- James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3 1933 – December 25 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," was an American entertainer recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music. He was renowned for his shouting vocals, feverish dancing and unique rhythmic style. As a prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer, … - Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse (born 14 September, 1983) is an English soul, jazz and R&B singer and songwriter. Her debut album, "Frank" (released in 2003) was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Winehouse is a two-time Ivor Novello Award winner; once in 2004 for her debut single "Stronger than Me" and again in May 2007 for the first single "Rehab" from her 2006 internationally acclaimed second album "Back to Black". - Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. was an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer and performer who gained international fame as an artist on the Motown label in the 1960s and 1970s. Beginning his career at Motown in 1961, Gaye quickly became Motown's top solo male artist and scored numerous hits during the 1960s, among them "Stubborn Kind of Fellow", "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)", … - Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American R&B, Pop and Gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has been called for many years "The Queen Of Soul", but many also call her "Lady Soul," as well as the more affectionate "Sister Ree." She is renowned for her soul recordings but is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, gospel, and even opera. She is generally regarded as one of the greatest vocalists ever, … - Al Green
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer who enjoyed great popularity in the early and mid 1970s. - Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 - December 10, 1967) was an influential American deep soul singer, best known for his passionate delivery and posthumous hit single, "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay." According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989) website, Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, … - Ray Charles
Ray Charles was the stage name of Ray Charles Robinson, a pioneering American pianist and soul musician who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues. He brought a soulful sound to country music, pop standards, and a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that Ed Bradley of "60 Minutes" called the "definitive version of the song, an American anthem - a classic, … - Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke (January 22, 1931 - December 11, 1964) was a popular and influential American gospel, R&B, soul, pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. Indeed, musicians and critics today recognize him as one of the founders of soul music, and as one of the most important singers in soul music history (Greene, 2006). He has been called "the king of soul" by many, and while some may dispute this title, … - Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige (born January 11, 1971), is an American R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, rapper, producer, and actress who has sold over 60 million records around the world since her career began in 1991. In that span she has had thirty-one charting hits on the U.S. pop charts. She has had forty hits on the R&B charts, seventeen of which were in the top ten and six which reached number one. She also has nine singles to reach number one on the dance charts, … - Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys (born Alicia J. Augello-Cook on January 25 1980) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, actress, philanthropist, and author who has won numerous awards, including nine Grammy Awards, eleven Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music Awards. - Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield (June 3, 1942 - December 26, 1999) was an American soul, funk and R&B singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions and composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film "Superfly." From these works and others, he was highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music. He was also a bassist, pianist, saxophonist and drummer. - Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an R&B and soul singer and songwriter. Robinson is noted for being one of the primary figures associated with the Motown record label, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy. As both a member of Motown group The Miracles and a solo artist, Robinson recorded thirty-seven Top 40 hits for Motown between 1960 and 1987, and also served as the company's Vice President from 1961 to 1988. - Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu (born Erica Abi Wright on February 26, 1971 in Dallas, Texas) is an American R&B, soul, neo soul, and hip hop singer and songwriter whose work crosses over into jazz. She is best known for the single "You Got Me", her collaboration with The Roots, as well as her own songs "Tyrone", "Next Lifetime", "On & On", "Bag Lady", and "Cleva". Influenced early on by singers such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Chaka Khan (her all-time favorite artist), … - Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross on March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress, whose musical repertoire spans R&B, soul, disco, jazz, and pop. Ross first gained prominence as lead of the successful girl group The Supremes, before establishing a successful solo career in 1970. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ross became one of the most successful female artists of the rock era, also crossing over into film, television and Broadway. - Luther Vandross
Luther Ronzoni Vandross, Jr. was an eight-time Grammy Award-winning American R&B and soul singer and songwriter. During his career, Vandross sold over 25 million albums and won eight Grammy awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times. He won four Grammy Awards in 2004 including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for the track "Dance With My Father", co-written with Richard Marx. - Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes (born August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tennessee) is an American soul and funk singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, and actor. Hayes is best known as one of the creative forces behind Stax Records, for which he served as both an in-house songwriter/producer and a recording artist. In addition to his work in popular music, Hayes has also written scores for several motion pictures as well. - Jill Scott
Jill Scott (born April 4 1972) is a Grammy Award-winning American soul, R&B, jazz, and neo soul singer and songwriter. - Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30 1979 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and occasional actress. Jones's career was launched with the massive success of her 2002 debut album "Come Away with Me", a contemporary pop album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge, that sold over twenty million copies worldwide and received six Grammy Awards, with Jones winning "Best New Artist". - Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Rock and Roll and soul singer. Known for his raw, raspy, passionate vocal delivery, he recorded some of the most incendiary soul music of the twentieth century. A major figure in the development of Southern soul music, his recordings between 1963 and 1973 left behind a legacy of some of the deepest, funkiest soul music ever to emerge from the South. - Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American R&B/soul singer and actress. She is best known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, for both the Motown and Buddah Records labels, with her group Gladys Knight & the Pips, the most famous incarnation of which also included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and her cousins Edward Patten and William Guest. - Barry White
Barry Eugene White (born Barrence Eugene Carter, -) was a Grammy Award winning American record producer, songwriter and singer responsible for the creation of numerous hit soul and disco songs. He released 106 gold and 41 platinum albums, 20 gold singles and ten platinum singles. All inclusive, record sales of White's music with singles, albums, compilation usage and paid digital downloads as a singer, … - Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12 1940 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Academy Award and multiple Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer. Hancock is one of jazz music's most important and influential pianists and composers. He embraced elements of rock, funk, and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet", Hancock helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section, … - Van Morrison
Van Morrison was born in Belfast in 1945, the son of a shipyard worker who collected American blues and jazz records. Van grew up listening to the music of Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson , Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker . As a teenager he played guitar, sax and harmonica with a series of local Irish showbands, skiffle and rock'n'roll groups before forming an r&b band called Them in 1964. - Etta James
Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938) is an American blues, soul, R&B, and jazz singer and songwriter. In the 1950s and 60s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer. She is best-known for her 1961 ballad "At Last", which has been classified as a "timeless classic" and has been featured in many movies and television commercials since its release. - Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson (June 9, 1934 - January 21, 1984) was an American soul and R&B singer, born in Detroit, Michigan. - Patti Labelle
Patti LaBelle (born Patricia Louise Holt on May 24, 1944 in West-Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B and soul singer and songwriter who fronted two groups, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles and Labelle, which changed and birthed a new era of women's music and, in the process, has influenced a new generation of female singers. She is known for her strong vocals and her signature high octave vocal belting. - Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke (born March 21 1940, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a soul and country music pioneer and member of the prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. - Sly Stone
Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart, 15 March 1943, in Denton, Texas) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. Sly & the Family Stone was started in Vallejo, California and eventually had artists from around the San Francisco Bay Area. - Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera, born December 18 1980, is an American pop singer and songwriter. She was signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection" for the film "Mulan". She came to prominence following her debut album "Christina Aguilera" (1999), which was a critical and commercial success. A Latin pop album "Mi Reflejo", and a Christmas album, "My Kind of Christmas", … - Angie Stone
Angela Laverne Brown (born January 30 1961), best known by her stage name Angie Stone, is a Grammy Award-nominated American R&B and neo soul singer, songwriter, keyboardist, record producer, and actress. Stone's music possesses a clear old school soul music influence, and her singing vocals recall those of Aretha Franklin. - Bobby Womack
Bobby Womack (born Robert Dwayne Womack, 4 March 1944, in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.) is an African-American singer, guitarist and songwriter. Working in the soul and R&B genres, he achieved his greatest success in the 1970s and 1980s. - Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway was an American soul musician. - Anita Baker
Anita Baker (born January 26, 1958) is a eight-time Grammy Award-winning, multi-Platinum rhythm and blues and soul singer and songwriter, renowned for her soaring alto vocal range. - Joss Stone
Joscelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), best known by her stage name Joss Stone, is a BRIT Award- and Grammy Award-winning English soul, R&B, and blues singer, songwriter, and occasional actress who has sold over ten million albums worldwide. - Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5 1932), better known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist, who began performing in the 1940s and recording from 1951. Penniman's reputation rests on a string of groundbreaking hit singles from 1955 through 1957, such as "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally", which helped lay the foundation for rock and roll music, influencing generations of rhythm and blues, … - India.Arie
India Arie Simpson (born October 3 1975), professionally known as India.Arie, is a two-time Grammy Award-winning American soul, R&B, and neo soul singer, songwriter, record producer, guitarist, and flautist. - Eddie Floyd
Eddie Floyd (born Eddie Lee Floyd, 25 June 1935, Montgomery, Alabama) is a soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s. Floyd was born in Alabama, but grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He founded The Falcons, which also featured "Sir" Mack Rice. They were forerunners to future Detroit vocal groups such as The Temptations and The Four Tops. - Steve Cropper
Steve "The Colonel" Cropper (born October 21, 1941) is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and soul musician. On June 9, 2005, Cropper was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Bill Withers, Robert B. Sherman, Richard M. Sherman, John Fogerty, David Porter and Isaac Hayes. - Anthony Hamilton
Anthony Hamilton (born January 28, 1971 in Charlotte, North Carolina) is an American R&B, soul, and neo soul singer, songwriter, and record producer who rose to fame with his Platinum-selling second studio album "Comin' from Where I'm From" (2003), which featured the singles "Comin' from Where I'm From" and "Charlene". Hamilton first discovered his talent while singing in his church choir at age ten. In 1993, he left Charlotte and headed to New York City, … - Donna Summer
Donna Summer (born LaDonna Adrian Gaines, on December 31, 1948) is a legendary American singer, songwriter, and artist, best known for a string of dance hits in the 1970s that earned her the title "Queen of Disco" and as one of the few disco-based artists to have longevity on the charts into the late-1980s. Though she's notable for her disco hits, Summer's repertoire has expanded to include R&B, soul, funk, rock, pop and gospel.
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