Here are the Hot R&B #1 Singles for 1995 from the Billboard charts.
One More Chance/Stay With Me – The Notorious B.I.G., nine weeks at #1 RB, #2 for three weeks pop. Christopher George Latore Wallace, a/k/a Biggie Smalls. The hit is from his 1994 debut album, Ready To Die. Brittanica notes that he “was among the most influential artists of 1990s gangsta rap.” He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. “On March 9, 1997, Wallace was leaving a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles when he was killed in a drive-by shooting. The shooter and the motive remained unknown.”
Exhale (Shoop Shoop) – Whitney Houston, eight weeks at #1 RB, also #1 pop. Died in 2012.
This Is How We Do It – Montell Jordan, seven weeks at # RB, also #1 pop
Fantasy – Mariah Carey, six weeks at #1 RB, also #1 pop
MJ
You Are Not Alone – Michael Jackson, four weeks at #1 RB, also #1 pop. Died in 2009. About a decade after that, I posted a piece in response to the question, “Are we under any obligation to erase performers or songs we once liked because it later turns out that they were either allegedly or actually terrible humans or allegedly or actually did terrible things?” I’m still ambivalent about it.
Baby – Brandy, four weeks at #1 RB, #4 RB, platinum
Candy Rain – Soul for Real, three weeks at #1 RB, #2 for four weeks RB, gold
I’ll Be There For You/You’re All I Need To Get By – Method Man featuring Mary J Blige, three weeks at #1 RB, #3 pop. The latter song was a 1968 hit by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, #1 RB for five weeks, #7 pop.
Don’t Take It Personal (just one of dem days) – Monica, two weeks at #1 RB, #2 for three weeks pop, platinum. Samples Back Seat (Of My Jeep) by LL Cool J
These are the number ones for only one week, RB.
Boombastic– Shaggy, #3 for two weeks pop, platinum. Samples Baby Let Me Kiss You by King Floyd. A remix also samples Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On.
Who Can I Run To? – Xscape, #8 pop, gold
You Remind Me Of Something – R. Kelly, #4 pop, platinum
Here are the 1965 Hot Rhythm and Blues singles, mostly from Billboard. From November 30, 1963, through January 23, 1965, Billboard eschewed the R&B single, assuming it was not significantly different from the pop charts. The sources I’ve been checking used the Cash Box Top 50 in R&B locations for that period.
Like all the Billboard charts that year, there are three different categories of charts that comprise the #1 R&B hits of 1955: most played jukeboxes, best sellers in stores, and, starting on January 22nd, most played by jockeys, meaning disc jockeys. Thus, 68 weeks of tracks are represented.
The designation of black/soul/R&B music has changed over time—the Juke Box Race Records #1s for 1945 cover most of that year.
There were no 1964 Billboard Soul charts. Why is that? Per Joel Whitburn’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles, the magazine didn’t publish a chart from November 30, 1963, through January 23, 1965, because the magazine thought there was so much crossover between the pop and RB charts to create.