Tag: rhythm and blues

Top R&B Christmas Hits

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

From Joel Whitburn’s Christmas in the Charts, 1920 to 2004, Top R&B Christmas Hits lists the peak positions these seasonal songs reached on the Billboard rhythm and blues charts.

White Christmas – Bing Crosby  with the Ken Darby Singers, orchestra conducted by John Scott Trotter (Berlin) from 1942, #1 for three weeks RB, #1 for 11 weeks pop, from the film Holiday Inn. It was the “1947 Bing remake that piled up the majority of the title’s sales from its subsequent reissue throughout the decades on nearly all 78s, 45s, LPs, cassettes, and CDs.”

White Christmas – The Drifters from 1954, #2 for one week RB. Not only is this one of my favorite carols, it’s a wonderful video cartoon by Joshua Held. Featuring Bill Pinkney on lead bass and Clyde McPhatter on tenor.

Let’s Make Christmas, Baby – Amos Milburn from 1949, #3 for four  weeks RB. Is it just me, or is this song blue, and I don’t mean sad?

The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) – Nat King Cole from 1946, #3 for three weeks RB, #3 pop. Every year, Mark Evanier shares a story about this song some know as “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…'”and Mel Tormé, who co-wrote the song

Merry Christmas, Baby – Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers with Charles Brown from 1947, #3 for two weeks RB. Co-writer Moore also is the guitarist; Brown does piano and vocals.

This is rhythm and blues?

The Chipmunk Song – The Chipmunks with David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian) from 1958, #5 for one week RB. #1 for weeks pop in 1958, then #41 pop in 1959, #45 pop in 1960, #39 pop in 1961 and #40 pop in 1962. My house had a copy of this single when I was growing up; the label was greenish.   

(It’s Gonna Be A ) Lonely Christmas -The Orioles from 1949, #5 for one week RB

Faraway Blues (Xmas Blues) – Johnny Otis Orchestra with Little Esther and Mel Walker from 1950, #6 for two weeks RB. I wrote about Otis here back in 2008.

Silent Night (Christmas Hymn) – Sister Rosetta Tharpe with the Rosetta Gospel Singers from 1949, #6 for one week RB. She was posthumously  inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 as an early influence. “Sister Rosetta was the first guitar heroine of rock & roll. Her heartfelt gospel folksiness gave way to her roaring mastery of her trusty Gibson Les Paul Custom, which she wielded on a level that rivaled the best of her male contemporaries.”

Lonesome Christmas (Part 1 and 2) – Lowell Folson from 1950, #7 for one week RB

1994: the non-crossover #1s, AC and RB

Here are the non-crossover #1s, the hits for 1994 in adult contemporary and rhythm and blues.

Adult contemporary, besides the Celine Dion and Boyz II Men crossovers:

Now and Forever – Richard Marx, 11 weeks at  #1. I have but a vague recollection of this song.

Can You Feel The Love Tonight – Elton John, eight weeks at #1. I’ve seen at least five productions of The Lion King, including one in which my daughter appeared.  I saw Elton perform in Albany in 1998.

Wild Night – John Mellencamp/ Me’shell Ndegeocello, eight weeks at #1. I remember this mostly because it reminded me of the Van Morrison original. 

All I Wanna Do – Sheryl Crow, eight weeks at #1, from an album I actually own.

I’ll Remember – Madonna, four weeks at #1. It is from the soundtrack to the motion picture With Honors, a film I do not recall. While I’ve owned earlier Madonna music, I wasn’t familiar with this song.

There are only seven AC #1 songs in total for 1994.

Another tidy list

Hot R&B singles, besides R. Kelly and Boyz II Men crossovers:

Any Time, Any Place – Janet Jackson, ten weeks at #1. When I saw her at SPAC in 2018, this song was on the setlist, but I wasn’t familiar with it.

Creep – TLC, nine weeks at #1, gold record. The post title is a bit of a misnomer for this song. Creep did go to #1 pop for four weeks, but not until January 1995.

Seven Whole Days – Toni Braxton, five weeks at #1. I own this album as well. 

Cry For You – Jodeci, four weeks at #1

I Wanna Be Down – Brandy, four weeks at #1

Back & Forth – Aaliyah, three weeks at #1. She’s likely my daughter’s favorite 1990s artist.

Practice What You Preach – Barry White, three weeks at #1

Understanding – Xscape, two weeks at #1

There are only ten R&B songs in total for 1994.

 

The 1954 #1 rhythm and blues hits

Guitar Slim

What was the top #1 1954 rhythm and blues hit? It depends on how you measure it.

Like in pop and country, there were charts for Best Sellers (BS), beginning in May  1948; JukeBox (JB), starting in January 1944; and Jockeys (JY- radio play) starting in December 1949. This is how one ended up with 71 weeks of #1 hits in 1954.

The record that spent the most time on one of these charts is The Things I Used To Do by Guitar Slim and his Band, with Ray Charles on the piano, at 14 weeks. But that’s 14 weeks JB but only 6 as BS, which arguably is more significant.

Hearts of Stone by The Charms spent nine weeks atop the BS list, more than any other recording but only two weeks each on JB and JY.

Honey Love by The Drifters featuring Clyde McPhatter was #1 for eight weeks on both BS and JB. It was co-written by McPhatter. I’m sure I have this track on some Atlantic Records compilation. Per Wikipedia:  “According to Rolling Stone, the Drifters were the least stable of the great vocal groups, as they were low-paid musicians hired by George Treadwell, who owned the Drifters’ name from 1955, after McPhatter left. The Treadwell Drifters line has had 60 musicians, including several splinter groups by former Drifters members (not under Treadwell’s management). These groups are usually identified with a possessive credit such as ‘Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters,’ ‘Charlie Thomas’ Drifters.'”

You’ll Never Walk Alone by Roy Hamilton was #1 for eight weeks BS, five weeks JB. Yes, this is the Rodgers and Hammerstein song from Carousel. 

Oh What A Dream by Ruth Brown And Her Rhythmakers was #1 for eight weeks JB and four weeks BS.

More of ’54

Work With Me Annie by The Midnighters was #1 for seven weeks BS, four weeks JB.  Group member Hank Ballard wrote it. The record notes “Formerly known as The Royals.” They changed from the Four Falcons to the Royals and later to The Midnighters to avoid confusion with other groups’ names. You should read the Wikipedia page about the group, specifically about Dick Clark and the Twist, written by Ballard (and perhaps others).

The Charms, The Drifters, Hamilton, and The Midnighters might have outsold Guitar Slim.

Hurts Me To My Heart by Faye Adams was #1 for five weeks BS and JB.

Shake, Rattle, And Roll by Joe Turner and his Blues King was #1 for three weeks JB. This I have on multiple compilations.

Annie Had A Baby by The Midnighters was #1 for two weeks BS. Interestingly, it was NOT written by Hank Ballard.

You Upset Me Baby by B.B. “Blues Boy” King and His Orchestra was #1 for two weeks JB, written by King.

Mambo Baby by Ruth Brown And Her Rhythmakers was #1 for a single week in both BS and JB

I’ll Be True by Faye Adams with the Joe Morris Orchestra was #1 BS for a week

When these charts consolidated into one in October 1958, fans were much less confused.

Harlem Hit Parade of 1944

1942 recording ban

Album cover, Ink Spots Ella Fitzgerald Souvenir Album by Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald, outside, front cover. Decca Records. 1981.0656.497, 1981.0656.498, 1981.0656.499.

As I’ve described, soul music/rhythm and blues/et al. has been described by many different names. Here’s the Harlem Hit Parade of 1944.

I noticed a couple of interesting features.  Most of the performers we would now consider jazz musicians. Also, some of the songs crossed over to the pop or country charts; the ones that hit #1 are designated with a P or C followed by a number for the number of weeks at #1 on the applicable chart.

Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall – Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald, 11 weeks at #1 (P-2)

Straighten Up And Fly Right – The King Cole Trio, 10 weeks at #1 (C-6). I DO so love this song.

Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me – Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra, eight weeks at #1. Instrumental. Trumpet solo by Cootie Williams.

G.I. Jive – Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five, six weeks at #1, written by Johnny Mercer (P-2)

Hamp’s Boogie Woogie – Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra – six weeks at #1, unsurprisingly co-written by Hampton

Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good To You – The King Cole Trio, four weeks at #1

Main Stem – Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra, four weeks at #1. Recorded in 1942.  “After sitting on the shelf for well over a year, this track was finally released by Victor in early 1944 during the Recording Ban 

I’m Lost – Benny Carter and His Orchestra, vocals by DickGray, two weeks at #1

A single week at #1

Ration Blues – Louis Jordan  and His Tympany Five (C-1)

G.I. Jive – Johnny Mercer with Paul Weston and His Orchestra

Solo Flight – Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, featuring Charlie Christian on guitar, written by Christian, Goodman, and James Mundy 

When My Man Comes Home – Buddy Johnson And His Band, vocals. by Ella Johnson.  ‘Though recorded just prior to the beginning of the 1942 ‘recording ban,’ this track wasn’t released until well over a year later, entering the national record charts in February 1944.”

Till Then – Mills Brothers

The strike

I suppose I should mention the 1942 recording ban which didn’t end until November 11, 1944. Per Wikipedia: “On August 1, 1942, the American Federation of Musicians, at the instigation of union president James C. Petrillo, began a strike against the major American record companies because of disagreements over royalty payments. Beginning on midnight, July 31, 1942, no union musician could make commercial recordings for any commercial record company. That meant that a union musician was allowed to participate on radio programs and other kinds of musical entertainment, but not in a recording session. The 1942–1944 musicians’ strike remains the longest strike in entertainment history.”

From Jacobin: “Demanding a bigger cut of the profits created by new recording technologies, the AFM’s roughly 136,000 members refused to produce any recordings for two full years. And they won. Following the ‘recording ban’ …, the AFM secured contracts with over six hundred record labels that required each company to cough up a royalty fee for every record sold. The royalty fund was then used to pay musicians across the United States and Canada to perform free public concerts. For decades, the union-controlled fund was the largest employer of musicians in the country.”

From the University of Maryland: “By 1943, then-smaller record labels such as Capitol and Decca had reached settlements with the AFM but RCA Victor and Columbia continued to hold out. The back-and-forth grew so contentious that the case went before the National Labor Relations Board and moved President Franklin D. Roosevelt to write the AFM pleading ‘what you regard as your loss will be your country’s gain.'”

Soul music or rhythm and blues?

Harlem Hit Parade

I was asked to describe the difference between soul music and rhythm and blues. Paraphrasing Potter Stewart, I know it when I hear it. But I indeed could not define it.

The site Music Fans indicates: “R&B (rhythm and blues) was a term popularized by the music charts coining as a way of describing Black-oriented radio hits without specifically referencing race. Over the course of the 80 years, the term has been in use, it has described many very different types of music. Its primary use has always been the contemporary music popular among black Americans.

“Starting in the 80s, hip-hop became the dominant musical genre in the Black American community, leading R&B to be redefined as the contemporary black music that was NOT hip-hop. In the 90s, that sound was heavily influenced by ‘neo-soul,’ a revival of the soul sound, but with modern influences.”

Conversely, Masterclass suggests that “various genres of popular Black-pioneered music—gospel, blues, R&B, and forms of jazz—are often grouped together in a category known as soul music.”

So is soul a subset of rhythm and blues or vice versa? I dunno.  Sweet Soul Music – Arthur Conley (1967) from Atlantic Rhythm and Blues, 1947-1974, a collection I recommend.

By the book

I have the book edited by the late, great Joel Whitburn called Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles. It notes the synopsis of Billboard’s R&B Singles Charts. From 1942 to 1945, it was the Harlem Hit Parade. 1945 introduced the term Race Records with multiple charts for Juke Box and Best Sellers; this was also true for pop songs.

By 1949, the term was Rhythm & Blues. From 1952 to 1956, it used no designation at all, but it was understood. By 1956, R&B was the nomenclature, with multiple charts ending on 13 October 1958.

From 11/30/63 to 1/23/65, there was no Billboard chart in this category. It is thought that the magazine believed the R&B and pop charts were too similar.

I perused another Joel Whitburn book, Across the Charts: The 1960s. The Supremes dominated both the Billboard pop charts and the Cash Box R&B charts, which he used instead of Billboard.

But the Beatles never had a soul hit in the sixties. And some of the black artists of 1964, such as Solomon Burke, Jerry Butler, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and even the Temptations, had songs that did considerably better on the R&B charts than the pop charts.

When Billboard returned to precisely charting the category, they used Rhythm and Blues or R&B from 1965 to August 1969, when they chose Soul. In June 1982, it became Black, then in October 1900, R&B again. Finally, in December 1999, the category was R&B/Hip-Hop.

We want the funk

The conversation was initiated when I played the album Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock this month. I described how musically eclectic Hancock was and noted the funk elements of, e.g., Chameleon.

So what’s funk? I think, “Can’t you feel that bottom?” But okay, a definition: “a style of popular dance music of African American origin, based on elements of blues and soul and having a strong rhythm that typically accentuates the first beat in the bar.”

And rock and roll was built on country music and R&B. This is why I organize my music by artist, not the category. I won’t even get into jazz…

Ramblin' with Roger
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