Blue-eyed soul

Blue-eyed soul (also known as white soul) is a term sometimes used for rhythm and blues and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the music of the Motown and Stax record labels. Though many rhythm and blues radio stations would only play music by black musicians, some began to play music by white acts considered to have "soul feeling", which came to be called "blue-eyed soul".

1960s

Georgie Woods, a Philadelphia radio DJ, is thought to have coined the term "blue-eyed soul" in 1964, initially to describe The Righteous Brothers, then white artists in general who received airplay on rhythm and blues radio stations.The Righteous Brothers, who were then most associated with the term, named their 1964 LP Some Blue-Eyed Soul. According to Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, R&B radio stations who played their songs were surprised to find them to be white when they turned up for interviews, and one DJ in Philadelphia (unnamed by Medley but probably Georgie Woods) started saying "Here's my blue-eyed soul brothers", and it became a code to signal to the audience that they were white singers. The popularity of The Righteous Brother who had a hit with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" is thought to have started the trend for a number of R&B radio stations to play songs by white artists with "soul feeling" (i.e. blue-eyed soul) in the mid-1960s, a more integrative approach that was then popular with their audience. Blue-eyed soul then became a loosely used term to describe many white artists, including Sonny & Cher, the Beatles, Tom Jones, Sam the Sham, Barry McGuire, and Roy Head.