The Top Billboard R&B Artists of 1976 - 1985 [Part 2 of 3]

In an earlier post, I listed the 35 acts that had the most singles hit the Top 40 on the Billboard R&B charts in the years 1976-85.  So which act had the most R&B hits premiere in the Top 40 during that time period?   Today, we'll list the first 26 acts on that list; the top 9 acts will wait for the next post.  If the artist had one or more #1 hits during the decade, the number of those singles are listed in parentheses following the acts' names.

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Fourteen Top 40 R&B Singles, 1976-85

• Evelyn "Champagne" King (2)
• Melba Moore
• Parliament/Funkadelic (4)
• Pointer Sisters 
• Luther Vandross (1)

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Fifteen Top 40 R&B Singles, 1976-85

• The Gap Band (3)
• Gladys Knight (2)
• The Manhattans (1)
• Ray Parker, Jr./Raydio (2)
• Rufus (4)
• Shalamar (1)

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Sixteen Top 40 R&B Singles, 1976-85

• George Benson (2)
• Natalie Cole (3)
• Con Funk Shun (1)
• Maze featuring Frankie Beverly (1)
• The Spinners (1)
• Deniece Williams (3)

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Seventeen Top 40 R&B Singles, 1976-85

• The O'Jays (4)
• Prince (3)

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Eighteen Top 40 R&B Singles, 1976-85

• Ashford & Simpson (1)
• The Isley Brothers (4)
• Teddy Pendergrass (1)
• Smokey Robinson (1)

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Nineteen Top 40 R&B Singles, 1976-85

• Bar-Kays 
• Cameo (1)
• Stevie Wonder (7)

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