British rhythm and blues (or R&B) was a musical movement that developed in the United Kingdom between the late 1950s and the early 1960s, and reached a peak in the mid-1960s. It overlapped with, but was distinct from, the broader

British beat Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffle ...

and more purist

British blues British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s, and reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s. In Britain, it developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric gu ...

scenes, attempting to emulate the music of American blues and rock and roll pioneers, such as

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post- war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicag ...

and

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade car ...

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined a ...

and

Bo Diddley Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...

. It often placed greater emphasis on guitars and was often played with greater energy. The origins of the movement were in the

British jazz British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I. Jazz began to be played by British ...

skiffle Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United State ...

and

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

movements of the 1950s. The 1958 visit of Muddy Waters influenced key figures Cyril Davies and

Alexis Korner Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major i ...

to turn to electric blues and form the band Blues Incorporated, which became something of a clearing house for British rhythm and blues musicians. A flourishing scene of clubs and groups emerged in the later 1950s and 1960s and bands began to break through into mainstream success. Major acts included

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

Manfred Mann Manfred Mann were an English rock band, formed in London and active between 1962 and 1969. The group were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two diffe ...

the Animals The Animals (also billed as Eric Burdon and the Animals) are an English rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound an ...

the Yardbirds The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist and later bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samw ...

Them Them or THEM, a third-person plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to: Books * ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet'' * '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fiction by Wels ...

, and

the Spencer Davis Group The Spencer Davis Group were a British band formed in Birmingham in 1963 by Spencer Davis (guitar), brothers Steve Winwood (keyboards, guitar) and Muff Winwood (bass guitar), and Pete York (drums). Their best known songs include the UK numb ...

, who dominated the UK and US charts from 1964, in the wake of the Merseybeat craze, becoming central to the

beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. History In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the undergr ...

and

mod subculture Mod, from the word modernist, is a subculture that began in London and spread throughout Great Britain and elsewhere, eventually influencing fashions and trends in other countries, and continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and ...

in the UK and a second wave of

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...

acts in the US. Several of the bands and their members went on to become leading rock music performers of the late 1960s and early 1970s, helping to create

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science ...

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

and hard rock and making rhythm and blues a key component of that music. In the mid to late-1970s, British R&B enjoyed a revival through the

British soul British soul, Brit soul, or (in a US context) the British soul invasion, is soul music performed by British artists. Soul has been a major influence on British popular music since the 1960s, and American soul was extremely popular among some yout ...

and disco scenes, the

pub rock Pub rock is a rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particu ...

circuit,

new wave music New wave is a loosely defined music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock, including punk itself. Late ...

and the

mod revival The mod revival was a subculture that started in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and later spread to other countries (to a lesser degree). The mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence lasted for de ...

, and has enjoyed a resurgence of interest since the late 1980s. In the 2000s, a British version of

contemporary R&B Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music Music genre, genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of Pop music, pop, Soul music, soul, funk, Hip hop music, hip hop, and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive Recor ...

began gaining popularity, and since the late 2000s the success of British female singers influenced by soul and R&B led to talk of another "R&B British invasion".

Characteristics

Commentators often distinguish British rhythm and blues bands from beat bands (who were influenced by

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

and

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

) on the one hand, and, from "purist"

(which particularly emulated

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

electric blues Electric blues refers to any type of blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 19 ...

artists), on the other, although there was considerable crossover between the three sets of musicians.

Merseybeat Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffl ...

bands like

the Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...

, or from the parallel beat scene in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, were influenced by American forms of music that included

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

s and the early

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...

sound, helping them to produce commercial orientated form of music that began to dominate the British charts from 1963. However, bands from the developing London club scene were mainly concerned to emulate black rhythm and blues performers, including the work of

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and r ...

' blues artists like

and

, but also wider rhythm and blues singer and rock and roll pioneers like

and

resulting in a "rawer" or "grittier" sound. British rhythm and blues differed in tone from that of American artists, often with more emphasis on guitars and sometimes with greater energy. British rhythm and blues singers were criticised for their emulation of rhythm and blues vocal styles, with shouts, glottal stops, moans and cries.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , p. 244. However, vocalists such as

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in ...

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

Eric Burdon Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is an English singer. He was previously the lead vocalist of R&B and rock band the Animals and funk band War. He is regarded as one of the British Invasion's most distinctive singers with his deep, po ...

and

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a keyboard player and vocalist prominent for his distin ...

did not attempt to emulate a particular singer and were seen by critics as able to sing the blues convincingly and with some power. In cover versions of R&B songs, riffs were often simplified or used less frequently. The object of the music was usually to whip up energy, rather than to produce musical finesse. Many groups were based around guitars (rhythm, lead and bass) and drumsB. Longhurst, ''Popular Music and Society'' (London: Polity, 2nd edn., 2007), , p. 98. and as a result arrangements tended to be guitar-oriented and at higher tempos than the originals.R. Unterberger, "Early British R&B", in V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, ''All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul'' (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), , pp. 1315–6. Amplification of guitars to the highest levels of underpowered amplifiers created the over-driven guitar sound that would become characteristic of rock music. Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden noted that after the split of Blues Incorporated at the end of 1962, four main strands could be discerned in British Rhythm and Blues. Cyril Davies left to attempt to recreate the Chicago electric blues of Muddy Waters. The style would be the major influence on the later emergence of the blues boom, particularly through the work of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Alexis Korner continued with Blues Incorporated, bringing in jazz saxophonist

Graham Bond Graham John Clifton Bond (28 October 1937 – 8 May 1974) was an English rock/blues musician and vocalist, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s. Bond was an innovator, described as "an important, und ...

and developing a more jazz orientated sound. This strand would be taken up by acts including the Graham Bond Organisation,

and

Zoot Money George Bruno Money (born 17 July 1942) is an English vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader. He is best known for his playing of the Hammond organ and association with his Big Roll Band. Inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles, he was drawn ...

. A unique form was pursued by Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, who as the resident band at the

Flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean) ...

club on Wardour Street, unusual in having a predominantly black audience of American GIs and locals, also utilised jazz, but mixed R&B with elements of Caribbean music, including Ska and bluebeat. The Rolling Stones and others focused on rocking guitar music based on the work of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and would be followed by many small guitar and drum based groups, many of which would rapidly move into rock music.N. Logan and B. Woffinden, ''The NME Book of Rock 2'' (London: W. H. Allen, 1977), , pp. 74–6.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , p. 131.

History

Origins

In the early 1950s blues music was largely known in Britain through blues-influenced

boogie-woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pia ...

, and the

jump blues Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s a ...

of Fats Waller and

Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as " the King of the Jukebox", he earned his high ...

.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , pp. 22 and 44. Imported recordings of American artists were brought over by African American servicemen stationed in Britain during and after World War II, merchant seamen visiting the ports of London,

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, Newcastle on Tyne and

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

, and in a trickle of (illegal) imports.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , p. 28. From 1955 major British record labels HMV and EMI (the latter, particularly through their subsidiary

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. ...

), began to distribute American jazz and increasingly blues records to the emerging market.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , pp. 22 and 49. Outside of recordings, occasional radio broadcasts were one of the few ways that British people could become familiar with the blues. A one-off broadcast by

Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the South ...

while he was visiting Britain in 1951 was so popular that he was asked to perform for a series of programmes for the BBC, eventually titled ''The Glory Road'' and broadcast in 1952. Later that year, folk song collector

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, s ...

, then resident in London, produced a series of three programmes under the title ''The Art of the Negro'', of last of which, "Blues in the Mississippi Night" featured folk blues recordings by artists including Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker and was the first introduction of many later followers of the blues to the music and hardships of life for African Americans in the Southern US. The next year the ''Jazz Club'' programme, hosted by Max Jones, included a recital of "Town and Country Blues", which played music by a wide range of blues artists.R. F. Schwartz, "Preaching the Gospel of the Blues", in N. A. Wynn, ed., ''Cross the Water Blues: African American Music in Europe'' (University Press of Mississippi, 2007), , pp. 155–59.

Jazz

The British rhythm and blues scene developed in London out of the related jazz, skiffle and folk club scenes of the 1950s. The first of these scenes, that of jazz, had developed during the Second World War as a reaction to

swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing rid ...

, consciously re-introducing older elements of American jazz, particularly that of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

trad jazz Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, played by musicians such as Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine, based on a revival ...

. This music incorporated elements of the blues and occasional blues-influenced singles reached the British Charts, including

Humphrey Lyttelton Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008), also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the Lyttelton family. Having taught himself the trumpet at school, Lyttelton became a professional ...

's self-penned " Bad Penny Blues" (1956), the first jazz record to reach the British top 20. British trad jazz band-leader

Chris Barber Donald Christopher "Chris" Barber OBE (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with " Petite Fl ...

was one of the major figures in the development and popularisation of rhythm and blues in Britain the 1950s. His interest in the blues would help foster both the skiffle craze and the development of electric rhythm and blues, as members of his dance band would be fundamental to both movements. He founded the National Jazz League partly as a means of popularising the blues, served as co-director of the National Jazz Federation and helped establish the

Marquee Club The Marquee Club was a music venue first located at 165 Oxford Street in London, when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. Its most famous period was from 1964 to 1988 at 90 Wardour Street in Soho, and it finally closed wh ...

, which would become one of the major venues for British R&B bands. He also brought over American folk and blues performers who found they were much better known and paid in Europe than America, a series of tours that began with Josh White and

Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music Country (also called country and western) is ...

in 1951, and would include Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry,

Memphis Slim John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxoph ...

and Lonnie Johnson.

Skiffle

Lonnie Johnson played at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

in 1952 on a bill opened by a group led by the young

Lonnie Donegan Anthony James Donegan (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002), known as Lonnie Donegan, was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the " King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians. Born in Sco ...

.Nigel Williamson, ''The Rough Guide to the Blues'' (London, Rough Guides Ltd., 2007), , pp. 62–3. Donegan became the key figure in the development of the British skiffle "craze", beginning in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen by playing American folk and blues songs, particularly those derived from the recordings of Huddie Leadbetter, during intervals to the accompaniment of guitar, washboard and

tea-chest bass The washtub bass, or gutbucket, is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses h ...

in a lively style that emulated American jug bands. After Colyer left in 1954 to form a new outfit, the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band,M. Brocken, ''The British Folk Revival, 1944–2002'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), , pp. 69–80. and members of the band played "race blues" songs in concert intervals and recorded as the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group. They released their high-tempo version of Lead Belly's "

Rock Island Line "Rock Island Line" is an American folk song. Ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it appeared as a folk song as early as 1929. The first recorded performance of "Rock Island Line" was by inmates of the Arkansas Cummins ...

" in 1956 and it became a major hit, spending eight months in the Top 20, peaking at number six (and number eight in the U.S.). It was the first début record to go

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

in Britain, selling over a million copies worldwide. This stimulated the explosion of the British "skiffle craze" and it has been estimated that in the late 1950s there were 30,000–50,000 skiffle groups in Britain.R. D. Cohen, ''Folk Music: the Basics'' (London: Routledge 2006), , p. 98. Sales of guitars grew rapidly and groups performed on banjos,

tea chest bass The washtub bass, or gutbucket, is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses h ...

guitars and washboards in church halls, cafes and the flourishing coffee bars of

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

, London. In addition to members of the Beatles, a large number of British rhythm and blues musicians began their careers playing skiffle, including

Ronnie Wood Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock musician, best known as an official member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. Wood began his career in 1964, playing guitar with a ...

and

Roger Daltrey Roger Harry Daltrey (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer, musician and actor. He is a co-founder and the lead singer of the Rock music, rock band The Who. Daltrey's hit songs with The Who include "My Generation", "Pinball Wizard", "Won't Ge ...

. The fashion created a demand for opportunities to play versions of American folk, blues and jazz music that would contribute to the growth of a club scene.

Folk

Until the mid-1950s in Britain the blues was seen as a form of folk music. When Broonzy toured England he played a

folk blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in ...

set to fit British expectations of American blues, rather than his current electric

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cen ...

. Skiffle clubs included the 'Ballad and Blues' club in a pub in

, co-founded by

Ewan MacColl James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the ...

. In its early stages these clubs saw the playing of British and American folk music that included folk blues. As the skiffle craze subsided from the mid-1950s many of these clubs, following the lead of MacColl, began to shift towards the performance of English traditional folk material, partly as a reaction to the growth of American dominated pop and rock n' roll music, often banning American music from performances and became more exclusively English folk clubs. The more traditional American folk blues continued to provide 1960s British groups with material, particularly after the emergence of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

, who also popularised folk blues songs. In 1964, for example, the song-catalogue of

Lead Belly Huddie William Ledbetter (; January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, Virtuoso, virtuosity on the twelve-string guita ...

provided

with "

The House of the Rising Sun "The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. ...

", Manfred Mann with " John Hardy" and the Four Pennies with " Black Girl". British acoustic blues continued to develop as part of the folk scene. In the early 1960s,

guitar pioneers

Bert Jansch Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter ...

John Renbourn John Renbourn (8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo care ...

and particularly Davy Graham, played blues, folk and jazz, developing a distinctive guitar style known as folk baroque. It continued with figures like Ian A. Anderson and his Country Blues Band, and

Al Jones Al Jones may refer to: *Al Jones (Negro leagues), American baseball player *Al Jones (English musician) (Alun Jones, 1945–2008), English folk and blues singer, songwriter and guitarist *Al Jones (1980s pitcher) (born 1959), American former profess ...

. Most British acoustic blues players could achieve little commercial success and found it difficult to gain recognition for their "imitations" of the blues in the US, being overshadowed by the rhythm and blues and electric blues that had emerged in the later 1950s.

Development

Blues Incorporated

Blues harpist Cyril Davies ran the London Skiffle Club at the Roundhouse public house in London’s

, which served as a focal point for British skiffle acts. Like guitarist

, he had worked for Chris Barber, playing in the R&B segment Barber introduced to his show and as part of the supporting band for visiting US artists. They began to play together as a duo and in 1957, deciding their central interest was blues, they closed the skiffle club and reopened a month later as the London Blues and Barrelhouse Club. It acted as a venue for visiting artists and their own performances. The visit of

in 1958 had a major impact on the duo and on the nature of British R&B in general. Initially British audiences were shocked by Waters's amplified

, but he was soon playing to ecstatic crowds and receiving rave reviews.V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra, S. T. Erlewine, eds, ''All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues'' (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2003), , p. 700. Where British blues had often emulated

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of t ...

and

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in ...

in the emerging British folk revival, Davies and Korner, who had supported Waters on tour, now began to play high-powered electric blues, forming the band Blues Incorporated. Blues Incorporated had a fluid line up and became a clearing house for British rhythm and blues musicians in the later 1950s and early 1960s. These included future members of

and

the Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...

; beside

and

Long John Baldry John William "Long John" Baldry (12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005) was an English musician and actor. In the 1960s, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing the blues in clubs and shared the stage with many British musicians including ...

. As well as acting as a mentor to these figures and others, including

John Mayall John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is an English blues singer, musician and songwriter, whose musical career spans over sixty years. In the 1960s, he was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its ...

and

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various ...

, Korner was also a historian, writer and record collector pivotal in the growth of the movement, and often referred to as "the father of British blues". Blues Incorporated established a regular "Rhythm and Blues Night" at the Ealing Jazz Club and were given a residency at the Marquee Club, from which in 1962 they took the name of the first British blues album, '' R&B from the Marquee'' (Decca), but Korner and Davies had split over the issue of including horn sections in the Blues Incorporated sound before its release. Korner continued with various line-ups for Blues Incorporated, while Davies went on to form his R&B All Stars.

Expansion of the scene

Early British rhythm and blues bands like Blues Incorporated found that folk clubs would not accept amplified blues performances.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , p. 126. However, many London trad jazz clubs moved over to the style. In addition to the Roundhouse and the Marquee in central London, these included The Flamingo, the

Crawdaddy Club The Crawdaddy Club was a music venue in Richmond, Surrey, England, which opened in 1963. The Rolling Stones were its house band in its first year and were followed by The Yardbirds. Several other notable British blues and rhythm and blues act ...

, Richmond, where the Rolling Stones first began to gain attention, Klooks Kleek, The Ealing Club and the Eel Pie Island Hotel. Blues clubs were appearing in the capital at such a rate that in 1963 ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' declared London "The New Chicago!". The scene soon began to spread out beyond London, particularly into East Anglia and the Midlands, with clubs in Norwich and Birmingham adopting the genre. Jazz bands also followed suit, with the Mike Cotton Jazz Band becoming the Mike Cotton Sound, Warwick's Tony and the Talons becoming the Original Roadrunners and Burton on Trent's Atlantix becoming Rhythm and Blues Incorporated.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , p. 133. From 1962 demand for blues recordings in Britain and Europe led to new outlets for American recordings, Chicago recordings that were now available included

Vee Jay Records Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The label was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, ...

through EMI's

Stateside Stateside may refer to: * stateside, an informal adjective or adverb meaning "in the United States" **Stateside Puerto Ricans **Stateside Virgin Islands Americans Stateside Virgin Islands Americans are West Indian Americans who hold US citizens ...

label and Chess Records through Pye International's R&B series. These records were enthusiastically sought and collected by a new generation of enthusiasts.C. S. Murray, ''Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century'' (Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2011), , p. 69. The increasing appetite for rhythm and blues was reflected in the growing numbers of Afro-American artists visiting the country. From 1962 the American Folk Blues Festival, organised by German promoters

Horst Lippmann Horst Lippmann (17 March 1927 in Eisenach, Germany – 18 May 1997 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German jazz musician, concert promoter, writer and television director, best known as promoter of the influential American Folk Blues Festival tours of ...

and Fritz Rau, brought American blues stars including Waters, Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

to the country. In 1964 the American Folk Blues and Gospel Caravan arrived in the UK for an 11-date tour, including in its line-up

Sister Rosetta Tharpe Sister Rosetta Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin, March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer and guitarist. She gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics a ...

, Blind Gary Davis, Sonny Terry,

and

Otis Spann Otis Spann (March 21, 1924 or 1930April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician, whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist. Early life Sources differ over Spann's early years. Some state that he was born in Jackson, Mis ...

. The original dates sold out rapidly and six more had to be added.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , p. 153. Later that year, the first of what was to become the annual National Jazz and Blues Festival was held at Reading in Berkshire.

Peak

1964 was the year of most rapid expansion and the peak of the British R&B boom. It has been estimated that there were 300 rhythm and blues bands in England at the beginning of the year and over 2,000 by the end. In June 1964

's 1956 " Dimples" reached number 23 on the UK charts during a stay of 10 weeks. The song was chosen by

as their May 1964 debut single and

covered it on their first album. Howling Wolf's " Smokestack Lightning", released in the UK by

Pye International Records Pye International Records was a record label founded in 1958, as a subsidiary of Pye Records. The company distributed many American labels in the UK, including Chess, Kama Sutra, Buddah, Colpix and King. (There was also an American label of the ...

that year, peaked at number 42 in the singles chart and was covered by the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Animals and

the Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are conside ...

. On 5 December 1964 the Rolling Stones version of Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster", based on Howlin' Wolf's 1961 version and recorded at Chess Records in Chicago, topped the UK chart for one week. Willie Dixon-penned songs would continue to be covered by British artists.

Major acts

The Rolling Stones

The most commercially successful act in the genre, were the Rolling Stones.

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

and

, who had renewed their childhood association after discovering a shared interest in R&B records, were introduced to guitarist

Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...

through Alexis Korner, after a Blues Incorporated gig at the Ealing Jazz Club. Blues Incorporated contained two other future members of the Rolling Stones: Ian Stewart and

Charlie Watts Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021) was an English musician who achieved international fame as the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021. Originally trained as a graphic artist, Watts developed an ...

. Formed in London in 1962, Jones took their name from a track on the cover of a Muddy Waters album and they abandoned blues purism before their line-up solidified to focus on a wide range of rhythm and blues artists. They debuted at The Marquee and soon gained a residency at the Crawdaddy Club, building up a reputation as a live act. They signed a recording contract with Decca and their first single was a cover of Chuck Berry's " Come On" released in June 1963. Despite its being virtually unpromoted by the band or the record company, their reputation among R&B fans helped it reached number 21 on the UK singles chart. They produced their first album, ''

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

'', in 1964, which largely consisted of rhythm and blues standards. Following in the wake of the Beatles' national and then international success, the Rolling Stones established themselves as the second most popular UK band and joined the British Invasion of the American record charts as leaders of a second wave of R&B oriented bands.S. T. Erlewine, "Rolling Stones" ''Allmusic''. Retrieved 16 July 2010. In addition to Chicago blues numbers, the Rolling Stones also covered songs by Chuck Berry and Bobby and Shirley Womack, the latter's, "

It's All Over Now "It's All Over Now" is a song written by Bobby Womack and his sister-in-law Shirley Womack. It was first released by The Valentinos, featuring Bobby Womack, in 1964. The Rolling Stones heard it on its release and quickly recorded a cover versi ...

", giving them their first UK number one in 1964.Bill Wyman, ''Rolling With the Stones'' (London: DK Publishing, 2002), , p. 137. After the success of their cover of "Little Red Rooster" in 1964, the song-writing partnership between Jagger and Richards gradually began to dominate the band's output, giving them their breakthrough international hit " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (1965), a song which borrowed phrases and rhythms from R&B standards, and would be covered by both

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blue ...

and

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the "Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

.T. Gracyk, ''I Wanna Be Me: Rock Music and the Politics of Identity'' (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2001), , p. 15. The importance of the writing partnership contributed to the marginalisation of Jones and marked a shift away from R&B material. They would investigate a series of new musical styles in their long career, but blues songs and influences continued to surface in the Rolling Stones' music.

Other London bands

Other London-based bands that pursued a similar course to the Rolling Stones included the Yardbirds, the Kinks, the Downliners Sect, the Pretty Things, Gary Farr and the T-Bones and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...

. The Yardbirds began as the Metropolis Blues Quartet. By 1963 they had acquired Eric Clapton as a lead guitarist and were acting as the backing band for Sonny Boy Williamson on his British tour. They earned a formidable reputation as a live act, developing frantic improvised guitar–harmonica "rave-ups", but they enjoyed only modest success with singles based on R&B covers. In 1965 they cut the more pop-oriented single "

For Your Love "For Your Love" is a rock song written by Graham Gouldman and recorded by English group the Yardbirds. Released in March 1965, it was their first top ten hit in both the UK and the US. The song was a departure from the group's blues roots ...

", which made the top 10 in the UK and US, but the move away from the blues prompted Clapton to quit the band for a stint with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and then to form

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

. His replacement Jeff Beck (and eventually his replacement Jimmy Page), saw the band enjoy a series of transatlantic hits and to go on to become pioneers of

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

. After an early lack of success with R&B standards, the Kinks enjoyed their breakthrough with the single "

You Really Got Me "You Really Got Me" is a song written by Ray Davies for English rock band the Kinks. The song, originally performed in a more blues-oriented style, was inspired by artists such as Lead Belly and Big Bill Broonzy. Two versions of the song ...

" (1964). Influenced by the Kingsmen's version of "

Louie, Louie "Louie Louie" is a rhythm and blues song written and composed by American musician Richard Berry in 1955, recorded in 1956, and released in 1957. It is best known for the 1963 hit version by the Kingsmen and has become a standard in pop and ...

", it reached number one in the UK and the top 10 in the US. The follow-up " All Day and All of the Night" (1964) reached number two in the US, while the band also released two full-length albums and several EPs in this period. The Downliners Sect formed in 1963, and developed a strong reputation in London clubs, but had less commercial success than many of their contemporaries. The Pretty Things had UK hits with "

Don't Bring Me Down "Don't Bring Me Down" is the ninth and final track on the English rock band the Electric Light Orchestra's 1979 album '' Discovery''. It is their highest-charting hit in the United States to date. History "Don't Bring Me Down" is the band's ...

" (1964) and the self penned "Honey I Need" (1965), which both reached the top twenty, but they failed to break into the American market and would be chiefly remembered for their later psychedelic work. Pink Floyd began as a rhythm and blues outfit, the Tea Set, adopting a new name based on those of blues musicians Floyd Council and Pink Anderson and playing London blues clubs from 1966. By the time they began to record they had already moved on to psychedelic compositions and jams that would make them a central feature of the emerging

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The U ...

scene.

Provincial groups

Bands to emerge from other major British cities included

from Newcastle,

from Belfast and

and

the Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The group c ...

from

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

. None of these bands played exclusively rhythm and blues, often relying on sources that included

Brill Building The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It was built in 1931 as ...

and girl group songs for their hit singles, but it remained at the core of their early albums. The Animals' sound was characterised by the keyboards of

Alan Price Alan Price (born 19 April 1942) is an English musician. He was the original keyboardist for the British band the Animals before he left to form his own band the Alan Price Set. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 as a ...

and the powerful vocals of

. They moved to London in 1964 and released a series of successful singles, beginning with transatlantic hit "

House of the Rising Sun A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

", mixing more commercial folk and soul, while their albums were dominated by blues standards.

, with their vocalist and multi-instrumentalist

, had a series of hits with "

Baby, Please Don't Go "Baby, Please Don't Go" is a traditional blues song that was popularized by Delta blues musician Big Joe Williams in 1935. Many cover versions followed, leading to its description as "one of the most played, arranged, and rearranged pieces in ...

" (1964), which reached number 10 in the UK, and " Here Comes the Night" (1965), which charted at number 2 in the UK and made the top 40 in the U.S., but perhaps their most enduring legacy was the B-side "

Gloria Gloria may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music * Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise * Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise ** Gloria (Handel) ** Gloria (Jenkin ...

", which became a

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

standard. The Spencer Davis Group had their first UK number one with the Jackie Edwards penned " Keep on Running" (1965), but became largely a vehicle for the young keyboard player and vocalist

, who at only 18 co-wrote " Gimme Some Lovin'" (1967) and " I'm a Man" (1967), both of which reached the ''Billboard'' 100 top 10 and became R&B standards. The Moody Blues had only one major R&B hit with a cover of "

Go Now "Go Now" is a song composed by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett and first recorded by Bessie Banks, released as a single in January 1964. The best-known version was recorded by the Moody Blues and released the same year. Bessie Banks version The ...

" (1964), which reached number one in the UK and number ten in the US. Subsequent singles failed to penetrate the top 20 and hardly broke the top 100 in the US, marking a steep decline in the band's fortunes. However, they would return after line-up changes to be one of the most important psychedelic rock bands and a major influence on

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

Mod groups

The British Mod subculture, which was at its height in 1965 and 1966, was musically centred on rhythm and blues and later

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became pop ...

, but the artists that performed the original music were not available in small London clubs around which the scene was based.R. Unterberger, "Mod", in V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, ''All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul'' (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), , pp. 1321–2. British R&B bands like the Stones, Yardbirds and Kinks had a following among mods but a large number of specifically mod bands also emerged to fill this gap. These included

the Small Faces Small Faces were an English rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band's keyboardist in 1966. The band ...

, the Creation, the Action, the Smoke, John's Children and most successfully the Who. The Who's early promotional material tagged them as producing "maximum rhythm and blues", but by about 1966 they moved from attempting to emulate American R&B to producing songs that reflected the Mod lifestyle. Many of these bands were able to enjoy cult and then national success in the UK, but found it difficult to break into the American market. Only the Who managed, after some difficulty, to produce a significant US following, particularly after their appearances at the

Monterey Pop Festival The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix ...

(1967) and

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

(1969).

Jazz-influenced acts

Among more jazz-influenced acts the Organisation were led by

's organ and saxophone playing and gruff vocals. Their rhythm section of

Jack Bruce John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish bassist, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and ‍bassist ‍of British rock band Cream. After the group disban ...

and

Ginger Baker Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (19 August 1939 – 6 October 2019) was an English drummer. His work in the 1960s and 1970s earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer", for a style that melded jazz and African rhythms and pio ...

would go on to form Cream with Eric Clapton in 1967. Manfred Mann had a much smoother sound and one of the most highly rated vocalists in the scene in Paul Jones. They enjoyed their first success with covers of girl group songs " Do Wah Diddy Diddy" (1964) and " Sha La La" (1964), the first of which reached number one in both the UK and the US, but largely stuck to rhythm and blues standards on their albums. Zoot Money, whose Big Roll Band mixed R&B, soul, rock and roll and jazz, and was one of the most popular live acts of the era, made little impact in terms of record sales, but is noted for the later successes of its members, including guitarist

Andy Summers Andrew James Summers (born 31 December 1942), is an English guitarist who was a member of the rock band The Police. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a band member in 2003. Summers has recorded solo albums, collaborated w ...

, pianist

Dave Greenslade David John Greenslade (born 18 January 1943) is an English composer and keyboard player. He has played with Colosseum from the beginning in 1968 until the farewell concert in 2015 and also from 1973 in his own band, Greenslade, and others in ...

, drummer Jon Hiseman, bassist Tony Reeves and saxophonist Clive Burrows. Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames mixed jazz, ska and bluebeat into his music and had three number one singles in the UK, beginning with "

Yeh Yeh "Yeh, Yeh" (in some territories released as "Yeah, yeh, yeh") is a Latin soul tune that was written as an instrumental by Rodgers Grant and Pat Patrick, and first recorded by Mongo Santamaría on his 1963 album ''Watermelon Man!'' Lyrics ...

" (1965).S. Huey, "Georgie Fame" ''Allmusic''. Retrieved 18 July 2010.

African-Caribbean and Afro-American artists

A number of visiting black stars became part of the British R&B scene. These included

Geno Washington Geno Washington (born William Francis Washington; December 1943, in Evansville, Indiana) is an American R&B singer who released five albums with The Ram Jam Band between 1966 and 1969, and eight solo albums beginning in 1976. Music career 19 ...

, an American singer stationed in England with the Air Force. He was invited to join what became

Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band are an England-based soul band. Career The Ram Jam Band were formed around 1964 by Pete Gage and Geoff Pullum. Before taking on Geno Washington, whom Gage knew from performing at the RAF Bentwaters US Air ...

by guitarist Pete Gage in 1965 and enjoyed top 40 hit singles and two top 10 albums before the band split up in 1969. Another American GI, Herbie Goins, sang with Blues Incorporated before leading his own band, the Nightimers.Bruce Eder
"Biography of Herbie Goins"
''Allmusic''. Retrieved 9 July 2011. Jimmy James, born in Jamaica, moved to London after two local number one hits with the Vagabonds in 1960 and built a strong reputation as a live act, releasing a live album and their debut ''The New Religion'' in 1966 and achieving moderate success with singles before the original Vagabonds broke up in 1970.

Champion Jack Dupree William Thomas "Champion Jack" Dupree (July 23, 1909 or July 4, 1910 – January 21, 1992) was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer. His nickname was derived from his early career as a boxer. Biography Dupree was a New Orlean ...

was a New Orleans blues and

boogie woogie Boogie-woogie is a Music genre, genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually exten ...

pianist, who toured Europe and settled there from 1960, living in Switzerland and Denmark, then in Halifax, England in the 1970s and 1980s, before finally settling in Germany. The most significant and successful visiting artist was Jimi Hendrix who in early 1966, after years on the chitlin circuit as sideman for major R&B acts as well as playing in bands in New York, was invited to England to record as a solo artist by former Animals bassist

Chas Chandler Bryan James "Chas" Chandler (18 December 1938 – 17 July 1996) was an English musician, record producer and manager, best known as the original bassist in The Animals, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He ...

. With

Mitch Mitchell John Graham "Mitch" Mitchell (9 July 194612 November 2008)In his book about the Experience, Mitchell states he celebrated his 21st birthday while on tour on 9 July 1967, which makes his birth year 1946.Mitchell's obituaries in '' Billboard' '' ...

on drums and

Noel Redding David Noel Redding (25 December 1945 – 11 May 2003) was an English rock musician, best known as the bass player for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and guitarist/singer for Fat Mattress. Following his departure from the Experience in 1969 ...

on bass, the band formed around him as

the Jimi Hendrix Experience James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

became major stars in the UK, with three top ten hits in early 1967. it was followed later that year by the psychedelic album ''

Are You Experienced ''Are You Experienced'' is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. The album featur ...

'' ic which became a major hit in the US after Hendrix's triumphant return at the Monterey Pop Festival and made him one of the major figures of late 60s rock.

Solo artists

A number of solo artists who emerged from the British R&B scene would go on to highly successful careers in the later 1960s and 1970s. These included

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

and

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

. After the dissolution of Blues Incorporated in 1962 Long John Baldry joined the Cyril Davies R&B All Stars, and after Davies' death in early 1964 took over leadership of the group, renaming it Long John Baldry and His Hoochie Coochie Men. The band featured Rod Stewart as a second vocalist, with whom Baldry formed short lived proto- supergroup Steampacket in 1965. Baldry moved on to front

Bluesology Bluesology was a 1960s British blues group, best remembered as being the first professional band of Elton John (then known by his birth name Reginald Dwight). History From about 1960, organist Reginald Dwight – then aged 13 – and his nei ...

, which had originally been formed as an R&B band in 1962 by teenage keyboardist Reggie Dwight, later better known as Elton John. Baldry enjoyed his greatest success with pop ballads, beginning with "Let the Heartaches Begin" (1967), which reached number one in Britain, but, despite supporting the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, he remained virtually unknown outside of the UK. After Steampacket dissolved in 1966, Rod Stewart joined blues-rock combo Shotgun Express and then

the Jeff Beck Group The Jeff Beck Group was a British rock band formed in London in January 1967 by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. Their innovative approach to heavy-sounding blues, rhythm and blues and rock was a major influence on popular music. Fir ...

, and when that broke up in 1969 he moved on to the Small Faces, which became the Faces, and also began to pursue his solo career, mixing R&B with rock and folk, to become one of the most successful British solo artists of the 1970s. Elton John, taking his first name from Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and his last from John Baldry, formed a partnership with lyricist

Bernie Taupin Bernard John Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English songwriter, singer and visual artist. He is best known for his long-term collaboration with musician Elton John, a songwriting partnership that is one of the most successful in history. Ta ...

in 1968 and after writing hits for major pop artists embarked on a solo career that would be the most commercially successful of the early 1970s and one of the most sustained in pop music.

British blues boom

The wider rhythm and blues boom overlapped, both chronologically and in terms of personnel, with the later and more narrowly focused British blues boom. The blues boom began to come to prominence in the mid-1960s as the rhythm and blues movement began to peter out leaving a nucleus of instrumentalists with a wide knowledge of blues forms and techniques.N. Logan and B. Woffinden, ''The NME Book of Rock 2'' (London: W. H. Allen, 1977), , pp. 61–2. Central to the blues boom were

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are an English blues rock band led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall. While never producing a hit of their own, the band has been influential as an incubator for British rock and blue ...

, who began to gain national and international attention after the release of ''

Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton ''Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton'', colloquially known as ''The Beano Album'', is the debut studio album by the English blues rock band John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Produced by Mike Vernon and released in 1966 by Decca Records (UK) and ...

'' (''Beano'') album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings. Peter Green started a "second great epoch of British blues", as he replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers after Clapton's departure to form Cream. In 1967, after one record with the Bluesbreakers, Green, with the Bluesbreakers' rhythm section

Mick Fleetwood Michael John Kells Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician, songwriter and occasional actor. He is best known as the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of t ...

and

John McVie John Graham McVie (born 26 November 1945) is a British bass guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock bands John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers from 1964 to 1967 and Fleetwood Mac since 1967. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fleet ...

, formed Peter Green's

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the li ...

. Mike Vernon, who had produced the "''Beano''" album set up the Blue Horizon

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

and signed Fleetwood Mac and other emerging blues acts. Other major acts included

Free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procur ...

Ten Years After Ten Years After are a British rock group, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, the band had eight consecutive Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart. In addition, they had twelve albums enter the US ''Billboar ...

, and Duster Bennett.D. Hatch and S. Millward, ''From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), p. 105. Fleetwood Mac's eponymous début album reached the UK top 5 in early 1968 and as the instrumental "

Albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North P ...

" reached number one in the single charts in early 1969. Chicken Shack, formed at the peak of the boom in 1965 by

Stan Webb Stan Webb may refer to: *Stan Webb (footballer, born 1906) (1906–1994), English footballer *Stan Webb (footballer, born 1947) (born 1947), English footballer *Stan Webb (guitarist) (born 1946), English guitarist *Stan Webb (rugby league) Sta ...

, were unusual in having a female vocalist and keyboard player in Christine Perfect. They had a British hit with

Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer who performed in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul. Starting her career in 1954, ...

' R&B classic " I'd Rather Go Blind" in 1969, before Perfect left to join her husband

, but remained largely focused on blues standards. The band then suffered a series of line-up changes and, although managing a comeback on the club circuit, they never achieved another mainstream breakthrough and split up in 1973. The last years of the 1960s were, as Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz put it, "the commercial apex of the British blues boom".

Decline

By 1967 most of the surviving major British R&B acts had moved away from covers and R&B-inspired music to psychedelic rock, and from there they would shift into new subgenres. Some, like Jethro Tull followed bands like the Moody Blues away from 12-bar structures and harmonicas into complex, classical-influenced

. Members of the next generation of blues-based bands, including

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are c ...

, Deep Purple and

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped de ...

, played a loud form of blues-influenced rock, would lead to the development of hard rock and ultimately heavy metal.W. Kaufman and H. S. Macpherson, ''Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History'' (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005), , p. 154. Some, like Mayall, continued to play a "pure" form of the blues, but largely outside of mainstream notice.R. F. Schwartz, ''How Britain Got the Blues: the Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), , p. 242. The structure of clubs, venues and festivals that had grown up in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Britain virtually disappeared in the 1970s. By 1970 British rhythm and blues had virtually ceased to exist as an active genre. Rhythm and blues bands began to find it very difficult to achieve serious album sales, even in the UK. Vinegar Joe, formed in 1971 around the vocals of

Elkie Brooks Elkie Brooks (born Elaine Bookbinder; 25 February 1946) is an English rock, blues and jazz singer. She was a vocalist with the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe, and later became a solo artist. She gained her biggest success in the late 1970s and 19 ...

and

Robert Palmer Robert Allen Palmer (19 January 1949 – 26 September 2003) was an English singer and songwriter. He was known for his powerful, soulful voice and wikt:sartorial, sartorial elegance, and his stylistic explorations, combining Soul music, so ...

and the instrumental talents of Pete Gage and Steve York, despite popular stage performances, broke up after only three albums with disappointing sales two years later.

Revivals

British R&B continued to be played in the Northern Soul club scene, where early soul records, particularly those of

, were highly prized. There were also bands on the London

circuit. Occasional R&B-based pub rock acts like Dr Feelgood managed to build a following through tireless touring. They topped the British charts with live album ''

Stupidity Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, or wit. It may be innate, assumed or reactive. The word ''stupid'' comes from the Latin word ''stupere''. Stupid characters are often used for comedy in fictional stories. Walter B. ...

'' (1976), but failed to make a significant impact in the US.

1970s

With the rise of disco music,

music became popular in the mid-late 1970s. A handful of pub rock acts managed to achieve mainstream success after the advent of punk rock, often being re-categorised as

, including Graham Parker and the Rumour,

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in power pop and new wave,Squeeze and

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nom ...

. London-based R&B pub rock bands received a major boost when

the Jam The Jam were an English mod revival/ punk rock band formed in 1972 at Sheerwater Secondary School in Woking, Surrey. They released 18 consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their break-up in December ...

kicked off the

in 1977 with their debut album '' In the City'', which mixed R&B standards with originals modelled on

's early singles. They confirmed their status as the leading mod revival band with their third album ''

All Mod Cons ''All Mod Cons'' is the third studio album by the British band The Jam, released in 1978 by Polydor Records. The title, a British idiom one might find in housing advertisements, is short for "all modern conveniences" and is a pun on the band ...

'' (1978), on which

Paul Weller Paul John Weller (born John William Weller; 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/ new wave/ mod revival band the Jam (1972–1982). He had further success with the blue-eyed soul m ...

's song-writing drew heavily on the British-focused narratives of the Kinks.S. T. Erlewine, "The Jam" Retrieved 25 July 2010. Pub rock bands like Red Beans and Rice, the Little Roosters,

the Inmates The Inmates are a British pub rock band, which formed after the split of The Flying Tigers in 1977. In 1982, they had a medium-sized international hit with a cover of The Standells' " Dirty Water", and a UK Top 40 hit with their cover of J ...

Nine Below Zero Nine Below Zero are an English blues band, who have a cult following throughout Europe. They became popular during the period 1980–1982 and are still performing currently throughout the UK, Scandinavia and Europe as of 2022. Career The ban ...

and Eddie and the Hot Rods, became major acts in the growing mod revival scene in London. Other bands grew up to feed the desire for mod music, often combining the music of '60s mod groups with elements of punk music, including the Lambrettas, the Merton Parkas, Squire, and Purple Hearts. These acts managed to develop cult followings and some had pop hits, before the revival petered out in the early '80s. In 1979, Dave Kelly, who had been a member of the

John Dummer Blues Band The John Dummer Band also known as John Dummer's Blues Band, John Dummer's Famous Music Band, John Dummer's Oobleedooblee Band and The John Dummer Band Featuring Nick Pickett was a British blues band, of the 1960s and 1970s, noted for its extensi ...

formed

the Blues Band The Blues Band is a British blues band formed in 1979 by Paul Jones, former lead vocalist and harmonica player with Manfred Mann, and guitarist Tom McGuinness also of Manfred Mann and The Roosters. The band’s first line-up also included bas ...

with ex-Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones and Gary Fletcher, who continued to tour and record rhythm and blues into the new millennium.

1980s

Paul Weller broke up the Jam in 1982 and formed the Style Council, who abandoned most of the elements of punk to adopt music much more based in R&B and early soul. Some major figures of the movement, including Robert Palmer and Steve Winwood, re-emerged as solo artists in the early 1980s, being as defined as

blue-eyed soul Blue-eyed soul (also called white soul) is rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly-black Motown and St ...

singers. During the 1980s and 1990s, musicians, particularly African Americans, mixed pop with disco like beats and high tech

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

production to produce the new genre of

, adding elements of other genres, including funk, hip hop, and

1990s

Roots music Roots music may refer to: * American folk music * Americana (music) Americana (also known as American roots music) is an amalgam of Music of the United States, American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that mak ...

, including rhythm and blues, began to enjoy another resurgence of interest towards the end of the 1980s and in the 1990s.J. T. Titon, ''Early Downhome Blues: a Musical and Cultural Analysis'' (Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 2nd edn., 1994), , p. 275. Annual blues festivals were established, including The Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival, held at Colne in Lancashire from 1989, which hosts both US and British R&B acts.''Year of the Blues''
. Retrieved 20 July 2009. In 1994,

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland, (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Jayne County, Sting, Eric ...

, former keyboard player with Squeeze and presenter of the TV show '' Later... with Jools Holland'', reshaped his backing band as Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and, as well as supporting him on the show, they embarked on a series of tours. After leaving the Rolling Stones in 1997,

Bill Wyman William George Wyman ( né Perks; born 24 October 1936) is an English musician who achieved international fame as the bassist for the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1993. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a membe ...

formed the

Rhythm Kings Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings are an English blues rock band founded and led by bassist Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. Other personnel have varied depending on availability, an arrangement described in ''The Telegraph'' as "a fluctuating squad ...

, which featured guitarists Peter Frampton and

Albert Lee Albert William Lee (born 21 December 1943) is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked, both in the studio and on tour, with many famous musicians from a wide range of genres. He has also mai ...

as well former

Procol Harum Procol Harum () were an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies. Although noted for t ...

keyboardist

Gary Brooker Gary Brooker (29 May 1945 – 19 February 2022) was an English singer and pianist, and the founder and lead singer of the rock band Procol Harum. Early life Born in Hackney Hospital, East London, on 29 May 1945, Brooker grew up in Hackney ...

, touring and producing a series of R&B based albums. By 2000, the fanzine ''

Blues Matters! ''Blues Matters!'' is a bimonthly British blues magazine. History ''Blues Matters!'' was founded by Alan Pearce in 1999. It is published on a bimonthly basis. Alan King and Darren Howells (until 2009) previously served as the magazine's editor ...

'' had managed to become a regular glossy magazine.

2000s–2010s

In the 2000s, British artists began to enjoy success with the genre, including

Craig David Craig Ashley David (born 5 May 1981) is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single " Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, ''Born to Do It'', was released in 2000, after which he has rel ...

and Estelle. Much of the music produced by modern British R&B artists tend to incorporate

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a r ...

sounds, as exemplified by artists such as

Jay Sean Kamaljit Singh Jhooti (born 26 March 1981), better known by the stage name Jay Sean, is a British singer and songwriter. He debuted in the UK's Asian Underground scene as a member of the Rishi Rich Project with " Dance with You", which reach ...

and

Taio Cruz Jacob Taio Cruz (; born Adetayo Ayowale Onile-Ere, 23 April 1980), better known professionally as Taio Cruz (stylized TΛIO CRUZ), is an English singer, songwriter and record producer from London, England, currently based in Los Angeles. In 200 ...

. In the 2000s, there was success in the U.S. for British female artists who mixed soul music with elements of rhythm and blues, including

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. A m ...

Duffy Duffy may refer to: People *Duffy (surname), people with the surname Duffy or Duffey *Duffy (nickname) *Duffy (singer) (born 1984), Welsh singer, born Aimee Ann Duffy Places *Duffy, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Duffy, Ohio ...

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved nationa ...

and

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...

, leading to talk of another British Invasion, known as the "

Third British Invasion British soul, Brit soul, or (in a US context) the British soul invasion, is soul music performed by British artists. Soul has been a major influence on British popular music since the 1960s, and American soul was extremely popular among some yout ...

", "R&B British Invasion" or "British Soul Invasion".Selling their soul: women leading the way in R&B British invasion
, ''Canada.com'' 9 June 2008.

Ella Mai Ella Mai Howell (born 3 November 1994) is an English singer-songwriter. Her musical career began at London's British and Irish Modern Music Institute in 2014, during which time she auditioned as part of a trio on the 11th season of '' The X ...

won three awards at the 2019 ''Billboard'' Music Awards, including Top R&B Artist.

Significance

Because of the very different circumstances from which they came, and in which they played, the rhythm and blues produced by British artists was very different in tone from that created by African Americans, often with more emphasis on guitars and sometimes with greater energy. They have been criticised for exploiting the massive catalogue of African American music, but it has also been noted that they both popularised that music, bringing it to British, world and in some cases American audiences, and helping to build the reputation of existing and past rhythm and blues artists. In order to sustain their careers most British R&B artists soon moved on from recording and performing American standards to writing and recording their own music. Many from the 60s helped pioneer psychedelic, and eventually progressive, hard rock and heavy metal, mixing in elements of

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

and classical music. Others from the 1970s and 1980s, helped shape new wave and

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

music and had a major impact on later genres, including

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...

. As a result, British rhythm and blues has been a major component of the sound of rock music.

UK chart hits

This table lists recordings by British groups that made the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in the early 1960s, of material previously recorded by American rhythm and blues musicians:

Notes

External links

''The Mod Generation: The Rhythm and Blues Scene''
essay by Robert Nicholls. {{DEFAULTSORT:British Rhythm And Blues 20th-century music genres 21st-century music genres Rhythm and blues music genres 1960s in music British styles of music British Invasion Mod (subculture)