The box set attempts to present a history of the blues from the dawning of recorded music to the present day. It offers a survey of many different blues sub-genres and tangential music styles, as well as a survey of almost all the most notable blues performers over time. In 2004, the box set won two Grammy Awards for "Best Historical Album" and "Best Album Notes." That same year it was #2 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart.
This five-disc, 116-track box set presents a sweeping history of the blues from its emergence in the early 1900s clear through to its various contemporary guises, and includes samples of country blues in all of its regional variations, as well as cuts from string bands, jug bands, jazz combos, gritty Chicago blues outfits, and a look at how rock artists like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix incorporated the blues into their distinctive styles. Intelligently gathered and arranged, it treats the blues both from a historical perspective and from a working assumption that the form is still alive and well, continually morphing and transforming itself. There simply isn't a better or deeper survey of the blues on the market.
'BODYHEAT' was originally released in December 1976 as Polydor-1-6093 in a striking jacket illustrated by Virginia Team. The title cut's single release was his last highest charting single (#13 R&B) until "Living In America" in 1985 (#4 Pop, #10 R&B). A clavinet based funk-er, it features a steadier beat somewhere between his usual funk and straight disco. In fact the back cover of the album announced "James Brown - Brand New Sound." Surprisingly, the rest of the original album's Side One consisted of two ballads, the almost four years stale "It's A Man's, Man's World" retread "Woman," and the much better "Kiss In '77" which deserved more than it's #35 R&B showing. Brown seemed to favor the atypically restrained ballad, featuring it in his concerts for years after it's release.