Sweet Soul Music: 1964 [PA]

Performer: Various Artists
Producer: Dave Booth (Reissue)
Distributor: Infinity Entertainment Gr

Notes: Personnel: Sternphones (background vocals). Liner Note Authors: Dave Booth; Bill Dahl. In 1964, soul music provided a much-needed rebuff to The Beatles' seemingly unstoppable incursion into the American music scene. This smartly assembled volume of soul classics from 1964 does an admirable job at conveying the astounding power and wide-ranging stylistic diversity of soul from this era and includes raucous numbers like James Brown's incomparable "Out of Sight," chart-topping group sounds from The Temptations, and O.V. Wright's definitive reading of the Southern Soul standard "That's How Strong My Love Is". At this point in the digital era, classic soul compilations are a dime a dozen -- given how many times Motown, Atlantic, Stax, and Chess have reissued and repackaged their biggest hits, there's a good chance you have songs like the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go" and the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk" on at least a dozen anthologies. What makes Bear Family's Sweet Soul Music: 31 Scorching Classics from 1964 worth adding to your collection is that it spans across all of the major U.S. R&B labels, negotiating the typical licensing snafus to offer a truly panoramic overview of soul music's epic scope and scale. Moreover, each volume boasts the lavish, thoughtful packaging that is Bear Family hallmark: the mastering is pristine (better than has ever been heard on even the major artists) and the accompanying booklets are authoritative (averaging 60 pages in length, stuffed with color photos, track by track commentary and related recording data). In short, it's the rare retrospective that's as educational as it is entertaining. Additional highlights include Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Ain't Nothing You Can Do," the Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do," and Mitty Collier's "I Had a Talk with My Man." ~ Jason Ankeny

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