Rhythm and Blues Foundation

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Pioneer Award honorees

• Berry Gordy
  Berry Gordy
  
  Berry Gordy, Jr. is an United States record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label and its many subsidiaries....
  , Lifetime Achievement
• Otis Redding
  Otis Redding
  
  Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an United States soul music singer. He is renowned for an ability to convey strong emotion through his voice. According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of Gospel musi...
  , Legacy Award
• Thom Bell
  Thom Bell
  
  Thom Bell 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....
  , Entrepreneur Award
• Chubby Checker
  Chubby Checker
  
  Chubby Checker is an United States singer-songwriter best known for popularizing the Twist with his 1960 hit record cover version of Hank Ballard's Rhythm and blues hit "The Twist "....
  
• Bettye LaVette
  Bettye LaVette
  
  Bettye LaVette is an United States soul music singer who cut her first record at 16, but achieved only intermittent fame until her 2005 record, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise....
  
• Barbara Mason
  Barbara Mason
  
  Barbara Mason is an United States Rhythm and blues/soul singer best known for her 1965 hit song, "Yes, I'm Ready "....
  
• The Delfonics
  The Delfonics
  
  The Delfonics are a 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 "....
  
• Frankie Beverly
  Frankie Beverly
  
  Frankie Beverly is a singer, wiktionary:Founder, record producer, and songwriter, known primarily for his sound recording and reproduction with the soul music and funk unit, Maze ....
  

• George Clinton
  George Clinton (funk musician)
  
  George Clinton is an United States musician and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the musical bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and is a solo funk artist as of 1981....
  
• The Del Vikings
• The Dixie Cups
  The Dixie Cups
  
  The Dixie Cups are an United States pop music girl group of the 1960s....
  
• The Supremes
  The Supremes
  
  The Supremes, an American girl group, were one of the signature acts on Motown Records during the 1960s. Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, Michigan in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop music, soul music, Broadway theatre 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....
  
• Johnny Nash
  Johnny Nash
  
  Johnny Nash is an African-American popular music singer-songwriter, best known for his unexpected 1972 comeback chart-topper, "I Can See Clearly Now"....
  
• 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. Parker was a prominent soloist on many of Brown's hit recordings, and a key part of his band, playing alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and baritone saxophones....
  
• Koko Taylor
  Koko Taylor
  
  Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor is an United States blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She is known primarily for her rough and powerful human voice and traditional blues stylings....
  
• Jackie Wilson
  Jackie Wilson
  
  Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an United States singer. Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul music. Gaining fame in his early years as a member of the R&B vocal group, The Dominoes, after going solo in 1957 he went on to record over fifty hit singles over a repertoire that included R&B, pop music, soul mu...
   (Legacy Tribute Award)
• Dionne Warwick
  Dionne Warwick
  
  Dionne Warwick , is an American singer, actress, activist, United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, former United States Ambassador of Health, and humanitarian....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)

• Allen Toussaint
  Allen Toussaint
  
  File:AllenToussaintFeb07.jpgAllen Toussaint, , is an United States musician, songwriter and record producer.One of the most influential figures in New Orleans R&B, many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through their numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Brickyard Blues", "Get Out Of My L...
  
• Big Jay McNeely
  Big Jay McNeely
  
  Big Jay McNeely is an United States rhythm and blues tenor saxophone saxophone. He grew up in the community of Watts, California, where he occasionally observed Simon Rodia constructing the Watts Towers....
  
• Dee Dee Sharp
  Dee Dee Sharp
  
  Dee Dee Sharp is an Rhythm and blues singer who began her career sound recording and reproduction backing singer vocals in 1961.In 1962 she began a string of very successful Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 chart-topper: "Slow Twistin'" , "Mashed Potato Time" , "Gravy " , "Ride!" and "Do the Bird" ....
  
• The Emotions
  The Emotions
  
  The Emotions are an all female soul music, disco, and R&B singing group of the late-1970s and into the 1980s. The group was formed in their hometown of Chicago, Illinois in 1968, and originally consisted of the three Hutchinson sisters, all the children of Joseph and Lillian Hutchinson...
  
• Fontella Bass
  Fontella Bass
  
  Fontella Bass is an United States Soul music singer, who is best known for the 1965 Rhythm and blues hit record "Rescue Me "....
  
• Holland-Dozier-Holland
  Holland-Dozier-Holland
  
  Holland–Dozier–Holland is a songwriting and record producer team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr.....
  
• Sly & the Family Stone
  Sly & the Family Stone
  
  Sly & the Family Stone is an Music of the United States Funk music, soul music and rock music band from San Francisco, California. Originally active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music....
  
• Louis Jordan
  Louis Jordan
  
  Louis Jordan was a pioneering United States jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s....
   (Legacy Tribute Award)
• Reverend Al Green (Lifetime Achievement Award)

• The Chi-Lites
  The Chi-Lites
  
  The Chi-Lites are a Chicago based smooth soul human voice musical ensemble. Allmusic music journalism, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, states "led by singing Eugene Record, the Chi-Lites had a lush, creamy sound distinguished by their four-part harmony and layered record producer....
  
• Ahmet Ertegün
  Ahmet Ertegün
  
  Ahmet Erteg?n was the Turkey United States co-founder and executive of Atlantic Records and chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum, described as "one of the most significant figures in the modern recording industry"....
  
• Marvin Gaye
  Marvin Gaye
  
  Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye was an United States singer-songwriter and instrumentalist with a three-octave vocal range....
   (Legacy Tribute Award)
• The Impressions
  The Impressions (American band)
  
  The Impressions are an United States music group from Chicago, originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes doo-wop, gospel music, soul music, and R&B....
  
• Johnnie Johnson
  Johnnie Johnson (musician)
  
  File:JohnnieJohnson1996.jpgJohnnie Johnson was a piano player and blues musician. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
  
• Clyde Otis
  Clyde Otis
  
  Clyde Otis was an United States songwriter and producer best known for his collaboration with singer Brook Benton, and for being the first African American A&R executive for a major label....
  
• Sylvia Robinson
  Sylvia Robinson
  
  Sylvia Robinson is a singer, musician and record producer, and record label Senior management....
  
• Huey "Piano" Smith
• Stevie Wonder
  Stevie Wonder
  
  Stevie Wonder is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. A prominent figure in popular music during the latter half of the 20th century, Wonder has recorded more than thirty US top ten hits, won twenty-two Grammy Awards , plus one for Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, won an Academy Award for Best Song, an...
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Betty Wright
  Betty Wright
  
  Betty Wright ) is a soul music and Rhythm and blues singing, who influenced a generation of female singer-songwriters and also influenced the world of Hip hop music, who sampling some of her more famous material....
  

• Johnny Adams
  Johnny Adams
  
  Johnny Adams was an United States blues singer from New Orleans, Louisiana, Louisiana.Adams was known as "The Tan Canary" for the amazing range of his singing human voice and his gospel influenced style....
  
• Ashford & Simpson
  Ashford & Simpson
  
  Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson are a successful husband and wife songwriting/record producer team and recording artists. They met in the choir of Harlem's White Rock Baptist Church....
  
• Mickey Baker
  Mickey Baker
  
  Mickey Baker, also known as Mickey "Guitar" Baker is an United States guitarist. He is widely held to be a critical force in the bridging of rhythm and blues and rock and roll, along with Bo Diddley, Ike Turner, and Chuck Berry....
  
• Sam Cooke
  Sam Cooke
  
  Samuel Cook, better known as Sam Cooke, was an United States gospel music, R&B, soul music, and popular music singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur....
   (Legacy Tribute Award)
• Isaac Hayes
  Isaac Hayes
  
  Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an United Statesn Academy Award-winning 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 and producer with partner David Porter during the mid-1960s....
   & David Porter
  David Porter (musician)
  
  David Porter is an United States 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 African-American singer and songwriter best known for her period as a recording artist for the Motown label during the 1960s and is best known for the soul musicful hits, "Every Little Bit Hurts" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy", which later became a pop smash by Blood, Sweat & Tears....
  
• John Lee Hooker
  John Lee Hooker
  
  John Lee Hooker was an influential United States post-war blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter born in Coahoma County, Mississippi near Clarksdale, Mississippi....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Patti LaBelle & The Bluebells
• Barbara Lewis
  Barbara Lewis
  
  Barbara Lewis is an United States singing and songwriter whose smooth style influenced rhythm and blues....
  
• Barbara Lynn
  Barbara Lynn
  
  Barbara Lynn is an United States rhythm and blues guitarist and singer.She played piano as a child, but switched to guitar. Inspired by blues artists Guitar Slim and Jimmy Reed, and pop acts Elvis Presley and Brenda Lee, she created an all-female band, Bobbie Lynn and Her Idols....
  
• The Manhattans
  The Manhattans
  
  The Manhattans are a popular R&B vocal group with a string of hit records over three decades, but best known for their million-selling songs "Kiss and Say Goodbye" and "Shining Star" in 1976 and 1980, respectively....
  
• Garnet Mimms
  Garnet Mimms
  
  Garnet Mimms is an United States singer influential in soul music and rhythm and blues.Mimms grew up in Philadelphia, where he sang in gospel music groups such as the Evening Stars, the Harmonizing Four, and the group with which he would sound recording and reproduction his first gramophone record in 1953, the Norfolk Four....
  
• Johnny Moore
  Johnny Moore (musician)
  
  African-American vocal and instrumental group in the 1940s and 1950s.Johnny Moore was an United States rhythm and blues singer with The Drifters....
  
• Bill Pinkney
  Bill Pinkney
  
  Bill Pinkney was an United States performer and singer. Pinkney is often incorrectly said to be the last surviving original member of The Drifters, who achieved international fame with numerous hit records....
  
• Joe Simon
  Joe Simon (musician)
  
  Joe Simon is a chart-topper, Grammy Award winning, Soul music and Rhythm and blues musician....
  
• Charlie Thomas
• Dee Dee Warwick
  Dee Dee Warwick
  
  Dee Dee Warwick , was an African-American soul music singer. She was born in Newark, New Jersey, New Jersey as Delia Mae Warrick....
  

• Herb Abramson
  Herb Abramson
  
  Herbert C. Abramson was an United States record company executive and producer....
  
• Faye Adams
  Faye Adams
  
  Faye Adams is an United States vocalist....
  
• Bobby Byrd
  Bobby Byrd
  
  Bobby Byrd born Robert Howard Byrd was an African American funk/soul music/Rhythm and blues/gospel music musician, songwriter and record producer....
  
• Tyrone Davis
  Tyrone Davis
  
  Tyrone Davis was a leading United States soul music singing with a distinctive style, recording a long list of hit records over a period of more than 30 years....
  
• The Five Satins
  The Five Satins
  
  The Five Satins are an United States doo wop group, best known for their 1956 song, "In the Still of the Night ".The band , formed in New Haven, Connecticut, Connecticut, consisted of leader Fred Parris, Lou Peebles, Stanley Dortch, Ed Martin and Jim Freeman in 1954....
  
• The Harptones
  The Harptones
  
  The Harptones was an United States doo-wop musical 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 pianist/arranger, Raoul Cita....
  
• Screamin' Jay Hawkins
  Screamin' Jay Hawkins
  
  Jalacy Hawkins, best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins was an African-American singer. Famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as "I Put a Spell on You" and "Constipation Blues," Hawkins sometimes used macabre props onstage, making him perhaps the first shock rocker....
  
• Ernie K-Doe
  Ernie K-Doe
  
  Ernie K-Doe , was an African American rhythm and blues singer....
  
• Gladys Knight & the Pips
  Gladys Knight & the Pips
  
  Gladys Knight & the Pips were an R&B/soul music musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. The group was best known for their string of hit singles from 1967 to 1975, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight Train to Georgia" ....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• The O'Jays
  The O'Jays
  
  The O'Jays are a Cleveland Ohio-based soul/R&B group, originally consisting of Walter Williams , Bill Isles, Bobby Massey, William Powell and Eddie Levert ....
  
• David "Fathead" Newman
• Kim Weston
  Kim Weston
  
  Kim Weston is an African American soul music singer, and Motown Records alumnus. She was signed to the record label in 1963, scoring a minor chart-topper with "Love Me All the Way" ....
  

• William Bell
  William Bell (singer)
  
  William Bell is an United States soul music singer and songwriter. He was one of the architects of the Stax Records-Volt Records sound, and is probably best known for his 1961 debut single , "You Don't Miss Your Water"....
  
• Gary U.S. Bonds
  Gary U.S. Bonds
  
  Gary U.S. Bonds is an United States rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer. He is also a prolific songwriter....
  
• Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
• Gene Chandler
  Gene Chandler
  
  Gene Chandler is an United States singer. He is esteemed by soul music fan as one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene, along with Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler ....
  
• The Four Tops (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Little Milton
  Little Milton
  
  Milton "Little Milton" Campbell, Jr. was a blues and Soul music vocalist and guitarist best known for his hits "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Gonna Make It." Most popular in 1960s, he became one of the lesser known greats of the genre, combining traditional lyrical structure with smoother production....
  
• Jackson K Beavis
• Gloria Lynne
  Gloria Lynne
  
  Gloria Lynne is an United States vocalist on several rhythm and blues hits in the 1950s and 1960s.Lynne grew up in Harlem and won first prize at the "Amateur Night" at the Apollo Theater....
  
• Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
  The Miracles
  
  The Miracles is an United States rhythm and blues group from Detroit, Michigan, notable as the first successful group act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records....
  
• Ruby & The Romantics
  Ruby & the Romantics
  
  Ruby & The Romantics was an United States early 1960s Rhythm and blues band , frequently considered a one-hit wonder, which topped the record chart once with 1963's "Our Day Will Come", written by Mort Garson and Bob Hilliard....
  
• The Spinners
• Phil Upchurch
  Phil Upchurch
  
  Phil Upchurch is an United States jazz and rhythm and blues guitarist and bass guitar....
  
• Van "Piano Man" Walls

• Dave Bartholomew
  Dave Bartholomew
  
  Dave Bartholomew is a musician, band leader, composer, and arranger, prominent in the music of New Orleans, Louisiana throughout the second half of the 20th century....
  
• The Cadillacs
  The Cadillacs
  
  The Cadillacs were an United States rock and roll and doo-wop group from Harlem, New York; active from 1953 to 1962. The group was noted for their 1955 chart-topper "Speedoo," which was instrumental in attracting White people audiences to African American rock and roll performers....
  
• The Chantels
  The Chantels
  
  The Chantels were the second black people girl group to have nationwide success in the United States. The group was established in the early 1950s at St....
  
• Bo Diddley
  Bo Diddley
  
  Bo Diddley , was an original and influential American rock and roll singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was known as "The Originator" because of his key role in the transition from blues music to rock & roll, influencing a host of legendary acts including Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Betty Everett
  Betty Everett
  
  Betty Everett was an African-American R&B singer and pianist. She is known for her biggest Chart-topper single "The Shoop Shoop Song ."...
  
• The Flamingos
  The Flamingos
  
  The Flamingos were a doo wop group from the United States, most popular in the mid to late 1950s....
  
• Eddie Floyd
  Eddie Floyd
  
  Eddie Floyd is a Soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s....
  
• The Isley Brothers
  The Isley Brothers
  
  The Isley Brothers are a Grammy Award United States rhythm and blues/soul music 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 as of 2006 was still charting successful albums performing under a repertoire of doo-wop, Rhythm and blues, rock...
  
• Jay McShann
  Jay McShann
  
  Jay McShann was an United States blues and swing pianist, bandleader, and singer.Nicknamed "Hootie", McShann was born James Columbus McShann in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Oklahoma....
  
• Johnnie Taylor
  Johnnie Taylor
  
  Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an United States singer in a wide variety of genres, from Gospel music, blues and soul music to pop music, doo-wop and disco....
  
• Doris Troy
  Doris Troy
  
  Doris Troy was an United States Rhythm and blues singer, known to her many fan as "Mama Soul."She was born Doris Higginson in The Bronx, the daughter of a Barbados Pentecostal Minister ....
  
• 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 years and has spanned a repertoire in the style...
  

• Booker T. & the M.G.'s
  Booker T. & the M.G.'s
  
  Booker T. & the M.G.'s are an instrumental soul music band that were popular in the 1960s and 1970s. They are most commonly associated with Stax Records and are often placed in the subgenre of Memphis soul....
  
• Fats Domino
  Fats Domino
  
  Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino is a classic Rhythm and blues and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Inez and Charlie Foxx
  Inez and Charlie Foxx
  
  Inez Foxx and her brother Charlie Foxx were an United States rhythm and blues and soul music duet from Greensboro, North Carolina, North Carolina....
  
• Cissy Houston
  Cissy Houston
  
  Emily Cissy Drinkard Houston , better known as Cissy Houston, is an American soul music and gospel music singer. She led a successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist....
  
• Illinois Jacquet
  Illinois Jacquet
  
  Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet was a jazz tenor saxophonist most famous for his solo on "Flying Home". He is better known simply as Illinois Jacquet....
  
• Darlene Love
  Darlene Love
  
  Darlene Love is an United States popular music singer....
  
• The Marvelettes
  The Marvelettes
  
  The Marvelettes were an United States singer girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the companies first US #1 pop hit, "Please Mr....
  
• The Moonglows
  The Moonglows
  
  The Moonglows were an influential United States Rhythm and blues and doo-wop musical ensemble based in Cleveland, Ohio....
  
• Lloyd Price
  Lloyd Price
  
  Lloyd Price is an American vocalist. His first sound recording and reproduction, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" was a huge hit single on Specialty Records in 1952, and although he continued to turn out gramophone record, none were as popular until several years later, when he refined the New Orleans beat and achieved a series of national hits....
  
• Arthur Prysock
  Arthur Prysock
  
  Arthur Prysock was an United States jazz singer best known for his live shows and his baritone influenced by Billy Eckstine.Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Prysock moved to Hartford, Connecticut to work in the aircraft industry during World War II....
  
• Mabel Scott
  Mabel Scott
  
  Mabel Scott, born , was an United States gospel music and rhythm and blues singer. 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 United States soul music singer....
  

• Otis Blackwell
  Otis Blackwell
  
  Otis Blackwell was an United States songwriter, singer, and pianist whose work significantly influenced Rock and roll. His compositions include Little Willie John's "Fever ", Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless", Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel", "All Shook Up" and "Return to Sender " , and Jimmy Jones' "Handy Man"....
  
• Jerry Butler
  Jerry Butler (singer)
  
  Jerry Butler is an United States soul music singing and songwriter, known as "The Ice Man" because of his cool demeanour while singing often intensely emotional lyrics....
  
• The Coasters
  The Coasters
  
  The Coasters are a 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 Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller....
  /The Robins
• Clarence Carter
  Clarence Carter
  
  Clarence Carter is a blindness United States soul music singing and musician....
  
• Don Covay
  Don Covay
  
  Don Covay is an influential African-American rhythm and blues/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
  
  William Ballard Doggett was an United States jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his mother, a church pianist, introduced him to music when he was 9 years old....
  
• Mable John
  Mable John
  
  Mable John is an United States blues singer who was the first female signed by Berry Gordy to Motown Tamla label....
  
• Ben E. King
  Ben E. King
  
  Ben E. King is an United States soul music singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and songwriter of "Stand by Me ," a United States Top 40 hit record in both 1961 and 1987 and a chart-topper in the United Kingdom in 1987, and as one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group, The Drifters....
  
• Little Richard
  Little Richard
  
  Rev. Richard Wayne Penniman , better known by the stage name Little Richard, is anAmerican singer, songwriter and pianist. He is considered a key figure in the transition from Rhythm and blues to Rock and roll in the 1950s....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Johnny Otis
  Johnny Otis
  
  Johnny Otis is an United States blues and rhythm and blues pianist, vibraphonist, drummer, singer, bandleader, and impresario. Otis was one of the most prominent white figures in the history of Rhythm and Blues....
  
• Earl Palmer
  Earl Palmer
  
  Earl Cyril Palmer was an United States drummer and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Palmer played on many recording sessions, including Little Richard's first several albums and Tom Waits' 1978 album Blue Valentine....
  
• The Shirelles
  The Shirelles
  
  The Shirelles were an United States 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 , Doris Coley , Beverly Lee, and Addie 'Micki' Harris....
  
• Irma Thomas
  Irma Thomas
  
  Irma Thomas is a Grammy Award winning soul music and rhythm and blues singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans."...
  

• Hadda Brooks
  Hadda Brooks
  
  Hadda Brooks , was a noted United States pianist, vocalist and composer. Her first single, "Swingin' the Boogie", which she composed, was issued in 1945....
  
• James Brown
  James Brown
  
  James Joseph Brown, Jr. was an United States entertainer. He is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and feverish dancing....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Solomon Burke
  Solomon Burke
  
  Solomon Burke is an United States Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter. During the half-century that he has performed, he has drawn from his roots: Gospel , soul music, and blues , as well as developing his own style in a time when Rhythm and blues, and rock were still in their infancy....
  
• 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....
  
• Floyd Dixon
  Floyd Dixon
  
  For the American football player see Floyd Dixon Floyd Dixon was an United States rhythm and blues pianist and singer....
  
• 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, Oklahoma....
  
• Erskine Hawkins
  Erskine Hawkins
  
  Erskine Ramsay Hawkins was a trumpet player and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is most remembered as the composer of the jazz standard, "Tuxedo Junction" , which became a popular hit during World War II, rising to #7 nationally and to #1 nationally ....
  
• Little Anthony & The Imperials
  Little Anthony & The Imperials
  
  Little Anthony & The Imperials is a rhythm and blues/soul music/doo-wop human voice musical group from New York City, first active in the 1950s....
  
• Wilson Pickett
  Wilson Pickett
  
  Wilson Pickett was an United States rhythm and blues/Rock and Roll and soul music singer and songwriter known for his raw, raspy, passionate vocal delivery....
  
• Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
  Martha and the Vandellas
  
  Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups in the Motown roster during the period 1963-1967. In contrast to Motown girl groups such as The Supremes and The Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas were known for a harder, R&B sound, typified in " Heat Wave," "Nowhere to Run," "Jimmy Mack" and, their signature song, "Dancing...
  
• Carla Thomas
  Carla Thomas
  
  Carla Thomas is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis soul....
  
• Jimmy Witherspoon
  Jimmy Witherspoon
  
  Jimmy Witherspoon was an United States blues singer.James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U....
  

• Hank Ballard
  Hank Ballard
  
  Hank Ballard was an rhythm and blues singer, the lead vocalist of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and one of the first proto-rock 'n' roll to emerge in the early 1950s....
  
• Bobby "Blue" Bland
  Bobby Bland
  
  Robert Calvin Bland better known as Bobby ?Blue? Bland, is an United States singer of blues and soul music. He is an original member of The Beale Streeters....
  
• The Dells
  The Dells
  
  The Dells are an influential Rhythm and blues musical group who were one of the few groups to span music genres resulting in successful recordings surpassing more than four decades....
  
• Aretha Franklin
  Aretha Franklin
  
  Aretha Louise Franklin 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 and roll, blues, Pop music, Rhythm and Blues and Gospel music....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• Chuck Jackson
  Chuck Jackson
  
  Chuck Jackson is an Rhythm and blues singer who was one of the first musician to successfully sound recording and reproduction material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David....
  
• Ella Johnson
  Ella Johnson
  
  Ella Johnson was an United States jazz and rhythm and blues vocalist.Born in Darlington, South Carolina, 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 achieved prominence in the late 1940s and early 1950s.She was most recognizable for her distinctive voice, particularly her phrasing and exaggerated pronunciation, and was credited as an influence by Nina Simone among others....
  
• The Staple Singers
  The Staple Singers
  
  The Staple Singers were an United States Gospel music, soul music, and R&B singing group. Pops Staples , the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha , Pervis , Yvonne , and Mavis Staples ....
  
• Jesse Stone
  Jesse Stone
  
  Jesse Stone was an United States rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres. He also used the pseudonyms Charles Calhoun and Chuck Calhoun....
  
• Rufus Thomas
  Rufus Thomas
  
  Rufus Thomas, Jr. was a rhythm and blues, funk and soul music singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...
  
• Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams
  Paul Williams (saxophonist)
  
  Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams was an United States 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 of rhythm and blues and rock and roll in the 50s and early 60s....
  

• Maxine Brown (soul singer)
  Maxine Brown (soul singer)
  
  Maxine Ella Brown is anUnited States soul music singer.She began singing as a child, performing with two New York City based gospel music groups when she was a adolescence....
  
• Ray Charles
  Ray Charles
  
  Ray Charles Robinson , known by his stage name Ray Charles, was an United States pianist, singer, and songwriter who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues....
   (Lifetime Achievement Award)
• The Five Keys
  The Five Keys
  
  The Five Keys is an United States 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, Virginia, United States, in the late 1940s, and initially consisted of two sets of brothers - Rudy West and Bernie West , and Ripley Ingr...
  
• Al Hibbler
  Al Hibbler
  
  Al Hibbler was a vocalist with several pop hits. Born Albert George Hibbler in Tyro, Mississippi, he was Blindness from birth. Hibbler attended a school for the blind in Little Rock, Arkansas where he joined the school choir....
  
• Albert King
  Albert King
  
  Albert King was an United States blues guitarist and singer....
  
• Jimmy McCracklin
  Jimmy McCracklin
  
  Jimmy McCracklin is an United States pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. His style contains West Coast blues, Jump blues, and rhythm and blues. Over a career that has spanned seven decades, he says he's written almost a thousand songs and has recorded hundreds of them....
  
• Curtis Mayfield
• Sam Moore
  Sam Moore
  
  Samuel David Moore is an United States 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
  
  Doc Pomus was a twentieth century United States blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hit record....
  
• The Spaniels
  The Spaniels
  
  The Spaniels were an United States rhythm and blues doo-wop group, best known for the hit "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight".They have been called the first successful Midwestern United States R&B group....
  

• LaVern Baker
  LaVern Baker
  
  LaVern Baker was an United States rhythm and blues singer....
  
• 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 United States Rhythm and blues 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", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean." For these contributions, Atlantic became known as "The house t...
  
• The Clovers
  The Clovers
  
  The Clovers are an American rhythm & blues group....
  
• Etta James
  Etta James
  
  Etta James is an American blues, soul music, rhythm and blues, rock & roll, gospel and jazz singer and songwriter. James is the winner of four Grammys and seventeen Blues Music Awards....
  
• "Little" Jimmy Scott
  Jimmy Scott
  
  Jimmy Scott , aka "Little" Jimmy Scott, is an United States jazz vocalist.Scott has Kallmann's syndrome, a genetic condition which stunted his growth at five feet and prevented him reaching puberty, leaving him with a high, undeveloped voice, hence his nickname "Little" Jimmy Scott....
  
• Percy Sledge
  Percy Sledge
  
  Percy Sledge is an United States Rhythm and blues and soul music performer....
  
• Mary Wells
  Mary Wells
  
  Mary Esther Wells was an United States singer who defined the early sound of Motown Records in the early sixties. Along with Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, The Supremes, and The Four Tops, Wells was said to have been part of the charge in black music onto radio stations and record shelves of mainstream America "bridging the color lines in...
  

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