“Spanish Harlem” was Ben E. King’s first hit after leaving the Drifters. Written by Jerry Leiber and Phil Spector, the song was a №15 hit on the R&B chart in 1960. The song’s arrangement by Stan Applebaum features Spanish guitar and marimba to suggest the neighborhood’s Latino population and cultural heritage.

“Disco Inferno” was first recorded as the title track of the Trammps’ 1976 album. Released as a single, “Disco Inferno” only reached №53. When the Philadelphia group’s tune was included in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, “Disco Inferno” was re-released and shot up to №1 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart.

“Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud” was written by James Brown and his bandleader, Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis. Released as a two-part single in August 1968, four months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the black pride anthem reached №1 on the R&B chart and was a №10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

When “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie” was released, the band’s name was changed to Jay & the Techniques without their knowledge. “I think Jerry changed it because there was Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and Martha & the Vandellas, and he just didn’t like that single-name thing,” said Proctor. “It wasn’t that I was the leader of the group, just the lead singer on the song. Then it didn’t make sense to change it back after the song was a hit.”

In early 1966, Sledge recorded “When a Man Loves a Woman” with some of the area’s finest musicians: Junior Lowe (bass), Spooner Oldham (organ), Roger Hawkins (drums), and Jimmy Johnson (lead guitar). The band was borrowed from Rick Hall’s FAME Studios, where the Muscle Shoals Sound was born.

“She Works Hard for the Money” is the title track of Donna Summer’s 1983 album. Released as the lead single, it was a №1 R&B hit that year. Summer wrote the song with producer Michael Omartian. Its inspiration came after the February 1983 Grammy Awards ceremony when Summer attended a party at Chasen’s restaurant in West Hollywood. Summer and manager Susan Muneo encountered an exhausted restroom attendant named Onetta Johnson.

The Drifters would place nine records in the R&B Top 10, including the greatest holiday song ever put on vinyl: “White Christmas.”

The song was ‘Dancing in the Street’ and it became the Motown anthem “At first, I didn’t like it. But then I thought about my neighborhood and how we’d stay up all night, dancing in the street.”