baritone who led the Drifters on “There Goes My Baby,” “Save the Last Dance for Me” and other hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and as a solo artist recorded the classic singles “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/05/01/
Errol Brown Jamaica 1943-2015
lead singer for the British band Hot Chocolate and the writer of the band’s indelible disco hit “You Sexy Thing,” which returned to the pop charts when it was featured in the comedy “The Full Monty” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/arts/music/errol-brown-you-sexy-thing-singer-dies-at-71.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/07/
Don Covay 1936-2015 (born James Donald Randolph)
singer and songwriter whose rhythm-and-blues compositions — among them “Pony Time,” “Chain of Fools” and “Mercy, Mercy” — became hits for a variety of performers and standards of rock ’n’ roll and soul music
(...)
Mr. Covay was among a handful of writers and performers, including Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding, who helped define the soul sound (male division) of the 1960s.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/
Mabon Lewis Hodges 1945-2014
guitarist and songwriter whose lithe touch on songs by Al Green and others helped shape the sound of Memphis soul in the 1970s
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/
Robert Steel Smith 1936-2013
Bobbie Smith ('s) mellifluous vocals helped make the Spinners one of the leading soul acts of the 1970s http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/arts/music/bobbie-smith-voice-of-the-spinners-dies-at-76.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/
Robert Edward Rogers 1940-2013
Bobby Rogers (...) was born on the same day in the same Detroit hospital as the Motown crooner Smokey Robinson, with whom he harmonized in high school and eventually in the Hall of Fame singing group the Miracles
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/
Leroy Bonner 1943-2013
frontman of the Ohio Players, a funk band whose influence lasted well beyond the string of hits it had in the mid-1970s http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/arts/music/leroy-bonner-of-the-ohio-players-dies-at-69.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/
Marva Ann Manning 1944-2012
James Brown was Soul Brother No. 1 and, for a while, Marva Whitney was Soul Sister No. 1.
That was the nickname Mr. Brown gave her when she was a singer in the James Brown Revue and a solo artist on his King Records, turning out brassy, rowdy empowerment anthems that would come to be prized by funk savants, sample-chasing hip-hop producers and record collectors.
As part of the James Brown Revue, Ms. Whitney (...) had her own featured segment during its shows and sang duets with Mr. Brown, her vocals effortlessly intense.
After joining the revue in 1967, she was with Mr. Brown in some of his most momentous shows during a tumultuous 1968, including performances in Vietnam for American soldiers and in Boston on the night after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/
Fontella Bass 1940-2012
(her) 1965 hit “Rescue Me” was an indelible example of the decade’s finest pop-soul
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/
Jimmy McCracklin 1921-2012
(born James David Walker)
blues singer and pianist who by his count composed nearly a thousand songs and recorded hundreds, including the 1950s hit “The Walk”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/
Inez McConico 1929-2012
Inez Andrews ('s) soaring, wide-ranging voice — from contralto croon to soul-wrenching wail — made her a pillar of gospel music http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/arts/music/inez-andrews-gospel-singer-dies-at-83.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/
Earl Carroll 1937-2012
lead singer of the 1950s doo-wop group the Cadillacs, who later found contentment, plus a measure of abiding renown, as a New York City school custodian
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/
Jessy Dixon 1938-2011
singer and songwriter who helped popularize gospel music with his energetic style and who found a wider audience touring and recording with Paul Simon
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/
The Village People
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/
Dionne Warwick
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/18/
https://www.npr.org/2014/10/01/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/
https://www.npr.org/sections/monitormix/2009/06/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/28/
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/04/
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/17/
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/04/
https://www.nytimes.com/1969/07/03/
Donald Dunn 1941-2012
Bassist in Booker T. and the MG’s
(his) simple but inventive bass playing anchored numerous hit records and helped define the sound of Memphis soul music
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/
James Thomas Ellis 1937-2012
The career of the vocalist Jimmy Ellis (...) was ultimately defined by one song.
The band he fronted, the Trammps, had other US and UK hits in the era when the lushly orchestrated soul music released on the Philadelphia International label was gradually mutating into disco, but they were all overshadowed by Disco Inferno. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/09/jimmy-ellis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/09/
Etta James Etta James 1938-2012
(born Jamesetta Hawkins)
Etta James's powerful, versatile and emotionally direct voice could enliven the raunchiest blues as well as the subtlest love songs, most indelibly in her signature hit, “At Last” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/arts/music/etta-james-singer-dies-at-73.html
https://www.theguardian.com/music/etta-james
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/jan/20/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/arts/music/
Johnny Otis 1921-2012
(John Alexander Veliotes)
The bandleader Johnny Otis was one of the first white American musicians to cross the racial divide, aligning himself with the black community as a teenager and from then on regarding himself – and being treated as – a black man.
He attracted many nicknames – among them the Duke Ellington of Watts, the Reverend Hand Jive and the Godfather of Rhythm and Blues – and distinguished himself as a television host, political activist, preacher, cartoonist, painter, chef, record producer, talent scout, DJ, sculptor, writer and organic farmer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/19/johnny-otis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/19/
James Walter Castor 1940-2012
singer, instrumentalist and songwriter whose mastery of genres from doo-wop to Latin soul to funk, and instruments including saxophone and bongos earned him the title Everything Man
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/
Dobie Gray 1940, 1942 or 1943-2011
a versatile singer and songwriter who had a handful of hits in various pop genres but who was probably best known for his enduring 1973 soul anthem, “Drift Away,” a wistful paean to all songwriters and their songs http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/arts/music/dobie-gray-singer-known-for-drift-away-dies.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/arts/music/
James Norman Scott 1937-2011
rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter who worked with Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix early in their careers and was involved in a longstanding dispute over songwriting credit for the song “Time Is on My Side”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/arts/music/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/
Nickolas Ashford 1941-2011
with Valerie Simpson, his songwriting partner and later wife, he wrote some of Motown’s biggest hits, like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough“ and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” and later recorded their own hits and toured as a duo
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/
Wardell Joseph Quezergue 1930-2011
prime mover in New Orleans rhythm and blues since the early 1950s as a producer, arranger and bandleader for a long list of artists including the Dixie Cups, Professor Longhair, the Neville Brothers and Dr. John
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/
General Norman Johnson 1941-2010
General Johnson (...) provided the distinctive lead vocal for the Chairmen of the Board’s 1970 Top 10 hit, “Give Me Just a Little More Time,” and went on to become a successful rhythm-and-blues songwriter http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/arts/music/16johnson.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/
Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass, Sr. 1950-2010
Smooth Philadelphia soul and R&B star who first found fame with the Blue Notes http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/14/teddy-pendergrass-obituary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/14/
Garry Shider 1953-2010
funk-rock guitarist and singer whose spacey but soulful and rhythmically powerful playing provided one of the pillars of the influential Parliament-Funkadelic sound of the 1970s and propelled him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/arts/music/21shider.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers in the early 1960s, from left: O’Kelly, Ronald and Rudolph Isley.
They wrote and recorded their breakthrough hit, “Shout,” in 1959, and continued having hits for three decades.
Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Rudolph Isley, an Original and Enduring Isley Brother, Dies at 84 He provided harmony vocals and the occasional lead. He also helped write some of the group’s biggest hits, including “Shout,” “Fight the Power” and “That Lady.” NYT October 12, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Rudolph Isley 1939-2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/
Marvin Isley 1953-2010
bass player with R&B family band the Isley Brothers http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/08/isley-brothers-star-dies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/08/
Walter Lee Hawkins 1949-2010
Grammy-winning gospel composer and singer whose songs brought a sense of contemporary rhythm to the howling, pleading, God-praising tradition of churchly ecstasy http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/arts/music/14hawkins.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/
Viola Wills 1940-2009
(Viola Mae Wilkerson)
While Viola Wills's best-known hit, Gonna Get Along Without You Now in 1979, was the one that made her name, it was also the track that cast her as a stereotype.
Thenceforth she became the "disco diva", with an enthusiastic gay following, but the term belied her musical range, which encompassed soul, jazz and gospel.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/may/20/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/may/20/
The Four Tops > Levi Stubbs 1936-2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/17/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/18/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/
Isaac Hayes 1942-2008
ISAAC HAYES SHAFT @ WATTSTAX 1973 [feat. Richard Pryor] Music video YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gghsy_YKk8
singer and songwriter whose luxurious, strutting funk arrangements in songs like “Theme From ‘Shaft’ ” defined the glories and excesses of soul music in the early 1970s
(...)
With his lascivious bass-baritone and flamboyant wardrobe, Mr. Hayes developed a musical persona that was an embodiment of the hyper-masculine, street-savvy characters of the so-called blaxploitation films of the era.
In his theme song to Gordon Parks’s “Shaft” from 1971, the title character is summed up in a line that has become a classic of kitsch: “Who’s a black private dick/ Who’s a sex machine to all the chicks?” (Furthermore: “He’s a complicated man/ But no one understands him but his woman.”)
The “Shaft” theme won an Academy Award and has become one of his best-known songs.
But Mr. Hayes’s career stretched far beyond soundtracks.
For much of the 1960s and into the ’70s he was one of the principal songwriters and performers for Stax Records, the trailblazing Memphis R&B label, and in the 1990s he revived his career by providing the voice for the amorous and wise Chef on the cable television show “South Park.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/arts/music/11hayes.html
https://www.theguardian.com/music/isaachayes https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/isaac-hayes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/12/popandrock.jazz
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/11/usa
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/arts/music/11hayes.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/11/isaac.hayes.youtube.gallery
Izear "Ike" Luster Turner 1931-2007
singer, songwriter and rock entrepreneur
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/10/
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/dec/14/guardianobituaries.adamsweeting
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/13/usa.musicnews
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/arts/music/13turner.html
Wilson Pickett 1941-2006
Wilson Pickett Nothing You Can Do (ATLANTIC 2381) http://redkelly.blogspot.com/2006/01/wilson-pickett-nothing-you-can-do.html added 20.5.2007
soul music pioneer whose insistent wail turned songs like "In the Midnight Hour" into hits
(...)
Born in Prattville, Ala., Mr. Pickett was one of 11 children; he told interviewers that he had suffered an abusive childhood.
As a teenager he moved to Detroit, where he formed a gospel band, the Violinaires, that performed in local churches.
But his chance at pop fame emerged in 1961, when he was invited to join the Falcons, an R & B act that had already scored a Top 20 hit, "You're So Fine."
While the Falcons enjoyed modest success, Mr. Pickett struck out on his own, recording the song "If You Need Me."
His performance hit the market at roughly the same time the soul singer Solomon Burke released his own version.
Still, both treatments sold well, and Mr. Pickett soon had a contract with Atlantic Records. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/arts/music/20pickett.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/jan/20/
Barry White 1944-2003
born Barry Eugene Carter
Barry White ('s) deep voice and lushly orchestrated songs added up to soundtracks for seduction http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/05/obituaries/05WHIT.html/
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/05/
Rufus Thomas 1917-2001
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/jul/20/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/dec/21/
Carolyn Ann Franklin 1944-1988
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/07/
Sly and the Family Stone USA 1967-1983
Sly Stone is one of pop music’s truest geniuses and greatest mysteries, who essentially disappeared four decades ago in a cloud of drugs and legal problems after recording several albums’ worth of incomparable, visionary songs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/06/
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/11/24/
Rosetta Tharpe 1915-1973
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/
August 1972
The biggest music event of the Black Power era: Wattstax
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/15/
https://www.npr.org/2010/07/16/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/jul/20/
Mahalia Jackson 1911-1972
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/
Nat Turner Rebellion late 1960s - early 1970s
https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2019/05/21/
Jessie Mae Robinson 1918-1966
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/
Chairmen of the Board 1960s-1970s
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. 1941-1967
The Crystals 1960s
Ms. Alston was a choir-trained teenager in Brooklyn when she formed the Crystals with her high school friends Mary Thomas, Dolores Kenniebrew (who is known as Dee Dee), Myrna Giraud and Patsy Wright.
Their harmonious songs, often about young romance, were like those of many other popular all-female R&B vocal groups in the early 1960s, like the Shirelles and the Ronettes.
The producer Phil Spector signed the Crystals in 1961, and they became an early example of his dense, layered “wall of sound” production style.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/
Phil Spector
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/apr/21/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
Phil Spector > wall of sound
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/apr/21/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
psychedelic
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/19/
Soul Train
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/20/
label > Invictus
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/
label > Motown records UK / USA
https://www.theguardian.com/music/motown
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/
Motown
Michael Jackson 1958-2009
http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/2009/06/26/
Motown Norman Jesse Whitfield, songwriter and record producer 1941-2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/19/
Motown The Temptations
https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/31/
Dennis Edwards 1943-2018
Dennis Edwards (...) became a lead singer of the Motown hitmakers the Temptations in 1968 as they embraced psychedelic funk and won Grammy Awards for the songs “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” and “Cloud Nine”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/
Motown The Temptations > Ali-Ollie Woodson
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/arts/music/01woodson.html
Motown Jheryl Busby
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/business/media/08busby.html
Motown Martha Reeves
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/25/martha-reeves-motown
Mustang records
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/05/obituaries/05WHIT.html
Dot Records > Randolph Clay Wood 1917-2011
Randy Wood started out stocking records in a nook of his electrical appliance store before going on to found Dot Records, a label that found success in the 1950s recording white artists like Pat Boone singing black artists’ rhythm-and-blues songs
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/business/media/15wood.html
Solar Records - acronym for Sound of Los Angeles Records
Richard Gilbert Griffey USA 1938-2010 bringing a funky, laid back, California sound to soul, R&B and disco in the ’70s and ’80s
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/arts/music/04griffey.html
Solar Records Shalamar, the Whispers, Lakeside, Dynasty, Klymaxx, Midnight Star, the Deele
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/arts/music/04griffey.html
Stax > Estelle Axton 1918-2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/feb/28/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries
Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records 1923-2006
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/dec/15/5 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/dec/15/4 http://www.pbs.org/previews/am-atlanticrecords/
the era’s major traditional gospel groups, the Ward Singers 1940s
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/
Pat Boone (born Charles Eugene Boone)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Boone
Teena Marie, ‘Ivory Queen of Soul,’ Dies at 54
Filed at 1:14 a.m. EST
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Teena Marie, the "Ivory Queen of Soul" who developed a
lasting legacy with her silky soul pipes and with hits like "Lovergirl,"
''Square Biz," and "Fire and Desire" with mentor Rick James, died on Sunday. She
was 54.
(This version CORRECTS Updates with police report, removes attribution to publicist. Corrects that 'Ooo La La La' was during Epic instead of Motown years.)
Teena Marie, ‘Ivory
Queen of Soul,’ Dies at 54, NYT, 26.12.2010,
Garry Shider, a Pillar of Funk-Rock, Is Dead at 56
June 20, 2010
Garry Shider, the funk-rock guitarist and singer whose spacey but soulful and
rhythmically powerful playing provided one of the pillars of the influential
Parliament-Funkadelic sound of the 1970s and propelled him into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame, died on Wednesday at his home in Upper Marlboro, Md. He was
56.
Garry Shider, a Pillar
of Funk-Rock, Is Dead at 56, NYT, 20.6.2010,
Obituary Isaac Hayes Soul legend, composer and actor who won an Oscar for the soundtrack of Shaft
Tuesday 12 August 2008
Isaac Hayes, who has died aged 65, earned massive international acclaim and a
niche in the record books from writing the Oscar-winning theme for the movie
Shaft in 1971. But that was only the tip of the iceberg of Hayes's talents,
which comprised skills as a multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and
vocalist, as well as composer, songwriter and actor. The musical innovations he
pioneered throughout his career made him an influential figure in the
development of soul and disco, and he was later dubbed the "Original Rapper". He
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
· Isaac Hayes, musician, born August 20 1942; died August 10 2008
Soul legend,
Ike Turner, Musician and Songwriter in Duo With Tina Turner, Dies at 76
December 13, 2007
Ike Turner, the R&B musician, songwriter, bandleader, producer, talent scout
and ex-husband of Tina Turner, died on Wednesday at his home in San Marcos,
Calif., a San Diego suburb. He was 76.
Ben Sisario contributed reporting.
Ike Turner, Musician and
Songwriter in Duo With Tina Turner, Dies at 76,
Obituary Ray Charles
Musical giant who drew together blues, gospel, soul and jazz
Saturday 12 June 2004 02.45 BST Guardian.co.uk Tony Russell
During the 1960s, a generation of teenagers discovered America's hidden music of black blues, gospel and soul, and many of them promptly fissured into followings of one genre or another. If anyone could reunite those factions it was Ray Charles, who has died aged 73. His work had elements of every idiom: it was pan-American music. Sometimes, it seemed to be even more than that.
In 1960, Charles recorded Hoagy Carmichael's "old sweet song", Georgia On My
Mind. It was a beautiful thing in itself, but, appearing as it did in the early
years of the civil rights struggle, Charles's bittersweet reading seemed like an
elegy to an Old South that was - or ought to have been - on its way out. To hear
a man singing with such exquisite tenderness about a place where he could not
eat lunch or use a public lavatory on his own terms made the terrible
ambivalences of black southern life unbearably vivid.
born September 23 1930; died June 10 2004
Musical giant who drew
together blues, gospel, soul and jazz,
Related > Anglonautes > Arts > Music
gospel, soul, Doo Wop, soul revival, R&B, twist, disco, groove, funk
Related > Anglonautes > Vocapedia
Related > Anglonautes > History
20th century > USA > Civil rights
WW2 > African-American soldiers
17th, 18th, 19th, 20th century
Related
USA > Motown Records
https://www.theguardian.com/music/
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