Top 10 Famous Soul Music Artists

A list of the top 10 most influential and famous soul music artists that have helped shape the genre and continue to inspire new generations.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, including “Ain’t That Peculiar”, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”.Gaye’s later recordings influenced several contemporary R&B subgenres, such as quiet storm and neo-soul. Following a period in Europe as a tax exile in the early 1980s, he released the 1982 Grammy Award-winning hit ” Sexual Healing” and its parent album Midnight Love.

On April 1, 1984, Gaye’s father, Marvin Gay Sr., fatally shot him at their house in Los Angeles. Marvin Gaye was born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. on April 2, 1939, in Washington, D.C., to church minister Marvin Gay Sr. and domestic worker Alberta Gay (née Cooper). His first home was 1617 First Street SW, a small two-story duplex where seven children were crammed into two bedrooms. Although his upbringing was strictly religious, his father taught him musical instruments like piano and drums while his mother introduced him to singing harmonies. As a youngster he enjoyed playing chess with neighborhood friends but would later grow up to eschew competitive sports because he developed an intense asthma condition that made playing them impossible.’

Al Green

Al Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas on April 13, 1946. As a young boy, he sang in the church choir and by the age of nine he had his own gospel group, the Greene Brothers. When Al was ten, his family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he began to experiment with secular music. After being inspired by Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke, Al began to pursue a career in soul music. His first hit song, “Tired of Being Alone,” came out in 1971 and was quickly followed by a string of successful singles like “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still in Love With You.” By the mid-1970s, Al Green had become one of the biggest names in soul music. To this day, he is considered one of the greatest soul singers of all time.

Otis Redding

Otis Redding is often referred to as the “King of Soul.” His unique style of singing combined with his powerful stage presence made him one of the most popular soul performers of his time. His death at the age of 26 in a plane crash cut short a promising career, but his legacy continues to live on through his music.

Redding was born in Dawson, Georgia, in 1941. He began singing in church choirs as a young boy and was inspired by gospel and rhythm and blues music. He left school at the age of 15 to pursue a career in music, and he soon began touring with local bands. In 1960, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he recorded his first single, “These Arms of Mine.”

By the mid-1960s, Redding had become one of the most popular soul artists in the country. He had a string of hit singles, including “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now),” “Respect,” and “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” His album Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

In December 1967, Redding was scheduled to perform at a benefit concert for Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago. However, his plane crashed into Wisconsin Lake on December 10th en route to the event. Redding and six others onboard were killed. At the time of his death, Redding was only 26 years old.

Despite his short career, Redding left behind a lasting musical legacy. His posthumous album The Dock of the Bay topped charts around the world and won him a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #26 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time

Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke was an American singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocals and importance within popular music. Cooke had 29 top 40 hits in the United States between 1957 and 1964 including three number one singles, bringing together elements of gospel, R&B, pop, and secular songs. Major hit songs written by Cooke include “You Send Me”, “A Change Is Gonna Come”, “Bring It On Home to Me”, and “Wonderful World”.

Cooke was also notable for founding both a record label and a publishing company as an African American artist in a time when racial segregation was still legally mandated in much of the United States. He’s widely considered one of the pioneers of soul music and is ranked number 28 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer and songwriter. Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin’s church as a child. In 1960, she recorded her first album, Songs of Faith, with Columbia Records. However, it was not until 1967 that she gained commercial success with the release of I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You on Atlantic Records.

Franklin went on to release a total of 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. She is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Franklin has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and is one of the inaugural inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder is a renowned American soul singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who has released numerous hit songs over the course of his 50-plus year career. He is widely considered one of the most creative and influential figures in popular music. Wonder has won 25 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all time. He has also been inducted into both the Rock & Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame. Some of his best-known hits include “Superstition,” “Sir Duke,” “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” and “I Wish.”

Ray Charles

Ray Charles was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer. As a pioneer of soul music, he is credited for helping to cross racial boundaries in the early 1960s. His unique style blended country, blues, gospel, and pop music. He rose to prominence with hits such as “I Got a Woman”, “Hit the Road Jack”, and “Georgia on My Mind”. Throughout his career, he won 17 Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.

James Brown

James Brown (born May 3, 1933) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. A prominent figure in the 20th century music scene, he is often referred to as the “Godfather of Soul”, “Mr. Dynamite”, and “Soul Brother No. 1”. Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. He joined Bobby Byrd’s Famous Flames in 1953, and his career launched into the national spotlight with their hit recording of “Please, Please, Please” in 1956.

With the success of the group’s ballads “Try Me” and “Bewildered”, Brown established himself as a solo artist with a series of Top 10 hits including “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, “I Got You (I Feel Good)” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”. During the late 1960s he moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms towards Funk by incorporating electronic music by using distortion and wah-wah pedals to create new sounds.

Donny Hathaway

Donny Hathaway was an American soul singer, keyboardist, and producer. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s and went on to have a successful solo career in the 1970s. His best-known songs include “The Ghetto”, “Someday We’ll All Be Free”, and “What’s Going On?”. Hathaway died tragically young, at the age of 33, but his music continues to be popular and influential.

Lionel Richie

Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. He got his start as a member of the funk and soul band the Commodores and later launched a successful solo career. His 1985 album Can’t Slow Down sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, won two Grammy Awards and produced five U.S. No. 1 singles: “Hello”, “Penny Lover”, “Stuck on You”, “Running With the Night”, and “Say You, Say Me”.

The album contains the singles “Truly”, which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in the United States; “All Night Long (All Night)”, which became one of Richie’s signature songs and reached No. 1 in six countries; as well as the ballad “Hello”, which was a No. 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart and reached No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 1984