Soul Train

Did You Know?

• Before Soul Train, Nashville station WLAC-TV produced Night Train, an R&B music program hosted by Noble Blackwell that premiered in 1964 and has been described as the first nationally syndicated R&B television series with an all-Black cast.
• In 2016, all rights and trademarks to the Soul Train brand, library, and associated events came under the ownership of Paramount, through BET Networks.

History

The origins of Soul Train trace to 1965, when WCIU-TV, an upstart UHF station in Chicago, began airing two youth-oriented dance programs: Kiddie-a-Go-Go and Red Hot and Blues. The latter, featuring a predominantly African American group of in-studio dancers, set the stage for what was to come. Don Cornelius, a newsreader and backup disc jockey at Chicago radio station WVON, was hired by WCIU in 1967 as a news and sports reporter. Cornelius also promoted and emceed a touring series of concerts at Chicago-area high schools, calling his traveling caravan "The Soul Train." In 1970, he brought his road show to television. After securing a sponsorship deal with Sears, Roebuck and Company, Soul Train premiered on WCIU-TV on August 17, 1970, as a live show airing weekday afternoons in black and white. The first episode featured Jerry Butler, the Chi-Lites, and the Emotions. Cornelius was assisted by Clinton Ghent, a local professional dancer who later moved behind the scenes as a producer and secondary host. The program's immediate success attracted Johnson Products Company, which co-sponsored the show's expansion into syndication. Cornelius and his syndicator targeted 25 markets outside Chicago; stations in only seven other cities—Atlanta, Birmingham, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia—purchased the program, which began airing weekly on October 2, 1971. By the end of the first season, Soul Train was on in the other eighteen markets. When the program moved into syndication, its home base shifted to Los Angeles, where it remained for the duration of its run. Don Cornelius hosted every episode from 1970 to 1993, except for Richard Pryor, who hosted the final episode of Season 4 (1974–1975). Beginning in Season 15 (1985–1986), Tribune Entertainment acquired the syndication contract and continued producing Soul Train until the end of the show's run on March 25, 2006.

Program elements

Two enduring elements defined Soul Train. The first was the "Soul Train Scramble Board," where two dancers had 60 seconds to unscramble letters forming the name of that show's performer or a notable person in African American history. The host concluded the description with the phrase "...whose name you should know." Cornelius later admitted the game was usually set up so everybody won to avoid embarrassment. The second element was the "Soul Train Line," a variant of the 1950s fad The Stroll, in which dancers formed two lines with a space in the middle for dancers to strut down and dance consecutively. Originally a couple—men on one side, women on the other—later years saw men and women in individual lineups. An in-studio group danced along to performances. Many individuals gained notice dancing on the program, including Rosie Perez, Damita Jo Freeman, Darnell Williams, Cheryl Song, Louie "Ski" Carr, Alfie Lewis, Pat Davis, Alise Mekhail, Andrea N. Miles, Carmen Electra, Nick Cannon, Vivica A. Fox, MC Hammer, Jermaine Stewart, Heather Hunter, Fred Berry, Laurieann Gibson, Pebbles, and NFL legend Walter Payton.

Spin-offs

A brief attempt at comedy followed in 1993 with the Soul Train Comedy Awards, which ended the same year. Both the Lady of Soul Awards and Christmas Starfest last aired in 2005. In April 2008, Don Cornelius canceled that year's Soul Train Music Awards, pointing to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike and uncertainty about the franchise's future. New owners later revived the Soul Train Music Awards in 2009.

Theme music

Soul Train used various original and current music for theme songs during its run. From 1975 to 1976, "Soul Train '75" by The Soul Train Gang was used, later released as a single for SOLAR Records. From 2000 to 2006, "TSOP 2000" had rap vocals by Samson and music by Dr. Freeze, again featuring an Everette Harp saxophone solo; a portion of "Know You Like to Dance" was still used in the second-half opening segment during this period.