Please Please Please
Originally released in 1959 to capitalize on the crossover success of "Try Me,"Please Please Pleaseis a collection of 16 of James Brown's Federal A- and B-sides recorded between 1956 and 1958. Evenly split between ballads ("That's When I Lost My Heart," the title track) and uptempo shouters ("I Don't Know," "Let's Make It"), the tracks here all fall into the same sax-driven, gospel-influenced style that you could hear in any Southern chicken shack or nightclub during the late 1950s. The material is occasionally derivative or uninspired, but Brown's phenomenal vocal presence makes every track a pleasure. Though not yet the innovator he would eventually become, he was every inch a righteous soul singer, even at this early stage in the game.--Dan Epstein