R&B & Soul Album Playlist

Following the lead of young Angela, the creator of a Five Year Crash Course in Music, I made a list of (take a deep breath) the 30 best R&B & Soul albums from 1952 to 1993. I hasten to add that any such list is arbitrary and leaves a lot out, but I wanted to give myself, and possibly you, a crash course in pop music history, focusing on one genre.

Again following the lead of Ang, I consulted the Rolling Stone Magazine list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. There, after eliminating all the rock, I was left with a list of about 45 albums containing many by Stevie Wonder, quite a few by James Brown, just about all that Otis Redding ever made, and some others. While I agree about Otis Redding, I only wanted to sample one album, hopefully the best, by each artist. So putting together the Rolling Stone list with the genre lists at Allmusic, I came up with my own R&B & Soul Album Playlist. I wound up with 29 artists, so to round the list off to 30 I added Wilson Pickett because I like him. (PS: I hope you click on the links above, especially the Allmusic, one which is crammed with information.)

Here is the list, in rough chronological order:

Ray Charles (genre) (Soul) (album) The Birth of Soul

Fats Domino (New Orleans/R&B) Walking to New Orleans

Etta James (R&B) At Last

Jackie Wilson (Chicago Soul) Mr. Excitement

Sam Cooke (Soul) Live at the Harlem Square Club 1963

The Drifters (Soul) Under the Boardwalk

James Brown (Soul/Funk) Live at the Apollo 1963

Smokey Robinson (Soul/Motown) Going to a GoGo

The Supremes (Soul/Motown) Where Did Our love Go?

The Temptations (Soul/Motown) The Temptin' Temptations

Aretha Franklin (Soul/Urban) I Never Loved a Man Like I Love You

Dr. John (R&B/New Orleans) GrisGris

Otis Redding (Soul/Southern) Otis Blue

Sly & the Family Stone (Funk) Fresh

Ike & Tina Turner (Funk/Soul) Proud Mary: The Best of Ike & Tina Turner

Lou Rawls (Soul/Philly) The Best of Lou Rawls

Marvin Gaye (Soul/Motown) What's Going On?

Wilson Pickett (Soul/Southern) The Exciting Wilson Pickett

Stevie Wonder (Soul/Funk/Motown) Innervisions

Al Greene (Soul) Greatest Hits

Curtis Mayfield (Chicago Soul/Funk) Superfly

Earth, Wind and Fire (Funk/Soul/Urban) Gratitude

Gladys Knight (Soul/Motown/Urban) Imagination

Michael Jackson (Motown/Urban) Off the Wall

Funkadelic (R&b/Funk) One Nation Under a Groove

Whitney Houston (R&B) Whitney Houston

Janet Jackson (R&B) Rhythm Nation 1814

Mary J. Blige (R&B/Urban) My Life

D'Angelo (Soul/Neo-Soul) Brown Sugar

Toni Braxton (Contemp. R&B) Toni Braxton

Please let me know if I've left off anyone important, or if you have an alternate album choice. It was Ang's 60s list headed by Aretha Franklin that set me off on this soulful path. I've listened to her album, but I think I'll come back to it, since I want to start at the top chronologically. I'll listen to and comment on at least some of the albums and artists, and discuss the genre definitions along the way. On to Ray Charles then.

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.