Blue-eyed soul is a term sometimes used for rhythm and blues and soul music performed
by white artists.
The term was first used in the mid-1960s to describe white artists who performed soul
and R&B that was similar to the music of the Motown and Stax record labels.
The somewhat controversial term was coined during racial segregation in 1960s America
at the time of the music genre's emergence in popular music culture.
The term continued to be used in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly by the British music
press, to describe a new generation of white singers who adopted elements of classic soul
music.
To a lesser extent, the term has been applied to singers in other music genres that are
influenced by soul music, such as urban music and hip hop soul.
1960s and 1970s
Blue-eyed soul began when white musicians remade African-American music for white audiences.
Often the music was diluted for its new audience, a move that angered some African Americans
as cultural appropriation, but pleased others who felt the growth of their music genre was
positive.
The regional beach music and Carolina shag trends that originated in the areas around
North and South Carolina in the late 1950s were, at least partly, a manifestation of
blue-eyed soul.
Local white bands backed nationally popular black R&B artists during their tours, and
performed on their own at fraternity parties and other college social events.
According to beach band historian Greg Haynes, artists such as Bonnie Bramlett and The Allman
Brothers began their careers on this circuit.
Bill Deal and the Rhondels and The Swinging Medallions are beach bands which have charted
nationally.
Georgie Woods, a Philadelphia radio DJ, came up with the term blue-eyed soul in the 1960s
to describe white artists who received airplay on rhythm and blues radio stations.
In the early 1960s, one of the rare female blue-eyed soul singers was Timi Yuro, whose
vocal delivery and repertoire were influenced by African American singers such as Dinah
Washington.
Perhaps one of the most famous duos to be associated with the term were the Righteous
Brothers, due to their emotive vocal style; their 1964 LP Some Blue-Eyed Soul was named
after the term.
Lonnie Mack's 1963 gospel-infused vocals earned him widespread critical acclaim as a blue-eyed
soul singer.
Groups such as The Rascals had soul-tinged songs, but it was the soulful vocals of Felix
Cavaliere that gave them the blue-eyed soul sound.
By the mid-1960s, British singers Dusty Springfield, Eric Burdon and Tom Jones had become leading
vocal stars of the emerging style.
Other notable UK exponents of blue-eyed soul included The Spencer Davis Group and archetypal
mod band The Small Faces, whose sound was heavily influenced by the Stax label's house
band Booker T. & the M.G.'s.
Blue-eyed soul singer, Chris Clark became the first white singer to have an R&B hit
with Motown Records in 1966.
Most of the leading UK pop groups of the period – including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones,
The Kinks and The Who – regularly covered Stax and Motown tracks on record or in concert,
and all of them have acknowledged the influence of Motown and Stax artists on their music.
In 1967, Jerry Lee Lewis, whose latter days at Sun Records had been characterized by R&B
covers, recorded an album for Smash entitled Soul My Way.
Delaney and Bonnie produced the blue-eyed soul album Home on Stax in 1969.
Michael Sembello, who left home at 17 to tour with Stevie Wonder, wrote and performed on
numerous blue-eyed soul hits for Wonder, Brian McKnight, David Sanborn, Bill Champlin and
Bobby Caldwell.
Todd Rundgren began his career in Woody's Truck Stop, a group based on the model of
the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
He left the band to form the garage rock band Nazz in 1967.
Outside the Anglo-American scene, in Italy, Mina and Carmen Villani fused elements of
soul music with the traditional Italian pop music.
Carola and Doris were notable Scandinavian artists who were influenced by soul music.
On 1 February 1975, Tower of Power became the first white/mixed act to appear on Soul
Train.
Also in 1975, David Bowie, another early white artist to appear on Soul Train, released Young
Americans, a popular blue-eyed soul album.
It featured the funk- inspired "Fame", which became Bowie's first #1 hit in the US.
Hall & Oates' 1975 Silver Album includes the ballad "Sara Smile", long considered a blue-eyed
soul standard.
"She's Gone", another soulful hit, was originally released in 1973 but did better as a re-release
after "Sara Smile".
Average White Band is a Scottish funk and R&B band who had a series of soul and disco
hits between 1974 and 1980, their biggest two being "Pick Up the Pieces" from their
1975 best-selling album AWB, and "Cut the Cake" from their 1975 album of the same name.
Boz Scaggs' 1976 "Lowdown", which featured Scaggs' laid-back vocals and a smooth funky
groove, peaked at #3 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.
In April 1976, The Faragher Brothers became the first all-white ensemble to make an appearance
on Soul Train.
In September that year, white funk band Wild Cherry released the billboard Hot 100 chart
topping funk/rock single "Play That Funky Music" and also went to number one on the
Hot Soul Singles chart.
The single would eventually sell 2.5 million copies.
In 1978, The Bee Gees topped R&B album charts with their Saturday Night Fever soundtrack,
along with several songs from the album, including "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever" and "You Should
Be Dancing", which originally charted back in 1976.
The Bee Gees again had a hit album on the R&B charts in 1979 with the Spirits Having
Flown album along with its three pop #1 singles, "Too Much Heaven", "Tragedy" and "Love You
Inside Out".
Other blue-eyed soul of the decade include the hits "How Long" by Ace, three hits by
Ambrosia, "How Much I Feel", "Biggest Part of Me" and "You're the Only Woman", and Bobby
Caldwell's soul standard "What You Won't Do for Love".
1980s and later Hall & Oates' chart success was at its highest
when their singles got heavy airplay on urban contemporary radio, as was the case with I
Can't Go for That, 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 on the R&B and dance charts, including some #1 hits.
Simply Red scored one of the most successful blue-eyed soul ballads of all time in 1986
with Holding Back the Years.
Other blue-eyed soul hits of the 1980s include: Phil Collins' cover version of You Can't Hurry
Love, Culture Club's Church of the Poison Mind, Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up,
The Style Council's Speak Like a Child, Eurythmics' Missionary Man, and Steve Winwood's Roll With
It.
As the decade drew to a close, British artist Lisa Stansfield had considerable success on
R&B radio, scoring three #1 R&B hits, the most popular being All Around the World.
A backlash ensued in the late 1980s as some black people felt that white people were cashing
in on the popularity of their music.
However, the extent of the backlash was not universally agreed upon.
In 1989, Ebony Magazine published an article exploring whether white people were "taking
over" R&B.
The article featured various members of the music industry, both black and white, who
believed collaboration was a unifying force, and there was agreement that the future of
R&B was not compromised by the contemporary urban sound.
A similar article in Ebony, written in 1999 highlighted conflicting opinions about the
"blue-eyed" influence; however the source of contention was not about the artistic merit
of blue-eyed soul, but rather the economic inequality that persisted in American life
and within the music industry.
See also 1960s in music
British soul List of blue-eyed soul artists
Plastic soul, a somewhat derogatory term for this phenomenon
References
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 "Blue-Eyed Soul".
Musicmatch.
Musicmatch, Inc.
Archived from the original on 24 January 2008.
Retrieved 19 August 2014.
Blue-eyed soul artists interviewed on the Pop Chronicles