Customer Reviews

20th Century Masters: The Best Of James Brown (Millennium Collection)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This collection of James Brown's best "pop" moments is too limited in its scope, and too limiting in its depth. Yes, it has the essential (and played out) trio of pop classics, "I Got You," "It's A Man's World," and "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag." And a plus is the inclusion of the long version of "Cold Sweat," which many rate as THE most essential James Brown cut. But James Brown, the REAL James Brown, is not about being restricted to 3 minutes. Since less than 40 of the cd's 75 minutes are used, Universal could have done us all a favor by a) using the same songs in their long versions, or B) adding more of James' essential cuts, like "Please, Please, Please," "Out Of Sight," "I Got The Feelin'," or, yes, "Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud" (which was a top 10 pop hit, not that it's ever played on oldies OR old school stations). What's the sense of finally releasing "America Is My Home" on this set, and limiting it to part 1? This is one of the rarest of James Brown cuts ("World" is the other), and with all the extra room on the cd, it should have been issued in full length. Come to think of it, "World" was top 10 R&B. It could have been here, too. This set is not only a poor value, it is exceeded by every other James Brown collection out there. If you are a James Brown novice and think 20 Greatest Hits might be going a bit deep for you, pick up "In The Jungle Groove." In just 8 cuts (9 if you count the bonus beats), you'll have an introduction that should leave you salivating. All in all, even with the inclusion of "America Is My Home," this is a pretty lame excuse for a James Brown retrospective. I want my funk uncut!

Get 20 Greatest Hits or 40th Anniversary Collection instead. This one is not worth your time or money.

...than this mediocre '20th Century Masters' entry. James Brown is legend. When he died on Christmas Day in 2006, it was like a part of my childhood died. Brown had this amazing range, and without him, R&B, funk, and soul music (as well as some forms of jazz) would not have evolved. He truly pushed the envelope, and that is why this entry is so disappointing.

Sure, 'I Got You (I Feel Good)' and 'This is a Man's Man's Man's World' are here, but why stop in the '60s? Why not move into some of his '50s and '70s sides? And, why was this necessary (except as a cash cow)? '20 Greatest Hits' has been out for years (since the early '90s), and 'The CD of JB' is also available for the fan that wants to dive in beyond the hits, as well as 'Greatest Hits of the Fourth Decade,' which covers his Scotti Bros. years of the '80s and early '90s.

Buy all of those instead. Please, not this. This is nothing but a cash cow, and it shows. It's so lackluster. There's no way JB approved of this. Buy yourself a real James Brown compilation and get up offa that thing! Just not this.

NOT RECOMMENDED. 2 stars is ***VERY*** generous.

I suppose the massive 20th Century Masters "The Millennium Collection" served a purpose when it first started to appear on the shelves about a decade ago. Each volume was relatively inexpensive when compared to some at that time, and it covered just about all aspects of music. Potential buyers included those simply seeking to sample a certain artist or multi-artist genre, those collectors looking for a specific song and, when labeled the "best of" it was especially beneficial to collectors when it covered an artist with but a handful of hits, as usually (but not always) every such hit was there.

The sound is always very good, there are liner notes with each (2 pages here by Tony Green), but the number of tracks was always minimal, ranging from 10 to 12, but usually settling (for reasons known only to the distributor) on 11. The problem for most devoted collectors, however, came when they tried to cover "the best of" someone with a multitude of hits. For example, they even put out one titled "Best Of The Big Bands" - which you don't see offered anymore - and which, considering the many years of the Big Band era and the literally hundreds of such hits, was simply ridiculous.

And that applies as well to "The Godfather Of Soul" who cranked out 119 hit R&B singles, some 99 of which crossed over to the lucrative Billboard Pop Hot 100 between late 1958 and 1998. Trying to come up with 11 of those and claiming them to be his "best" is just as ridiculous.

Mind you, 6 of the 11 were among his R&B # 1 smashes (he never had one make it to # 1 Hot 100), but he had 17 of those, so the inclusion of a lesser hit like America Is My Home Pt. 1 (# 13 R&B/# 52 Hot 100 in July 1968) seems out of place. You could also say the same for Night Train (# 5 R&B/# 35 Hot 100 in spring 1962), Ain't That A Groove Part 1 (# 6 R&B/# 42 Hot 100 in April/May 1966), and Soul Power Pt 1 (# 3 R&B/# 29 Hot 100 in April 1971). Not bad tunes, certainly, but if you're going to put out an 11-track CD for someone of this magnitude and call it his "best" then there are many more that should have been included.

The 6 # 1 R&B hits included here are: Try Me (also # 48 Hot 100) from late 1958 (note that he re-recorded this in 1965 under the billing James Brown At The Organ, but this is the 1948 version); Papa's Got A Brand New Bag Part 1 (also # 8 Hot 100 and a full 89 weeks at # 1 R&B) from summer 1965; I Got You (I Feel Good) which spent 6 weeks at # 1 R&B and # 3 Hot 100 in late summer 1965; It's A Man's Man's Man's World (also # 8 Hot 100) from June 1966; Cold Sweat Part 1 (also # 7 Hot 100) from August/September 1967; and Get On The Goid Foot Part 1 (also # 18 Hot 100) from September 1972.

Picking four to replace those lesser hits I would have chosen these R&B # 1s: October 1968's Say It Loud - I'm Black And I'm Proud (Part 1), which also scored at # 10 Hot 100; Mother Popcorn (You Got To Have A Mother For Me) Part 1, which also finished at # 11 Hot 100; Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get), also a # 15 Hot 100 in August 1971; and The Payback, also a # 26 Hot 100 in spring 1974.

For the record, 35 of his hit singles were released as Parts 1 and 2, with most having just Part 1 chart.

An OK volume if all you're looking for is a particular song or two, or maybe one of the few out there wishing to sample James Brown for the first time.

You can't argue about the importance of the titles on this CD. What a loyal JB fan/collector *can* argue with is the apparent (presumed) haste with which it was assembled. Ofcourse the history-makers like "Papa's...Bag" and "Cold Sweat" are natural selections for the theme, but with the material so commonly available, you would think a peep inside the vaults for previously unreleased LIVE versions would have been appropriate for general listeners. One source suggests there are at least five basically untapped concerts on file. [Selling point for this reviewer/fan: 1st ever album issue of "America Is My Home" (Part One)"].

The Most Incredible CD I've Heard in a long tim

this isn't a Great Compilation when Compared Too other Fuller Sets.but for the new James Brwon Listner this is a Great Introduction too Some Of The Greatest Music Ever Recorded.James Brown is one of The Greatest Artists Ever.His Music is TImeless.