William Bell was born William Yarbrough in 1939 in Memphis. Judy Clay was born Judith Grace Guions in St. Pauls, North Carolina, just one year earlier. Around thirty years later they teamed up to cut a track at Stax Records in Memphis, “Private Number”, that achieved success in the UK, reaching number […]
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Johnnie Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, but grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas. Like most black kids of his generation, he was introduced to singing and performing through the church. In 1953 he joined a gospel group called The Highway Q.C.’s, replacing Lou Rawls, who had joined in 1951 when Sam Cooke […]
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“You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me” was a massive hit for Dusty Springfield in 1966, but it was followed by a fallow year in terms of chart success. So Dusty was looking for a way to regain her popularity in the UK and the USA and came up […]
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Jerry Wexler is remembered for many things within the music industry, but perhaps the most significant of all is his invention in 1949 of the term Rhythm and Blues to describe the music being recorded by and for the black population of the United States, music which up until then […]
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The Best Ever? Strangely, one of the best Soul albums ever was released in the UK in 1968. It was manufactured by Polydor Records and pressed at the CBS Pressing Plant in Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, UK. The music on the album was a distillation of Soul music by artists […]
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David Porter was born in 1941 in Memphis. While he was still a student at high school, Porter began to develop an interest in music as a career. He was working at a grocery store opposite Satellite records, so he decided to see whether the recently-formed record label might be […]
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Otis Redding’s first release was a song entitled “These Arms Of Mine” recorded in August 1962. The final song he recorded before his death was (“Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” in December 1967. In those five years he became the mainstay of Stax Records and a global star […]
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Etta James’ first album with the Chess organisation was “at last!”, released on Argo Records in November 1960, produced by Phil and Leonard Chess. She helped the Chess organisation to enter the 1960s with a bang with four top five singles on the Billboard Hot R&B Soul singles chart. The […]
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Irma Thomas has been a mainstay of the New Orleans sound since the age of 18 when her first single, “Don’t Mess with My Man”, was released on the local Ron label in late 1959. It reached number 22 on the US Billboard R&B chart. When she then joined the New Orleans-based […]
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List of Websites Teddy Pendergrass: www.teddypendergrass.com The O’Jays: www.theojayshomepage.com Gerald Levert: www.geraldlevert.com Patti LaBelle: www.pattisbutterflies.com Barry White: www.barrywhite.us Stevie Wonder: www.steviewonder.net The Dells: www.themightydells.com Lou Rawls: www.lourawls.com Al Green: www.algreenmusic.com Isaac Hayes: www.isaachayes.com Freda Payne: www.fredapaynes.com Millie Jackson: www.weirdwreckuds.com# Natalie Cole: www.nataliecole.com The Whispers: www.thewhispers.com Stephanie Mills: www.stephaniemillsmusic.com Bill […]
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