Customer Reviews
Funky Divas - By: Mr. M. R. Pountney, 08 Mar 2004 
Exactly what it says on the packet!James Brown
Bumper Size Hunk'o'Funk - By: olip74, 01 Mar 2004 
Forget the many 'Greatest Hits' compilations that James Brown has released, with all the popular tracks such as 'Sex Machine' & 'It's a Man's, Man's World', etc. There are two essential purchases to make if you want to get the 'best of'. One is the JBs Anthology (cf.) & the other is this two CD offering. The former is superior IMHO - 2 CDs of sheer quality sweat-inducing funk from beginning to end - though this is well worth the asking price too. It contains ballads & funk tracks by all the main female vocalists to be produced & promoted by the man himself - many were also his girlfriends incidentally, surprise huh?
The first CD deals with the 60s & has only a few highlights, perhaps the best of which are the Marva Whitney offerings nearing the end. There are several tracks here from her seminal & much-sampled 'It's My Thing' album which nowadays goes for c. £200 for an original copy. It inlcudes the track 'Unwind Yourself' which was famously sampled by the 45-king for the '900 number' track.
The second CD covers the 70s & is a gem from start to finish with all the best tracks ever recorded by Vicki Anderson & Lynn Collins, including 'Message From the Soul Sisters', 'Think' & 'You Can't Love Me if You Don't Respect Me'. The gospel inspired 'Lord Will Make a Way' by T.V. Momma is also a pearl and, I think, quite rare (anyone?). Sampled by virtually everyone, the funk on this CD is electric & would make mincemeat of any dancefloor, trust me I've witnessed it!
The only problem with buying this compilation is that it takes the fun & rationale out of buying it's constituent parts on their original albums as all the best tracks are on here. Leave that to the collectors though, if you want 'the best' of JBin a cheap & accessible format this is half of it (don't forget the JBs Anthology though).
