r&b – Bluescentric

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“It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded… see?” – R&B star Johnny Ace’s final words

The Drifters had six number one R&B hits.

Booker T. was just 17 years old and in high school when his 1962 song “Green Onions” became a #1 smash hit on the R&B chart.

James Brown held the record for most Billboard R&B chart entries, 91 charted singles, without ever hitting No. 1.

Released September 22nd, 1978, One Nation Under a Groove was Funkadelic’s most commercially successful album, hitting #1 on the Billboard Magazine Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, #16 on the Billboard 200, and it sold a million copies, going Platinum.

James Brown had an astonishing 17 singles reach # 1 on the Billboard R&B charts.

Aretha Franklin won ALL of the first eight Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance between 1968 and 1975.

Freddie King’s eighth & ninth albums, “Freddie King is a Blues Master” & “My Feelings for the Blues” were produced by King Curtis with Curtis’ soul band The Kingpins — cementing an R&B-styled horn-heavy groove for which Freddie would become famous.

On Christmas day in 1954, rising R&B star Johnny Ace was backstage for a short intermission, and in an effort to prove the gun he was playing with wasn’t loaded, put it to his temple and killed himself instantly. Big Mama Thornton witnessed the accident, saying his hair stood straight up when the gun fired.

During a legendary June 7th, 1969 show, Janis Joplin jammed with Grateful Dead at Fillmore West, helping Pigpen sing Bobby “Blue” Bland‘s classic R&B song “Turn On Your Lovelight”.

Over the course of her career, Aretha Franklin had 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries, and 20 number-one R&B singles.

Jefferson Starship’s album “Red Octopus”, which hit #1 on the R&B chart in 1975, featured a song “Git Fiddler” co-written by contemporary blues guitarist Keb’ Mo’.

Ray Charles’ hit song “Hit The Road, Jack!” was written by R&B icon Percy Mayfield.

All seventeen singles that Otis Redding released in his lifetime hit the R&B/Pop charts.

R&B is short for “Rhythm and Blues”.

Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me” spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard R&B Chart in 1957.

Etta James covered Howlin’ Wolf’s “Spoonful” in 1961, which reached 12 on the R&B Chart.

James Brown’s first #1 single on the R&B chart was “Try Me” in 1959.