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This 16-track set from Be Bop Deluxe's short but productive four-year, six-album career captures a handful of highlights from each release, and adds both sides of a rare 1973 single, which see their first CD appearance. Oddly those two songs close the disc, which otherwise is in strict chronological order as it traces the band's evolution from its vaguely glam roots to a more progressive-minded entity that could also churn out snappy near-hits. The specter of David Bowie is never far from the spotlight, especially given that singer/songwriter/frontman Bill Nelson (who also pens witty and reflective liner notes) sounds a lot like Ziggy Stardust. The music also approximates various aspects in Bowie's career, although the synths and general production seem not to have fared quite as well…

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes were one of the very first groups to achieve global success for Philadelphia International Records within its first year as a CBS-distributed label. The 1972 release of two consecutive ‘tell-it-like-it-is’ ballads – ‘I Miss You’ and ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’ – marked the start of a four-year association that yielded some of the most enduring recordings in contemporary soul music, in the process creating – with label founders Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff and a burgeoning coterie of talented songwriters, arrangers and musicians – a handful of timeless dance music classics including ‘The Love I Lost’, ‘Bad Luck’ and ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’.