List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart

Last updated

This is a list of all the musicians and music groups who reached number one on the Billboard R&B singles chart. [1]

The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by Billboard. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 positions but was shortened to 50 positions in October 2012.

Contents

The chart was officially titled as follows:

Oct 1942 – Feb 1945 The Harlem Hit Parade
Feb 1945 – Jun 1949 Race Records
Jun 1949 – Oct 1958 Rhythm & Blues Records
Oct 1958 – Nov 1963 Hot R&B Sides
Nov 1963 – Jan 1965 No chart published
Jan 1965 – Aug 1969 Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles
Aug 1969 – Jul 1973 Best Selling Soul Singles
Jul 1973 – Jun 1982 Hot Soul Singles
Jun 1982 – Oct 1990 Hot Black Singles
Oct 1990 – Jan 1999 Hot R&B Singles
Jan 1999 – Dec 1999 Hot R&B Singles & Tracks
Dec 1999 – Apr 2005 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks
April 2005 – present Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Lists are alphabetical by year.
NOTE : Annual totals may not sum to 52 weeks because:

  1. sometimes the No. 1 place was shared
  2. totals are counted from the start of the stay at No. 1 - for example, a hit which reached No. 1 in November 1945 and stayed there 11 weeks is included in the 1945 list but not 1946.

As well as the R&B best sellers (BS) chart, between 1948-1957 there was also an R&B juke box (JB) chart, and from 1955-58 there was an R&B airplay (JY - jockeys) chart. These charts were consolidated into one in October 1958. Years at No. 1 on these different charts are listed where appropriate.

1942

Bing Crosby 20th-century American singer and actor

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. was an American singer, comedian and actor. The first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1931 to 1954. His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also in 1948, Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.

Earl Hines American jazz pianist

Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".

Andy Kirk (musician) American musician

Andrew Dewey Kirk was a jazz saxophonist and tubist who led the Twelve Clouds of Joy, a band popular during the swing era.

1943

Bea Booze American musician

Bea Booze, often credited as Wee Bea Booze, was an American R&B and jazz singer most popular in the 1940s.

Bonnie Davis American musician

Bonnie Davis, born Gertrude Melba Smith, was an American R&B singer most popular in the 1940s. Her recording of "Don't Stop Now" reached no.1 on the R&B chart in 1943. She was the mother of singer Melba Moore.

Duke Ellington American jazz musician, composer and band leader

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death over a career spanning more than six decades.

1944

Benny Carter American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader

Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career in the 1920s he was a popular arranger, having written charts for Fletcher Henderson's big band that shaped the swing style. He had an unusually long career that lasted into the 1990s. During the 1980s and '90s, he was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, which included receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Benny Goodman American jazz musician

Benjamin David Goodman was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing".

Lionel Hampton American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996.

1945

Cecil Gant American musician

Cecil Gant was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, whose recordings of both ballads and "fiery piano rockers" were successful in the mid- and late 1940s, and influenced the early development of rock and roll. His biggest hit was the 1944 ballad, "I Wonder".

Joe Liggins American R&B, jazz and blues pianist

Joseph Christopher "Joe" Liggins, Jr. was an American R&B, jazz and blues pianist and vocalist who led Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers in the 1940s and 1950s. His band appeared often on the Billboard magazine charts. The band's biggest hit was "The Honeydripper", released in 1945. Joe Liggins was the older brother of R&B performer Jimmy Liggins.

Roosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper".

1946

1947

Savannah Churchill American musician

Savannah Churchill was a successful American singer of pop and blues music in the 1940s and 1950s.

Julia Lee (musician) American blues and dirty blues musician

Julia Lee was an American blues and dirty blues musician. Her inclusion in the latter category is mainly due to a few numbers she performed, e.g. "King Size Papa" and "Snatch and Grab It" and "I Didn't Like It The First Time ". However, it would be misleading to characterize her music as always being in this vein.

Eddie Vinson American jump blues, jazz, bebop and R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson was an American jump blues, jazz, bebop and R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter. He was nicknamed Cleanhead after an incident in which his hair was accidentally destroyed by lye contained in a hair straightening product. Music critic Robert Christgau has called Vinson "one of the cleanest—and nastiest—blues voices you'll ever hear."

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

NOTE:No R&B charts were published between November 1963 and January 1965. The following R&B artists (as assessed by Joel Whitburn) had No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart during that period :

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

Sources

  1. ↑ Joel Whitburn's "Top R&B Singles" ( ISBN   0-89820-115-2).

Related Research Articles

The Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1970 and 2011. From 1967 to 1969 and in 1971 the award included instrumental performances. The award had several minor name changes:

Apollo Theater United States historic place

The Apollo Theater is a music hall located at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. It is a noted venue for African-American performers, and is the home of Showtime at the Apollo, a nationally syndicated television variety show which showcased new talent, from 1987 to 2008, encompassing 1,093 episodes; the show was rebooted in 2018.

<i>Everything Is Everything</i> (Diana Ross album) 1970 studio album by Diana Ross

Everything Is Everything is the second album by Diana Ross, released in 1970. After her self-named album and its accompanying two singles, Motown rushed the release of this album. It reached #42 in the USA and sold over 200,000 copies.

<i>Classic Soul Ballads</i> Compilation album by Various Artists

Classic Soul Ballads is a 16-volume soul CD-set, released by Time–Life Records in 2005, featuring 264 songs from the 1960s through the 1990s. It was not sold in stores, but sold directly by Time–Life.

<i>So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross</i> 2005 compilation album by various artists

So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross is a tribute album to the late American R&B and soul legend, Luther Vandross, consisting of cover versions of past songs by Vandross and other artists, recorded by several R&B and/or soul singers, in addition to rapper Wyclef Jean and pop singers Elton John and Celine Dion. The album debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number one on the U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums selling 104,000 copies in its opening week. This album was released two months after Vandross' death.

<i>Idol 2004</i> (Sweden) season of television series

The first season of Sweden's Idol premiered in August 2004 and continued until its grand finale on 26 November, when 26-year-old Daniel Lindström from Umeå was crowned winner.

VH1 debuted the first annual VH1 Divas concert in 1998. VH1 Divas Live was created to support the channel's Save The Music Foundation and subsequent concerts in the series have also benefited that foundation. The VH1 Divas concerts aired annually from 1998 to 2004. After a five-year hiatus, the series returned in 2009 with a younger-skewed revamp. In 2010 the concert saluted the troops and in 2011 it celebrated soul music, doubling the previous year's ratings. After a dance music-focused 2012 edition aired live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on December 16, 2012, the show took another hiatus before being revived on December 5, 2016, at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York with a holiday theme and achieved its highest ratings in over a decade.

The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues music.

<i>With Everything I Feel in Me</i> album

With Everything I Feel in Me is the twenty-first studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, Released on November 25, 1974 by Atlantic Records. This recording did not do as well commercially as previous Franklin albums. The LP reached #57 on Billboard's Top Album charts and peaked at #6 on the R&B album charts. None of its singles reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The lead single, "Without Love", written by Aretha's sister Carolyn Franklin and former Motown producer Ivy Jo Hunter, charted at #45 Pop, but fared far better on the R&B charts reaching #6. The title cut also charted at #20 on the R&B charts in early 1975. The album was released on compact disc in Europe in 2008.

<i>Let Me in Your Life</i> 1974 studio album by Aretha Franklin

Let Me in Your Life is the twentieth studio album by American singer Aretha Franklin, Released on February 25, 1974 by Atlantic Records.

D-TV television series

DTV was a series of music videos created by Walt Disney Productions in 1984 taking old hit songs of the past and putting them together with lots of footage of vintage Disney animation, created out of the trend of music videos on cable channel MTV, which inspired the name of this series. The videos were shown as filler material on the Disney Channel, as well as being the focus of televisions specials. Home video collections were also released on the VHS, Beta, CED Videodisc, and Laserdisc formats. After the first run of DTV, in 1989 a second series was produced known as DTV².

The BET Honors were established in 2008 by the Black Entertainment Television network to grace the lives and achievements of African-American luminaries. The awards will be presented annually and broadcast on BET during Black History Month.

<i>ck</i> (album) 1988 studio album by Chaka Khan

ck is the seventh studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1988.

<i>Billboard Top R&B Hits</i> 1990 compilation album by various artists

Billboard Top R&B Hits is a series of compilation albums released by Rhino Records in 1990 with each volume featuring ten hit rhythm and blues recordings from the 1970s. All tracks on the album were hits on the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles chart with many also achieving success on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.

Motown Chartbusters is a series of compilation albums first released by EMI under licence on the Tamla Motown label in Britain. In total, 12 editions were released in the UK between 1967 and 1982. Volumes 1 and 2 were originally called British Motown Chartbusters; after this the title Motown Chartbusters was used.

The Hampton Jazz Festival is a major musical event started in 1968, and features many of the world's major jazz artists. It is held during the last full weekend in June each year, with the primary venue being Hampton, Virginia's Hampton Coliseum. Festival organizers describe it as "the best available jazz, R&B and blues artists that are on tour during the time of the festival... packaged at a reasonable price."

American Idols Live! Tour 2002

The American Idols Live! Tour 2002 is a 2002 concert tour featuring the top ten contestants of the first season of American Idol, which aired earlier that year. The tour took in 30 cities across the United States starting October 8, 2002 in San Diego, and became the template for concerts tours following each of the succeeding American Idol seasons. Select performances of Clarkson are also released in the Miss Independent DVD album in 2003.

The third season of New Zealand Idol commenced in July 2006. The judges were Iain Stables, Megan Alatini and Frankie Stevens.

Soul Train: The Dance Years is a series of compilation albums released by Rhino Records in 1999 and 2000, and spun off from the long-running syndicated television series Soul Train.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.