(March 9, 2025). In just over two weeks, the R&B world has endured a staggering wave of loss. One after another, the news of these legends’ passings has barely given fans time to grieve before another name appeared in our news feeds. The weight of these departures isn’t just in the names themselves or in the unrelenting rate at which they’ve occurred — it’s also in the songs, the history, and the enduring impact they left behind.
Between February 20 and March 7, we said goodbye to Jerry Butler, Gwen McCrae, Chris Jasper, Roberta Flack, Angie Stone, Roy Ayers, and D’Wayne Wiggins. Each of them played a pivotal role in shaping R&B music, and remarkably, every one of them left their mark at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop charts. Their legacies are forever tied to some of the genre’s most enduring and influential hits.
It’s a season of loss unlike any other one in recent memory, with each artist’s passing causing us to reflect on their achievements in music and their everlasting legacies. It’s a winter we’d sooner love to forget, punctuating a lifetime of music that we thankfully won’t have to.
The blog’s tribute to each late artist’s No. 1 legacy starts with Butler and goes through Wiggins, recalling their most notable roles in the creation of No. 1 records on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop charts.
Jerry Butler (December 8, 1939 – February 20, 2025)
Butler, the former Cook County Commissioner in Illinois, is better known for his contributions to music, which included his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction with the Impressions, and a remarkable solo career that saw him chart four No. 1 singles on Billboard’s R&B list during the 1960s. It started with 1960’s “He Will Break Your Heart,” his biggest hit that spent 7 weeks at No. 1 and was covered by Tony Orlando & Dawn in a retitled 1975 No. 1 pop hit, “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You).” Butler followed “He Will Break Your Heart” with “Let It Be Me,” a 1964 No. 1 duet with Betty Everett, and two late decade solo No. 1s: 1968’s “Hey Western Union Man” and ‘69’s “Only the Strong Survive.” With “Heart” and “Survive,” Butler became the first artist to have a No. 1 song in the first and last years of any decade and the only one until Jermaine Jackson joined him with No. 1s in 1980 and ‘89.
Gwen McCrae (December 21, 1943 – February 21, 2025)
Gwen McCrae, former wife to George, followed her husband by less than a year at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (then-called Hot Soul Singles) with 1975’s “Rockin’ Chair,” a funky, sultry, slower-tempo dance number that also made McCrae a one-hit wonder on the Hot 100 pop chart, where it peaked at No. 9. George even lent backing vocals to Gwen’s hit by reprising his “ohhh-ahhhh” ad-lib from the 1974 No. 1 soul and pop hit “Rock Your Baby.” The No. 1 success of both songs made the McCraes the first married couple to top the charts with two separate hits… not bad for a pair of singers who’d never been heard of prior to 1974.
While “Rockin’ Chair” often gets lumped into disco, thanks mainly to its association with her husband’s hit, Gwen’s song was closer to funk than disco. In fact, she solidified her reputation as the Queen of Disco-Funk with future club favorites like “Poyson,” “Keep the Fire Burning,” and this writer’s favorite, “Funky Sensation,” neither of which duplicated the No. 1 success of “Chair,” but are no less memorable to true fans.
Chris Jasper (December 30, 1951 – February 23, 2025)
The Isley Brothers trio of Ronald, O’Kelly and Rudolph were already proven hitmakers when Rudy’s brother-in-law Chris Jasper joined along with younger brothers Marvin and Ernie Isley to become a sextet in 1973. The Julliard-educated Jasper brought his formal music education and song crafting skills to the group that had only achieved one chart topper before then, 1969’s “It’s Your Thing.”
With Jasper, who shared co-writing credits on all the band’s 1970s and early ‘80s hits but contended in a 2016 interview with this blogger that much of the writing was his own, the Isleys achieved Soul chart No. 1s from 1975-80 with “Fight the Power,” “The Pride,” “Take Me To the Next Phase,” “I Wanna Be With You,” and “Don’t Say Goodnight.” Jasper and the two younger brothers left the band in 1984 and formed Isley-Jasper-Isley. That trio, with Jasper singing lead, hit No. 1 R&B/Hip-Hop again with “Caravan of Love.” Who knows what the Isley Brothers’ musical direction would have been without Jasper’s contributions from 1973-83. His death leaves only Ronald and Ernie as surviving members of the classic ‘70s lineup.
Roberta Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025)
While the legendary pop/soul/folk singer Roberta Flack is widely known for her pop success, she actually topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart more times (4) than she did the Hot 100 (3). Interestingly, only one of her songs topped both, 1974’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” which — at five weeks — was that year’s longest-running No. 1 soul chart hit. Her other three soul toppers were: “Where Is the Love?” (1972, with Donny Hathaway), “The Closer I Get to You” (1978, also with Hathaway), and the Caribbean-influenced upbeat hit “Oasis” (1988). Surprisingly, the No. 1 pop smash “Killing Me Softly With His Song” got stuck at No. 2 Soul for four weeks in 1973, but a faithful hip-hop rendition by The Fugees (with Lauryn Hill on vocals) topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs airplay chart in 1996, no consolation to Flack, of course. Her other No. 1 pop hit — “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” — reached No. 4 soul in 1972.
Angie Stone (December 18, 1961 – March 1, 2025)
By the time the late Angie Stone became a force in R&B, the genre was beginning to splinter into its multiple sub-categories, including Adult R&B, a/k/a the “Grown Folks” format that Stone dominated as a neo-soul musician at the turn of the century. Her first No. 1 on that list was 1999’s “No More Rain (In This Cloud),” which was followed by 2007’s “Baby,” featuring the late “Clean Up Woman” singer Betty Wright. As fate would have it, Stone’s most beloved song, “Wish I Didn’t Miss You,” petered out at No. 2 on the Grown Folks list in ‘02, after its highly popular predecessor, “Brotha,” got stopped at No. 3.
But that didn’t arrest her success on other charts. “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” topped the dance rankings, as did the 2004 release, “I Wanna Thank Ya,” featuring Snoop Dogg. Stone also had a hand in a couple of other chart-toppers as her 1979 debut with Sequence, “Funk You Up,” was sampled in the No. 1 Rap chart hit, “Keep Their Heads Ringin’” by Dr. Dre, and the No. 1 pop smash, “Uptown Funk, by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars.
Roy Ayers (September 10, 1940 – March 4, 2025)
Ayers, the only one in this group of musicians not born in December or February, is also the only one not credited by name on a No. 1 single in Billboard. But he certainly contributed to a huge No. 1 success in Mary J. Blige’s second studio album — 1994’s My Life — the title track of which heavily sampled Ayers’ 1976 classic “Everybody Loves the Sunshine.” Blige’s My Life, which sold three million copies and ruled Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list for eight weeks in late 1994, is considered by many to be her best work, thanks in large part to that very personal title track and Ayers’ haunting melody that underpinned it.
In past concerts, Blige has paid tribute to Ayers while performing the song, including showing a video clip of the original tune’s vinyl record spinning on a turntable and zooming in to reveal the song title and artist before Mary and her band take over from there. It’s the ultimate show of respect for an artist whose music has been sampled or covered nearly 1000 times over the past 35 years. Ayers also contributed to Alicia Keys’ No. 1 R&B/Hip-Hop album, 2016’s Here, where he was featured by name and contributed vocals and his vibraphone playing to the song, “She Don’t Really Care_1.”
D’Wayne Wiggins (February 14, 1961 – March 7, 2025)
Wiggins — older brother to Raphael Saadiq — formed Tony! Toni! Toné! with his brother and their cousin Timothy Christian Riley in the 1980s. They hit No. 1 out of the box on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with their first single, 1988’s “Little Walter.” But it was what came next that made history for the Oakland trio. Their second album, 1990’s The Revival, yielded four singles, all of which reached No. 1 R&B/Hip-Hop, making it the only album to bat 1.000 at No. 1 with as many as four single releases.
The tracks were all co-written by D’Wayne, the only band member to have a hand in all four. They were “The Blues,” “Feels Good,” “It Never Rains (In Southern California),” and “Whatever You Want.” Wiggins also sang or co-sang lead on the first and last of those four No. 1 hits. He would later co-produce and play guitar on songs for Alicia Keys’ No. 1 R&B/Hip-Hop album The Diary of Alicia Keys in 2004, including the title track “Diary,” which featured Tony! Toni! Toné!
While this season of loss feels overwhelming, the music left behind by these artists ensures that their contributions will never fade. From the soulful ballads of Jerry Butler and Roberta Flack to the funk-infused grooves of Gwen McCrae and Roy Ayers; from the songwriting genius of Chris Jasper and D’Wayne Wiggins to the neo-soul resilience of Angie Stone — each of them helped define R&B in their own way.
The charts may have recorded their No. 1 peaks, but their influence stretches far beyond a statistic. Their voices, melodies, and rhythms will continue to echo through generations, reminding us that legends never truly leave us — they just find new ways to be heard.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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