In 2008, Rolling Stone put together a list of the “100 greatest singers of all time.” The lineup was mighty.’
At the 100th spot was Mary J. Blige, who was asked to say a few words about the woman at the top of the list: the incomparable Aretha Franklin.
“She is the reason why women want to sing,” Blige said. “Aretha has everything – the power, the technique. She is honest with everything she says. … It’s beautiful to see, because it helps people with a lack of confidence in their ability, like myself. I look at her and think, ‘I need a piece of that. Whatever that is.'”
Blige, of course, is not the only singer to look up to Franklin, nor is Franklin the only woman to have paved the way for people like Blige. Over the course of years, Black women singers in particular have proven to be indescribably important to the progression of rock ‘n’ roll. Bob Dylan picked up an acoustic guitar because he heard Odetta, a Black female folk artist well known in New York City, and there would be no “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley if there hadn’t been “Hound Dog” by Big Mama Thornton, an early pioneer of R&B music. The Beatles, meanwhile, were enamored with the Ronettes.
All of that to say: Black women are some of the most important not only in rock’s history, but in music’s itself. In the below list, we’ve come up with 40 of the Most Influential Black Female Singers of the ’60s and ’70s, plus standout tracks from each. Many of these women found success before and after those decades, but we’re focusing specifically on their importance in that time frame…
1. Aretha Franklin
Standout Tracks: “Ain’t No Way,” “Rock Steady,” “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”
2. Mahalia Jackson
Standout Tracks: “Keep Me Every Day,” “How I Got Over,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” “Move on Up a Little Higher”
3. Etta James
Standout Tracks: “Something’s Got a Hold on Me,” “At Last,” “Tell Mama,” “Baby What Do You Want Me to Do,” “A Sunday Kind of Love”
4. Ruth Brown
Standout Tracks: “Yesterday,” “Shake a Hand,” “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean,” “What Happened to You,” “Secret Love”
5. Shirley Bassey
Standout Tracks: “Goldfinger,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Big Spender,” “Something” “Never, Never, Never”
6. Mary Wells
Standout Tracks: “The One Who Really Loves You,” “You Beat Me to the Punch,” “Two Lovers,” “My Guy,” “What’s the Matter With You Baby”
7. Martha Reeves (and the Vandellas)
Standout Tracks: “Dancing in the Street,” “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave,” “Come and Get These Memories,” “I’m Ready for Love,” “In My Lonely Room”
8. Diana Ross
Standout Tracks With the Supremes: “Baby Love,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Back in My Arms Again,” “You Can’t Hurry Love”
Standout Solo Tracks: “Touch Me in the Morning,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Love Hangover,” “Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To),” “Last Time I Saw Him”
9. Nina Simone
Standout Tracks: “Mississippi Goddamn,” “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “Feeling Good,” “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” “I Put a Spell on You”
10. Tina Turner (With Ike Turner)
Standout Tracks: “Proud Mary,” “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” “I Want to Take You Higher,” “A Fool in Love,” “Nutbush City Limits”
11. Gladys Knight (and the Pips)
Standout Tracks: “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “If I Were Your Woman,” “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye),” “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”
12. Patti LaBelle (Solo and With Labelle)
Standout Tracks: “Down the Aisle (The Wedding Song),” “Lady Marmalade,” “Eyes in the Back of My Head,” “Come What May,” “What Can I Do For You?”
13. Dionne Warwick
Standout Tracks: “Walk On By,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “Then Came You,” “I’ll Never Love This Way Again”
14. Mavis Staples (With the Staples Singers)
Standout Tracks: “I’ll Take You There,” “Let’s Do It Again,” “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me),” “Respect Yourself,” “Touch a Hand, Make a Friend”
15. Roberta Flack
Standout Tracks: “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Where Is the Love,” “The Closer I Get to You”
16. Carla Thomas
Standout Tracks: “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes),” “B-A-B-Y,” “Tramp,” “Knock on Wood,” “I’ll Bring It Home to You”
17. Betty Wright
Standout Tracks: “Girls Can’t Do What the Guys Do,” “Clean Up Woman,” “Where Is the Love,” “Let Me Be Your Lovemaker,” “Tonight Is the Night”
18. Esther Phillips
Standout Tracks: “Release Me,” “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes,” “And I Love Him,” “Home Is Where the Hatred Is,” “When a Woman Loves a Man”
19. Millie Jackson
Standout Tracks: “It Hurts So Good,” “Ask Me What You Want,” “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right,” “All the Way Lover,” “If You’re Not Back in Love By Monday”
20. Irma Thomas
Standout Tracks: “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand),” “Time Is on My Side,” “Wish Someone Would Care,” “He’s My Guy,” “Good to Me”
21. Bettye LaVette
Standout Tracks: “Let Me Down Easy,” “My Man – He’s a Lovin’ Man,” “He Made a Woman Out of Me,” “Doin’ the Best That I Can,” “Do Your Duty”
22. Minnie Riperton
Standout Tracks: “Perfect Angel,” “Lovin’ You,” “Les Fleurs,” “Reasons,” “Inside My Love”
23. Chaka Khan (With Rufus)
Standout Tracks: “I’m Every Woman,” “Tell Me Something Good,” “You Got the Love,” “Sweet Thing,” “At Midnight (My Love Will Lift You Up)”
24. Thelma Houston
Standout Tracks: “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning,” “I’m Here Again,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Love Machine”
25. Denise LaSalle
Standout Tracks: “Trapped by a Thing Called Love,” “A Man Sized Job,” “Now Run and Tell That,” “Married, But Not to Each Other,” “Love Me Right”
26. Fontella Bass
Standout Tracks: “Rescue Me,” “Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing,” “Recovery,” “You’ll Miss Me (When I’m Gone),” “I Can’t Rest”
27. Cissy Houston
Standout Tracks: “Think It Over,” “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “I’ll Be There,” “Be My Baby,” “Somebody Should Have Told Me”
28. Dee Dee Warwick
Standout Tracks: “I Want to Be With You,” “Foolish Fool,” “Suspicious Minds,” “You’re No Good,” “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me”
29. Ann Peebles
Standout Tracks: “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” “Part Time Love,” “I Pity the Fool,” “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down,” “Breaking Up Somebody’s Home”
30. Barbara Lynn
Standout Tracks: “You’ll Lose a Good Thing,” “You’re Gonna Need Me,” “This Is the Thanks I Get,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Oh! Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin’)”
31. Jean Knight
Standout Tracks: “Do Me,” “Mr. Big Stuff,” “You Think You’re Hot Stuff,” “A Little Bit of Something (Is Better Than All of Nothing,” “Helping Man”
32. Alice Coltrane
Standout Tracks: “Journey in Satchidananda,” Turiya and Ramakrishna,” “Ptah, the El Daoud,” “Wisdom Eye,” “Paramahansa Lake”
33. Odetta
Standout Tracks: “Hit or Miss,” “This Little Light of Mine,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “There’s a Hole in the Bucket,” “Ain’t No Grave”
34. Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Standout Album: Live in 1960
35. Ronnie Spector (With the Ronettes and Solo)
Standout Tracks: “Be My Baby,” “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up,” “Walking in the Rain,” “Baby, I Love You,” “Try Some, Buy Some”
36. LaVern Baker
Standout Tracks: “Shake a Hand,” “Bumble Bee,” “Saved,” “See See Rider,” “Fly Me to the Moon”
37. Merry Clayton
Standout Tracks: “Gimme Shelter” (with the Rolling Stones), “Oh No, Not My Baby,” “Southern Man,” “Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow,” “After All This Time”
38. Baby Washington
Standout Tracks: “That’s How Heartaches Are Made,” “Nobody Cares,” “Only Those In Love,” “Let Love Go By,” “I’ve Got To Break Away”
39. Darlene Love
Standout Tracks: “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” “Wait ‘Til My Bobby Gets Home,” “A Fine, Fine Boy,” “Why Do Lovers Break Each Other’s Hearts?”
40. Betty Davis
Standout Tracks: “They Say I’m Different,” “If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up,” “Shut Off the Lights,” “Nasty Gal,” “He Was a Big Freak”
Top 25 Soul Albums of the ’70s
There’s more to the decade than Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, but those legends are well represented.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
