From Gospel to Rhythm and Blues

Abstract

Ray Charles gets credit for turning gospel into soul music in the early 1950s, but Winston-Salem’s “5” Royales beat him to the top of the R&B charts by a couple of years. The Royales were a key transitional act in soul’s evolution, with a particular gift for bawdiness. They also contributed a number of oft-covered standards, most notably “Dedicated to the One I Love.” Steve Cropper of the legendary Memphis soul combo Booker T & the MG’s has admitted that Royales guitarist Lowman Pauling was his biggest influence.