I've caught a few episodes of Unsing and it's a pretty cool show. Although, I'd love it if they broadened their focus a bit to include some artists who fall outside the R&B realm. There are so many stories to tell from The Chambers Brothers to Arthur Lee to to Albert Collins...

Who do you feel needs to be highlighted?

[Edited 2/28/12 23:21pm]

Joe Tex, War, Brothers Johnson, Marvelettes, Bobby Caldwell, 5 star, Ready for the World, Mary Jane Girls, Lisa Stansfield, Force Mds, Sylvia Robinson, Slave, Dazz Band, Kashif, Syreeta, Average White Band, Billy Ocean, Stephanie Mills, Switch, all great candidates

Arthur Lee of Love would definitely be a good "Unsung". He was Jim Morrison before Jim Morrison was a thought.

Timmy84 said:

Arthur Lee of Love would definitely be a good "Unsung". He was Jim Morrison before Jim Morrison was a thought.

Amen. The Doors got their record deal look up via Arthur...he "got" Jimi before almost anyone else. This cat was the OG of the LA sound long before LA was known to have any game. Back in his days, it was all about San Francisco.

IOW, Arthur be da man , but I seriously doubt Unsung will go there.

Albert Collins?! Lord have mercy, I wish. Can't see them going anywhere near blues or even a lead/lyrical guitarist. I wish tho.

My ideal wishlist...for shits and giggles...never gonna happen:

Jimi Hendrix and/or Band of Gypys

Muddy Waters

Litttle Willie John

Ritchie Havens

Jacob Miller

Don Letts

Professor Longhair

Bob Marley and/or associated acts...Sly&Robbie, FamilyMan&Carly Barrett, Bunny, or Peter, etc...

Who's more "unsung" than these cats in the Black American community, despite their popularity elsewhere?

More realistically:

Tracie Spencer (This girl should have been HUGE and she had several false starts to stardom)

Da Brat (for a hip hop element, but similar to Spencer in false starts)

Monie Love (for a UK element)

Neneh Cherry (ditto)

IMHO Tracie would be an ideal candidate for this show given that she's still alive , did Star Search a la Usher, and is still young. She def came at the last gasps of RnB as we knew it then. I'm interested to know more of her story.

scriptgirl said:

Joe Tex, War, Brothers Johnson, Marvelettes, Bobby Caldwell, 5 star, Ready for the World, Mary Jane Girls, Lisa Stansfield, Force Mds, Sylvia Robinson, Slave, Dazz Band, Kashif, Syreeta, Average White Band, Billy Ocean, Stephanie Mills, Switch, all great candidates

Girl you been wanting 5 Star for years now! They definitely are a good choice in many ways, but the Pearsons weren't unsung where they had their primary fame (ie the UK). I would be interested to see how they handle this given the cultural divide. I will check out their Musical Youth piece for some idea of how they handle non US acts.

Sylvia Robinson and/or Solar Records would be very good choices if we wanna deal w/ a "machine". VeeJay Records would be cool too.

Billy Ocean...now that's an idea! He was HUGE as a mpstly crossover artist and just dropped off like a stone one day.

About Switch/Debarge, I don't see a separate eps for the former, but they can do a redit/extention of the Debarge ep by factpring in El's new solo success and the family's deepening drama. Unsung put them back on he map, so it's time for an update.

Oh yes, what about The Deele. Given that Babyface does Unsung so much about other acts, why not The Deele?! They had great potential and a very interesting backstory. They should show how LA and 'Face emerged from this group. There's a story there!

brooksie said:

Timmy84 said:

Arthur Lee of Love would definitely be a good "Unsung". He was Jim Morrison before Jim Morrison was a thought.

Amen. The Doors got their record deal look up via Arthur...he "got" Jimi before almost anyone else. This cat was the OG of the LA sound long before LA was known to have any game. Back in his days, it was all about San Francisco.

IOW, Arthur be da man , but I seriously doubt Unsung will go there.

Agreed.

NONE of the artist listed, none.

I'm joking kinda with the exception of Joe Tex, Switch and Aruther Lee.... none listed above. Wanna argue, OK.

These are "Unsung" people.

The Weather Girls

Black Ivory

Cheryl Lynn

Graham Central Station (maybe, I have to think about it some mo')

Charles Earland

The Ebonys

Gill Scott-Heron

Syreeta Wright

General Johnson

Cissy Houston

Dexter Wansel (maybe, I have to think about it some mo')

Chris Walker

Maxayn

Yvonne Fair

TD3 said:

NONE of the artist listed, none.

I'm joking kinda with the exception of Joe Tex, Switch and Aruther Lee.... none listed above. Wanna argue, OK.

These are "Unsung" people.

The Weather Girls

Black Ivory

Cheryl Lynn

Graham Central Station (maybe, I have to think about it some mo')

Charles Earland

The Ebonys

Gill Scott-Heron

Syreeta Wright

General Johnson

Cissy Houston

Dexter Wansel (maybe, I have to think about it some mo')

Chris Walker

Maxayn

Yvonne Fair

Ain't nobody trying to argue w/ choo! LOL I'm tripping w/ your list because most of these folks I've never even heard of. Guess I gotta hit YouTube.

The Weather Girls is a VERY good choice seeing as how they did Sylvester. I'm very interested in Martha Wash in general.

Gil has such a unique place, I'm curious as to how they'd even approach his story. He's way off their usual 70s-80s RnB path and doesn't really fit "hip hop" per se. Dare I say I wonder whether the Unsung powers that be would even "get" Gil?

brooksie said:

TD3 said:

NONE of the artist listed, none.

I'm joking kinda with the exception of Joe Tex, Switch and Aruther Lee.... none listed above. Wanna argue, OK.

These are "Unsung" people.

The Weather Girls

Black Ivory

Cheryl Lynn

Graham Central Station (maybe, I have to think about it some mo')

Charles Earland

The Ebonys

Gill Scott-Heron

Syreeta Wright

General Johnson

Cissy Houston

Dexter Wansel (maybe, I have to think about it some mo')

Chris Walker

Maxayn

Yvonne Fair

Ain't nobody trying to argue w/ choo! LOL I'm tripping w/ your list because most of these folks I've never even heard of. Guess I gotta hit YouTube.

The Weather Girls is a VERY good choice seeing as how they did Sylvester. I'm very interested in Martha Wash in general.

Gil has such a unique place, I'm curious as to how they'd even approach his story. He's way off their usual 70s-80s RnB path and doesn't really fit "hip hop" per se. Dare I say I wonder whether the Unsung powers that be would even "get" Gil?

You ain't no fun Brooksie. Timmy would "debate" me, we don't argue.

Hell, that's why they are "Unsung", yawl beta recognize.

brooksie said:

Albert Collins?! Lord have mercy, I wish. Can't see them going anywhere near blues or even a lead/lyrical guitarist. I wish tho.

My ideal wishlist...for shits and giggles...never gonna happen:

Jimi Hendrix and/or Band of Gypys

Muddy Waters

Litttle Willie John

Ritchie Havens

Jacob Miller

Don Letts

Professor Longhair

Bob Marley and/or associated acts...Sly&Robbie, FamilyMan&Carly Barrett, Bunny, or Peter, etc...

Who's more "unsung" than these cats in the Black American community, despite their popularity elsewhere?

More realistically:

Tracie Spencer (This girl should have been HUGE and she had several false starts to stardom)

Da Brat (for a hip hop element, but similar to Spencer in false starts)

Monie Love (for a UK element)

Neneh Cherry (ditto)

IMHO Tracie would be an ideal candidate for this show given that she's still alive , did Star Search a la Usher, and is still young. She def came at the last gasps of RnB as we knew it then. I'm interested to know more of her story.

Albert Collins wouild be nice, wouldn't it? I'm not holding my breath though. The same goes for Little Willie John and Ritchie Havens who I think are ideal candidates.

I don't around to Tracie Spencer, but I think they may get around to Tracy Chapman, rightfully so.

Everybody has had some great choices. I'd like to throw Shuggie Otis (it's only a matter of time) and Betty Davis into the mix as well.

And what about Terence Trent D'arby since most people think he fell off the face of the earth after his debut.

xpertluva said:

Everybody has had some great choices. I'd like to throw Shuggie Otis (it's only a matter of time) and Betty Davis into the mix as well.

And what about Terence Trent D'arby since most people think he fell off the face of the earth after his debut.

TTD and Tracey C are excellent choices because they still have careers and fans. They also rather defy genres and labels. I'd love for an examination of he whole Beatles-TTD kerfluffle so many years after the fact. These are two examples of artists who came about in unusual ways to their fame and kept on truckin' after the heat of fame cooled.

From some more hip hop:

Stetsasonic

D-Nice

Erik B and Rakim

Afrikaa Bambaata

Whodini

Too Live Crew (I hated them, but they def helped make hip hop blow up from outside NYC)

Doug E. Fresh (LOL...now on Electric Company )

Tone Loc

Kurtis Blow

Sir Mix-A-Lot

Oaktown 3-5-7

JJ Fad (hated them, but they went mega for a min.)

Since they seem to be dipping into hip hop at bit, there's some really worthy acts to look at, IMHO. This list is very partial.

From RnB:

Tony Terry (nobody talks about him anymore, but that cat was the man of the hr)

Christopher Williams

Damian Dane

If they want somethng a bit diff:

Fab Five Freddy

Dee Barnes

They'll never touch, but I want it:

Odetta

Nina Simone

Living Colour

scriptgirl said:

Joe Tex, War, Brothers Johnson, Marvelettes, Bobby Caldwell, 5 star, Ready for the World, Mary Jane Girls, Lisa Stansfield, Force Mds, Sylvia Robinson, Slave, Dazz Band, Kashif, Syreeta, Average White Band, Billy Ocean, Stephanie Mills, Switch, all great candidates

oooh! Good ones!

I was just playing a mix in the car on the way from my friend's party this Sunday, I was jamming to about half the people on your list, including Joe Tex's "I Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)

For me I'd like to see them do an epi on Sam & Dave.

I want Living Colour too!

Grace Jones

Betty Davis

Vanity

The Pointer Ssiters

Cheryl Lynn

Patrice Rushen

Andre Cymone

The System

Pebbles

Karyn White

Prince - just kidding!

dancerella said:

Grace Jones

Betty Davis

Vanity

The Pointer Ssiters

Cheryl Lynn

Patrice Rushen

Andre Cymone

The System

Pebbles

Karyn White

Prince - just kidding!

These crossed my mind too, esp Grace Jones. I did wonder about some of Prince's people, but music clearance might be an issue there.

scriptgirl...I just noticed that you mentioned Kashif. Good choice.

How about Bobby Taylor from the Vancouvers?

Who are the vancouvers?

scriptgirl said:

Who are the vancouvers?

Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers were a singing group formed of some US guys and some Canadians from Vancouver BC. They'd kicked around for years until they finally signed w/ Motown in the mid-late 60s. Bobby Taylor was very important in establishing the Jacksons at Motown...not only that, Tommy Chong was a member of the group before he hooked up w/ Cheech Marin to become Cheech and Chong. This group was one of the eariler interacial and international groups to hit. They were like an early Heatwave in this respect.

brooksie said:

How about Bobby Taylor from the Vancouvers?

Excellent choice.

Why just spotlight Bobby from the Vancouvers? why not the whole group?

Re kashif, Thanks, Brooksie!

I also vote for Ready for the World, The Time, Fifth Dimension, One Way, Cameo

scriptgirl said:

Why just spotlight Bobby from the Vancouvers? why not the whole group?

Re kashif, Thanks, Brooksie!

I also vote for Ready for the World, The Time, Fifth Dimension, One Way, Cameo

I meant the group, tho Bobby Taylor is interesting in his own right. I guess I should have been more specific.

I also vote for Grover Washington Jr, Patti Austin, Patrice Rushen, Pieces of a Dream and Take 6

Three Degrees

Michael Henderson

The Whispers

Kayrn White

Stephanie Mills

Cheryl Lynn

Monie Love

A Tribe Called Quest

scriptgirl said:

Joe Tex, War, Brothers Johnson, Marvelettes, Bobby Caldwell, 5 star, Ready for the World, Mary Jane Girls, Lisa Stansfield, Force Mds, Sylvia Robinson, Slave, Dazz Band, Kashif, Syreeta, Average White Band, Billy Ocean, Stephanie Mills, Switch, all great candidates

I love your list Scriptgirl. I'd like Unsung shows on Sister Sledge, Lakeside, Johnny Guitar Watson, The Main Ingredient, Chic, Betty Wright, The Whispers, Ashford & Simpson, The Emotions, Skyy, S.O.S. Band, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Con Funk Shun, Enchantment, The Stylistics, New Birth, The Manhattans, The Dramatics, so many.....

[Edited 2/29/12 15:46pm]

Thanks Madam! But Chic and Tribe Called Quest are NOT Unsung. Tom Browne is, though.

Bernard Wright

CeCe Penniston

Jocelyn Brown

Carl Douglas

Major Harris

Damian Dame

H-Town

Five Starr

The Jets

Jade

Zhane