Fontella Bass › Similar Artists

Mitty Collier - 100% match to Fontella Bass

21 June 1941, Birmingham, Alabama, USA. As a member of the travelling gospel group the Hayes Ensemble, Collier toured throughout Alabama and Georgia. Switching to secular music, she was discovered singing in a talent show by Chess Records scout Ralph Bass. Her early releases lacked direction until ‘I’m Your Part Time Love’, an ‘answer’ to Little John Read more

Laura Lee - 95% match to Fontella Bass

Laura Lee Newton, 9 March 1945, Chicago, Illinois, USA. A member of her adopted mother’s, Ernestine Rundless’, gospel group the Meditation Singers, Lee’s first secular recording was made for the Detroit-based Ric-Tic label. She was signed to Chess Records in 1966, who, after failing to find success with a Chicago-recorded single, sent her to Rick Hall’s F Read more

Sugar Pie DeSanto - 72% match to Fontella Bass

Umpeylia Marsema Balinton, 16 October 1935, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Raised in San Francisco, DeSanto was discovered at a talent show by Johnny Otis, who later dubbed her ‘Little Miss Sugar Pie’. She recorded for Federal and Aladdin Records before ‘I Want To Know’ (1960) on Veltone reached the R&B charts. Signed to Checker Records in 1961, her first r Read more

The Radiants - 69% match to Fontella Bass

Mable John - 65% match to Fontella Bass

3 November 1930, Bastrop, Louisiana, USA. The elder sister of Little Willie John, Mable John was an early signing to Berry Gordy’s Motown Records label. She appeared on the first Motortown Revue in 1959, and recorded four singles for the company. After an interlude working in a small Chicago outlet, Four Brothers, she signed to Stax Records in 1966. Here she specialized Read more

Koko Taylor - 59% match to Fontella Bass

Cora Walton, 28 September 1935, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Taylor is one of the few major figures that post-war Chicago blues has produced. Her soulfully rasping voice has ensured her popularity in the Windy City, and latterly further afield, for over 30 years, since she recorded her first single for the local USA label. Signed by the leading black music independent label Ches Read more

Betty Everett - 54% match to Fontella Bass

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

Ruth Brown - 54% match to Fontella Bass

12 January 1928, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA, d. 17 November 2006, Henderson, Nevada, USA. Brown started her musical career singing gospel at an early age in the church choir led by her father. In 1948 she was singing with a band led by her husband Jimmy in Washington, DC, when Willis Conover (from the radio show Voice Of America) recommended her to Ahmet Ertegun of the newly Read more

The Dells - 54% match to Fontella Bass

A US soul vocal and close harmony group formed in 1953 as the El-Rays, when the members - Johnny Funches (18 July 1935, d. 23 January 1998; lead), Marvin Junior (b. 31 January 1936, Harrell, Arkansas, USA; tenor), Verne Allison (b. 22 June 1936, Chicago, Illinois, USA; tenor), Lucius McGill (b. 1935, Chicago, Illinois, USA; tenor), Mickey McGill (b. 17 February 1937, Chicago Read more

Esther Phillips - 51% match to Fontella Bass

Esther Mae Jones, 23 December 1935, Galveston, Texas, USA, d. 7 August 1984, Carson, California, USA. This distinctive vocalist was discovered by band leader Johnny Otis. She joined his revue in 1949 where, performing as Little Esther, the teenage singer recorded two number 1 R&B singles, ‘Double Crossing Blues’ and ‘Mistrustin’ Blues’. She then Read more

Bobby McClure - 47% match to Fontella Bass

21 April 1942, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 13 November 1992, Los Angeles, California, USA. McClure’s family moved to East St. Louis when he was two years old, and he was singing in church by the time he was nine. A year later, he provided the unbroken high-tenor lead in the otherwise all-female Spirit Of Illinois gospel group, who went on to tour the ‘programs’ Read more

Brenda Holloway - 46% match to Fontella Bass

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

Major Lance - 46% match to Fontella Bass

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

Gladys Knight & The Pips - 44% match to Fontella Bass

Little Milton - 42% match to Fontella Bass