Essence Magazine Shows No "Respect" with List of Best R&B Songs that Omits Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, Most of Motown

Essence Magazine Shows No "Respect" with List of Best R&B Songs that Omits Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, Most of Motown

Essence magazine has been kinda stupid for a long time. Now they’ve issued a list of the top R&B songs of all time. They’ve completed omitted Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, all of Motown (Temptations? Four Tops?) and Stax Records. No Wilson Pickett, no Sam & Dave, no Isaac Hayes, not even James Brown. No Parliament? […] The post Essence Magazine Shows No “Respect” with List of Best R&B Songs that Omits Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, M…

The Enduring Power Of Stevie Wonder’s “As,” R&B’s Greatest Song Ever

Of all the discourse on the ESSENCE timeline this past week, the biggest takeaway—for me, at least—is just how polarizing these music lists can be. Much of August has been spent debating with several of the best editors in the business about which songs belong at the top of the R&B canon. There have been hours-long meetings, cutting some legendary records and receiving less-than-favorable calls from a few of my colleagues asking the question: “W…