Show 100
My own list of most important Rhythm & Blues songsThis is the 100th episode of The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and for that I'd been searching on-line for lists of top 100's of Rhythm & Blues that spans the era that I'm interested in - say, up to 1955 - and I found no useful one, simply because I could not agree with the choices the editors of them made, for instance by leaving out anything before 1948 or even the mid-fifties, or listing vocal groups only. Or take that one list that mainly had hits of white artists - in that time Rhythm & Blues was an exclusively African American style and the music was strictly segregated, so they completely missed the idea.
And so I made my own list, but as only fifteen fit in the hour, I made it my top fifteen. I'll play them in no particular order, so I didn't have to bother for putting one higher on the list than the other. And of course I've tried to explain what made me choose this list.
Playlist
- Louis Jordan - Choo Choo Ch'Boogie
- Joe Turner & Pete Johnson - Roll 'Em Pete
- Wynonie Harris - Good Rockin' Tonight
- Trixie Smith - My Daddy Rocks Me (with one steady roll)
- Ma Rainey & Louis Armstrong - See See Rider Blues
- Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy - Take It And Git
- Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers - The Honeydripper
- Harlem Hamfats - Oh! Red
- Long Cleeve Reed & Little Harvey Hull Down Home Boys - Original Stack O'Lee Blues
- Lionel Hampton - Hey-Ba-Ba-Re-Bop
- Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - That's All Right
- Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
- Lil Green - Why Don't You Do Right
- Hank Ballard & The Midnighters - Work With Me Annie
- Ray Charles - I Got A Woman
Outtro:
- Wild Bill Moore Sextette - Bongo Bounce
- Kirk Kirkland - The Saxaphone Rag
- Four Clefs - Dig These Blues
- Frank 'Floorshow' Culley - That Girl
- Harlem Hamfats - Growling Dog
- Julian Dash - Creamin' Boogie
- Lloyd Glenn - Chica Boo
- Sonny Thompson - Mellow Blues Part 2