The Top Ten Soul/R&B Singles Of The 1960's

[kes1111]

The Top Ten Soul/R&B Singles Of The 1960's
(In no particular order)


"Stand by Me"(Released April 1961) is a song originally performed by American singer-songwriter Ben E. King, written by King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. According to King, the title is derived and was inspired by a spiritual composition by Sam Cooke called "Stand by Me Father" (although Mike Stoller has stated differently). This spiritual was sung by the Soul Stirrers with Johnnie Taylor singing lead. The third line of the second verse of "Stand by Me" derives from Psalms 46:2c.[1] There have been over 400 recorded versions of the song performed by many artists. It has been featured on the soundtrack of the 1986 film Stand by Me. A music video was also released to promote the film.

In 2012, it was estimated that the song's royalties had topped £17 million, making it the sixth highest earning song as of that time. 50% of the royalties were paid to King.[2]

In 2015, King's original version was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant",[3] just under five weeks before his death. Later in the year the 2015 line up of the Drifters recorded it in tribute to him.


"A Change Is Gonna Come" is a song by American recording artist Sam Cooke, released on December 22, 1964, by RCA Victor. Produced by Hugo & Luigi and arranged and conducted by René Hall, the song was the B-side to "Shake".

The song was inspired by various personal events in Cooke's life, most prominently an event in which he and his entourage were turned away from a whites only motel in Louisiana. Cooke felt compelled to write a song that spoke to his struggle and of those around him, and he recorded the song for its first release on his final album, Ain't That Good News.[citation needed] The song, released in 1964, pertains to the Civil Rights Movement, African-Americans and contains the refrain, "It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come."

Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, "A Change Is Gonna Come" is widely considered Cooke's best composition and has been voted among the best songs ever released by various publications. In 2007, the song was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress, with the National Recording Registry deeming the song "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important."


"My Girl" is a 1964 standard recorded by the Temptations for the Gordy (Motown) label which became a number one hit in 1965. Written and produced by the Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Ronald White, the song became the Temptations' first U.S. number-one single, and is today their signature song. Robinson's inspiration for writing this song was his wife, Miracles member Claudette Rogers Robinson. The song was featured on the Temptations album The Temptations Sing Smokey. "My Girl" climbed to the top of the U.S. pop charts after its Christmas time 1964 release, making it the Temptations' first number-one hit. The single was also the first number-one hit on the reinstated Billboard R&B Singles chart, which had gone on a fifteen-month hiatus from 1963 to 1965.[2] The single also gave the Gordy label its first number one on the Hot 100.[3] The Temptations were the first Motown act to earn a Grammy.


"Stop! In the Name of Love" is a 1965 song recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label.

Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, "Stop! In the Name of Love" held the number one position on the Billboard pop singles chart in the United States from March 27, 1965 through April 3, 1965,and reached the number-two position on the soul chart.

Billboard named the song #38 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.


"When a Man Loves a Woman" is a song written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright and first recorded by Percy Sledge[1] in 1966 at Norala Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. It made number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts.Released by Atlantic Records in April 1966, Sledge's recording reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts,[4] becoming the first number 1 hit recorded in Muscle Shoals. It is also one of seven number 1 hits to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 100. The single was also a top ten hit in the UK reaching number four on its initial release and ultimately peaking at number two in 1987 on the UK Singles Chart after it was featured in a Levi's Jeans commercial. The Percy Sledge version is listed 53rd in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


"Reach Out I'll Be There" (also formatted as "Reach Out (I'll Be There)") is a song recorded by the Four Tops from their fourth studio album Reach Out (1966). Written and produced by Motown's main production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland,[2] the song is one of the best known Motown tunes of the 1960s, and is today considered The Tops' signature song.
It was the number one song on the Rhythm & Blues charts for two weeks,[3] and on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, from October 15–22, 1966.Rolling Stone later ranked this version number 206 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Billboard ranked the record as the number four song for 1966.[6] This version is also currently ranked as the 56th best song of all time (as well as the number four song of 1966) in an aggregation of critics' lists at Acclaimed Music.


"Respect" is a song written and originally released by American recording artist Otis Redding in 1965. The song became a 1967 hit and signature song for R&B singer Aretha Franklin. The music in the two versions is significantly different, and through a few minor changes in the lyrics, the stories told by the songs have a different flavor. Redding's version is a plea from a desperate man, who will give his woman anything she wants. He won't care if she does him wrong, as long as he gets his due respect, when he brings money home. However, Franklin's version is a declaration from a strong, confident woman, who knows that she has everything her man wants. She never does him wrong, and demands his "respect".[2]Franklin's version adds the "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" chorus and the backup singers' refrain of "Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me..."

Franklin's cover was a landmark for the feminist movement, and is often considered as one of the best songs of the R&B era, earning her two Grammy Awards in 1968 for "Best Rhythm & Blues Recording" and "Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female", and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2002, the Library of Congress honored Franklin's version by adding it to the National Recording Registry. It was placed number five on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[3] It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Franklin included a live recording on the album Aretha in Paris (1968).


"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" is a song co-written by soul singer Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper. It was recorded by Redding twice in 1967, including once just days before his death in a plane crash. The song was released on Stax Records' Volt label in 1968,[2] becoming the first posthumous single to top the charts in the US. It reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.
Redding started writing the lyrics to the song in August 1967, while sitting on a rented houseboat in Sausalito, California. He completed the song with the help of Cropper, who was a Stax producer and the guitarist for Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The song features whistling and sounds of waves crashing on a shore.
"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was released in January 1968, shortly after Redding's death. R&B stations quickly added the song to their playlists, which had been saturated with Redding's previous hits. The song shot to number one on the R&B charts in early 1968 and, starting in March, topped the pop charts for four weeks.[27] The album, which shared the song's title, became his largest-selling to date, peaking at number four on the pop albums chart.[15] "Dock of the Bay" was popular in countries across the world and became Redding's most successful record, selling more than four million copies worldwide.[28][29] The song went on to win two Grammy Awards: Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.


"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966.
The Marvin Gaye version was placed on his 1968 album In the Groove, where it gained the attention of radio disc jockeys, and Motown founder Berry Gordy finally agreed to its release as a single in October 1968, when it went to the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart for seven weeks from December 1968 to January 1969 and became for a time the biggest hit single on the Motown label (Tamla).

The Gaye recording has since become an acclaimed soul classic, and in 2004, it was placed 81 on the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. On the commemorative fiftieth anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 issue of Billboard magazine in June 2008, Marvin Gaye's "Grapevine" was ranked sixty-fifth. It was also inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value.


"It's Your Thing" is a funk single by The Isley Brothers. Released in 1969, the funk anthem was an artistic response to Motown chief Berry Gordy's demanding hold on his artists after the Isleys left the label in late 1968.
The lyrics of the chorus, which also serve as first verse, run: "It's your thing/ Do what you wanna do/ I can't tell you/ Who to sock it to". The song is ranked #420 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song was released as a single on February 16, 1969, and quickly rose to the top of both the Billboardpop and R&B singles charts, peaking at #2 on the former and marking their first #1 hit in the latter.[1] Upon the song's release and ascent to success, Gordy threatened to sue the group for releasing it in an attempt to bring them back to Motown, but he eventually cancelled his threat, and in February 1970 the brothers became the first former Motown act to win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

 

[easy_b]

 

[JimJones]

If you were not able to sing the chorus to all things songs without cliking the video, smack yourself and tell your parents they failed you.

 

[kes1111]

'When a Man Loves a Woman': 50th anniversary of recording that defined Muscle Shoals sound

Percy Sledge. (File photo)

By Matt Wake

A Colbert County Hospital orderly by trade, Percy Sledge was quite green as a recording artist, as he stepped in front of a microphone to record his vocal for "When a Man Loves a Woman."

"At that time Percy had never sung on a record before," says Jimmy Johnson, who recorded the Feb. 17, 1966 session at Sheffield's Norala Sound Studio, following Sledge's reported earlier attempt to track the song at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals. "And the performance he gave was so pristine and so good that it was almost hard to believe that was his first time. I think he was pretty scared to death when he came there that day but it gets pretty lonely when you're looking at some people in the (recording studio's) control room at you've got a mic in front of you. [Laughs.] But I tell you what, that vocal on there ..."

That vocal is completely mesmerizing. And exquisitely conveys a primal feeling that has always existed and always will.

Known for his work as a session guitarist with Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, aka The Swampers, Johnson served as audio engineer on "When a Man Loves a Woman" but did not play guitar on the now-iconic ballad. At the time, Sledge had yet to learn how to "work the mic" - backing away from the microphone during passages where his voice got louder and moving closer when his voice got softer. So as Sledge recorded his vocal at the same time as Spooner Oldham's Farfisa organ, Roger Hawkins' drums and Albert Lowe's bass, Johnson "rode the fader" to keep the vocals level consistent. Johnson did not have a compressor, which can limit an audio level automatically, at his disposal that day.

"My hand was on knob that was the size of my hand," Johnson says of capturing the take. "And I had to learn every part of that vocal and just kind of anticipate when he was going to hit it hard and hit it soft. I was sweating."

Johnson later recorded Marlin Greene's guitar, horns and background vocals all on the same pass for a single overdub. The board at Norala, located on 2nd Street and short for "north Alabama," was a Gates radio console that had been modified for recording.
Doris Allen was paid a whopping $15.50 to sing background vocals on "When a Man Loves a Woman." "I was 15-years-old so I thought that was good," Allen says now of her pay, with a laugh. She was a student at Sterling High School at the time. Her buttery smooth alto can be heard on the "oohs" that begin on the song's bridge and continue until its conclusion at two minutes and 51 seconds. It was the only recording session Allen would ever participate in. She'd previously sung in her church choir. And still sings and plays piano to this day at her church, Sheffield's Brown Temple Methodist. She listened to "When a Man Loves a Woman" on CD less than a month ago and thinks the first time she heard the song's spine-tingling finished version of was on the radio. "When I heard it I was like, 'Wow, that's me!'" Allen recalls. "Mine is the low voice on there - you can hear me real good. In fact, every time I hear it I'll sing along with it, Percy has a very unique voice and sings with feelings and when you hear a singer like that you can feel it. And the lyrics had a lot to do with the song as well as the music. I knew two of the writers, they went to school with me. The song to me is like 'Amazing Grace.' It will always be a classic." Still a Sheffield resident, Allen earned a living worked at a jewelry store for 32 years.

Upon its April 1966 release, "When a Man Loves a Woman" hit number one on the pop and R&B charts. The first number one for both Atlantic Records and Muscle Shoals recording. Sledge's friend, producer and former Alabama Music Hall of Fame executive director David Johnson says 50 years later the song still defines "the Muscle Shoals sound." "The Muscle Shoals sound was a little dirtier sounding," David says. "It had more bottom in it than the normal record did in those days and it's just a unique sound the way the engineers mixed and the way the emphasis was put on the bass and the bass drum and that sort of stuff."
Full article:http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/02/when_a_man_loves_a_woman_50th.html

 

[THE DRIZZY]

We black people are indeed great. We dictate the culture.

 

[kes1111]

Sam Cooke And The Song That 'Almost Scared Him'
Fifty years ago this week, Sam Cooke strolled into a recording studio, put on a pair of headphones, and laid down the tracks for one of the most important songs of the civil rights era.

Rolling Stone now calls "A Change Is Gonna Come" one of the greatest songs of all time, but in 1964 its political message was a risky maneuver. Cooke had worked hard to be accepted as a crossover artist after building a sizable following on the gospel circuit. And the first thing to know about the song, Cooke biographer Peter Guralnick says, is that it's unlike anything the singer had ever recorded.

"His first success came with the song 'You Send Me.' I mean, this was his first crossover number under his own name, and it went to No. 1 on the pop charts, which was just unheard of," Guralnick says. "As he evolved as a pop singer, he brought more and more of his gospel background into his music, as well as his social awareness, which was keen. But really, 'A Change Is Gonna Come' was a real departure for him, in the sense that it was undoubtedly the first time that he addressed social problems in a direct and explicit way."

It's hard to imagine today what it meant for a black artist to achieve crossover in 1963. It did not come easily, and the last thing Sam Cooke wanted to do was to alienate his new audience. But he also came from the gospel world. He could not ignore moral outrage right in front of him.

Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," which Guralnick says Cooke loved but wished had come from a person of color — so much so that he incorporated it into his repertoire almost immediately.

In the fall of 1963, Cooke faced a direct affront: He and his band were turned away from a Holiday Inn in Shreveport, La.

"He just went off," Guralnick says. "And when he refused to leave, he became obstreperous to the point where his wife, Barbara, said, 'Sam, we'd better get out of here. They're going to kill you.' And he says, 'They're not gonna kill me; I'm Sam Cooke.' To which his wife said, 'No, to them you're just another ...' you know."

Cooke was arrested and jailed, along with several of his company, for disturbing the peace. Guralnick says "A Change Is Gonna Come" was written within a month or two after that.

"It was less work than any song he'd ever written," Guralnick says. "It almost scared him that the song — it was almost as if the song were intended for somebody else. He grabbed it out of the air and it came to him whole, despite the fact that in many ways it's probably the most complex song that he wrote. It was both singular — in the sense that you started out, 'I was born by the river' — but it also told the story both of a generation and of a people."
Cooke was known to be a bit of a control freak in the studio, with a precise idea of how he wanted every instrument to sound. For this track, however, he gave total latitude to the arranger, René Hall. Hall took the charge seriously, and wrote what was essentially a symphonic arrangement within a three-and-a-half-minute framework.

"Each verse is a different movement: The strings have their movement, the horns have their movement. The timpani carries the bridge. It was like a movie score. He wanted it to have a grandeur to it," Guralnick says.

"A Change Is Gonna Come" was released on the album Ain't That Good News in March of 1964. The civil rights movement picked up on it immediately, but most of Cooke's audience did not — mostly because it wasn't selected as one of the first singles and because Cooke only played the song before a live audience once.

"It was a complex arrangement with something like 17 strings," Guralnick says. "I think part of him felt, 'I'm not gonna do it if I can't to justice to it.' But the other part was that it had this kind of ominousness about it.

"When he first played it for Bobby Womack, who was his protégé, he said, 'What's it sound like?' And Bobby said, 'It sounds like death.' Sam said, 'Man, that's kind of how it sounds like to me. That's why I'm never going to play it in public.' And Bobby sort of rethought it and said, 'Well, it's not like death, but it sounds kind of spooky.'"

It was more than spooky. Just before the song was to be released as a single in December of 1964, Sam Cooke would be shot to death at a motel in Los Angeles.

Guralnick says "A Change Is Gonna Come" is now much more than a civil rights anthem. It's become a universal message of hope, one that does not age.

"Generation after generation has heard the promise of it. It continues to be a song of enormous impact," he says. "We all feel in some way or another that a change is gonna come, and he found that lyric. It was the kind of hook that he always looked for: The phrase that was both familiar but was striking enough that it would have its own originality. And that makes it almost endlessly adaptable to whatever goal, whatever movement is of the moment."

 

[HAR125LEM]

50+ FUCKIN' YEARS LATER!!!

Beautiful Music that stands the taste of time.

The SHIT that passes for Black Music today no one will remember.
Unless as a joke.

 

[kes1111]

We black people are indeed great. We dictate the culture.

 

[the artist]

The Isley's are favorites of mine. Who else has made hits for so many decades and still putting out records.

 

[KingTaharqa]

The 60's has so many great ballads and songs. Smokey Robinson And The Miracles "Ooh Baby Baby", The Delfonics La La Means I Love You", and The Impressions " Keep On Pushing" deserve recognition as well.

 

[will_right]

The Isley's are favorites of mine. Who else has made hits for so many decades and still putting out records.

Steve Wonder.. Charlie Wilson..EWF Gladys Night and a few more to name a few

 

[the artist]

Steve Wonder.. Charlie Wilson..EWF Gladys Night and a few more to name a few

Not at all. The Isley's first #1 hit was in the 50's. The Beatles even had their breakout hit by first recording an Isley Brothers song, "Twist and Shout". Charlie Wilson was probably in Kindergarten when they were already performing. Not knocking Charlie's voice at all. What's the last stuff that Stevie recorded and/or put out? Not knocking Stevie but......
Gladys hasn't put out music at the same pace. EWF don't even figure into equation.

 

[will_right]

Not at all. The Isley's first #1 hit was in the 50's. The Beatles even had their breakout hit by first recording an Isley Brothers song, "Twist and Shout". Charlie Wilson was probably in Kindergarten when they were already performing. Not knocking Charlie's voice at all. What's the last stuff that Stevie recorded and/or put out? Not knocking Stevie but......
Gladys hasn't put out music at the same pace. EWF don't even figure into equation.

Ok first off YES the Isley's are some bad mofo's and YES they started back in the 50's BUT why do u say that EWF don't even figure into equation? they BOTH been doing it for Decades..BOTH still put out music here and there..they are both Bands..so yeah the Isley's been doing it longer but hey the Temptations have also been doing it for decades. But IMO Ron Isley is the main one that's been keeping them as well as they name alive. PLUS they do alot of repeat shit that and the stuff like they doing on their new CD..it's other artist music being done by them "no nock for doing it" but they all do it alot. Patty Labelle still out here too been doing it for Decades..but are you gonna say that because the Isley's been doing it longer then the decades THEY been doing it don't count? of course not.

"Who else has made hits for so many decades and still putting out records" Charlie Wilson Fits bruh...DECADES? Check..Still making music? Check..Four decades in bruh..this wasn't about who did it longer OR first now was it

 

[the artist]

Ok first off YES the Isley's are some bad mofo's and YES they started back in the 50's BUT why do u say that EWF don't even figure into equation? they BOTH been doing it for Decades..BOTH still put out music here and there..they are both Bands..so yeah the Isley's been doing it longer but hey the Temptations have also been doing it for decades. But IMO Ron Isley is the main one that's been keeping them as well as they name alive. PLUS they do alot of repeat shit that and the stuff like they doing on their new CD..it's other artist music being done by them "no nock for doing it" but they all do it alot. Patty Labelle still out here too been doing it for Decades..but are you gonna say that because the Isley's been doing it longer then the decades THEY been doing it don't count? of course not.

EWF didn't put out nearly as many record. Granted Maurice was ill for a lot of that time. Patty did it for a very long time too. She hasn't released as many records has she? Yeah, I agree, that the Temptations have been keeping their flame lit too. Just not at the pace of The Isley's IMO. Hell, they even had Jimi Hendrix as a member at one point.

True that Ron has been keeping them afloat but he was the voice anyway. Rudolph and Chris went to Gospel and the other 2 are deceased.
Ionno, It's just my opinion I know.

Carry On

 

[will_right]

EWF didn't put out nearly as many record. Granted Maurice was ill for a lot of that time. Patty did it for a very long time too. She hasn't released as many records has she? Yeah, I agree, that the Temptations have been keeping their flame lit too. Just not at the pace of The Isley's IMO. Hell, they even had Jimi Hendrix as a member at one point.

True that Ron has been keeping them afloat but he was the voice anyway. Rudolph and Chris went to Gospel and the other 2 are deceased.
Ionno, It's just my opinion I know.

Carry On

I feel ya but if we keep it 100...the OP thread..they wouldn't even count because they are a BAND..and the Isley's didn't do "Singles "as far as I can remember
The Top Ten Soul/R&B Singles Of The 1960's

 

[jack walsh13]

"When a man loves a woman" is one of the greatest songs of all time!!!!

 

[godofwine]

If you were not able to sing the chorus to all things songs without cliking the video, smack yourself and tell your parents they failed you.

You ain't never lied. Most of the day up on here is at least 30-35 and above. This great music what's the staple to our childhood even though, for me born in 1977, the sixties were almost a decade gone when I came into the picture

 

[godofwine]

"When a man loves a woman" is one of the greatest songs of all time!!!!

And the goddamned truth. Tell me it ain't like that and you never loved a woman. You may be Hitch now, full player mode, but before you became what you are now a woman took you for a ride and made you forget all your good sense.

 

[kes1111]

'Respect' Wasn't A Feminist Anthem Until Aretha Franklin Made It One

On this day 50 years ago, a little-known gospel singer from Detroit went into a New York City recording studio to try to jump-start her career. No one saw it coming, but the song Aretha Franklin laid down on Valentine's Day 1967 would go on to become one of the greatest recordings of all time.

"Respect" hit the top of the charts four months later and turned Aretha Franklin into a feminist champion. The track was actually a clever gender-bending of a song by Otis Redding, whose original reinforced the traditional family structure of the time: Man works all day, brings money home to wife and demands her respect in return.

Franklin's version blew that structure to bits. For one, Redding's song doesn't spell out "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" like Franklin's does. It also doesn't have the backup singers and their clever interplay. So much of what made "Respect" a hit — and an anthem — came from Franklin's rearrangement. She remembered how it all came together when she spoke with WHYY's Fresh Air in 1999.
"My sister Carolyn and I got together and — I was living in a small apartment on the west side of Detroit, piano by the window, watching the cars go by — and we came up with that infamous line, the 'sock it to me' line," she told host Terry Gross. "Some of the girls were saying that to the fellas, like 'sock it to me' in this way or 'sock it to me' in that way. It's not sexual. It was nonsexual, just a cliché line."

Franklin's "Respect" became a transformative moment — not only in her career but also in the women's rights movement and the civil rights movement. Which makes one wonder: What did Redding think of all this?

"Well, he didn't like it," says Mark Ribowsky, author of the biography Dreams To Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul. Speaking to NPR in 2015, Ribowsky said Redding eventually accepted that "Respect" no longer belonged to him — and that you can see it for yourself in his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival.
"He comes onstage and he goes, 'This next song is a song that a girl took away from me' — but he says it with the Otis charm, a little glint in the eye," Ribowski said. "And Otis couldn't begrudge her that."

Rolling Stone named "Respect" one of the top five greatest songs of all time, saying: "Franklin wasn't asking for anything. She sang from higher ground: a woman calling an end to the exhaustion and sacrifice of a raw deal with scorching sexual authority. In short, if you want some, you will earn it."

 

[respiration]

EWF didn't put out nearly as many record. Granted Maurice was ill for a lot of that time. Patty did it for a very long time too. She hasn't released as many records has she? Yeah, I agree, that the Temptations have been keeping their flame lit too. Just not at the pace of The Isley's IMO. Hell, they even had Jimi Hendrix as a member at one point.

True that Ron has been keeping them afloat but he was the voice anyway. Rudolph and Chris went to Gospel and the other 2 are deceased.
Ionno, It's just my opinion I know.

Carry On

Peace,
Actually the older brother O'Kelly (R.I.P.) sang the lead vocal for many of their most well-known songs. Since his and Ron's voices sound nearly identical, a lot of people don't know this.

 

[kes1111]

"When a man loves a woman" is one of the greatest songs of all time!!!!

 

[Mo-Better]

EWF didn't put out nearly as many record. Granted Maurice was ill for a lot of that time. Patty did it for a very long time too. She hasn't released as many records has she? Yeah, I agree, that the Temptations have been keeping their flame lit too. Just not at the pace of The Isley's IMO. Hell, they even had Jimi Hendrix as a member at one point.

True that Ron has been keeping them afloat but he was the voice anyway. Rudolph and Chris went to Gospel and the other 2 are deceased.
Ionno, It's just my opinion I know.

Carry On

EW&F charted Think About Loving You in 1971 back when they had a female lead singer. Patti started in 1960, that's 5 decades. Now lets not get this twisted, when was the last time you've heard anything new on the radio from any of the artist from the 60s, 70s, 80s or even the 90s?

If not for a few specialty R&B shows like Youngblood in Atlanta and in Newark with the Rhythm Review both on Saturday morning. Aside from that if its not on satellite radio you hear nothing musically from those eras.

But don't think R&B is dead the oldies circuits are still packing them in.

 

[the artist]

EW&F charted Think About Loving You in 1971 back when they had a female lead singer. Patti started in 1960, that's 5 decades. Now lets not get this twisted, when was the last time you've heard anything new on the radio from any of the artist from the 60s, 70s, 80s or even the 90s?

If not for a few specialty R&B shows like Youngblood in Atlanta and in Newark with the Rhythm Review both on Saturday morning. Aside from that if its not on satellite radio you hear nothing musically from those eras.

But don't think R&B is dead the oldies circuits are still packing them in.

I still have the Isley's on the top of my list. They first charted in the 50's. They were still releasing in the 2000's.

Anyway, I agree with you on the circuit tours still packing them in. I was just with Jeffrey Osborne about a month ago and his shows still have standing room only. He is in top shape, works out every day and just became vegan. He's got a new one coming out May 25th 2018, "Worth It All" and that voice is still there.

 

[Mo-Better]

I still have the Isley's on the top of my list. They first charted in the 50's. They were still releasing in the 2000's.

Anyway, I agree with you on the circuit tours still packing them in. I was just with Jeffrey Osborne about a month ago and his shows still have standing room only. He is in top shape, works out every day and just became vegan. He's got a new one coming out May 25th 2018, "Worth It All" and that voice is still there.

The Dells might have them beat they started in the early 50s. Back in the days of the 78 rpms. The Dells were still doing it until maybe 5 years ago when their lead singer died.

As for the Isley Brothers isn't it only Ron and Ernie the only 2 left?

 

[ak_rep]

Sam Cooke.

Since I Lost My Baby is the shit though. It's on the My Girl tree/ branch, but still great.

 

[the artist]

The Dells might have them beat they started in the early 50s. Back in the days of the 78 rpms. The Dells were still doing it until maybe 5 years ago when their lead singer died.

As for the Isley Brothers isn't it only Ron and Ernie the only 2 left?

Only Ron and Ernie tour with the group. Rudolph and Chris are still alive. They're doing mostly gospel now

 

[kes1111]

The Reason Smokey Robinson Wrote ‘My Girl’ Had Nothing To Do With A Girl
It’s almost impossible to think of the song “My Girl” without immediately humming those first few notes of its iconic opening riff. It was one of the biggest hits to come out of Berry Gordy’s Motown — “My Girl” became a best-selling single, rose to the top of the Billboard charts, became The Temptations’ first number-one song and marked the first time the label itself landed a number-one hit with one of their male vocal groups. Even today, more than 50 years after its release, “My Girl” still stands out, ranking among the best songs of all time.
A big part of the song’s success was its writer, Smokey Robinson. Smokey was one of Motown’s big songwriters/producers at the time; he was also the lead singer of his own vocal group, the Miracles. And, yet, Smokey never intended to keep “My Girl” for himself — it was always meant for his so-called competitors.
As Smokey tells “Oprah’s Master Class,” competition at Motown may have been fierce, but it was incredibly common for everyone to work together in an effort to strike gold with a big hit.

“It would be nothing for us to go into the studio and help one of our competitors with a song that they were working on, with an artist that we were working on,” Smokey says. “We all did that, for each other.”

In fact, Motown’s policy was that no one had a lock on a particular artist; any writer or producer could choose to work with any willing artist. This is what happened with Smokey and The Temptations. He very deliberately wrote “My Girl” for them.

“Were it not for The Temptations, I never would have written ‘My Girl,’” Smokey says.

When The Temptations first signed with Motown, the label’s founder, Berry Gordy, instructed Smokey to “get some hits on them.” Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams typically alternated as the group’s lead singers, but Smokey saw incredible potential in background singer David Ruffin.

“I wrote ‘My Girl’ for David Ruffin’s voice,” Smokey says. “The Temptations were so creative in making up the background vocals... All the stuff that they’re singing on ‘My Girl,’ they made that up themselves.”
FullArticle:https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_56327f22e4b0c66bae5bc14e

 

[TheBigOne]

Many a baby was made to this song on .45 repeat

​

 

[TheBigOne]

​

 

[kes1111]

'Dock Of The Bay' At 50: Why Otis Redding's Biggest Hit Almost Went Unheard

"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was released 50 years ago Monday, less than a month after Otis Redding died at the age of 26. The song was a departure for the R&B superstar — and it almost never saw the light of day.

"Otis had had a throat operation in the fall that year, and he was very worried about whether he would be able to sing again — and sing like Otis," biographer Mark Ribowsky says. "He needed to sort of make it quieter, make it more poetic. And he came up with this song."
The song was an experiment: It wasn't R&B, it wasn't rock, it wasn't folk. At least one executive at Redding's label, Stax, didn't get it. "Al Bell heard it being recorded that day and said, 'I don't know if we can ever release this song,' " Ribowsky says.

They left the recording incomplete that winter. Then, tragedy struck: Redding died in a plane crash on Dec. 10, 1967. While the music world mourned, Stax began planning.
"Let's face it: When a rock 'n' roller dies, you need a song to come out immediately to cash in on this. That's just the way the business is," Ribowsky says. "Steve Cropper, who wrote [the song] with him and produced it — great guitar player — said, 'Let's do this song.' "

"I mean, I got this call on a Monday, and of course Otis' plane went down on a Sunday morning," Cropper told NPR back in 2000. "And they said, 'Get that thing finished and get it to us.' So, I went to work on it. And probably the music is the only thing that kept me going."

Cropper sent back a completed version within a week. It didn't take at first.

"Jerry Wexler up in New York at Atlantic, the overlords of Stax, said, 'No, we can't release this. His vocal is too recessed. It needs to be remixed," Ribowsky says. "Cropper said, 'OK, I'll change it: I'll overdub it, I'll do this, I'll do that' — [and] didn't change it whatsoever. Sent it back to Wexler, who said, 'Oh yeah, this sounds a lot better now.' "

"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" went on to win Otis Redding two posthumous Grammys and sell millions of copies, becoming his signature song and his biggest hit.

 

[Mo-Better]

I could be wrong but I don't believe Marvin Gaye released, I Heard It Through the Grapevine until the 1970s. Don't forget that song was on the What's Going On album.

 

[HAR125LEM]

I could be wrong but I don't believe Marvin Gaye released, I Heard It Through the Grapevine until the 1970s. Don't forget that song was on the What's Going On album.

Nah.
The song wasn't on the original release of "WHAT'S GOING ON".
It did appear on a special edition release that out some years ago.

 

[kes1111]

The Life of a Song: ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’
With the ominous intro and controlled anguish of his voice, Marvin Gaye’s version became Motown’s biggest-selling hit

Motown boss Berry Gordy had a quality control department for deciding whether a song should be released. “If you had only enough money for this record or a sandwich,” he would ask staff, producers and writers at the hit factory, “which would you buy?” Or he would play a song through a rigged-up car stereo system to test how it might sound going down the highway. It worked, producing hit after hit. Sometimes, however, the department missed the best. In 1966 singer-songwriter Barrett Strong came up with an idea for a song based on the expression “through the grapevine” that he kept hearing on the streets of Chicago. The phrase had its roots in the days of the slave trade. The “grapevine telegraph” had been the system of communication used by slaves during the American civil war. Prohibited from learning to read, they passed on news by word of mouth. Strong took his song to Motown producer Norman Whitfield. Together they worked it up into “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”, a dramatic tale of romantic betrayal. Whitfield recorded a version with The Miracles in 1966 but the Motown committee decided they’d rather buy a sandwich. The following year Marvin Gaye recorded it, but it was Gordy himself who vetoed it as a single. Eventually “Grapevine” was released by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1967 in a new, more up-tempo arrangement. It was a hit, reaching number two in the charts. Meanwhile, Gaye’s version was awaiting its moment. He had recorded the song over five sessions with a backing ensemble that included the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, with Whitfield pushing him to sing in a higher key than his normal range. The song made its way on to Gaye’s 1968 album In the Groove.
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles.

When the album was released, “Grapevine” was picked up by E Rodney Jones, a DJ at Chicago’s black community radio station WVON. After the song aired for the first time, Jones told Motown marketing man Phil Jones that “the phones lit up”. No wonder: listeners were gripped by the ominous intro, the bassline, the brass, the jittery piano, the restrained first-person narrative, the controlled anguish of Gaye’s voice. Motown, swayed by public opinion, 6released it as a single, and it became the label’s biggest-selling hit to date.

 

[Pack Rat]

Back when folks could actually sing well.....these days I'm old school forever
And for those of you that disagree with me....