Curated playlist
American soul singers
- Michael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was born on the 29th of August 1958 in Gary, Indiana, the eighth of ten children in an African-American working-class household crammed into a two-bedroom home on Jackson Street. His father Joe operated a crane at US…
- Aretha FranklinAretha Franklin heard Otis Redding's reaction to her own version of his song "Respect": "That little girl done took my song away from me." She had added a supercharged interlude that spelled out the title letter by letter. Released in…
- Prince (musician)Prince Rogers Nelson arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital in Minneapolis on the 7th of June, 1958, and for the next 57 years he operated at a pitch that most musicians never approach. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide. He played…
- Marvin GayeOn the 1st of April 1984, in a house in the Western Heights area of West Adams in Los Angeles, Marvin Gaye was shot twice by his own father. One bullet pierced his heart. He was pronounced dead at 1:01 p.m., one day before he would have…
- Little RichardIn October 1947, a fourteen-year-old boy was singing Sister Rosetta Tharpe's songs to himself before her performance at the Macon City Auditorium. Tharpe overheard him, invited him onstage to open her show, and paid him afterward. That…
- Sam CookeSam Cooke walked into a recording session in the mid-1950s and began singing George Gershwin. Art Rupe, the head of Specialty Records, was furious. That moment of artistic defiance captures everything about Cooke: a man who had charted his…
- James BrownJames Brown was supposed to be named Joseph James Brown. A clerk reversed his first and middle names on his birth certificate, and the mistake stuck. He was born on the 3rd of May 1933, in a small wooden shack in Barnwell, South Carolina,…
- Queen LatifahQueen Latifah chose her name at age eight, pulling it from a book of Arabic names. The word latifah means "delicate" and "very kind", but Dana Elaine Owens had something else in mind. She added the title "Queen" herself, a deliberate act…
- Mariah CareyMariah Carey walked into a music executive's party in December 1988 as an unknown backup singer and left without speaking to anyone important. But she had handed her demo tape to Tommy Mottola, head of Columbia Records. He listened to it…
- Jerry Lee LewisJerry Lee Lewis walked into Sun Records in Memphis in November 1956 with nothing but nerve. Label owner Sam Phillips was out of town, so producer Jack Clement hit record anyway, capturing Lewis playing Ray Price's "Crazy Arms" and one of…
- Gloria GaynorGloria Gaynor was born Gloria Fowles on the 7th of September 1943, in Newark, New Jersey. Her father played the ukulele and guitar and sang professionally in nightclubs with a group called Step 'n' Fetchit. Music filled their home so…
- Sylvia RobinsonIn 2022, Sylvia Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Ahmet Ertegun Award category, the first woman to receive that honor unaccompanied by another person. She had been dead for eleven years. The recognition…
- Billy PrestonBilly Preston was the only artist to receive a co-performer credit on a Beatles recording after the band began recording as independent artists. The 1969 single "Get Back" bore the label "The Beatles with Billy Preston" not as a courtesy…
- Diana RossDiana Ross was born on the 26th of March 1944, and her very name was an accident. Her mother intended to call her Diane, but whoever filled out the birth certificate made a mistake, and the name Diana stuck on paper. Her family and every…