Since 2015: The legacy of the 100-ish influencers
Since the original blogpost was published in July 2015 several of the artists have or retired while many artists continue recording and performing. The National Recording Registry established by the Library of Congress, various career achievement honors presented by organizations such as the Americana Music Awards, the Kennedy Center, and The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (The Grammys) are some of the ways the legacies of the artists below have garnered recognition. Several artists have been the subjects of documentaries, scholarly studies and biographies while others have lent their writing talents to memoirs and as well as film, television, and musical theatre productions.
ABBA reunited and released their first new album since 1982 Voyage which included the song “I Still Have Faith in You” nominated for the 2021 Grammy for Record of the Year, their first ever nomination.
Anita Baker retired from recording in 2021.
Jazz legend Annie Ross died in July 2020.
Aretha Franklin died in 2018. The Pulitzer Prize committee awarded her a posthumous special citation. Her career was honored via National Geographic’s Genius television mini-series starring Cynthia Enrivo and the 2021 theatrical release Respect starring Jennifer Hudson.
When Barbra Streisand released Encore: Movies Partners Sing Broadway in 2016 it entered the Billboard 200 chart at the top making her the female artist with the most number one pop albums in U.S. pop music history. Encore, The Music…The Mem’ries…The Music (2017), and Walls (2018) were all nominated in the Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy category bringing her total nominations to 43 ranking her third behind Beyoncé and Dolly Parton’s nominations.
Bessie Smith is the subject of memoirist and poet Jackie Kay’s 2021 book Bessie Smith: A Poet's Biography of a Blues Legend.
Bette Midler won a Tony Award for her performance as Dolly Levi in as Broadway revival of Hello Dolly! and received Kennedy Center Honors in 2021. She has continued acting in film (The Glorias) and television (Coastal Elites, The Politician)
Director Michelle Parkerson’s 1980 documentary …But Then, She’s Betty Carter capturing the dynamic style of Betty Carter was broadcast on the Criterion Channel in 2021 as part of a retrospective on Parkerson’s career.
In 2019 journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl’s Billie Holiday documentary Billie was released. Vocalist Andra Day earned a 2021 Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her portrayal in Lee Daniels’ The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Holiday’s interpretation of Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” was one of the outstanding historic recordings inducted in the 2021 Grammy Hall of Fame cohort.
Bobbie Gentry’s career received the deluxe boxed set treatment in 2018 via the eight CD set The Girl from Chickasaw County: The Complete Capitol Masters (Capitol and Universal Music Enterprises). Her 1967 debut Ode to Billie Joe was ranked #83 on NPR’s 2017 list of the best albums made by female artists.
Bonnie Raitt released 2016’s Dig in Deep and 2022’s Just Like That on her Redwing Records label. Her 1989 album Nick of Time was entered into the National Recording Registry in 2022.
Brenda Lee was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. Her hit “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” remains a perennial radio favorite during the Christmas holidays.
Carly Simon wrote the memoirs Boys in the Trees in 2015 and Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie in 2019. Simon was an inductee into the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class.
Carole King received Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an artist in 2021, and received Golden Globe and Grammy Award nominations for co-writing the “Here I Am (singing My Way Home” for the 2021 Aretha Franklin biopic Respect.
In 2017 NPR ranked Cassandra Wilson’s 1993 album Blue Light ‘Til Dawn #65 on its list of the 150 top albums made by female artists. Berklee College of Music honored her with an honorary doctorate in Music in 2020.
Angélique Kidjo honored Celia Cruz on a Grammy Award winning 2019 tribute album Celia. The City of New York City renamed an intersection in the Bronx Celia Cruz Way.
The Chicks dropped the “Dixie” from their name in June 2020 and in July 2020 released their first album in 14 years Gaslighter.
Chrissie Hynde wrote the memoir Reckless: My Life as a Pretender in 2015 and has continued recording. The Pretenders released Alone (2016) and Hate for Sale (2020), and Hynde released the solo interpretive album Valve Bone Woe in 2019.
Darlene Love’s album Introducing Darlene Love was released in 2015 and she occasionally acts in television programs and movies.
Debbie Harry released her sixth solo album, Pollinator, in 2017, and the memoir Face It in 2019.
Diana Ross & the Supremes lost original member Mary Wilson in 2021. Diana Ross received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 by President Barack Obama.
Dionne Warwick received the Grammy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
Dolly Parton remains one of the busiest artists in showbiz. She has released four albums since 2016 including Pure and Simple, I Believe in You, A Holly, Dolly Christmas, and Run, Rose, Run. In 2019 “Coat of Many Colors” was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her songs inspired the NBC television movie Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors, and Netflix’s Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, and 2020’s Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square. She was also the subject of the 2019 documentary Here I Am. Somehow, she also managed to write Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. Whew!
In 2018 the musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical which Donna Summer had been working on prior to her death premiered on Broadway.
Dusty Springfield’s 1969 classic Dusty in Memphis was entered into the National Recording Registry in 2019. In 2017 NPR ranked it #45 among the 150 best albums by female artists.
In 2017 Leonardo Padrón’s Edith Piaf musical Piaf, voz y delirio debuted.
Ella Fitzgerald’s prolific recording career continues yielding unreleased gems. Some of the more notable examples include 2017’s Live at Chautauqua, 2018’s Ella at Zardi’s and 2020’s Ella: The Lost Berlin Tapes. Filmmaker Leslie Woodhead also directed the 2019 documentary on Fitzgerald’s life and career, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things.
Emmylou Harris received 2015’s Polar Music Prize awarded annually to a classical and popular musician by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music; she and Rodney Crowell earned an award from the Americana Music Association in 2016 for their 2015 duet album; and the Grammys honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
Erykah Badu has released two mixtapes of music since 2015, appeared on film and television occasionally, and toured. Her 1997 debut Baduizm was ranked #12 on NPR’s 2017 list of the 150 best albums by female artists.
Fleetwood Mac‘s Christine McVie released an album with Lindsey Buckingham in 2017, was the subject of a 2019 BBC documentary, and was honored in 2021 with the Trailblazer Award by the UK Americana Awards. Stevie Nicks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2019 and released the concert film 24 Karat Gold: The Concert in 2020. In 2020 Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 #1 pop hit “Dreams” (written by Nicks) re-entered the Billboard top 100 thanks to a popular Tik-Tok video.
Gladys Knight is a 2022 honoree for the Kennedy Center Honors.
Gloria Estefan’s life and career came alive onstage in 2015’s Broadway musical On Your Feet! In 2018 she received Kennedy Center Honors and she and her creative partner and husband Emilio Estefan received the 2019 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
In 2016 Heart released the album Beautiful Broken and launched a tour in 2019.
The Americana Music and Awards honored Irma Thomas with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance in 2018. Her original recording of “Time is On My Side” was welcomed into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2021.
Janis Joplin’s legacy was chronicled in Amy J. Berg’s documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue in 2015.
Joan Armatrading released the albums Not Too Far Away in 2018 and Consequences in 2021. She was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2016 and the subject of the 2019 BBC documentary Me Myself I.
Joan Baez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. In 2018 album Whistle Down the Wind was nominated for a Grammy award. In 2020 she was also awarded Kennedy Center Honors.
Joan Jett and her band the Blackhearts were Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees in 2015. The 2018 documentary Bad Reputation, directed by Kevin Kerslake told Jett’s story. The band released the acoustic album Changeup in 2022.
Joni Mitchell’s musical and cultural influence continues to inspire her fellow musicians and admirers. Author David Yaffe assessed her musical legacy in the acclaimed 2018 biography Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell. 2020 saw the launch of the ambitious Joni Mitchell Archives release program with Rhino Records which began with the five-disc Joni Mitchell Archives—The Early Years Volume 1 (1963-1967) which received the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. In 2021 she received Kennedy Center Honors and was honored as the 2022 MusiCares Person of the Year by the Recording Academy.
Judy Collins most recent album releases include Strangers Again (2015), Everybody Knows (2017), Winter Stories (2019), and Spellbound (2022). Her 2017 collaboration with Ari Heist, Silver Skies Blue, earned them a Grammy Award nomination for Best Folk Album. That same year her 1970 version of “Amazing Grace” was selected for the National Recording Registry.
Judy Garland’s 1939 recording of the Wizard of Oz’s “Over the Rainbow” was entered into the National Recording Registry in 2016. Renee Zellweger received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Garland in the 2019 biopic Judy.
k.d. lang’s most recent recording is the collaborative album with Neko Case and Lauren Veirs, 2016’s case/lang/veirs. The American Music Honors & Awards awarded lang its Trailblazer Award in 2018.
K.T. Oslin released her final album Simply comprised of recordings of some of her originals and new songs in 2015. She was inducted into the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018. Oslin died in December 2020.
Karen Carpenter, and the cultural legacy of The Carpenters, remains a subject of critical fascination. Two of the more notable reflections on this include 2019’s Why Karen Carpenter Matters written by scholar Karen Tongson and 2021 Carpenters: The Musical Legacy written by journalists Chris May and Mike Cedoni Lennox with Richard Carpenter’s cooperation.
Kate Bush’s 2016 concert album Before the Dawn was a huge success on the UK that revived interest in her recording catalog. In 2018 she released a collection of her lyrics, How to Be Invisible, followed a year later by the rarities collection The Other Sides. In 2022 the use of her hit “Running Up That Hill” in season four of the Netflix series Stranger Things led to its re-emergence on the Billboard singles chart peaking at #4.
Linda Ronstadt’s 1987 collaboration with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, Trio was reissued with expanded track list in 2016 as The Complete Trio Collection. Her first live album, Live in Hollywood, originally recording 1980, was released in 2019. That same year her career was the subject of the award-winning documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice. 1987’s Grammy winning album Canciones de Mi Padre was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2021 and the National Recording Registry in 2022.
Loretta Lynn received the documentary treatment via PBS’s American Masters: Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl. Her most recent albums include 2018’s Wouldn’t It Be Great and 2021’s Still Woman Enough. She stopped touring in 2017 due to health concerns.
In 2017 the Berklee College of Music honored Lucinda Williams with an Honorary Doctorate of Music. She was also inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in 2021. Her most recent recordings include 2018’s Vanished Gardens (with Charles Lloyd and The Marvels) and 2020’s Good Souls Better Angels which h earned excellent reviews and earned her two Grammy nominations.
The 2020 film adaptation of August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom renewed interest in Ma Rainey’s musical legacy and earned five Academy Award nominations including one for Viola Davis’s performance as Rainey. Columbus, Georgia hosted the first Ma Rainey International Blues Festival in 2016.
Madonna was honored with the Woman of the Year Award at the Billboard Women in Music Awards in 2016. The GLAAD Media Awards also recognized her with the GLAAD Advocate for Change Award for LGBTQ advocacy in 2019. Her most recent album is 2019’s Madame X.
Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson was one of the performers featured in the 2021 Academy Award winning documentary Summer of Soul. Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia, directed by Kenny Leon and starring Danielle Brooks, was one of the most acclaimed television films of 2021.
Maria Muldaur released the Grammy nominated Don’t You Feel My Leg: The Naughty Bawdy Blues of True Lu Barker in 2018 and followed it up with the jazz set Let’s Get Happy Together recorded with the band Tuba Skinny.
Mariah Carey released one of the most acclaimed albums of 2018, Caution. After it debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart she became the first artist to succeed herself on the chart when 1994’s Merry Christmas replaced it at #1. In 2019 her 1994 holiday perennial “All I Want for Christmas is You” also reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 giving her more #1 pop hits than any other solo artist in U.S. pop music history. Carey reflected on her career in the memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey which became a New York Times bestseller, and the compilation The Rarities. She was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2022.
Mary J. Blige extended her recording legacy by releasing 2017’s Strength of a Woman and 2022’s Good Morning Gorgeous, and co-producing the 2021 documentary on her classic 1994 album Mary J. Blige’s My Life directed by Vanessa Roth. Blige’s acting and songwriting talents were recognized when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song at the 2018 Academy Awards for Mudbound directed by Dee Rees. In 2022 the Billboard Music Awards honored her with its Icon Award.
Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe’s recording of “When the Levees Break” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2021.
Miriam Makeba’s life and legacy were depicted in Niyi Coker’s original musical Mama Africa, which debuted in Cape Town in 2016, and came to the U.S., and Somi Kakoma’s Dreaming Zenzile which premiered in 2022 in Boston.
Nancy Wilson died in December 2018.
Natalie Cole died in December 2015.
Nina Simone’s life and career have remained of great interest inspiring both the well-known Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? (directed by Liz Garbus) and the acclaimed The Amazing Nina Simone (directed by Jeff L. Liberberman) in 2015. In 2018 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Simone and the National Recording Registry added Simone’s 1964 recording “Mississippi Goddam.”
Odetta’s 1957 album Odetta Sing Ballads and Blues was entered into the National Recording Registry in 2020.
In 2022 rocker Pat Benatar was (finally!) inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2017 PBS’s American Masters series chronicled Patsy Cline’s musical legacy. That same year the Patsy Cline Museum opened in Nashville, Tennessee. The Lifetime Channel’s 2019 film Patsy & Loretta, directed by Callie Khouri, chronicled the friendship between Cline and Loretta Lynn.
Patti LaBelle received the Musical Arts Award at the BET Honors in 2016 and the Legacy Award from the Black Music Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022. Her most recent album was 2017’s jazz set Bel Hommage. She remains an in-demand actress and personality, and is noted for her culinary signatures including her famous Patti’s Pies.
Peggy Lee is the subject of Tish Oney’s 2020 book Peggy Lee: A Century of Song. Artists across multiple genres continue to cover Lee signatures like “Black Coffee,” “Fever,” “It’s a Good Day,” and “I Love Being Here with You.”
Queen Latifah/Dana Owens has concentrated primarily on her film and television career in the 2010s and 2020s. She earned an Emmy nomination for her performance as Bessie Smith in HBO’s television film Bessie and was cast as the lead in CBS’s 2021 reboot of The Equalizer. In 2021 BET recognized her impact with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Reba McEntire has released three albums since 2015 including 2017’s Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope which received the Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album in 2018. The Kennedy Center honored McEntire’s artistry in 2018. She remains well regarded in the country music community garnering multiple recent nominations from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association.
Rickie Lee Jones released the albums The Other Side of Desire in 2015 and Kicks in 2019. She also wrote the 2021 memoir The Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour.
Roberta Flack received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
Ronnie Spector (of The Ronettes) released the 1960s themed set English Heart in 2016. She died in January 2022.
Rosanne Cash was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015 and was honored by both the Berklee School of Music and the Americana Awards in 2018. Her most recent album is 2018’s She Remembers Everything.
Sarah Vaughan’s 1978 recording Live at Rosy’s was issued for the first time in 2016 by Resonance Records. Elaine M. Hayes’s acclaimed biography Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan was published in 2017.
In 2022 The Shirelles album Tonight’s the Night was selected for the National Recording Registry.
Shirley Horn’s 1987 album I Thought About You — Live At Vine St. was selected by NPR in 2017 as one of the 150 best albums by a female artist.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 as an Early Influence.
The Staple Singers featured prominently in Questlove’s 2021 Oscar winning documentary Summer of Soul. In 2018 the Gospel Hall of Fame inducted the illustrious group. The group’s lone survivor Mavis Staples won the Grammy for Best American Roots Performance in 2016. Her life and career were the subject of the 2016 HBO documentary Mavis! and she was recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors (2016), Blues Hall of Fame (2017), Americana Awards (2017), and the UK Americana Awards (2021). She remains an active recording artist.
NPR selected Tammy Wynette’s 1969 album Stand by Your Man as one of the 150 best albums by a female artist.
The musical biopic of Tina Turner’s career, Tina, premiered in London in 2017 and became a Tony Award winning hit on Broadway in 2019. Her 1984 classic Private Dancer was added to the National Recording Registry in 2020. She told her story in the 2021 HBO documentary Tina in 2021 and was inducted as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Wanda Jackson released her autobiography Every Night is Saturday Night in 2017. She released her final album Encore in 2021.
Both 2017’s Whitney: Can I Be Me and 2018’s Whitney capture Whitney Houston’s story in documentary form. Her signature song “I Will Always Love You” was added to the National Recording Registry in 2020, and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that year.
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