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R&B Artists and Songs


Catherine

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Some of the best R&B artists came out of the late 60's and 70's. What are your favorites? Which ones do your remember?

Some of my favorties are:

Supremes - Love Child

Al Green - Let's Stay Together

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine

Commodores - Brick House

Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On

O'Jays - Love Train

Spinners - I'll Be Around

Stevie Wonder - Superstition

Temptations - Reach Out

Earth, Wind & Fire - That's the Way of the World

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I live about a 20 minute across-the-bridge-or-tunnel drive away from "HitsVille USA" where most of those songs were recorded. If you ever happen to get the chance to see the documentary film "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown", oh, brothers 'n sisters, see it. One song in particular. Me'shell N'Degeocello (I think I spelled that right) knocks the living HELL out of Smokey Robinson's "You've Really Got A Hold On Me". I ain't lyin'. Backed by the Funk Brothers (the original session musicians), every single second of that song is a musical orgasm. Right down to the piano in the background. The background singers are not of this Earth. And I LOVE Smokey Robinson, but her version gives me goosebumps. "Don't wanna kiss you, but I need to". Indeed.

Ken (with goosebumps)

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I love, love, love Motown! When people think R&B they think of only black musicians, but other bands or songs from other bands are actually considered R&B or funk, like Spirit's "I Got a Line on You"...one of my all time favorites.

KC & the Sunshine Band was considered funk - love them! Okay, I'll sing the first line of this and I know everyone knows the rest, "Do a little dance..."

Ken, you and me...we're goin' dancin'! LOL!

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I'm a huge fan of '70s era funk/soul. Here are some of my favorites:

James Brown - "Cold Sweat"

LTD - "Back In Love Again"

The Spinners - "Working My Way Back To You"

The Ohio Players - "Love Rollercoaster"

There's something about this stuff that can't be duplicated now. It has a genuine quality that can get lost with modern recording technology.

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Some of the best R&B artists came out of the late 60's and 70's. What are your favorites? Which ones do your remember?

Some of my favorties are:

Supremes - Love Child

Al Green - Let's Stay Together

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine

Commodores - Brick House

Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On

O'Jays - Love Train

Spinners - I'll Be Around

Stevie Wonder - Superstition

Temptations - Reach Out

Earth, Wind & Fire - That's the Way of the World

Stevie Wonder! Yeah!!

Some of my fav's from this genre

How about-

Everybody Is A Star - Sly & The Family Stone

Family Affair - Sly & The Family Stone

O-O-H Child - The 5 Stairsteps

I Love You For All Seasons - The Fuzz

Let's Stay Together - Al Green

Lean On Me - Bill Withers

Everybody Plays The Fool - The Main Ingredient

Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - The Temptations

Love Train - O'Jays

The World Is A Ghetto - War

Reasons - Earth, Wind & Fire

Love Rollercoaster - Ohio Players

Cruisin' - Smokey Robinson

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More R&B, Funk and Soul songs!

Al Wilson - Show And Tell

Aretha Franklin - Respect

Barry White - Never Never Gonna Give You Up

Commodores - Sail On

George Benson - On Broadway

Lou Rawls - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine :)

Manhattens - Let's Just Kiss and Say Goodbye

Marvin Gaye - Mercy, Mercy Me

O'Jays - Used To Be My Girl

Robert Flack & Donny Hathaway - Where Is The Love

Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music

Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy

Ben E King - Stand By Me

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas - Heatwave

Percy Sledge - When a Man Loves a Woman

Supremes - Reflections

Stevie Wonder - Living for the City

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing (1980's) :)

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine

Chi-Lites - Oh Girl

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You won't believe what I found in my MP3 directory. Remember that song from Chuck Berry "My Ding-A-Ling-A-Ling"? that was out when we were little kids? I didn't even know I had this tune, but played it and I laughed so hard I cried! :laughing:

When I was a little bitty boy

My grandmother bought me a cute little toy.

Silver bells hanging on a string,

She told me it was my ding a ling a ling.

Oh, my ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

My ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

And then mama took me took me to grammar school,

But I stopped off in the vestibule.

Every time that bell would ring,

They?d catch me playing with my ding a ling a ling.

Oh, my ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

My ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

Once I was climbing the garden wall.

I slipped and had a terrible fall.

I fell so hard I heard bells ring,

But I held on to my ding a ling.

Oh, my ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

My ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

Once I was swimming across turtle creek,

Man, them snappers all around my feet.

Sure was hard swimmin' across that thing

With both hands holding my ding a ling.

Oh, my ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

My ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

This here song, it ain't so sad.

The cutest little song you ever had.

Those of you who will not sing,

You must be playing with your own ding a ling.

Oh, my ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

My ding a ling, my ding a ling,

I want you to play with my ding a ling.

Your ding a ling, your ding a ling,

We saw you playing with your ding a ling.

My ding a ling, everybody sing,

I want to play with my ding,

Everybody, my ding a ling,

Oh my ding a ling,

I want to play with my ding a ling.

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

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This will be long. If you've got something to do, do it, it will be better than reading this.

A couple of years ago, Kelly wanted us to start camping. I positively, absolutely, totally hate camping. We've been married almost 17 years, and after that long, we have accumulated some reasonable creature comforts. I have a king-sized Sealy Posturepaedic pillowtop mattress. A swimming pool. A hot tub, a refrigerator that spits ice at you when you want it, satellite tv, cd, mp3 and DVD. I've got a stainless steel barbecue big enough to cook a whole cow on. High speed internet, hot 'n cold running water and a bathroom that is clean and comfortable, WITH cable tv in there, too. And yet......

6, maybe 7 times a summer, we........ leave all that stuff behind. And go to the happiest place on earth. Jellystone Park. I forgoe all the creature comforts to live in an 8'X12' aluminum box. The pop up camper. The Jayco. Dear God in Heaven, how I hate that thing. I leave my bed to sleep on 1/2" plywood under 2" of foam rubber. As, my wife prefers the side of the bed closest to the door (in case she can get out before me if the damn thing catches fire? Her concern for me is overwhelming), I have to straddle her just to get out and pee in the middle of the night, stumbling almost into a still-hot campfire. The public showers at Jellystone (which, by the way, is a 25 minute drive from our house, so much for 'getting away from it all'), the public showers smell like the monkey house at the Detroit Zoo in the high of summer. She packs all my stuff in a hermetically sealed Tupperware bin. This is great when you have soap in your eyes. You DON'T wanna set the soap down in the dish to get the shampoo outta the Tupperware bin, because there is a little curly hair in the dish, and I know it ain't mine, or any member of my families, so you gotta hold your soap in your teeth and balance on one foot being careful not to lean on the wall to get the shampoo. Showering there is hell. You have to cook on a little tiny hibachi. With coals that take forever to ignite. No TV, and a bazillion kids running everywhere. Jellystone is graced with a swimming pool I suspect they flush at night, so I don't go in there, either. You wind up 'camping' next to people you wouldn't turn around and talk to if you were in front of them in a bank-line. You usually get your pre-requisite frazzled mother weighing about as much as my refrigerator at home wearing a stained t-shirt 2 sizes too small for her, and it's got a picture of kittens on it. But the shirt is so stretched, the kittens look Asian. Eventually, you'll hear my son, "Daaaaad, the portable-toilet is full, y'gotta empty it.." Usually, at that point, a big fat guy with a hairy back wearing a Speedo will come trundling past with a Weight-Watchers mug as big as your head full of beer and say "Ahhh, nothing like getting away from it all, is there?". I want to punch that guy in the face. Hard.

It was there last summer when I believe I had an Epiphany. We were setting up the aluminum torture chamber (er, camper). It was late summer and there wasn't many people in the park on that early Friday afternoon. I'm cranking up the camper and heard a rhythmic bass thump coming from down the laneway from us. Another campsite. I wasn't paying too much attention, trying to ignore the sweat in my eyes and the rusty squeal from my back. But the bass thump was.... catchy. And then the wind drifted the lyrics down to me that are now burned indelibly into my brain. "My neck, my back, my (I can't spell the word, rhymes with 'wussy' ) AND my crack." The artist's name is Khia. The key to good writing is to be specific, and Khia pretty much had THAT nailed down. I looked at kelly, and asked her "didjoo hear THAT?" She shrugged, nonplussed. "What are you gonna do? Your in a public place, you're gonna get stuff like that." That's when the Epiphany happened. When I was a kid, we'd go out with Ma and Dad on Friday nights for dinner. We'd beg for quarters for the jukebox, Ma would dole them out with stern directions at me NOT to play THAT song. THAT song was "My Ding-A-Ling". Invariably, my traitorous fingers would punch up B14 or whatever number the song was listed under, Ma would get mad, and Dad would laugh. I downloaded Khia's little ditty to yodelling in the gully, and played it for my Mom with a big grin. "Whattya think of THAT, Ma?" She shrugged and said, "It's the year 2003. What do you want me to say?" I wanted to hit her over the head with a burned chicken off the hibachi.

My ding-a-ling indeed.

G'night all.

Ken.

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hahahaha, y'know Ken in about 20 years (ok maybe 30 years) you'll cherish these memories (or not) buddy life is filled with this shi---taki--mushrooms... but the kids love it!

you're a good dad! and an awesome story teller. you can grace my campfire anytime!! (bring your own beer ya sponge) lol

Mike

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you're a good dad! and an awesome story teller. you can grace my campfire anytime!! (bring your own beer ya sponge) lol

Mike

If I made you laugh. the lottery is won. That's what its all about. As for the beer, well, I forgot mine back at my campsite. Can I get one from you?

Kenny.

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You need to come with me to a remote camping site in the middle of the woods to experience true camping-you will love it. Ditch the KOAs! LOL.

(Ken, arching eyebrow slyly....)

Really..... I bet I would.....

BWAHAHAHAHA....

Ken.

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  • 2 months later...

The Stax / Volt record label had many of the big names of '50 and '60s r&b :

Otis Redding

Sam & Dave

Carla Thomas

Booker T & the MG's

William Bell

the Bar-Kays

plus

They had great in house back-up musicians:

Steve Cropper

Donald 'Duck' Dunn

the Memphis Horns...

c6450020bl1.jpg

The Complete Stax Volt Singles 9cd box set '59-'68

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Another record label with a stable of stars back in the golden age of R&B was Motown. They also had an in house songwriting factory that wrote hit after hit.

some artists include -

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

Four Tops

Temptations

Martha and the Vandellas

Marvin Gaye

Jackson 5

Mary Wells

the Supremes

among others...

B000006NUW.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif

Hitsville USA: the Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971 (4cd box)

Here's more info...

allmusic.com/hitsvilleusa

:)

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