James Brown on Vinyl: Where to Start With the Godfather of Soul

James Brown did not so much have a career as bend the last seventy years of popular music around himself. Born in 1933 in Barnwell, South Carolina, and raised in Augusta, Georgia, he came up through gospel and hard R&B, fronting the Famous Flames and turning a live show into an act of controlled combustion. By the time of his 1963 concert album Live at the Apollo, he had earned the titles that stuck: the Godfather of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, the hardest working man in show business.

Then he changed the rules. With "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" in 1965 and "Cold Sweat" in 1967, Brown pulled melody back and pushed rhythm to the front, landing every instrument on the downbeat he called "the one." That idea became funk, and funk became the foundation of nearly everything after it. Working with players like Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, and drummers Clyde Stubblefield and John "Jabo" Starks, he built a body of grooves that a later generation of producers would sample into the bloodstream of hip-hop. No single artist has been sampled more.

His discography is enormous, uneven, and spread across decades and labels, which makes it easy to get lost. The records below are the ones we reach for first at the shop: the funk landmarks, the film scores, the big-band curveball, and the compilations that make the whole thing make sense.

James Brown - The Payback

Released on Polydor in December 1973, The Payback is the sound of Brown at his most patient and menacing. The double album was assembled from sessions originally cut for the film Hell Up in Harlem and passed over, which turned out to be the studio's loss: the title track alone is one of the deepest grooves he ever laid down, all coiled tension and Fred Wesley horns. It has since become a cornerstone of sampled funk.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 1973 Polydor double album, deep funk at its most slow-burning and confident
• Built from sessions first cut for the film Hell Up in Harlem
• The title groove is one of the most sampled in the catalog

James Brown - In the Jungle Groove

Compiled by Cliff White and Tim Rogers and issued on Polydor in 1986, In the Jungle Groove gathers the extended late-1960s and early-1970s funk workouts into one essential set. It is the first album home of "Funky Drummer," whose Clyde Stubblefield break went on to become one of the most sampled few seconds in recorded music. If you make beats, this is less a record than a toolkit.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• A 1986 Polydor compilation of Brown's most extended funk jams
• The first album appearance of "Funky Drummer" and its famous break
• Assembled with DJs and producers in mind, and still their reference point

James Brown - Black Caesar (Original Soundtrack)

Brown scored Larry Cohen's 1973 film starring Fred Williamson, and Black Caesar stands on its own long after the movie faded. With arrangements from Fred Wesley, it moves from the aching ballad "Down and Out in New York City" to the strutting swagger of "The Boss," proving Brown could write for the screen as fluently as for the dancefloor.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 1973 soundtrack to the Larry Cohen film starring Fred Williamson
• Includes "Down and Out in New York City" and "The Boss"
• Fred Wesley arrangements stretch the funk into cinematic shapes

James Brown - Soul on Top

The 1970 curveball, and one of the most rewarding. On Soul on Top, Brown fronts the Louie Bellson Orchestra with arrangements by the great Oliver Nelson, reworking pop standards and his own catalog in a swinging big-band setting, including a brassy rethink of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." It reveals a singer whose range ran far past the one-two of the funk sides. This is the Verve By Request pressing.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• A 1970 big-band album with the Louie Bellson Orchestra and Oliver Nelson arrangements
• Brown reimagines standards and his own hits with a full horn section
• The Verve By Request pressing brings the session back to the racks

James Brown - A Soulful Christmas

Released on King Records in 1968, A Soulful Christmas is a holiday record only in the loosest sense, and far funkier than the category suggests. It carries the enduring "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" and, from the same run of sessions, the anthem "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." Warm, political, and grooving, it is a Christmas album that plays all year.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• His 1968 King Records holiday set, funk first and tinsel second
• Includes "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto"
• Gathers the era-defining "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud"

James Brown - 20 All-Time Greatest Hits

If you own one James Brown record, it might as well be this one. The 1991 Polydor compilation 20 All-Time Greatest Hits gathers the singles that rewired music, from "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)" through "Cold Sweat" and "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine." It is the cleanest way into a catalog that can otherwise feel bottomless.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 1991 Polydor set that collects the essential singles in one place
• Runs from "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" to "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine"
• The most reliable single-record entry point to Brown

If You Like James Brown

Five carried artists who share Brown's DNA, from the funk he fathered to the soul that raised him:

• Sly and the Family Stone: the other great engine of late-60s funk, turning soul into psychedelic, communal celebration.
• Funkadelic: George Clinton's guitar-soaked wing of the P-Funk empire, funk pushed all the way into acid rock.
• The Meters: New Orleans rhythm scientists whose lean instrumental funk is as tight as it gets.
• Curtis Mayfield: Chicago soul's conscience and a fellow master of the funk-era film score.
• Marvin Gaye: Motown's restless genius, moving from the dancefloor to the social document and back.

Brown is the foundation a lot of the shop stands on, so there is always more to dig into. Wander the wider Funk / Soul / Disco racks, or start from the ground up with our Essential Funk on Vinyl guide. And when you want every James Brown record we carry gathered in one place, browse the full James Brown collection.