Blue Eyed Soul Music Video Spotlight Extravaganza!

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Blue-eyed soul (also known as white soul) is a term used to describe R&B or soul music performed by white artists.

The term doesn't refer to a distinct style of music, and the meaning of blue-eyed soul has evolved over decades. Originally the term was associated with mid-1960s white artists who performed soul and rhythm and blues music that was similar to the raw, expressive music of the Motown and Stax record labels. Many blue-eyed soul singers have been described as sounding black because they had a full voice with a throaty, resonant timbre. The term continued to be used in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly by the British to describe a new generation of singers who adopted elements of the classic Stax Records and Motown sounds. To a lesser extent, the term has been applied to singers in other music genres that are influenced by soul music (such as dirty pop, urban music, and hip-hop soul).

 

Blue-eyed soul began when southern United States white musicians remade black music to play for mass audiences, due to segregation laws that prevented blacks from performing for whites. Often the music was diluted for its new audience, a move that angered many African-Americans. Elvis Presley sang songs written by black artists when the black artists' performances were not allowed on the radio. In the early 1960s, one of the rare female blue-eyed soul singers was Timi Yuro, whom many assumed to be black. By the mid-1960s, British vocalists Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones became major catalysts for emerging soul musicians in Europe.[citation needed] The regional beach music and shag music trends in the areas around North and South Carolina in the late 1950s and 1960s is, at least partly, a manifestation of blue-eyed soul. Local white bands backed nationally-popular black R&B artists at their road gigs, and performed on their own at fraternity parties and other college social events. The widespread popularity of the Carolina shag enabled many bands to keep their careers into the 2000s. According to beach band historian Greg Haynes, national artists such as Bonnie Bramlett and The Allman Brothers (as The Escorts) began their careers on this same college kegger circuit. Bill Deal and The Rhondells and The Swinging Medallions are beach bands which have charted nationally.

The terms blue-eyed soul and white soul were first used in the 1960s to describe white singers whose style was heavily influenced by soul and rhythm and blues. Blue -eyed soul artists in the 1960s included: The Righteous Brothers, The Rascals, Steve Marriott, Eric Burdon, Dusty Springfield, Lonnie Mack, Van Morrison, Tom Jones, The Box Tops, Mitch Ryder, Tony Joe White and Roy Head. Lewis, whose latter days at Sun records (1961-3) had been characterised by R&B covers, recorded an album for Smash entitled "Soul My Way" in 1967, immediately prior to his successful switch to mainstream country. In some cases (most notably The Flaming Ember, Lonnie Mack and The Rascals), the artists initially passed as black singers on the radio - deliberately in many cases, to avoid alienating receptive black radio audiences. Georgie Woods, an air personality with WDAS, Philadelphia, came up with the term blue-eyed soul to describe white artists receiving airplay on R&B radio stations. Delaney and Bonnie (Bramlett) produced the classic 'blue-eyed soul' album "Home" on Stax in 1969. [1]

In the 1970s, soul music flourished, and artists such as Richard Rudolph helped pave the way for what is known as blue-eyed soul. Notable artists at this time included Todd Rundgren, Hall & Oates, Elton John, David Bowie, Van Morrison, Bobby Caldwell, Boz Scaggs, and Michael McDonald. Tower of Power were the first white act to appear on the soul music show Soul Train, on February 1, 1975. Elton John appeared on the May 17 episode. A notable album of this time is Hall & Oates' Silver Album (real title Daryl Hall & John Oates) (1975) includes the classic ballad Sara Smile (long considered a blue-eyed soul standard), Camellia, Alone Too Long, Out Of Me Out of You and the funk love song Nothing At All.

In the 1980s, artists such as Hall & Oates, Michael McDonald and Rick Astley scored blue-eyed soul hits, as did Steve Winwood, an artist heavily influenced by 1960s soul. Boy George, although not having the black voice, was considered a blue-eyed soul artist because much of the music of Culture Club fit in the genre of R&B. Another 80's British invasion act Annie Lennox, of Eurythmics fame, was often cited as possessing "soul" and went-on to record the smash hit female empowerment anthem "Sisters are Doin' it for Themselves" with Aretha Franklin. In the late 90's, music video channel VH1 would proclaim Lennox to be the greatest living female blue-eyed soul singer. Around the same time as Boy George and Annie Lennox's debut, audiences were shocked by the soulfulness of Teena Marie. While also celebrated as mainstream popular and rock stars, Hall & Oates' chart success was at its highest when their singles got heavy airplay on urban contemporary (black) radio, as was the case with "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", "One on One", "Say It Isn't So", "Adult Education", "Out of Touch", "Method of Modern Love" and "Everything Your Heart Desires". Most of those singles charted high or at number-one on the R&B and dance charts. A backlash ensued in the late 1980s as some African-Americans felt whites were cashing in on the new popularity of their music. This backlash was so strong that in 1990 Ebony Magazine ran an article deriding whites singing black music. At the top of their list was a young Mariah Carey (who is in fact multiracial) and Céline Dion, while having a powerful voice, has built a career in the mainstream popular and adult contemporary genres and is not usually considered a blue-eyed soul artist.

Later artists who have been labelled blue-eyed soul include Christina Aguilera; Jon B.; Remy Shand; Joss Stone; American Idol winner Taylor Hicks; Marc Broussard; Nikka Costa and Anastacia. Robin Thicke gained some notoriety after his single "Lost Without U" became the first by a white male artist to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart since George Michael's "One More Try" (1988).

 

Notable artists

• The Action
• The Animals
• Average White Band
• Len Barry
• Bee Gees
• The Blues Brothers
• David Bowie
• The Boogie Kings
• The Box Tops
• Bonnie Bramlett
• Eric Burdon
• Bobby Caldwell
• David Clayton-Thomas
• The Flaming Ember
• Roy Head
• Elton John
• Tom Jones
• KC & The Sunshine Band
• Kenny Loggins
• Steve Marriott
• Van Morrison
• O'kaysions
• The Rascals
• The Righteous Brothers
• Larry Santos
• Boz Scaggs
• The Shades of Blue
• The Spencer Davis Group
• Dusty Springfield
• Tony Joe White
• Timi Yuro
• Toto
• Tower Of Power
• Pete Wingfield
• Wild Cherry

• Christina Aguilera
• Anastacia
• Jon B.
• Michael Bolton
• Marc Broussard
• Dream
• Bryan Duncan
• Hall & Oates
• Dan Hartman
• Taylor Hicks
• Hernando's Hideaway
• Eddie Hinton
• Grayson Hugh
• JoJo
• Tynisha Keli
• Tara Kemp
• Mark Klein
• Crystal Lewis
• Teena Marie
• Michael McDonald
• Shaun Murphy
• Bonnie Raitt
• Nu Shooz
• Robin Thicke
• Justin Timberlake
• Tom Tom Club
• Elliott Yamin
• Ace Young

• Lisa Stansfield
• Simply Red
• Jamiroquai
• Rick Astley
• Culture Club
• Sheena Easton
• Go West
• Human League
• Annie Lennox
• Level 42
• George Michael
• James Morrison
• Alison Moyet
• Robert Palmer
• Jamie Scott
• Scritti Politti
• Joss Stone
• Paul Weller
• Wet Wet Wet
• Amy Winehouse
• Steve Winwood
• Paul Young
• Jay Kay
• Texas

• SiStars

• Renée Geyer
• Daniel Merriweather

• Chromeo

 

External links

• Blue-eyed soul Definition and examples on Allmusic.com
• Blue eyed soul... Section on Soulwalking.co.uk
• The Birth of Blue-eyed Soul Section on The Righteous Brothers site (have to click on menu)
• Blue-Eyed Soul Section on Musicmatch.com
• [2]Blue Eyed Soul Blog

Categories: Articles needing additional references from May 2007 | Pages needing expert attention | Uncategorized pages needing expert attention | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Blue-eyed soul singers | Soul music

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