Renowned as the organist and leader of the unparalleled Stax house band Booker T. & the MG's, Jones has remained active as a solo artist since the breakup of the legendary quartet. Jones was the first to leave the group in 1968, relocating to Los Angeles and producing Bill Withers' 1971 gold record "Ain't No Sunshine." As Booker T., he managed a... [+] Read More

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Deniece Williams grew up singing in a Pentecostal church, which was strict on the congregation listening only to gospel music. During the late '60s, she was a candy striper in a Chicago hospital. Outside of wanting a 1959 Thunderbird, she had no serious ambitions. Nontheless, she still had interest in listening to music. Her favorites were... [+] Read More

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Few R&B singers have endured tragic travails on the monumental level that Etta James has and remain on earth to talk about it. The lady's no shrinking violet; her autobiography, Rage to Survive, describes her past (including numerous drug addictions) in sordid detail.

But her personal problems have seldom affected her singing. James... [+] Read More

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Ramsey Lewis has long straddled the boundary between bop-oriented jazz and pop music. Most of his recordings (particularly by the mid-'60s) were very accessible and attracted a large non-jazz audience. In 1956, he formed a trio with bassist Eldee Young and drummer Red Holt. From the start (1958), their records for Argo/Cadet were popular,... [+] Read More

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The Dells are one of the finest and longest-lived R&B vocal groups in history, and what's most amazing is that they've done it with nearly all the same members -- they haven't changed personnel since 1960. They were one of the very few doo wop outfits to successfully update their sound, finding their strongest commercial niche in the late '60s... [+] Read More

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A trio of sisters with a strong gospel base, the Emotions (based in Chicago) were one of the leading female R&B acts of the '70s. Lead singer Sheila Hutchinson and her sisters Wanda and Jeanette were only teenagers when they crashed the soul charts in 1969 with the engaging "So I Can Love You," but they sang gospel as children and enjoyed... [+] Read More

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