Erma Franklin › Similar Artists

Barbara Acklin - 100% match to Erma Franklin

28 February 1944, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 27 November 1998, Omaha, Nebraska, USA. A vocalist in the style of Dionne Warwick and Brenda Holloway, Acklin first recorded for Special Agent under the name Barbara Allen. In 1966, following a spell as a backing singer, she worked as a receptionist at the Brunswick Records offices, and submitted some of her own compositions to p Read more

Chairmen Of The Board - 62% match to Erma Franklin

Briefly known as the Gentlemen, this Detroit-based quartet was instigated by General Norman Johnson (23 May 1943, Norfolk, Virginia, USA). A former member of the Showmen, he left that group in 1968 intent on a solo path, but instead joined Danny Woods (b. 10 April 1944, Atlanta, Georgia, USA), Harrison Kennedy (b. Canada) and Eddie Curtis (b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) Read more

Irma Thomas - 56% match to Erma Franklin

Irma Lee, 18 February 1941, Ponchatoula, Louisiana, USA. The ‘Soul Queen Of New Orleans’ was discovered in 1958 by band leader Tommy Ridgley. Her early records were popular locally, but an R&B hit came in 1960 with ‘(You Can Have My Husband But Please) Don’t Mess With My Man’. The following year Thomas rejoined producer/writer Allen Toussaint, wi Read more

Major Lance - 55% match to Erma Franklin

4 April 1939 (1941 is also cited), Winterville, Mississippi, USA, d. 3 September 1994, Decatur, Georgia, USA. A former amateur boxer and a dancer on the Jim Lounsbury record-hop television show, Lance also sang with the Five Gospel Harmonaires and for a brief period with Otis Leavill and Barbara Tyson in the Floats. His 1959 Mercury Records release, ‘I Got A Girl’, Read more

Brenda Holloway - 53% match to Erma Franklin

21 June 1946, Atascadero, California, USA. Holloway began her recording career with three small Los Angeles labels, Donna, Catch and Minasa, in the early 60s, recording under the aegis of producer Hal Davis. In 1964, Holloway made an impromptu performance at a disc jockeys’ convention in California, where she was spotted by a Motown Records talent scout. She signed to Read more

Chuck Jackson - 51% match to Erma Franklin

Fontella Bass - 51% match to Erma Franklin

3 July 1940, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The daughter of gospel luminary Martha Bass, Fontella toured as keyboard player and singer with the Little Milton band during the early 60s. Simultaneously, she made several solo records, including one for Ike Turner’s Prann label. When Milton’s band leader, Oliver Sain, left to form his own group, he took Bass with him, and t Read more

Jackie Wilson - 51% match to Erma Franklin

Jack Leroy Wilson, 9 June 1934, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 21 January 1984, Mount Holly, New Jersey, USA. When parental pressure thwarted his boxing ambitions, Wilson took to singing in small local clubs. He sang with the Thrillers (a predecessor group to the Royals) and recorded some solo tracks for Dizzy Gillespie’s Dee Gee label as Sonny Wilson, before replacing Clyd Read more

Betty Everett - 50% match to Erma Franklin

23 November 1939, Greenwood, Mississippi, USA, d. 19 August 2001, Beloit, Wisconsin, USA. Having moved to Chicago in the late 50s, R&B/soul singer Everett recorded unsuccessfully for several local labels, including Cobra, C.J. and One-derful, and briefly sang lead with the all-male group the Daylighters. Her hits came soon after signing to Vee Jay Records where ‘You Read more

Billy Butler - 45% match to Erma Franklin

Dobie Gray - 45% match to Erma Franklin

26 July 1940, Simonton, Texas, USA. Gray moved from Texas to California in the early 60s, where he began recording for local labels. His seventh single ‘Look At Me’ was a minor hit for the Cordak label in January 1963. The compulsive, if boastful, single ‘The ‘In’ Crowd’ (written by Billy Page) was his major breakthrough in 1965, spending severa Read more

Dee Dee Warwick - 43% match to Erma Franklin

1945, New Jersey, USA. Warwick has always sung in the shadow of her older sister, Dionne Warwick, but she has created a body of work that holds up well decades later. Her first record on the Jubilee label, ‘You’re No Good’, was superseded by the much superior production done in Chicago by Vee Jay Records on Betty Everett. In 1964 Warwick signed with Mercury Re Read more

Freda Payne - 39% match to Erma Franklin

Freda Charcilia Payne, 19 September 1945, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Schooled in jazz and classical music, this urbane singer attended the Institute Of Musical Arts and worked with Pearl Bailey prior to recording her debut album in 1963 for MGM Records. Payne signed to Holland/Dozier/Holland’s label Invictus Records and her first recording, ‘The Unhooked Generation
Read more

Darrell Banks - 38% match to Erma Franklin

Darrell Eubanks, 1938, Mansfield, Ohio, USA, d. March 1970, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Banks sprang to fame in 1966 with his magnificent debut single, ‘Open The Door To Your Heart’, one of the finest non- Motown Records releases to emerge from Detroit. A second hit, ‘Somebody (Somewhere) Needs You’, followed that same year, but the singer’s progress was Read more

Doris Troy - 38% match to Erma Franklin

Doris Higginsen, 6 January 1937, the Bronx, New York City, New York, USA, d. 16 February 2004, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The daughter of a Barbadian Pentecostal preacher, Doris Higginsen abandoned her gospel beginnings in favour of a jazz group, the Halos. She recorded as half of Jay And Dee and soon also began making her mark as a songwriter, using her grandmother’s name Read more