by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: July 06, 2008

Woah, I feel good, I knew that I would, while I was sitting on a dock in the bay, watching the tide roll away, when all of a sudden, I just had to see her, the tiny dancer in the sky, well, ain't that peculiar? This sentence is made up of six songs from the greatest male R&B singers of all time. James Brown, Ray Charles, Luther Vandross, Smokey Robinson, Elton John and Marvin Gaye. Stevie Wonder belongs in the list of the best R&B male singers of all time, but he does not compare to the svelte voices of the fabulous five; James Brown, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Elton John. Respectful kudos go out to Luther Vandross, Nat "King" Cole and Stevie Wonder, amongst many others, like R. Kelly and Michael Jackson, that followed in the footsteps of the true giants of the time, who turned the songs of soul and blues into a new genre, Rhythm and Blues. Of this, I speak of the Kings of the genre, James Brown, Ray Charles and Smokey Robinson.

* James Brown, now how could any "best of" list of Rhythm and Blues artists be complete without a nod to the iconic screamer and svelte crooner. The King of R&B, James Brown, the first singer to gross over 1 Million sales on one record, "Live at The Apollo". It was a feat to be repeated many, many times over, but he was the first to accomplish this feat, and at a time when Rock and Roll was starting to make young girls cry, radio stations burn records, and the British Invasion started to pare royalties from American singers. Known world-wide as the "hardest working man in show business", James Brown was born in Barnwell, South Carolina in 1933, to a father who was a petrol station attendant, and when his parents separated, he was brought up by his aunt, a brothel owner in Augusta, Georgia. With early jobs as a shoe-shine boy, cotton picker, car washer, store sweeper and restaurant worker, he was arrested for armed robbery at the tender age of 16, and was sent to a series of juvenile work farms. It was at a work farm that James Brown came upon a life-long buddy and collaborator, Bobby Byrd. Working together in clubs and bars in the Toccoa, Georgia area, James was noticed and taken under the wing of Little Richard's manager, Clint Brantley. Together, through a series of smaller, lesser known bands, James and Bobby formed The Famous Flames, and cut their first record in 1956 with the single "Please, Please, Please". Four years later, they released the single "Try Me", which became #1 on the R&B charts, starting the career

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