(Vocals, 1939–84) Gaye was a soul giant whose career spanned his genre’s transition from pop entertainment to social conscience and personal exploration. He signed with Berry Gordy’s Motown label in 1961, where his recordings revealed a strong tenor voice with a huge span – three octaves – on songs ranging from R&B mod anthem ‘Can I Get A Witness’ ...
Britain’s first home-grown guitar hero, Hank Marvin was born Brian Rankin in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1941. His first instruments were piano and banjo, but he switched to guitar upon discovering Buddy Holly. Marvin formed a skiffle band, The Railroaders, with school friend Bruce Welch, and they travelled to London in 1958 to compete, unsuccessfully, in ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1925) Part Cherokee, Rainwater was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was already an established country act before his 1958 rockabilly recording, ‘Whole Lotta Woman’, gave him a British No. 1. He toured Britain, headlining at the London Palladium, and made further fine rockabilly records for MGM. In the 1960s his ...
(Vocals, 1940–83) This fated Liverpudlian was on a par with Cliff Richard as a British Elvis Presley, enjoying 11 Top 10 hits before vanishing into a cabaret netherworld. Though dogged by severe ill health, he resurfaced as a typecast rock’n’roll singer in the 1973 movie That’ll Be The Day. As he may have wished, he died with ...
(Vocals, b. 1939) Best known for her duets with Marvin Gaye, Weston was also a successful Motown solo artist. She reached R&B No. 2 with 1965’s ‘Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)’, later covered by The Doobie Brothers, and notoriously turned down ‘Dancing In The Streets’, only to see Martha Reeves take it to ...
(Vocal group, 1963–72) Two lucky breaks for Motown secretary Martha and friends Annette Beard and Rosalind Ashford launched their career: covering for absent backing singers on the 1962 session for Marvin Gaye’s ‘Stubborn Kind Of Fellow’, and taking the lead vocal on ‘I’ll Have To Let Him Go’ when Mary Wells did not show in 1963. Taking their name from ...
Born Steveland Judkins on 13 May 1950 and blind virtually from birth, the future Little Stevie Wonder was already singing in his local choir at the age of four. By the time he was seven he had mastered the piano, harmonica and drums. In 1961, Ronnie White of The Miracles introduced the child prodigy to the label’s founder ...
(Vocals, 1945–70) After some minor solo success, Terrell was paired with Marvin Gaye; their chemistry as a duo was immediate and led to a string of hits, including 1967’s ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ and ‘You’re All I Need To Get By’. But Terrell collapsed in Gaye’s arms on-stage in 1967, diagnosed with a brain tumour from ...
The story of soul’s Golden Age is linked with the story of two American record labels: Berry Gordy’s Motown and Jim Stewart & Estelle Axton’s Stax. They discovered artists, wrote songs and developed recording and marketing methods that would irrevocably change popular music, and have a profound effect on the perception of race all over world. Motown’s base in ...
Although contemporary R&B prefers to align itself with its ruder and more street-credible cousins in hip hop, the roots of its mainstream practitioners lie firmly in manufactured pop. In a throwback to the Motown era, R&B has become a global phenomenon by combining producer-led factory formula with a high level of musical innovation and adventure. This balance of pop ...
By the 1970s, the new sound of funk dominated Afro-American music. Jazzers such as Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock scored their biggest commercial successes by incorporating its hip-grinding rhythms into what became known as fusion or jazz funk, while soul acts enjoyed a second wave of popularity as funk provided the bridge between the soul and disco eras. Fuelled ...
Although the 1960s Golden Age established soul as the foundation of Afro-American pop, the 1970s and 1980s saw soul’s supremacy challenged and ultimately ended by, in turn, funk, disco, electro, dance-rock, hip hop and house. In hindsight, the soul music of the 1980s went into a form of stasis, waiting for a ...
Popular music’s most influential decade saw British and American rock develop in parallel, the creative torch passing across the Atlantic to The Beatles, then returning as the West Coast rock boom reflected the influence of drugs on music. In rock, guitar was now the undisputed focus of the music with ‘axe heroes’ like Clapton, Hendrix, Townshend ...
After the seismic shifts of the previous decade, the 1970s reflected faster-moving, less permanent crazes, beginning with glam rock and ending with the new wave. Glam rock saw the likes of Alice Cooper and Kiss taking make-up to extremes, while the comparatively anonymous Eagles and Bruce Springsteen respectively updated the blueprints established the previous decade by country ...
Elvis Presley was the most important figure in popular music during the twentieth century. His influence was enormous, and remains so, nearly 30 years after his death. The recordings that he made during the first few years of his career inspired a whole generation and the initial impact of a country boy singing black R&B changed forever the strictly ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.