Soulful Love Songs

Soul music doesn't just absorb and reflect love, transforming the strongest of emotions into timeless melody — soul music is love. Listen to any great soul singer, and every note contains the distilled essence of passion, pain and deep human connection that forms the experience we label with that potent four-letter word. Here, the greatest of soul singers create the gold standard for Soulful Love Songs, opening up with the majestic Percy Sledge and his 1966 stunner "When a Man Loves a Woman" (featuring the incredible keys of Spooner Oldham), and Aretha Franklin's 1967 gem, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman."

Prince becomes a king under the covers, and Smokey gets smoochy, in Next Steps.

"I've got so much honey, the bees envy me/I've got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees" — that's how the Temptations expressed that lovin' feeling on the mellifluous "My Girl" (1964), which was co-written by Smokey Robinson, but features David Ruffin on lead vocals. Smokey himself takes the mic on the title track from his 1981 solo album, Being With You, on which he employed his first wife, Claudette Robinson, as a backing vocalist, while Prince coaxes us towards the end of that decade with the epic closing ballad, "Adore," from 1987's Sign O' the Times. Tina Turner gives her soul a country flavour with a magnificent cover of Donnie Fritts' "We Had It All"

It takes two, baby . . . so we've lined up a bunch of soulfully loved-up duos in Deep Cuts.

Sometimes, one great voice is enough to express the boundless dimensions of that thing called love, but occasionally a soulful double team truly hits the spot . . . and that's absolutely the case when Lionel Richie (ex-Commodores) hooks up with Diana Ross (ex-Supremes) for the theme tune to the 1981 movie Endless Love. William Bell makes exceptionally sweet soul music with Judy Clay (who worked as a backing vocalist for the likes of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin) on "Private Number," Janet Jackson dials up support from Nelly with "Call on Me," and brother/sister duo BeBe & CeCe tap into a deep supply of harmony on "Lost Without You."

No other genre in the entire spectrum of popular music has the means to access, saturate and capture the heart quite like soul music — the greatest vocal talents in the history of recorded sound are paired with the greatest songs ever written to create a force ten love storm . . . and we've bottled that undeniable power in this stunning collection of Soulful Love Songs Essentials, every one dripping with passion and rooted in the most meaningful of human connections. We've got Etta James singing it like she feels it on "I'd Rather Go Blind"; Marvin Gaye offering the most effective of love therapies on "Sexual Healing"; Stevie Wonder celebrating telephone love with "I Just Called to Say I Love You"; and Minnie Riperton hitting all the right high notes on "Lovin' You." This is where love meets soul and the world becomes a better place.