Share This
Learn more about Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award »
Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award
This is a detail view of
Award Winner
topics from the Freebase topic about Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award.
This summary is community-built, so if you think there is
something missing, just add it!
Add More Topics
Save this view to a base, or just for yourself.
about 200 Award Winner topics matching:
Filter this Collection
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006), originally James Joseph Brown, Jr., also known as "The Godfather of Soul", was an American entertainer. He is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music and...
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an African-American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, born in Coahoma County near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to...
George Clinton
George Clinton (born July 22, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and began his work as a...
Awards Won:
Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown (January 30, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American R&B; singer, and actress noted for bringing a popular music style to rhythm and blues in a series of hit songs for fledgling Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", ...
Awards Won:
Ray Charles
Ray Charles (born Charles Raymond Offenberg, September 13, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, vocal arranger and conductor who is best- known as organizer and leader of The Ray Charles Singers. The Ray Charles...
Sam Cooke
Samuel "Sam" Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American gospel, R&B;, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music.
Cooke had twenty-nine top-40 hits in...
Awards Won:
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1940 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist commonly referred to as "The Queen of Soul". Although renowned for her soul recordings, Franklin is also adept at jazz, rock, soul,...
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.
Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes,...
Awards Won:
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950; name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Blind from birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records at the...
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer-songwriter and instrumentalist with a three-octave vocal range. Starting as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the...
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B; and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown Records, second only to the company's...
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson Jr. (June 9, 1934 – January 21, 1984) was an American singer, and performer, and a 1987 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul....
Awards Won:
Al Green
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer who was popular in the 1970s, and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was the sixth of...
Hadda Brooks
Hadda Brooks (October 29, 1916 – November 21, 2002), was a noted American pianist, vocalist and composer. Her first single, "Swingin' the Boogie", which she composed, was issued in 1945. She was billed as "Queen of the Boogie." Highlights of her...
Awards Won:
Maceo Parker
Maceo Parker (IPA: [ˈmeɪsiːoʊ]) (born February 14, 1943) is an American funk and soul jazz saxophonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s, as well as Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s. Parker was a prominent soloist on many of...
Awards Won:
Johnnie Johnson
Johnnie Johnson (July 8, 1924 – April 13, 2005) was a piano player and blues musician. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He was born Johnnie Clyde Johnson in Fairmont, West Virginia and began playing...
Awards Won:
Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke (born March 21, 1940) is an American Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter. During the half-century that he has performed, he has drawn from his roots: gospel, soul, and blues, as well as developing his own style in a time when R&B;,...
Awards Won:
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American soul, R&B;, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions and composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super...
Awards Won:
Etta James
Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938) is an American blues, soul, R&B;, rock & roll, gospel and jazz singer and songwriter. James is the winner of four Grammys and seventeen Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll...
Hank Ballard
Hank Ballard (November 18, 1927 – March 2, 2003), born John Henry Kendricks, was a rhythm and blues singer, the lead vocalist of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and one of the first proto-rock 'n' roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s. He...
Awards Won:
Four Tops
The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet, whose repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, R&B;, disco, adult contemporary, and showtunes. Founded in Detroit, Michigan. as The Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles, a...
Awards Won:
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American R&B;/rock and roll and soul singer and songwriter known for his raw, raspy, passionate vocal delivery.
A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over...
Awards Won:
The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B; singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples (1914-2000), the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha (born 1934), Pervis (born 1935), Yvonne (b. 1936), and Mavis (b....
Awards Won:
Bobby Bland
Robert Calvin Bland (born January 27, 1930) better known as Bobby “Blue” Bland, is an American singer of blues and soul. He is an original member of The Beale Streeters. and is sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues". Along with such...
Awards Won:
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers (pronounced /ˈaɪzliː/) (IZE-lee) are an African-American R&B;, soul music and Funk group. They are one of the few groups to have long-running success on the Billboard charts placing a charted single in every decade since 1959 and...
Doc Pomus
Doc Pomus (June 27, 1925 - March 14, 1991) was a twentieth century American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of non...
Awards Won:
Booker T. & the M.G.'s
Booker T. & the M.G.'s are an instrumental soul band that was influential in shaping the sound of Southern Soul and Memphis Soul. In the 1960s, as the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson...
The Shirelles
The Shirelles were an American girl group in the early 1960s, and the first to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. The members of the quartet were Shirley Owens (the main lead singer; later known as Shirley Alston, then Shirley Alston...
Awards Won:
Sly & the Family Stone
Sly & the Family Stone is an American funk, soul and rock band from San Francisco, California. Originally active from 1966 to 1983, with varied lineups, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music. Headed by singer,...
Awards Won:
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the Empress of Soul, is an American R&B;/soul singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author. She is best known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, for both the...
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer-songwriter, actor and musician. Hayes was one of the main creative forces behind southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served as both an in-house songwriter...
Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox...
Awards Won:
The Delfonics
The Delfonics are a pioneering Philadelphia soul singing group, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their most notable hits include "La-La (Means I Love You)", "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)," "Break Your Promise," "I'm Sorry," and...
The O'Jays
The O'Jays are a Canton, Ohio-based soul/R&B; group, originally consisting of Walter Williams (b. August 25, 1942), Bill Isles, Bobby Massey, William Powell (January 20, 1942-May 26, 1977) and Eddie Levert (b. June 16, 1942). The O'Jays were...
Awards Won:
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), best known by her stage name of Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B; and soul singer-songwriter and actress. She fronted two groups, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, which received minor success on the pop...
Sylvia Robinson
Sylvia Robinson (born Sylvia Vanderpool, March 6, 1936, New York) is a singer, musician and producer, and record label executive.
Her first successful record was the 1957 hit, "Love Is Strange", written by Bo Diddley, (but credited to his then wife,...
Awards Won:
Illinois Jacquet
Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet (October 31, 1922–July 22, 2004) was a jazz tenor saxophonist most famous for his solo on "Flying Home", recognized as the first R&B; sax solo.
Although he was a pioneer of the honking tenor sax that became a regular...
Awards Won:
Paul Williams
Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams (1915 – 2002) was an American blues and rhythm and blues saxophonist and composer. In his Honkers and Shouters, Arnold Shaw credits Williams as one of the first to employ the honking tenor sax solo that became the hallmark...
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy, Jr. (born November 28, 1929) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.
Gordy, Jr. (born in Detroit, Michigan) was the seventh of eight children born to the middle class...
Awards Won:
Darlene Love
Darlene Love (née Wright; born July 26, 1941) is an American popular music singer.
Love began her singing with her local church choir in Hawthorne, California. While still in high school (1959) she was invited to join a little-known girl group...
Awards Won:
Ben E. King
Ben E. King (born Benjamin Earl Nelson, September 28, 1938) is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me," a U.S. top 10 hit in both 1961 and 1987 and a #1 hit in the UK in 1987, and as one of...
Awards Won:
Mary Wells
Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer who defined the early sound of Motown Records in the early sixties. Along with The Miracles, The Temptations, The Supremes, and The Four Tops, Wells was said to have been part...
Awards Won:
Inez and Charlie Foxx
Charlie Foxx ( October 23, 1939 – September 18, 1998) and his sister Inez Foxx (born September 9, 1942) were an African-American rhythm and blues and soul duo from Greensboro, North Carolina. Inez sang lead vocal, while Charlie sang back-up and...
Awards Won:
Dave Bartholomew
Dave Bartholomew (born 24 December 1920, Edgard, Louisiana, United States of America) is a musician, band leader, composer, and arranger, prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century.
Bartholomew has been...
Awards Won:
Otis Blackwell
Otis Blackwell (16 February 1932 – 6 May 2002) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist whose work significantly influenced rock 'n' roll. His compositions include Little Willie John's "Fever", Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" and ...
Awards Won:
Bobby Womack
Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack (pronounced /ˈwoʊmæk/) (born March 4, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The...
Awards Won:
Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge (born November 25, 1940) is an American R&B; and soul performer.
Percy Sledge worked in a series of blue-collar jobs in the fields in Leighton, Alabama before taking a job as an orderly at Colbert County Hospital in Sheffield, Alabama....
Awards Won:
Holland-Dozier-Holland
Holland–Dozier–Holland is a songwriting and production team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr.. They are considered to be one of the greatest songwriting teams in popular music. The trio wrote and arranged...
Awards Won:
Nellie Lutcher
Nellie Lutcher (October 15, 1912 - June 8, 2007) was an African-American R&B; and jazz singer and pianist, who achieved prominence in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She was most recognizable for her distinctive voice, particularly her phrasing and...
Awards Won:
Erskine Hawkins
Erskine Ramsay Hawkins (July 26, 1914—November 11, 1993) was a trumpet player and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is most remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" (1939) with...
Awards Won:
Albert King
Albert King (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992) was an American blues guitarist and singer.
One of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with B. B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6' 4" (192 cm) and weighed 250 lbs (118 kg) and was...
Awards Won:
Thom Bell
Thom Bell (born January 26, 1943, Kingston, Jamaica) was the record producer behind much of the Philadelphia soul subgenre of soul music in the 1970s. Born in Jamaica he moved to Philadelphia as a child.
Bell was classically trained but as a...
Awards Won:
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American singing girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the company's first US #1 pop hit, "Please Mr. Postman", and for setting the...
Awards Won:
Gene Chandler
Gene Chandler (born Eugene Dixon, July 6, 1937, Chicago, Illinois) is an American singer. He is esteemed by soul fans as one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene, along with Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler. His signature hit is...
Awards Won:
Clarence "Frogman" Henry
Clarence "Frogman" Henry (born March 19, 1937, Algiers, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American rhythm and blues singer.
Fats Domino and Professor Longhair were young Henry's main influences while growing up. When Henry played in talent shows, he...
Awards Won:
Kim Weston
Kim Weston (born Agatha Natalie Weston, December 30, 1939, in Detroit, Michigan) is an African American soul singer, and Motown Records alumna. She was signed to the record label in 1963, scoring a minor hit with "Love Me All the Way" (R&B; #24, Pop...
Awards Won:
Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick (September 25, 1945 – October 18, 2008) was an African-American soul singer. She was born in Newark, New Jersey as Delia Mae Warrick.
Dee Dee Warwick sang with her sister Dionne Warwick and their aunt Cissy Houston in the New Hope...
Awards Won:
Ernie K-Doe
Ernie K-Doe (February 22, 1936 - July 5, 2001), born Ernest Kador, Jr., was an African American rhythm and blues singer best known for his 1961 hit single "Mother-In-Law", which went to #1 on the Billboard pop chart in the U.S.
Born in New Orleans,...
Awards Won:
Frankie Beverly
Frankie Beverly (born Howard Beverly, 6 December 1946, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a singer, founder, producer, and songwriter, known primarily for his recordings with the soul and funk unit, Maze.
Although Beverly's first name from birth was...
Awards Won:
Herb Abramson
Herbert C. Abramson (November 16, 1916 – November 9, 1999) was an American record company executive and producer.
He was born in 1916 in Brooklyn, New York City and initially studied to be a dentist but he landed a job with National Records...
