Top 10 Greatest Soul Songs of All Time

Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' spent 5 weeks at #1 on the R&B chart, challenging Motown head Berry Gordy, who initially refused to release it, calling it 'the worst thing he had ever heard.' The 1971 title track from Gaye's concept album sold over 2 million copies and addressed Vietnam War, poverty, and police brutality with unprecedented musical sophistication. Rolling Stone ranked the album #1 on its 2020 Greatest Albums list, while the song reached #2 on the Hot 100—narrowly missing #1 Aretha Franklin's 1967 achievement but becoming the fastest-selling Motown single at the time, with over 100,000 copies sold in its first week.

Motown's best-selling single to that date, this 1968 masterpiece spent 7 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 8 weeks on the R&B chart. Marvin Gaye's version, released after Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight's recordings, became one of the most covered songs of the era—The Rolling Stones used it on their 1969 tour, and Creedence Clearwater Revival's 11-minute 1970 cover introduced it to rock audiences. Compared to the typical Motown single, its cultural reach is unmatched; it outperforms Georgia On My Mind — Ray Charles (1960)'s 1-week chart-topping run by 600% in longevity on the Hot 100.

Otis Redding's 1966 transformation of a 1932 pop standard into the template for soul performance features a three-part structure—quiet tenderness, smoldering emotion, then cathartic ecstasy—that soul singers have emulated for 60 years. Recorded in a single afternoon at Stax Records, the song builds so relentlessly that by the final 90 seconds, Redding is screaming and barely intelligible, delivering soul's most joyfully abandoned performance.

Ray Charles's 1960 rendition of Hoagy Carmichael's 1930 song replaced its jazzy original with a gospel-drenched arrangement, winning Grammys for Best Vocal Performance and Best Rhythm and Blues Performance in 1961. The recording spent 1 week at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and later became Georgia's official state song in 1979—a testament to its lasting cultural impact. Compared to Try a Little Tenderness — Otis Redding (1966)'s more intense delivery, Charles's version achieves a warmer, more sustained influence.

Curtis Mayfield wrote this 1965 gospel-infused civil rights anthem after the Birmingham Church bombing, using a train-as-salvation metaphor that Bob Dylan called one of the greatest songs ever written. Although it reached only No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song's influence far exceeds its chart rank—Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck's 1985 cover revived it, and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 24 on its Greatest Songs of All Time list.

Ain't No Mountain High Enough pairs a thrilling call-and-response structure with a seismic emotional punch, making it the definitive soul duet template. Written by Ashford and Simpson in 1966, Gaye and Terrell's recording soared to #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the R&B chart in 1967, outperforming the average Motown single of the era by nearly 20 chart positions. Terrell's tragic onstage collapse just months later—caused by a brain tumor—imbues every soaring harmony with a poignant finality, cementing this track's legacy as the genre's most powerful vocal partnership, outlasting even #2 Gaye's solo work in raw collective chemistry.

Boyz II Men's four-part gospel-piano harmony revived soul balladry for the '90s, selling over 12 million copies globally. As the highest-charting Motown song ever, it proved soul could dominate the modern pop landscape, extending the genre's reach 35% further than the average top-ten soul hit.