Unsung is a documentary series that examines the lives and careers of once well-known R&B and soul artists and groups who achieved national chart success and fame but have become under-appreciated by later generations.

Note: This title comes on two discs.

UNSUNG SOUL and R&B LEGENDS - Volume 1

BOBBY BLAND
Bobby Bland had a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as among the great storytellers of blues and soul music. He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues." Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis's Beale Street blues scene.

Financial pressures forced Bland to fire his touring band in 1968. He suffered from depression and became increasingly dependent on alcohol. His record company, Duke Records, was sold to ABC Records. However, this resulted in several successful and critically acclaimed contemporary blues and soul albums.

IKE TURNER
Ike Turner worked as a disc jockey for Clarksdale, Mississippi's legendary WROX radio station and led his own band, the Kings of Rhythm. Turner also served as a talent scout, playing a role in early recording deals for Bobby "Blue" Bland and Howlin' Wolf. By the time he relocated to St. Louis in the 1950s, Ike Turner was a respected musician whose music helped tear down racial barriers in the mid-west by attracting many white fans. Still, he didn't take off in a big way until he met Anna Mae Bullock, whom he renamed Tina. Together they scored the breakthrough 1960 hit "A Fool in Love," which Ike penned. But it was onstage, as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, where their magic was truly evident.

Ike had personal demons in the form of drug abuse and physical violence—and he ultimately served time in prison—but his daughters and granddaughters reveal an unexpected side of the man; his capacity to love and to love deeply. "My dad didn't have a halo, but he didn't have horns, either," says, Twanna Turner. Surprisingly, Ike Turner was extremely modest and humble about his extraordinary musical contributions.


UNSUNG SOUL and R&B LEGENDS - Volume 2

LOU RAWLS
Lou Rawls was a singer's singer, with a vocal style Frank Sinatra called "the silkiest chops in the singing game." He commanded the stage and scored hits with songs that ranged from blues to jazz to uptown R&B, in the course of a recording career that spanned five decades. A definitive "crossover" artist long before the term was coined, Rawls was at home before crowds in Las Vegas and on the couches of network TV talk shows, while his pioneering work for the United Negro College Fund created a legacy far beyond music.

But the man behind that smooth-singing persona was a more complicated figure—an abandoned child whose scars never healed, and whose unpredictable explosions of anger and violence were often directed toward those he loved most. Friends, family, and musical collaborators—including fellow legends Della Reese, and Gamble & Huff—come together to tell the story of a singer whose music transcended category, and a man whose true personality was wrapped in many layers.

WILSON PICKETT
Wilson Pickett, described as a troubled man and a towering talent, was a major figure in the development of soul music in America. His records made the U.S. R&B charts, and many crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100. Among his best-known hits are "In the Midnight Hour" (which he co-wrote), "Land of 1,000 Dances", "Mustang Sally", and "Funky Broadway." Pickett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, in recognition of his impact on songwriting and recording.

While his raw and exuberant early hits were recorded in the soulful Southern cities of Memphis and Muscle Shoals, Pickett has a significant Philadelphia connection, having collaborated with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff for his eleventh studio album, the 1970 release "Wilson Pickett in Philadelphia." Pickett became known as "The Wicked Pickett," and lived up to that persona both on stage and off, giving his all in live performances while living a life filled with women, guns and drugs—including his well-documented temper that caused riffs and run-ins, including a decades-long rivalry with the legendary James Brown.

Note: This title comes on two discs.

UNSUNG SOUL and R&B LEGENDS - Vol. 1 & 2 on DVD

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