Track Listing

1. Doing It to Death - James Brown, The J.B.'s
2. Super Bad - James Brown, The J.B.'s
3. Soul Power - James Brown, The J.B.'s
4. Think - James Brown, The J.B.'s
5. It's a Man's Man's Man's World - James Brown
6. Try Me - James Brown
7. Bewildered - James Brown & His Famous Flames
8. Out of Sight - James Brown
9. I Got You - James Brown
10. Prisoner of Love - James Brown
11. I Got the Feelin' - James Brown
12. Maybe the Last Time - James Brown & His Famous Flames
13. Licking Stick-Licking Stick - James Brown
14. Mother Popcorn - James Brown
15. Papa's Got a Brand New Bag - James Brown
16. Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine - James Brown, The J.B.'s
17. Payback - James Brown, The J.B.'s
18. Please, Please, Please - James Brown

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106208 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
This CD is from the very earliest days of digital technology. It features 18 of James Brown's greatest songs. Interestingly, a few of the songs here are not the hit versions, but instead are alternate versions. Either way, they are all the great performances. Highly recommended. Universal.

Customer Reviews

JB will shake your money maker
This compilation oozes assertive confidence. It amazes me how much James Brown did with so little.

One of the things I like about this James Brown disc is that it isn't perfectly balanced -- the vocals are mixed way up. Some of the tracks sound like party jams. On "Super Bad", the trumpet gets a chance to improvise over a solid foundation of repetitive bass, guitar, and handclaps. I don't think there are even any drums on this track. Amazing.

When I would DJ at parties, James Brown was always a good choice for the music mix early in the evening -- lively, energy-raising, and too assertive to blend into the background later on, but great to kick things off with.

The disc has one jarring quality, and that's the way it veers from Brown's younger, more balladic studio efforts ("Try Me [I Need You]," "Prisoner of Love,") to the rougher, more aggressive quality of his later, funkier cuts. I might have put them in chronological sequence or even stretched out the material over two discrete discs. Still, it's hard to believe there's only a two-year gap between "Prisoner of Love" (1962) and "I Got You" (1964), the cut that precedes "Prisoner" on this disc. Stylistically, they're a world apart.

The subtle yet effective use of reverb on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," along with that simple volley of sixteenth-notes (an amazing single-note guitar riff) sounds as fresh today as it did when this take was cut in 1965.

There is not a weak track on this CD, which is why it made such good party-kickoff music. For me, though, the album ends two cuts from the end, with the question posed at the end of "Sex Machine": "Can we hit it and quit?" JB poses as a repeated call-and-response with his players. How many vocalists would have the nerve to create such sustained drama out of a question with such a predetermined answer? It's pure foreplay, and yet another assertion of Brown's confidence. Then the brass section hammers in the nail with five orgasmic blasts: BOM-BOM-BOM-BOM-BOM! And it's quit.

awesome first JB CD!
back in the mid 80's CD's were the new medium and early adopters eagerly awaited the conversion of some of their favorite albums from vinyl to silver discs. what a pleasant surprise to find this CD only release of this great compilation of JB "soul classics". there are eighteen tracks that highlight some of the godfather's best work with a few rarities thrown in. greatest hits albums by a lot of artists seem to be recycled , repackaged and reissued. if you have a chance to grab one of these original issue CD's, go for it.

Get on up
This CD is from the very earliest days of digital technology. It features 18 of James Brown's greatest songs. Interestingly, a few of the songs here are not the hit versions, but instead are alternate versions. Either way, they are all great performances. Highly recommended.