The Top Soul Songs of All Time

What are the top soul songs of all time? Let’s see, we had the Motown Sound, The Philly Sound, Muscle Shoals, the Chicago Blues and Beal Street influences, and last but not least the sound of New Orleans. We had ‘blue eyed soul,’ psychedelic soul, Memphis soul, British soul and more. Check out our list and see if we got it right…

1. “Respect: by the queen of soul Aretha Franklin.
2. “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” by the late Marvin Gaye.
3. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” by the incomparable Otis Redding.
4. “What’d I Say” by the legendary Ray Charles.
5. “Maybellene” by 90 year old Chuck Berry.
6. “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” by the hardest working man James Brown.
7. “Money Honey” by Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters.
8. “Shake, Rattle, & Roll: from Big Joe Turner.
9. “My Girl” provided by the best of Motown, The Temptations.

Prologue: Every singer on this list is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That speaks volumes of the contributions made by these soulful stars. Aretha, Chuck Berry (90 this year) and Otis Williams (the only living Temptations member) are still with us, the others sadly have died.

—
Photo credit: Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com