My name is Gemma.

 

Me and some friends have been working on a database listing all the soul music charts from 1960-2000. You can see the results of our work so far here: https://soulyears.com

We would dearly love to get hold of monthly soul charts from 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. If you have a collection of Blues and Soul mags., or Black Music mags, or Black Echoes, etc.,  from these periods and would be willing to scan the charts and supply us with copies we would be really grateful as we want to make the database as complete as possible.

Hi Gemma,

 

can I ask what source/s you are using to compile your charts so far? The reason that I am asking is that 'Tie me kangaroo down, sport' by Rolf Harris is not a song normally associated with Soul music, R&B, etc. And yet it is listed in your chart at number 26 for 1960. I am sure there are many other examples.

Billboard charts were named as follows:

1942 Harlem Hit Parade -
1945 Race Records -
1949 Rhythm and Blues -
1963 no separate chart -
1965 R&B -
1969 Soul -
1982 Black -
1990 R&B -

Whilst chart history is not a field I have much knowledge about, I feel sure that there is a ghost in the machine if people like Rolf and Bert Kaempfert can make it onto a 'Soul Music Chart'.

 

Good luck with your project though.

Gemma, you may want to check this Soul Source thread out.....

 

Hi Gemma,

 

can I ask what source/s you are using to compile your charts so far? The reason that I am asking is that 'Tie me kangaroo down, sport' by Rolf Harris is not a song normally associated with Soul music, R&B, etc. And yet it is listed in your chart at number 26 for 1960. I am sure there are many other examples.

Billboard charts were named as follows:

1942 Harlem Hit Parade -

1945 Race Records -

1949 Rhythm and Blues -

1963 no separate chart -

1965 R&B -

1969 Soul -

1982 Black -

1990 R&B -

Whilst chart history is not a field I have much knowledge about, I feel sure that there is a ghost in the machine if people like Rolf and Bert Kaempfert can make it onto a 'Soul Music Chart'.

 

Good luck with your project though.

 

 

Thanks for your input. Obviously you do not appreciate the deep soul baladeering style of the likes of Rolf Harris or the early jazz-funk fusion vibes of Bert Kaempfert!

 

Seriously though, the R&B charts toward the end of the 50s and early 60s were very odd and included a great many non-R&B artists. In 1963 Billboard decided to discontinue the R&B charts altogether. It was not until 1965 that Billboard published R&B charts again.

 

At the time that you looked at the 1960 charts at soulyears.com it was set to list the overall best-selling songs that also entered the R&B charts. If you look again now at the same chart you will see that it looks quite different as it is based on the highest positions and number of weeks in the R&B chart alone, without taking into account the US and UK pop charts at all.

 

Generally though the charts at soulyears.com are based on a songs performance in both R&B charts as well as pop charts. If we based the charts purely on R&B chart performance then a large number of soul classics would not get listed at all, for example, the 1975 chart would not include "First Impressions" by the Impressions, or "Fool" by Al Matthews to name just two, as neither song made it into the R&B chart yet both were top 20 pop hits in the UK.

Edited October 12, 201410 yr by gemray