# What is the most influential soul album in history?

> Some soul albums transcend their era and reshape what music can be. These are the records that changed everything. Which one had the most lasting impact on music history?

*By YPB Team · Published April 21, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-most-influential-soul-album-in-history*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **What's Going On**
   Marvin Gaye's 1971 album proved soul music could be socially engaged and artistically ambitious, inspiring generations of politically conscious musicians across every genre.
2. **Live at the Apollo**
   James Brown's 1963 live record redefined what a live album could be, established his showmanship template, and influenced everything from hip-hop to funk for the next 60 years.
3. **I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You**
   Aretha Franklin's 1967 debut set the standard for all vocal soul that followed — the most-emulated template of gospel-soul power, emotional authenticity, and musical intelligence.
4. **Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul**
   Otis Redding's 1965 album defined Southern soul's passionate, gospelized style and became the most studied template for emotional soul singing ever recorded.
5. **Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music**
   Ray Charles' 1962 crossover record proved that Black soul music and white country could coexist, reshaping American music and opening new commercial pathways for soul artists.
6. **Songs in the Key of Life**
   Stevie Wonder's 1976 double album gave soul music new artistic heights to aspire to — complex, joyful, and spiritually open in ways that influenced countless artists.
7. **Curtis**
   Curtis Mayfield's 1970 self-titled album established the template for socially conscious soul — funky, lyrically searching, and instrumentally innovative in ways that predicted both disco and hip-hop.
8. **Hot Buttered Soul**
   Isaac Hayes' 1969 epic transformed soul music's possibilities — extended vamps, orchestral lushness, and a new kind of masculine vulnerability that invented smooth soul and influenced disco.
9. **Sam Cooke at the Copa**
   Sam Cooke's 1964 live album showed soul music could reach the white mainstream, fusing nightclub sophistication with gospel roots in a way that opened doors for every soul artist that followed.
10. **Amazing Grace**
   Aretha Franklin's 1972 gospel-soul live album reconnected soul music to its church roots and became the best-selling live gospel album ever, influencing every gospel-soul singer since.
11. **Back to Black**
   Amy Winehouse's 2006 album revived classic soul tropes for the 21st century, winning 5 Grammys and inspiring a global wave of retro-soul artists and the entire contemporary soul revival.
12. **Superfly**
   Curtis Mayfield's 1972 soundtrack pioneered the approach of treating film music as serious artistic statement, influencing decades of soul, hip-hop, and film scoring.

Tags: music, classics, soul