I Count The Tears - The Drifters Featuring Ben. E. Kinf
Last Night - Mar-Keys
Twist And Shout - The Isley Brothers
Stand By Me - Ben E. King
Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird) - Chuck Jackson
It?s Gonna Work Out Fine - Ike & Tina Turner
You?ll Lose A Good Thing - Barbara Lynn
Do You Love Me - The Contours
Green Onions - Booker T. & The MG?s
You?ve Really Got A Hold On Me - The Miracles
Hello Stranger - Barbara Lewis
Just One Look Doris Troy
The Monkey Time - Major Lance
Heat Wave - Martha & The Vandellas
Cry Baby - Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters
It?s All Right - The Impressions
Walking The Dog - Rufus Thomas
My Guy - Mary Wells
My Girl - The Temptations
Track Listings (22) - Disc #2
Where Did Our Love Go - The Supremes
Shotgun - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
The In Crowd - Dobie Gray
Hurt So Bad - Little Anthony & The Imperials
Got To Get You Off My Mind - Solomon Burke
Yes, I?m Ready - Barbara Mason
Sitting In The Park - Billy Stewart
I Can?t Help Myself - Four Tops
In The Midnight Hour - Wilson Pickett
Rescue Me - Fontella Bass
(I Got You) I Feel Good - James Brown
Seesaw - Don Covay & The Goodtimers
Cooljerk - The Capitols
Barefootin? - Robert Parker
When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge
Sunny - Bobby Hebb
B-A-B-Y - Carla Thomas
Knock On Wood - Eddie Floyd
But It?s Alright J.J. Jackson
Love Is A Hurtin? Thing - Lou Rawls
Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville
The Dark End Of The Street - James Carr
Track Listings (23) - Disc #3
Sweet Soul Music - Arthur Conley
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Tramp - Otis & Carla
Show Me - Joe Tex
Soul Finger - Bar-Kays
Gimme Little Sign - Brenton Wood
I?m Your Puppett - James & Bobby Purify
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson
Soul Man - Sam & Dave
Memphis Soul Stew - King Curtis
Tighten Up - Bell & The Drells
Expressway To Your Heart - Soul Survivors
Boogaloo Down Broadway - The Fantastic Johnny C
(Sittin? On) The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding
La-La-Means I Love You - The Delfonics
Cowboys To Girls - The Intruders
Slip Away - Clarence Carter
You?re All I Need To Get By - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Love Makes A Woman - Barbara Acklin
Who?s Making Love - Johnnie Taylor
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
Soulful Strut - Young-Holt Unlimited
Rainy Night in Georgia - Brook Benton
Track Listings (22) - Disc #4
I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
Turn Back The Hands Of Time - Tyrone Davis
Backfield In Motion - Mel & Tim
Give Me Just A Little More Time - Chairmen Of The Board
Band Of Gold - Freda Payne
O-o-h Child - The 5 Stairsteps
Want Ads - Honey Cone
Groove Me - King Floyd
Respect Yourself - The Staple Singers
Treat Her Like A Lady - Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose
In The Rain - Dramatics
Let?s Stay Together - Al Green
Betcha By Golly, Wow - The Stylistics
Oh Girl - Chi-Lites
Back Stabbers - O?Jays
One Of A Kind (Love Affair) - Spinners
If You Don?t Know Me By Now - Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
Me And Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul
Midnight Train To Georgia - Glady?s Knight & The Pips
Lookin? For A Love - Bobby Womack
Sideshow - Blue Magic
Kiss And Say Goodbye - Manhattans
Subtitled - The Greatest Soul Hits of All Time featuring 90 classic soul hits on 4 CD's (cross-licensed from many labels). Over half of them number 1's. Artists include Ray Charles, Marvelettes, Dobie Gray, Solomon Burke... more », Aretha Franklin, Bar-Kays, Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, The Impressions & more. Rhino Records. Four standard jewel cases housed in a box (12 x 6 x 1 1/4). 2002.« less
Subtitled - The Greatest Soul Hits of All Time featuring 90 classic soul hits on 4 CD's (cross-licensed from many labels). Over half of them number 1's. Artists include Ray Charles, Marvelettes, Dobie Gray, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Bar-Kays, Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, The Impressions & more. Rhino Records. Four standard jewel cases housed in a box (12 x 6 x 1 1/4). 2002.
"Let's admit up front that no soul music box set is going to be definitive, but Rhino comes awfully close with this 4-CD, 90-song set (amazon.com left off Dyke and the Blazers 1969 hit "We Got More Soul" as the last song on disc-3). Beginning with Ray Charles' 1959 classic "What'd I Say" through 1976's chart-topping "Kiss and Say Goodbye" by the Manhattans, this is a thoroughly enjoyable collection of some of the best soul music in pop history. As the amazon.com reviewer noted, these were not merely R&B hits, but huge pop hits as well. A whopping 67 of these songs went top ten on the pop charts, and 17 went all the way to No. 1. The only two tracks that didn't crack the Top 40 were Don Covay's "Seesaw" (No. 44) from 1965 and James Carr's classic cheating song "The Dark End of the Street" (No. 77) from 1967.While this box set cherry picks through the vaults of Motown, Atlantic and Stax-Volt for many of these tracks, what makes this collection so spectacular is that Rhino also has access to smaller labels like Sue, Wand, Charger, Karen, Nola and Crimson. So even if you own Motown's Hitsville USA box, you will not find much repetition here. What this means is that you not only get the superstars like The Supremes, The Temptations, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin (although Stevie Wonder is conspicuous by his absence), you also get get lesser known artists like Chuck Jackson, Billy Stewart and Arthur Conley, along with one-hit wonders like Doris Troy, J.J. Jackson and Barbara Acklin.For those of you who remember the Soul Shots and the Didn't It Blow Your Mind series that Rhino did in the Eighties, this is an excellent distillation of those. [At one time, both series had nearly 20 volumes each. I have about thirty of them on cassette, but Rhino has let almost the entire series go out of print.] If you love Sixties pop music in general or soul music in particular, this is a must-own set. ESSENTIAL"
Brilliant, Cooke or no Cooke
QTeacher | Oakland, CA USA | 05/17/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Often when a particular artist is not included in a collection it is because rights were not available for use of his/her recordings. That aside, this box set could not have a more accurate title -- it is spectacular in every sense. The PBS tie-in concert is a fund-raising staple for good reason -- 40 years of brilliant music performed by some of the greatest entertainers of the century. See it, hear it, buy it, love it!"
Excellent. Cannot be overpraised
Eric V. Moye | New York, by way of Dallas | 04/09/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Rhino has done it again! A phenom of a compilation. I guess any of us reviewers could rave about this song, or that song, lauding Barrett Strong's "Money" or Clarence Carter's "Slip Away". But if you can read this, you can read the playlist. read it and weep - for joy.This was the music a lot of us grew up on. Many of these songs are rather hard to find elsewhere, and for that, Rhino ought to be congratulated.Happily, Rhino has gone to the vaults, and brought out the originals, because as Dobie Gray croons in "The In Crowd": other guys immitate us, but the original is STILL the greatest!Worth every penny of the cost. The greatest, indeed, is found in this compilation."
Rhino 4CD Soul Box Familiar , "Spectacular" Starter Set
Anthony G Pizza | FL | 12/23/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If Rhino's 4CD "Soul Spectacular" had been released in the mid-1980s it may have stood with Clapton's "Crossroads" and Bob Dylan's "Biograph" as among pop's essential box sets. Success of films like "Dirty Dancing" and "The Big Chill" returned many of these songs to public awareness as baby boomers recognized them as part of the idealized soundtrack of their lives. As Ben Edmonds says in the liner notes, "This music isn't simply of its time; it embodied it." This was a far cry from music critic Dave Marsh once wondering in the mid-1970s if Wilson Pickett and other soul giants would one day be available only on bootlegs.
But the more than 20 years since have seen these songs anthologized countless times on soundtracks,hits and anthology collections (yours truly once owned every one of these songs in one recorded format or another) and played daily on oldies radio. (Barbara Mason's grand 1965 original, "Yes I'm Ready," far from the biggest hit here, has aired more than one million times.)
This collection's best and worst point is its familiarity. Even casual pop music fans know the signature songs of the Temptations, Mary Wells, Percy Sledge, Ben E. King and others here. No choice is a glaring misstep but some are questionable: why "I Count the Tears" from the Drifters instead of 1964's more popular "Under the Boardwalk" or 1959's more influential "There Goes My Baby?" Why James Brown's now-cliched "I Got You (I Feel Good)" over "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," one of music's most aggressive, important singles? Let alone essential performers (Sam Cooke? The Dells? Jerry Butler?) left out altogether. Motown, pop culture's most active recycling plant, whips through 1962-3 songs from the Miracles, Vandellas and Supremes; only three Motown hits are heard across discs 2-3.
Those two middle discs are the set's best as they zip through a variety of styles: Muscle Shoals soul (Sledge, Brook Benton) Philadelphia (Fantastic Johnny C, Intruders, Delfonics), Chicago (Barbara Acklin, Billy Stewart) and, of course, Memphis and Detroit giants. Each artist is represented by one song except Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding, featured on solo and duet track each. The liner notes tell little more than oft-told tales of Stax and Motown's records respective founding.
"Soul Spectacular" is just that; 90 clear-sounding classics worth playing at any party or road trip without a dud in the bunch (at least until deep into disc four with one too many smooth Philadelphia International ballads in a row.) It's a first-class soul starter set, with greatest hits sets from any major individual artist listed an essential buy.
"
A True Spectacular Even Without Mr. Cooke!
Steve Stalzle | Denver, Colorado, USA | 06/29/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"It is truly one of the best collections I have ever seen/heard!
Ok, it doesn't include Sam Cooke, but hey, you can't have everything! It has NEARLY everything BUT Sam Cooke!
Rhino obviously couldn't obtain the rights to Sam's music, but they have done a great job of obtaining some of the best of the Stax/Volt, Atlantic, Motown and other great Soul Recording Labels!
Several of these tunes have been PLAYED TO DEATH by 'Oldies' radio formats-- MOST OF THE MOTOWN STUFF--, but there are many gems in this set of CD's amongst the 'standards'--Gems like CRY BABY by Garnett Mimms, WALKING THE DOG by Rufus Thomas, MEMPHIS SOUL STEW by King Curtis, LOVE IS A HURTIN' THING by Lou Rawls, and oh so many more! There are 88 songs to choose from, and if you want a decent collection of Soul & R&B oldies, this is it!
I am a bit of a musicologist and
have studied this music for 20 plus years, and I must say that this is a very groovy 4 CD set for Musical Novices and Experts alike! I'm impressed!
I didn't rate it 5 stars because I agree that leaving Mr. Cooke out is not cool!"