Various Artists - The King R&B Box Set - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This continues the strand of R&B and country collections associated with Acrobat's highly popular InchAmerica's Greatest HitsInch series, this one focusing on the top R&B records in the US Billboard charts during 1961. This great value 113-track 4-CD anthology includes, with the exception of certain records which are unavailable for inclusion due to copyright restrictions, just about every record which peaked in the Billboard R&B Top 15 during that year. By this time, the R&B scene had evolved considerably as the rock 'n roll scene had matured and Tin Pan Alley had marketed it's teen-oriented offshoots, and there was an exciting feel to the charts, with substantial crossover into the pop charts through artists like Ben E. King, Ray Charles, Brook Benton, The Miracles, Aretha Franklin and The Marvelettes. There was also a significant weight of other records from the increasingly powerful Motown, Tamla and other labels producing material which would have a significant influence on emerging talent across the pond in the UK, like The Beatles, who absorbed some of the songs in this anthology into their repertoire, sowing the seeds of the British invasion which was soon to transform the pop landscape once more. With the blurring of the boundaries between the genres, the more traditional blues and R&B artists whose music had helped lay the groundwork for rock found it harder to reach the top positions in the R&B chart, and the foundations of the soul boom of the late '60s and 70s was clearly in evidence in many of the hits included here. As with all these collections, it provides a window onto a dynamic and exciting musical environment, and includes a number of unfamiliar names and recordings of which even enthusiasts of the genre may not

Various Artists - Inner City Beat [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/11/2014

From the team that brought you the original three Doo Wop Boxes comes this one, chock full of the rarest and greatest vocal group recordings from 1951 63, the golden years of Doo Wop. We present, not only some of the greatest names the Moonglows, the Flamingos, the Heartbeats but their hardest to find recordings too. Compiled and annotated by Grammy winner Billy Vera, this may be our most fabulous set yet. If you were to buy the original vinyl copies of these classics, it would cost you several hundred thousand dollars that is if you could find them. This is a Doo-Wop box that no serious collector can afford not to own. And you'll never hear them sounding as good, thanks to master re-mastering expert Jerry Peterson.