Artist · chart history · #105 in indie & aaa artist polls
James Brown
Solo artist Barnwell United States The Godfather of Soul
James Brown is an artist from Barnwell. James Brown has 45 chart appearances on 19 radio countdowns from 8 stations on RockLists, spanning 1987–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine”, which appears on 8 lists with a best position of #11. The station that charted James Brown most often is WFPK (Louisville, KY), with 10 appearances.
James Brown, born in Barnwell in 1933, is the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business, the Godfather of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother No. 1, and the man more responsible than anyone for inventing funk. He started out singing gospel in Toccoa, Georgia, and by the mid-'50s he was fronting the Famous Flames, the R&B vocal group Bobby Byrd founded, pleading his way through "Please, Please, Please" and "Try Me". On stage he was a human cyclone, and Live at the Apollo caught it.
The '60s kept him moving, "Night Train", "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You (I Feel Good)", "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", and then he tore up the rulebook. He stripped the music down to the bone, every guitar, horn and drum locking into every other like gears in a machine, and with the J.B.s behind him he made "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and later "The Payback", records that are nothing but rhythm and nerve. He could preach, too: "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" in 1968 turned a groove into a statement.
He topped the R&B charts 17 times, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame made him one of its first ten inductees in 1986, and later received Kennedy Center Honors. Hip-hop producers have sampled him endlessly. He never stopped performing or recording, and he died of pneumonia on Christmas Day, 2006.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by James Brown on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine | 8 | #11 | – | – | |
| 2 | I Feel Good | 6 | #43 | – | – | |
| 3 | Papa's Got A Brand New Bag | 4 | #431 | – | – | |
| 4 | Get Up Offa That Thing | 3 | #26 | – | – | |
| 5 | I Got You (I Feel Good) | 2 | #147 | – | – | |
| 6 | Get On The Good Foot | 2 | #346 | – | – | |
| 7 | Cold Sweat | 3 | #80 | – | – | |
| 8 | Payback | 1 | #35 | – | – | |
| 9 | Living In America | 3 | #395 | – | – | |
| 10 | The Payback (Part 1) | 2 | #428 | – | – | |
| 11 | Night Train | 2 | #720 | – | – | |
| 12 | Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud | 1 | #315 | – | – | |
| 13 | It's a Man's World | 1 | #847 | – | – | |
| 14 | It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World | 1 | #886 | – | – | |
| 15 | Funky Drummer (Part 1) | 1 | #548 | – | – | |
| 16 | I Feel Good, I Got You | 1 | #1363 | – | – | |
| 17 | Cold Sweat, Pt. 1 | 1 | #403 | – | – | |
| 18 | Funky President (People It's Bad) | 1 | #759 | – | – | |
| 19 | The Payback | 1 | #1998 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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