The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 music.

The idea for the Foundation came in 1987 during discussions about royalties

Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...

 with entertainer Ruth Brown

Ruth Brown

Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...

, entertainment attorney Howell Begle, and the head of Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

, Ahmet Ertegün

Ahmet Ertegun

Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...

. Ertegün provided a $1.5 million donation, and the Foundation was officially founded in 1988. The Foundation provides financial support, medical assistance and educational outreach through various grants and programs to support R&B and Motown artists from the 1940s through the 1970s.

The Rhythm and Blues Foundation also produces the Pioneer Awards, and they administer The Doc Pomus

Doc Pomus

Jerome Solon Felder, better known as Doc Pomus , 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-performer in 1992. He was also inducted into...

 Financial Assistance Program, The Motown/Universal Music Group Fund, and the Gwendolyn B. Gordy Fuqua Fund.

Pioneer Award honorees

2008

• Al Bell
  Al Bell
  Al Bell is an American record producer, songwriter, and record executive. Bell is best known as one of the key figures behind and a co-owner of Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records during the latter half of the label's nineteen-year existence...
  
   (Leadership Award)
• Sugar Pie DeSanto
  Sugar Pie DeSanto
  Sugar Pie DeSanto is an American rhythm and blues singer of the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life:...
  
  
• Donny Hathaway
  Donny Hathaway
  Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer-songwriter and musician. Hathaway contracted with Atlantic Records in 1969 and with his first single for the Atco label, "The Ghetto, Part I" in early 1970, Rolling Stone magazine "marked him as a major new force in soul music."His collaborations...
  
   (Legacy Tribute Award)
• The Funk Brothers
  The Funk Brothers
  The Funk Brothers was the nickname of Detroit, Michigan, session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown Records recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972...
  
   (Sidemen Award)
• Chaka Khan
  Chaka Khan
  Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Kool & The Gang
  Kool & the Gang
  Kool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964.They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and...
  
  
• Teena Marie
  Teena Marie
  Mary Christine Brockert, better known by her stage name Teena Marie, was an American singer, songwriter and producer...
  
  
• The Whispers
  The Whispers
  The Whispers are a long-established R&B-dance vocal group from Los Angeles, California, with a consistent track record of hit records dating back to the late 1960s.-Career:...
  
  
• Bill Withers
  Bill Withers
  William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...
  
  

2006

• Thom Bell
  Thom Bell
  Thomas Randolph "Thom" Bell is an American songwriter and producer, best known as one of the creators of the Philadelphia style of soul music in the 1970s. He moved to Philadelphia as a child.-Biography:...
  
   (Entrepreneur Award)
• Frankie Beverly
  Frankie Beverly
  Frankie Beverly is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and producer, known primarily for his recordings with the soul and funk band, Maze.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Chubby Checker
  Chubby Checker
  Chubby Checker is an American singer-songwriter. He is widely known for popularizing the twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit "The Twist"...
  
  
• The Delfonics
  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 ", "Didn't I ", "Break Your Promise," "I'm Sorry," and "Ready or Not Here I Come "...
  
  
• Berry Gordy
  Berry Gordy
  Berry Gordy, Jr. is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.-Early years:...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Bettye LaVette
  Bettye LaVette
  Bettye LaVette is an American soul singer-songwriter who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, with her album, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise...
  
  
• Barbara Mason
  Barbara Mason
  Barbara Mason is an American R&B/soul singer best known for her 1965 hit song, "Yes, I'm Ready".-Career:A soul singer, Mason initially focused on songwriting when she entered the music industry in her teens...
  
  
• Otis Redding
  Otis Redding
  Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
  
   (Legacy Tribute Award)

2003

• George Clinton
  George Clinton (funk musician)
  George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, 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 launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
  
  
• The Del Vikings
• The Dixie Cups
  The Dixie Cups
  The Dixie Cups are an American pop music girl group of the 1960s. They are best known for their 1964 million selling disc, "Chapel of Love".-Career:...
  
  
• The Supremes
  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, psychedelic soul, and disco...
  
  
• Clarence "Frogman" Henry
• Hal Jackson
  Hal Jackson
  Harold Baron Jackson is an American disk jockey and radio personality who broke a number of color barriers in American radio broadcasting.-Early years:Jackson was born in Charleston, South Carolina and grew up in Washington, D.C...
  
  
• Johnny Nash
  Johnny Nash
  John Lester "Johnny" Nash, Jr. is an American pop singer-songwriter, best known in the US for his 1972 hit, "I Can See Clearly Now". He was also the first non-Jamaican to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Maceo Parker
  Maceo Parker
  Maceo Parker 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 Brown's hit recordings, and a key part of his band, playing alto, tenor and baritone saxophones...
  
  
• Koko Taylor
  Koko Taylor
  Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings....
  
  
• Dionne Warwick
  Dionne Warwick
  Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Jackie Wilson
  Jackie Wilson
  Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
  
   (Legacy Tribute Award)

2001

• Allen Toussaint
  Allen Toussaint
  Allen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
  
  
• Big Jay McNeely
  Big Jay McNeely
  Big Jay McNeely is an American rhythm and blues saxophonist.-Biography:...
  
  
• Dee Dee Sharp
  Dee Dee Sharp
  Dee Dee Sharp is an American R&B singer, who began her career recording as a backing vocalist in 1961.-Career:...
  
  
• The Emotions
  The Emotions
  The Emotions are an American all female soul and R&B singing group. The group was formed in its current hometown of Chicago, Illinois originally consisting of the three Hutchinson sisters, all the children of Joseph and Lillian Hutchinson....
  
  
• Fontella Bass
  Fontella Bass
  Fontella Bass is an American soul singer, who is best known for the 1965 R&B hit "Rescue Me", which she also co-wrote.-Early life:...
  
  
• Reverend Al Green (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Holland-Dozier-Holland
  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...
  
  
• Louis Jordan
  Louis Jordan
  Louis Thomas Jordan 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", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
  
   (Legacy Tribute Award)
• Sly & the Family Stone
  Sly & the Family Stone
  Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music...
  
  

2000

• The Chi-Lites
  The Chi-Lites
  The Chi-Lites are a Chicago-based smooth soul vocal quartet from the early 1970s, one of the few from the period not to come from Memphis or Philadelphia...
  
  
• Ahmet Ertegün
  Ahmet Ertegun
  Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
  
  
• Marvin Gaye
  Marvin Gaye
  Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
  
   (Legacy Tribute Award)
• The Impressions
  The Impressions (American band)
  The Impressions are an American music group from Chicago, originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes doo-wop, gospel, soul, and R&B....
  
  
• Johnnie Johnson
  Johnnie Johnson (musician)
  Johnnie Johnson was an American pianist and blues musician. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.-Career:...
  
  
• Clyde Otis
  Clyde Otis
  Clyde Otis, born in Prentiss, Mississippi, , was an American songwriter and producer best known for his collaboration with singer Brook Benton, and for being one of the first African American A&R executive for a major label.According to the music licensing organization Broadcast Music Inc., Otis is...
  
  
• Sylvia Robinson
  Sylvia Robinson
  Sylvia Robinson was an American singer, musician, record producer, and record label executive, most notably known for her work as founder/CEO of the hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. She is credited as the driving force behind two landmark singles in the genre...
  
  
• Huey "Piano" Smith
• Stevie Wonder
  Stevie Wonder
  Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Betty Wright
  Betty Wright
  Bessie Regina Norris, better known by her stage name, Betty Wright , is a Grammy winning Miami-based soul and R&B singer-songwriter, who won fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight Is the Night"...
  
  

1999

• Johnny Adams
  Johnny Adams
  Laten John Adams , known as Johnny Adams, was an American blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary" for the multi-octave range of his singing voice, his swooping vocal mannerisms and falsetto...
  
  
• Ashford & Simpson
  Ashford & Simpson
  Nickolas Ashford , and Valerie Simpson , were a husband and wife songwriting/production team and recording artists....
  
  
• Mickey Baker
  Mickey Baker
  Mickey Baker, also known as Mickey "Guitar" Baker is an American guitarist...
  
  
• Sam Cooke
  Sam Cooke
  Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, 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. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
  
   (Legacy Tribute Award)
• Isaac Hayes
  Isaac Hayes
  Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
  
   & David Porter
  David Porter (musician)
  David Porter is an American soul musician. Porter is best known as the songwriting and production partner of Isaac Hayes at Stax Records during the 1960s...
  
  
• Brenda Holloway
  Brenda Holloway
  Brenda Holloway is an American singer and songwriter, a recording artist for the Motown label during the 1960s...
  
  
• John Lee Hooker
  John Lee Hooker
  John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Patti LaBelle & The Bluebells
• Barbara Lewis
  Barbara Lewis
  Barbara Lewis , is an American singer and songwriter whose smooth style influenced rhythm and blues.-Career:Lewis was born in Salem, near Ann Arbor, Michigan...
  
  
• Barbara Lynn
  Barbara Lynn
  Barbara Lynn is an American rhythm and blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, "You'll Lose A Good Thing" .-Life and career:She played piano as a child, but switched to guitar...
  
  
• The Manhattans
  The Manhattans
  The Manhattans are an American popular R&B vocal group, with a string of hit records spanning four decades. Their best known million-selling songs being "Kiss and Say Goodbye" and 'Shining Star' in 1980...
  
  
• Garnet Mimms
  Garnet Mimms
  Garnet Mimms is an American singer, influential in soul music and rhythm and blues...
  
  
• Johnny Moore
  Johnny Moore (musician)
  Johnny Moore was an American rhythm and blues singer with The Drifters.Born John Alfred Moore in Selma, Alabama, United States, he began as lead of the Cleveland based group, The Hornets, before being discovered by The Drifters. He joined the group as lead vocalist, in New York in 1955, at age 21...
  
  
• Bill Pinkney
  Bill Pinkney
  Bill Pinkney was an American performer and singer. Pinkney was often said to be the last surviving original member of The Drifters, who achieved international fame with numerous hit records. He was chiefly responsible for its early sounds...
  
  
• Joe Simon
  Joe Simon (musician)
  Joe Simon is an American chart-topping, Grammy Award winning, soul and R&B musician. Amongst other chart singles, Simon secured three number one hits on the US Billboard R&B chart between 1969 and 1975.-Career:...
  
  
• Charlie Thomas
• Dee Dee Warwick
  Dee Dee Warwick
  Dee Dee Warwick was an American soul singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey as Delia Mae Warrick, she was the sister of Dionne Warwick, niece of Cissy Houston and cousin of Whitney Houston....
  
  

1998

• Herb Abramson
  Herb Abramson
  Herbert C. Abramson 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 producing such performers as The Ravens, Billy Eckstine and Joe Turner...
  
  
• Faye Adams
  Faye Adams
  Faye Adams is an American vocalist.-Early years:She was the daughter of David Tuell, a gospel singer and a key figure in the Church of God in Christ...
  
  
• Bobby Byrd
  Bobby Byrd
  Bobby Byrd born Robert Howard Byrd was an American funk/soul/R&B/gospel musician, songwriter and record producer. He was born in Toccoa, Georgia, and is a 1998 winner of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's prestigious Pioneer Award...
  
  
• Tyrone Davis
  Tyrone Davis
  Tyrone Davis , born Tyrone Fettson, was a leading American soul singer with a distinctive style, recording a long list of hit records over a period of more than 20 years. He had three no...
  
  
• The Five Satins
  The Five Satins
  The Five Satins are an American doo-wop group, best known for their 1956 million-selling song, "In the Still of the Night."-Career:The group, formed in New Haven, Connecticut, consisted of leader Fred Parris, Lou Peebles, Stanley Dortch, Ed Martin and Jim Freeman in 1954. With little success, the...
  
  
• The Harptones
  The Harptones
  The Harptones are an American doo-wop group, which formed in Manhattan in 1953.The group never had a top forty pop hit, or even a record on the national R&B charts, yet they are still considered one of the most influential doo-wop groups, both for their lead singer, Willie Winfield and their...
  
  
• Screamin' Jay Hawkins
  Screamin' Jay Hawkins
  Jalacy Hawkins , best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins was an American musician, singer, and actor...
  
  
• Ernie K-Doe
  Ernie K-Doe
  Ernie K-Doe , 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.-Early career:...
  
  
• Gladys Knight & the Pips
  Gladys Knight & the Pips
  Gladys Knight & The Pips were an R&B/soul family musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. The group was best known for their string of hit singles on Motown's "Soul" record label and Buddah Records from 1967 to 1975, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• The O'Jays
  The O'Jays
  The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1963 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert , Walter Williams , William Powell , Bobby Massey and Bill Isles. The O'Jays were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005...
  
  
• David "Fathead" Newman
• Kim Weston
  Kim Weston
  Kim Weston is an American soul singer, and Motown alumna. In the 1960s, Weston scored hits with the songs "Love Me All the Way" and "Take Me in Your Arms ".-Career:...
  
  

1997

• William Bell
  William Bell (singer)
  William Bell is an American soul singer and songwriter, and one of the architects of the Stax-Volt sound. As a performer, he is probably best known for 1961's "You Don't Miss Your Water" ; 1968's "Private Number" ; and 1976's "Tryin' To Love Two", Bell's only US top 40 hit, which also hit #1 on the...
  
  
• Gary U.S. Bonds
  Gary U.S. Bonds
  Gary U.S. Bonds is an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer. He is also a prolific songwriter.-Career:...
  
  
• Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
• Gene Chandler
  Gene Chandler
  Gene Chandler also known as "The Duke of Earl" or simply "The Duke", is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, producer and record executive. He is one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene...
  
  
• The Four Tops (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Little Milton
  Little Milton
  James Milton Campbell, Jr. , better known as Little Milton, was an American electric blues, rhythm and blues, and soul singer and guitarist, best known for his hit records "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Gonna Make It."-Biography:Milton was born James Milton Campbell, Jr., in the Mississippi...
  
  
• Jackson K Beavis
• Gloria Lynne
  Gloria Lynne
  Gloria Lynne is an American jazz vocalist with a recording career spanning from 1958 to 2007. Born Gloria Alleyne, Gloria Lynne grew up in Harlem; her mother was a gospel singer.-Career:...
  
  
• Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
  The Miracles
  The Miracles are an American rhythm and blues group from Detroit, Michigan, notable as the first successful group act for Berry Gordy's Motown Record Corporation . Their single "Shop Around" was Motown's first million-selling hit record, and the group went on to become one of Motown's signature...
  
  
• Ruby & The Romantics
  Ruby & the Romantics
  Ruby & the Romantics was an American R&B group in the 1960s. They had several pop and R&B hit records, but are sometimes considered as a one-hit wonder for topping the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963 with their first recording, "Our Day Will Come", written by Mort Garson and Bob Hilliard...
  
  
• The Spinners
• Phil Upchurch
  Phil Upchurch
  Phil Upchurch is an American jazz and R&B guitarist and bassist.Upchurch started his career working with The Kool Gents, The Dells, and The Spaniels before going on to work with Curtis Mayfield, Otis Rush and Jimmy Reed. He then returned to Chicago to play and record with Woody Herman, Stan Getz,...
  
  
• Van "Piano Man" Walls

1996

• Dave Bartholomew
  Dave Bartholomew
  Dave Bartholomew is a musician, band leader, composer and arranger, prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century...
  
  
• The Cadillacs
  The Cadillacs
  The Cadillacs were an American rock and roll and doo-wop group from Harlem, New York; active from 1953 to 1962. The group was noted for their 1955 hit "Speedoo", which was instrumental in attracting White audiences to Black rock and roll performers.-History:...
  
  
• The Chantels
  The Chantels
  The Chantels were the second African-American girl group to have nationwide success in the United States, preceded by The Bobbettes. The group was established in the early 1950s and attended St. Anthony of Padua school in The Bronx...
  
  
• Bo Diddley
  Bo Diddley
  Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Betty Everett
  Betty Everett
  Betty Everett was an African-American soul singer and pianist, best known for her biggest hit single, the million-selling "The Shoop Shoop Song ".-Early career:...
  
  
• The Flamingos
  The Flamingos
  The Flamingos were a doo wop group from the United States, most popular in the mid to late 1950s and best known for their 1959 cover version of "I Only Have Eyes for You".-Early quintet:...
  
  
• Eddie Floyd
  Eddie Floyd
  Eddie Lee Floyd is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".-Biography:...
  
  
• The Isley Brothers
  The Isley Brothers
  The Isley Brothers are a highly influential, successful and long-running American music group consisting of different line-ups of six brothers, and a brother-in-law, Chris Jasper...
  
  
• Jay McShann
  Jay McShann
  Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
  
  
• Johnnie Taylor
  Johnnie Taylor
  Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from rhythm and blues, soul, blues and gospel to pop, doo-wop and disco.-Early years:...
  
  
• Doris Troy
  Doris Troy
  Doris Troy was an American R&B singer, known to her many fans as "Mama Soul".She was born as Doris Higginson in The Bronx, the daughter of a Barbadian Pentecostal minister. Her parents disapproved of "subversive" forms of music like rhythm & blues, so she cut her teeth singing in her father's choir...
  
  
• Johnny "Guitar" Watson
• Bobby Womack
  Bobby Womack
  Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack 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 Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 40...
  
  

1995

• Booker T. & the M.G.'s
  Booker T. & the M.G.'s
  Booker T. & the M.G.'s is an instrumental R&B band that was influential in shaping the sound of southern soul and Memphis soul. Original members of the group were Booker T. Jones , Steve Cropper , Lewie Steinberg , and Al Jackson, Jr....
  
  
• Fats Domino
  Fats Domino
  Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Inez and Charlie Foxx
  Inez and Charlie Foxx
  Charlie Foxx and his sister Inez Foxx were an African-American rhythm and blues and soul duo from Greensboro, North Carolina. Inez sang lead vocal, while Charlie sang back-up and played guitar.Their most successful record was with their novelty composition, "Mockingbird"...
  
  
• Cissy Houston
  Cissy Houston
  Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...
  
  
• Illinois Jacquet
  Illinois Jacquet
  Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo....
  
  
• Darlene Love
  Darlene Love
  Darlene Love is an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song "He's a Rebel," a #1 American single in 1962, and was part of the Phil Spector stable that produced a celebrated Christmas album in 1963....
  
  
• The Marvelettes
  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 #1 Pop hit, "Please Mr...
  
  
• The Moonglows
  The Moonglows
  The Moonglows were an American R&B and doo-wop group based in Cleveland, Ohio.-Early years:Originally formed in their native Louisville, Kentucky as the Crazy Sounds, the group moved to Cleveland, where disc jockey Alan Freed renamed them 'the Moonglows'...
  
  
• Lloyd Price
  Lloyd Price
  Lloyd Price is an American R&B vocalist. Known as "Mr. Personality", after the name of one of his biggest million-selling hits...
  
  
• Arthur Prysock
  Arthur Prysock
  Arthur Prysock was an American jazz singer best known for his live shows and his baritone influenced by Billy Eckstine....
  
  
• Mabel Scott
  Mabel Scott
  Mabel Scott, was an American gospel music and R&B vocalist. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Mabel Scott resided in New York and Cleveland before arriving on the West Coast blues scene in 1942...
  
  
• Junior Walker
• Justine "Baby" Washington
  Justine Washington
  Justine "Baby" Washington is an American soul music vocalist.-Life and career:Washington was raised in Harlem, New York. In 1956, she joined the vocal group The Hearts, then became s a solo artist the following year. Washington had 16 rhythm and blues chart entries in 15 years, most of them during...
  
  

1994

• Otis Blackwell
  Otis Blackwell
  Otis Blackwell was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist, whose work significantly influenced rock 'n' roll...
  
  
• Jerry Butler
  Jerry Butler (singer)
  Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...
  
  
• The Coasters
  The Coasters
  The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group that had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and "Young Blood", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller...
  
  /The Robins
  The Robins
  The Robins were a successful and influential American R&B group of the late 1940s and 1950s, one of the earliest such vocal bands who established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound.-Original members:...
  
  
• Clarence Carter
  Clarence Carter
  Clarence Carter is a blind American soul singer and musician.-Life and career:Born in Montgomery, Alabama on 14 January 1936, Carter attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, Alabama, and Alabama State College in Montgomery, graduating in August 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree...
  
  
• Don Covay
  Don Covay
  Don Covay is an American R&B/rock and roll/soul music singer and songwriter most active in the 1950s and 1960s, who received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994...
  
  
• Bill Doggett
  Bill Doggett
  Bill Doggett was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist. He is best known for his tracks, "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with The Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.-Biography:William Ballard Doggett was born in...
  
  
• Mable John
  Mable John
  Mable John is an American blues vocalist and was the first female signed by Berry Gordy to Motown's Tamla label.- Biography :...
  
  
• Ben E. King
  Ben E. King
  Benjamin Earl King , better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a U.S...
  
  
• Little Richard
  Little Richard
  Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Johnny Otis
  Johnny Otis
  Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
  
  
• Earl Palmer
  Earl Palmer
  Earl Cyril Palmer was an American rock & roll and rhythm and blues drummer, and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
  
  
• The Shirelles
  The Shirelles
  The Shirelles were an African-American girl group that achieved popularity in the early 1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens , Doris Coley , Addie "Micki" Harris , and Beverly Lee...
  
  
• Irma Thomas
  Irma Thomas
  Irma Thomas is an American Grammy Award-winning soul and rhythm and blues singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans"....
  
  

1993

• Hadda Brooks
  Hadda Brooks
  Hadda Brooks , was an American pianist, vocalist and composer. Her first single, "Swingin' the Boogie", which she composed, was issued in 1945...
  
  
• James Brown
  James Brown
  James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Solomon Burke
  Solomon Burke
  Solomon Burke was an American singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, mortician, and an archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. Burke was known as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", and as the "Bishop of Soul", and described as "the Muhammad Ali of soul", and as "the most...
  
  
• Dave Clark
  Dave Clark (promoter)
  Dave Clark was a pioneering African-American record promoter.Born in Jackson, Tennessee, Clark became interested in music after a teacher gave him piano and violin lessons. He later learned band music and performed as a teenager with traveling minstrel shows.He graduated from Lane College in...
  
  
• Floyd Dixon
  Floyd Dixon
  For the American football player see Floyd Dixon Floyd Dixon was an American rhythm and blues pianist and singer.-Biography:...
  
  
• David "Panama" Francis
• Lowell Fulson
  Lowell Fulson
  Lowell Fulson was a big-voiced blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. Fulson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also recorded for business reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom...
  
  
• Erskine Hawkins
  Erskine Hawkins
  Erskine Ramsay Hawkins was an American 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" with saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson...
  
  
• Little Anthony & The Imperials
  Little Anthony & The Imperials
  Little Anthony and the Imperials is a rhythm and blues/soul/doo-wop vocal group from New York, first active in the 1950s. Lead singer Jerome Anthony "Little Anthony" Gourdine was noted for his high-pitched falsetto voice, influenced by Jimmy Scott...
  
  
• Wilson Pickett
  Wilson Pickett
  Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
  
  
• Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
  Martha and the Vandellas
  Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups of the Motown roster during the period 1963–1967...
  
  
• Carla Thomas
  Carla Thomas
  Carla Thomas is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.-Childhood:...
  
  
• Jimmy Witherspoon
  Jimmy Witherspoon
  Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
  
  

1992

• Hank Ballard
  Hank Ballard
  Hank Ballard , born John Henry Kendricks, was a rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, 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...
  
  
• Bobby "Blue" Bland
  Bobby Bland
  Robert Calvin Bland 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"...
  
  
• The Dells
  The Dells
  The Dells are an R&B and crossover musical group. Their successful recordings spanned more than four decades. Formed in 1952 after attending high school together, the Dells' repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul, disco and contemporary rhythm and blues...
  
  
• Aretha Franklin
  Aretha Franklin
  Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Chuck Jackson
  Chuck Jackson
  Chuck Jackson is an R&B singer who was one of the first artists to record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David successfully. He has performed with moderate success since 1961...
  
  
• Ella Johnson
  Ella Johnson
  Ella Johnson was an American jazz and rhythm and blues vocalist.Born Ella Mae Jackson in Darlington, South Carolina, United States, she joined her brother Buddy Johnson in New York as a teenager, where he was leading a popular band at the Savoy Ballroom...
  
  
• Nellie Lutcher
  Nellie Lutcher
  Nellie Lutcher was an African-American R&B and jazz singer and pianist, who gained prominence in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
  
  
• The Staple Singers
  The Staple Singers
  The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples , the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha , Pervis , Yvonne , and Mavis...
  
  
• Jesse Stone
  Jesse Stone
  Jesse Stone was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres...
  
  
• Rufus Thomas
  Rufus Thomas
  Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...
  
  
• Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams
  Paul Williams (saxophonist)
  Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams was an American blues and rhythm and blues saxophonist and songwriter. 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 of rhythm and blues and rock and roll in the 1950s and...
  
  

1990/91

• Maxine Brown (soul singer)
  Maxine Brown (soul singer)
  Maxine Ella Brown is an American soul and R&B singer.-Background and career:Maxine Brown began singing as a child, performing with two New York based gospel groups called the Angelairs and the Royaltones when she was a teenager...
  
  
• Ray Charles
  Ray Charles
  Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
  
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• The Five Keys
  The Five Keys
  The Five Keys is an American rhythm and blues vocal group that was instrumental in shaping this genre in the 1950s.It was formed with the original name of Sentimental Four in Newport News, Virginia, U.S., in the late 1940s, and initially consisted of two sets of brothers - Rudy West and Bernie...
  
  
• Al Hibbler
  Al Hibbler
  Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...
  
  
• Albert King
  Albert King
  Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...
  
  
• Jimmy McCracklin
  Jimmy McCracklin
  Jimmy McCracklin is an American pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. His style contains West Coast blues, Jump blues, and R&B. Over a career that has spanned seven decades, he says he has written almost a thousand songs and has recorded hundreds of them...
  
  
• Curtis Mayfield
  Curtis Mayfield
  Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
  
  
• Sam Moore
  Sam Moore
  Samuel David Moore is an American Southern Soul and Rhythm & Blues singer who was the tenor vocalist for the soul vocal duo Sam & Dave from 1961 through 1981...
  
  
• Doc Pomus
  Doc Pomus
  Jerome Solon Felder, better known as Doc Pomus , 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-performer in 1992. He was also inducted into...
  
  
• The Spaniels
  The Spaniels
  The Spaniels were an American R&B doo-wop group, best known for the hit "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite".They have been called the first successful Midwestern R&B group...
  
  

1989

• LaVern Baker
  LaVern Baker
  LaVern Baker was an American rhythm and blues singer, who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were "Tweedlee Dee" , "Jim Dandy" , and "I Cried a Tear" .-Early life:She was born Delores LaVern Baker in Chicago, Illinois...
  
  
• Charles Brown
  Charles Brown (musician)
  Charles Brown , born in Texas City, Texas was an American blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced the development of blues performance during the 1940s and 1950s...
  
  
• Ruth Brown
  Ruth Brown
  Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...
  
  
• The Clovers
  The Clovers
  -History:The group formed in 1946 at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C., with members Harold Lucas, Billy Shelton, and Thomas Woods. John "Buddy" Bailey was added soon after, and they began calling themselves the "Four Clovers", with Bailey on lead...
  
  
• Etta James
  Etta James
  Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
  
  
• "Little" Jimmy Scott
  Jimmy Scott
  Jimmy Scott , aka "Little" Jimmy Scott, is an American jazz vocalist famous for his unusually high contralto voice which is due to Kallmann's syndrome, a very rare genetic condition. The condition stunted his growth at four feet eleven inches until, at age 37, he grew another 8 inches to the...
  
  
• Percy Sledge
  Percy Sledge
  Percy Sledge is an American R&B and soul performer who recorded the hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1966.-Early career:...
  
  
• Mary Wells
  Mary Wells
  Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...