r/motown
Essence left Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Sam Cooke off their "Top 50 R&B Songs of All Time" list. Which classic snub bothered you most?
We talked about Essence's recent 50 Greatest R&B Songs of All Time list and pointed out the obvious flaw: it heavily prioritized the 2000s through the 2020s while completely ignoring the 1960s pioneers who built the genre.
Leaving out Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and Motown powerhouses like The Temptations makes the "all-time" label inaccurate. It should have simply been marketed as the best R&B of the modern era. While putting Stevie Wonder’s "As" at number one was the correct call, omitting the foundation of Black music just to manufacture viral outrage is lazy curation.
What classic track's absence bothered you the most when looking through the list?
u/Dependent_Studio1986 — 14 hours ago
Gladys Knight performs at the Fisher Theatre
Gladys Knight, 84, performed on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026 at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, just down the street from where she recorded hits at Motown.
u/gwmiles — 18 hours ago
Michael Jackson - You Got a Friend (Piano, bass & drums only with stripped backing vocals) -j5
Here's an alternate mix of You Got a Friend from Got to Be There (1972).
u/Major-Fun9047 — 3 days ago
Rare Marvin Gaye
I got this Advanced Promo cassette of his Unreleased Motown recordings which was to be released in 1994.
A memorabilia for me.
Did any of you buy the actual record ?
u/dinarnaud — 7 days ago
▲ 8 r/motown
Paul Williams (Temptations)
Does anyone have any memories or stories? Or knew him or his family?.... I've been watching all these performances on YouTube recently of all these original Motown acts. Seems like the temps were on ANOTHER LEVEL as far as music popularity an hits...when he left Motown an the temps. Kinda looks like an feels the end of an era when he leaves.........the smokey robinson show on YouTube shows maybe on of his last appearances outside of Ed Sullivan show "Just my imagination" last appearance with Eddie....
u/MurdaOnMyMindd — 7 days ago
The song Pete Townshend said is one of the greatest ever recorded
rockandrollgarage.comu/tonyiommi70 — 9 days ago