Tuesday, November 11, 2008

"The Sisters"


"SISTER SLEDGE"

Sister Sledge is an American musical group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 1972 and consisting of four singers, who are each sisters to the others: Kim Sledge (born 21 August 1957), Debbie Sledge (born 9 July 1954), Joni Sledge (born 13 September 1956), and Kathy Sledge (born 6 January 1959). They also have an older sister, Carol, who's not in the music limelight. All the sisters are grandaughters of the former opera singer Viola Williams. The sisters used to perform under the name of 'Mrs. Williams Grandchildren'.




"We are Family"



"He's the Greatest Dancer"



"Lost in Music"



"Got to Love Somebody"





"THE POINTER SISTERS"

The Pointer Sisters are an American Grammy Award-winning Pop/R&B recording act from Oakland, California that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Spanning over three decades together, their repertoire has included diverse genres as pop music, disco, jazz, bebop, country, soul, funk, dance, new wave and rock.

The group had its early origins when sisters June and Bonnie Pointer began performing in 1969 (without a record deal) as "Pointers, a Pair". The line-up grew to a quartet when Anita Pointer joined, followed by Ruth, who joined in December, 1972, right before they recorded their debut album. They achieved their greatest commercial success later as a trio consisting of Anita, June, and Ruth, after Bonnie left the group to commence a solo career.


"Automatic"



"Fire"



"Slow Hand"






"THE EMOTIONS"

The Emotions are an all female soul, 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



"The Best of My Love"



"I Don't Want to Lose Your Love"

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Chaka, Nicole & Stacy


"Chaka Khan"

Chaka Khan (born March 23, 1953) is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American singer known for hit songs such as "I'm Every Woman", "I Feel For You" and "Through the Fire", also sung the theme song for the hit children's TV show, Reading Rainbow. Khan was first featured as a member of the funk band Rufus before beginning her solo career. Though regarded as an R&B singer, she has performed numerous musical genres including funk, disco, jazz, ballads, hip hop, adult contemporary, pop and blues standards. Her contributions to funk and soul music in her early career earned her the title of the "Queen of Funk Soul" Kahn is known for her perfectly pitched contralto vocals.



"Do You love what you feel"



"Stop on by"



"Tell me Something Good"




"Natalie Cole"

Natalie Cole (born Natalie Maria Cole on February 6, 1950) is an influential American singer-songwriter and performer who has won eight Grammy Awards throughout her career. She achieved success in her early career as an R&B star, but smoothly changed her repertoire towards a more jazz orientated musical style in the early 90's.
Natalie Cole is the daughter of noted crooner Nat King Cole and Maria Cole, former singer with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Cole was raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles, just a few doors down from the California governor.[1] She has referred to her family as "the black Kennedys." She was exposed to the greats of jazz, soul and blues at an early age. Cole sang on her father's Christmas album at the age of six, and she began performing at the age of 11.




"This will be"







"Stacy Lattisaw"

When she was a teenager in the early 1980s, Lattisaw had a string of Top 40 R&B hits, with several songs — "Let Me Be Your Angel," "Love on a Two Way Street" and "Miracles" — crossing over to the pop mainstream. Lattisaw recorded her first album for Cotillion Records at the age of 12 in 1979, under the direction of record producer Van McCoy. However it was not until she hooked up with Narada Michael Walden, a former drummer with the Mahavishnu Orchestra who was just beginning a career as a producer, that she became a star. Under Walden's direction, she had five hit albums between 1981 and 1986. She continued recording into the late 1980s, signing to Motown in 1986, but her audience slowly disappeared. By the early 1990s, she decided to retire from the music industry and concentrate on raising her family. However, her official website states that she is now working on a gospel CD.





"Perfect Combinatiom"



"Every last Drip Drop"



"Miracles"



"Love on a Two way Street"

Monday, September 15, 2008

"Stevie Wonder"

"Stevie Wonder"


Stevie Wonder (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950, name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris)[1] 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 top ten hits, won 26 Grammy Awards[2] (a record for a solo artist), plus one for lifetime achievement, won an Academy Award for Best Song and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame. He has also been awarded the Polar Music Prize.
Blind from infancy, Wonder signed with Motown Records as a pre-adolescent at age twelve, and continues to perform and record for the label to this day. He has nine U.S. number-one hits to his name (on the pop Charts, 20 U.S. R&B number one hits), and album sales totaling more than 150 million units. Wonder has recorded several critically acclaimed albums and hit singles, and writes and produces songs for many of his label mates and outside artists as well. Wonder plays the piano, synthesizer, harmonica, congas, drums, bongos, organ, melodica, and clavinet. In his early career, he was best known for his harmonica work, but today he is better known for his keyboard skills and vocals.



"Superstition"



"For Once in My Life"



"Higher Ground"




"My Cherie Amour"



"Ebony & Ivory"



"Mater Blaster"



"Isn't She Lovely"



"You are the Sunhine of My Life"



"Ribbon in the Sky"



"Do I Do"



"Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday @ Live London"



"I'm gonna Make You Love Me"





"Sir Duke"



"That Girl"



"I don't know why"



"Love Light in Flight"



"I was Made to Love Her"



"Uptight"

Sunday, September 14, 2008

"The Commodores"



"The Commodores"


The Commodores were a highly successful funk/soul band of the 1970s and 1980s. The members of the group met as freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour.

The Commodores originally called themselves the Jays, but had to change their name because of the similarly named O'Jays. To choose a new name William King opened a dictionary and randomly picked a word. "We lucked out," he remarked with a laugh when telling this story to People Weekly Magazine. "We almost became The Commodes!"




"Three Time a Lady"



"Jesus is Love"



"Machine Gun"



"Still"



"Easy"



"Brick House"



"Sail On"



"Fancy Dancer"

Thursday, September 11, 2008

"Otis Redding"


"Otis Redding"


Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer. According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989), Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying."



"I've been Lovin' you..."



"Shake"


Otis Redding

"I Can't Turn You Loose"



"Try a Little Tenderness"



"My Girl"

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

"Marvin Gaye"

"The Prince of Soul"
Marvin Gaye






Marvin Pentz Gaye, Jr., known as Marvin Gaye (April 2, 1939 - April 1, 1984) was an American singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and instrumentalist. Starting as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late fifties, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960 signing with the Tamla subsidiary of Motown Records. After a year as a session drummer, Gaye ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the sixties.
Due to solo hits including "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell, he was crowned "The Prince of Motown"[1] and "The Prince of Soul" [2].
Notable for fighting the hit-making but restrictive Motown process in which performers and songwriters and producers were kept separate[3], Gaye proved with albums like his 1971 What's Going On and his 1973 Let's Get It On that he was able to produce music without relying on the system, inspiring fellow Motown artists such as Stevie Wonder[4] and Michael Jackson to do the same.
His mid-1970s work including the Let's Get It On and I Want You albums helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the late seventies, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death at the hands of his father on April 1, 1984. He was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame







"I Want You" (Soul Searching)



"Ain't No Mountain"



"Take this Heart of Mine"



"Can I get a Witness"



"Inner City Blues"



"Pride & Joy"



"Stubborn Kinda Fella"



"A Funky Space Re-incarnation"



"Money (that's what I want) Marvin & Tina Turner



"I heard it Through the Grapevine"



"Distant Lover"



"How Sweet it is"(To be Loved by You)



"Got to Give it Up"



"The Lord's Prayer"



"Documentary"

Monday, September 8, 2008

"The Temptations"


"The Mighty, Mighty Temptations"


The Temptations (sometimes abbreviated as The Temps or The Tempts) are a Grammy-winning vocal group that achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.

Formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1960 as The Elgins, the Temptations have always featured at least five African American male vocalists/dancers. The group, known for its recognizable choreography, distinct harmonies, and onstage suits, has been said to be as influential to soul as the Beatles are to rock.[1] Having sold an estimated 22 million albums by 1982,[2] The Temptations are one of the most successful groups in music history[3] and were the definitive male vocal group of the 1960s.[4] In addition, they have the second-longest tenure on Motown (behind Stevie Wonder), as they were with the label for a total of 40 years: 16 years from 1961 to 1977, and 24 more from 1980 to 2004 (from 1977 to 1980, they were signed to Atlantic Records). As of 2007, the Temptations continue to perform and record for Universal Records with only one original member, founder Otis Williams, in its lineup.






"My Girl"



"I'm Losing You"



"For once in my life"







"I wish it would rain"



"Ain't Too Proud to Beg"



"Papa was a Rolling Stone"



"Cloud Nine"



"Get Ready"





"It's Growing"



"The Temptations on the Flip Wilson Show"

"Aretha Franklin, Lady Soul"

Whatever you do,
show
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.!






"Natural Woman"
That was Aretha's year, when she scored some of her biggest hits with 'Respect', 'Chain of Fools' and '(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman', which all get an airing in this funky black and… …white Swedish TV broadcast recorded at a concert held that year in Stockholm.




"The Shoop Shoop Song by Aretha Franklin 1964"
Aretha's version of the Betty Everett classic.




"Don't Play That Song For Me"





"Groovin' Live"




"Dr Feelgood"
Dr Feelgood Franklin Aretha 1968 Aretha Franklin in a 1968 clip recorded in an oversold Amsterdam




"Giving Him Something He Can Feel"
Classic Aretha. This was recorded from the Midnight Special (I think) on a primitive VCR, so forgive the poor quality.




"Chain Of Fools"
And how about this!?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

"Al Green"

Everything about him is simply beautiful
posted all I could find.
Enjoy!




"Simply Beautiful"




"Tired of being alone" (Solo)



"Let's stay together"




"Tired of being alone" (feat. Chicago)




"For the Good Times"




"Belle"




"You ought to be with me"




"Love & Happiness" (BET Awards)

Friday, September 5, 2008

"James Brown"


James Joseph Brown, Jr. (May 3, 1933December 25, 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul", "King of Funk", and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", was an American 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.

As a prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader, Brown was a pivotal force in the music industry. He left his mark on numerous artists. Brown's music also left its mark on the rhythms of African popular music, such as afrobeat, jùjú and mbalax,[4] and provided a template for go-go music.[5]

Brown began his professional music career in 1953, and rose to fame during the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and string of smash hits. In spite of various personal problems and setbacks he continued to score hits in every decade through the 1980s. In addition to his acclaim in music, Brown was a presence in American political affairs during the 1960s and 1970s, noted especially for his activism on behalf of fellow African Americans and the poor. During the early 1980s, Brown's music helped to shape the rhythms of early hip-hop music, with numerous groups looping or sampling his funk grooves and turning them into what became hip hop classics and the foundations of the music genre.





"Papa don't take no mess"


"Get up off of that Thang"


"Please, Please, Please"



"Papa's got a brand new bag"



"This is a man's world"




"Night Train"



"James Brown gives you dancing lessons"



"James Brown's Celebrity Hot-Tub Party (Eddie Murphy)"



"Vintage Clip"



"Say it Loud!"



"I got That Feeling"



"Sunny"



"I Feel Good"



"Good Foot"