Since Daylight Saving Time returns at 2:00 AM Sunday, this evening on “Great Soul Performances” all of our songs will reflect on “Time.” Singing about “Time” will be: The Chambers Brothers, the Isley Brothers, Baby Washington, Smokey Robinson, Ray Charles, the O’Jays, Tyrone Davis, Aretha Franklin, Eugene Pitt & the Jive Five, James Brown, the Jimmy Castor Bunch, and the Flamingos among others. Our “Time” starts at 7PM ET, 6PM CT, 5PM MT and 4PM PT. Then it’s “Great Soul Performances 2: The 80s” at 9PM ET, 8PM CT, 7PM MT & 6PM PT, where you’ll hear: David Peaston, Stephanie Mills, Rockwell, Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince, Lakeside, Ben E. King, El DeBarge, Bobby McFerrin, Billy Vera & the Beaters and more. I’ll be looking for you later with “Great Soul Performances” and “Great Soul Performances 2: The 80s” on RadioMaxMusic.Com. In the words of Jimmy Castor, “Don’t Waste The Time!”
Tag Archives: Great Soul Performances
Monday 9pm: Black History Month Feature Band – The Four Tops
The Four Tops are a vocal quartet from Detroit, Michigan, USA, who helped to define the city’s Motown sound of the 1960s. The group’s repertoire has included soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, doo-wop, jazz, and show tunes.
Founded as the Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, performing from 1953 until 1997 without a change in personnel.
The Four Tops were among a number of groups, including the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Temptations, and the Supremes, who established the Motown Sound heard around the world during the 1960s. They were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer, whereas most male and mixed vocal groups of the time were fronted by a tenor.
The group was the main male vocal group for the highly successful songwriting and production team of Holland–Dozier–Holland, who crafted a stream of hit singles for Motown. These included two Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits for the Tops: “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” in 1965 and “Reach Out I’ll Be There” in 1966. After Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1967, the Four Tops were assigned to a number of producers, primarily Frank Wilson, but generally with less success.
When Motown left Detroit in 1972 to move to Los Angeles, California, the Tops stayed in Detroit but signed a new recording deal with ABC Records’ Dunhill imprint. Recording mainly in Los Angeles, they continued to have chart singles into the late 1970s, including the million-seller “Ain’t No Woman”, their second release on Dunhill, produced by Steve Barri and the composers Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter.
In the 1980s, the Four Tops recorded for Casablanca Records, Arista Records and Motown, returning to that label on two occasions for brief stays. Apart from their album Indestructible (owned by Sony Music Entertainment), Universal Music Group controls the rights to their entire post-1963 catalog (through various mergers and acquisitions) and also their 1956 single, “Could It Be You”.
A change of lineup was forced on the group when Lawrence Payton died on June 20, 1997. The group initially continued as a three-piece under the name the Tops, before Theo Peoples (formerly of the Temptations) was recruited as the new fourth member. Peoples eventually took over the role of lead singer when Stubbs suffered a stroke in 2000, with Ronnie McNeir then joining the group. On July 1, 2005, Benson died of lung cancer. Payton’s son Roquel Payton replaced him. Levi Stubbs died on October 17, 2008.
Fakir, McNeir, Roquel Payton, and Harold “Spike” Bonhart, who replaced Peoples in 2011, are still performing together as the Four Tops. Fakir is the only surviving founding member of the group. – Wikipedia
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Saturday 7pm: Great Soul Performances with Bobby Jay
We’ve been having fabulous, unseasonably warm weather here on the east coast this week, so this evening on “Great Soul Performances,” I feel like dancing. Back to the Disco! We’ll be dancing to music from: Tavares, A Taste of Honey, Van McCoy, Vicki Sue Robinson, KC & the Sunshine Band, Thelma Houston, Frankie Smith, Diana Ross, Kool & the Gang and more. I want to see you in your best polyester and platform shoes at 7PM ET, 6PM CT, 5PM MT and 4PM PT. Then stick around because at 9PM ET, 8PM CT, 7PM MT & 6PM PT it’s “Great Soul Performances 2: The 80s” where we’ll boogie to songs from: Earth, Wind & Fire, Quincy Jones, the Jones Girls, Rick James & Teena Marie, Eddie Murphy, Chaka Khan, the O’Jays, Al B. Sure!, Anita Baker and several others. I’ll be looking for your face, in the place this evening for “Great Soul Performances” and “Great Soul Performances 2: The 80s” on RadioMaxMusic.Com. DISCO!
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Thursday 10pm: Black History Month Feature Artist – Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter.
A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, many of which crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100. Among his best-known hits are “In the Midnight Hour” (which he co-wrote), “Land of 1,000 Dances”, “Mustang Sally”, and “Funky Broadway”.
Pickett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, in recognition of his impact on songwriting and recording.
Pickett died of a heart attack on January 19, 2006, in Reston, Virginia. He was 64. He was laid to rest in a mausoleum at Evergreen Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. Pickett spent many years in Louisville. The eulogy was delivered by Pastor Steve Owens of Decatur, Georgia. Little Richard, a long-time friend of Pickett’s, spoke about him and preached a message at the funeral. Pickett was remembered on March 20, 2006, at New York’s B.B. King Blues Club with performances by the Commitments, Ben E. King, his long-term backing band the Midnight Movers, soul singer Bruce “Big Daddy” Wayne, and Southside Johnny in front of an audience that included members of his family, including two brothers. – Wikipedia
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Wednesday 9pm: Black History Month Feature Band – The Spinners
The Spinners are an American rhythm and blues vocal group that formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1954. They enjoyed a string of hit singles and albums during the 1960s and 1970s. The group continues to tour, with Henry Fambrough as the only original member.
The group is also listed as the Detroit Spinners and the Motown Spinners, due to their 1960s recordings with the Motown label. These other names were used in the UK to avoid confusion with a British folk group also called The Spinners. In 2015, they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. – Wikipedia
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Wednesday 6pm: Top 700 Disco Tunes with Ron Kovacs (Part II)
Part II of the Top 700 Disco Tunes.
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Tuesday 10pm: Black History Month Feature Artist: Carla Thomas
Carla Venita Thomas (born December 21, 1942) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.
Thomas was raised in the Foote Homes Projects in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with her siblings, Marvell and Vaneese, she was one of three musical children of Rufus and Lorene Thomas. Despite growing up in the projects, the Thomas family lived near the Palace Theater on Beale Street, as Rufus was the theater’s Master of Ceremonies (MC) for their amateur shows. This access not only gave Thomas her first taste of the music world but it also provided a springboard for her transformation into the Queen of the Memphis Sound. – Wikipedia
