20 All Time Greatest Hits!

iTunes Review

James Brown was far more than a performer of unparalleled abilities; the hardest working man in show business was also a savvy entrepreneur and a visionary who fashioned a far reaching musical empire in his own image, drawing on the talents of some of America’s finest musicians and singers to create an entirely new brand of music from the skeleton of fifties R&B. The spasmodic cries that Brown belted forth on “Please, Please, Please” set the template for Brown’s entire career by privileging impassioned minimalism and rough shod syncopation over coherent melodies and chord progressions. Brown’s early R&B rooted work with the Famous Flames is well represented here, but serves mainly as an appetizer for the pummeling funk that Brown and his collaborators would perfect in the second half of the sixties. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of singles like “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”, “I Got You (I Feel Good)” and the epochal “Cold Sweat,” to recapture the strange and inspiring musical possibilities once suggested by these now familiar tunes. 20 Greatest Hits is a vital point of entry into the career of one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.