Artist Index How to use Artist INDEX

Stevie Wonder　

Stevie Wonder is a much-beloved American icon and an indisputable genius not only of R＆B but popular music in general. Blind virtually since birth, Wonder’s heightened awareness of sound help ..more

Sos Band　

The S.O.S. Band hit with a two-million-selling single, Take Your Time (Do It Right), their first time out, before having several hit singles written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Le ..more

Sam Dees　

Sam Dees is a prolific songwriter, producer, and recording artist who wrote or co-wrote hit songs for Atlantic Starr (their radio-aired LP track Am I Dreaming, Send for Me), Larry Gr ..more

Sam Cooke　

Sam Cooke was the most important soul singer in history -- he was also the inventor of soul music, and its most popular and beloved performer in both the black and white communities. Equally ..more

Sly & The Family Stone　

Sly ＆ the Family Stone harnessed all of the disparate musical and social trends of the late ’60s, creating a wild, brilliant fusion of soul, rock, R＆B, psychedelia, and funk that bro ..more

Spinners　

The Spinners were the greatest soul group of the early ’70s, creating a body of work that defined the lush, seductive sound of Philly soul. Ironically, the band’s roots lay in Detroit, where they f ..more

Sam & Dave　

Perhaps no act epitomized soul music as the secularization of gospel more than Sam ＆ Dave. The original pairing of Sam Moore and Dave Prater met in Florida in 1961, and they recorded un ..more

Solomon Burke　

While Solomon Burke never made a major impact upon the pop audience -- he never, in fact, had a Top 20 hit -- he was an important early soul pioneer. On his ’60s singles for Atlantic, he b ..more

Stephanie Mills　

Stephanie Mills first came to fame as the little girl with the big voice as the star of the hit Broadway play, The Wiz, an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s classic book, The Wizard of Oz. S ..more

Skyy　

A New York City octet, one of three funk and/or disco bands in which producer/keyboardist Randy Muller was involved. The original lineup featured Denise, Delores, and Bonny Dunning a ..more

Smokey Robinson　

Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, but one could argue that Smokey Robinson was the man who first pushed America’s most iconic soul music label toward greatness. As the leader of the Mirac ..more

Surface　

When you think of the group Surface, the term disco dancefloor doesn’t come to mind. The ’80s soft soul vocal trio known for such lush ballads as Closer Than Friends and the million-selling si ..more

Staple Singers　

The Staples’ story goes all the way back to 1915 in Winona, Mississippi, when patriarch Roebuck Staples entered the world. A contemporary and familiar of Charley Patton, Roebuck quickly be ..more

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles　

Scoring over 40 hits in the R＆B Top 40 charts, the Miracles started out as the Five Chimes in the mid-’50s while the members were still in high school. The Detroit vocal group consisted of ..more

Shalamar　

Shalamar was the creation of Dick Griffey, the booking agent for the television R＆B program Soul Train, and British R＆B producer Simon Soussan. The group’s first single, the 1977 {@M ..more

Stylistics　

After the Spinners and the O’Jays, the Stylistics were the leading Philly soul group produced by Thom Bell. During the early ’70s, the band had 12 straight Top Ten hits, including {＆Yo ..more

Slave　

Arguably the hottest of the ’70s Ohio funk bands, Slave had a great run in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Trumpeter Steve Washington formed the group in Dayton in 1975. Vocalist Floyd Miller ..more

Switch (Dance)　

Syreeta　

One of Motown’s more underappreciated female vocalists, Syreeta is best known for her association with Stevie Wonder during his creative peak in the ’70s. Born Rita Wright in Pittsburgh, { ..more

Swamp Dogg　

One of the great characters in rock and soul music is Jerry Williams, better known as the eccentric, idiosyncratic, and always entertaining Swamp Dogg (no relation to Snoop Doggy Dogg). ..more