The Essential Music Library project is an attempt to get the many musical minds of the SDMB to sit down and discuss what works are absolutely necessary for a well-stocked musical library. There will be roughly 20 threads detailing a variety of genres so that we can get the depth that would be missing from a single-threaded discussion and the breadth necessary to cover what’s out there.
You couldn’t go wrong having collections by Sly & The Family Stone, Isaac Hayes, Al Green, The Staple Singers, The Chi-Lites, Sam & Dave, Booker T. & The MGs, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The O’Jays, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (when Teddy Pendergrass was their singer), The Stylistics, The Spinners… any group who was recorded in Philadelphia at Sigma Sound and backed by MFSB, singing songs written by Gamble & Huff, is pretty much essential listening. Even the few recordings Elton John made there are a breed apart from the rest of his catalogue.
I’m leaving out hundreds of names, because I could sit here all day naming R&B/soul artists who have amazing records, but they weren’t all mega-famous, and may not even have warranted a Greatest Hits CD. A collection or ten of these records made 1968-1975 would be important to a soul library.
The Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974 boxed set is worth every penny, covering early R&B sides, Professor Longhair, Ray Charles, The Coasters, Solomon Burke, The Drifters, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, Aretha Franklin, and all kinds of great one-hit wonders. If you’re on a budget or have a limited attention span, I’d recommend volumes 4 and 6 (I think you can buy them individually).
Al Green’s Greatest Hits
Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On
Stevie Wonder, Innervisions or Fulfillingness’ First Finale
That and the James Brown and you’re good to go, up to the early 70s anyway.
I’m going to take a different tack … more an R&B angle than purely a soul angle.
Quincy Jones’ The Dude.
Both temporally and musically an R&B record that serves as the gateway between the 70s and the 80s. Much of what was to come in R&B – for better or worse – was foreshadowed on this album.
Betty Wright, The Del Fonics, The Dramatics, The Whispers, The Moments( Love On A Two Way Street) The Chi Lites, Bloodstone( Natural High). I’ll have more for y’all later.
