The Buttshakers Gotta Believe

Given the diversity of songs recorded and released by the Pointer Sisters over the years, finding a well-rounded greatest-hits package isn't all that easy. The group's Millennium Collection isn't definitive by any stretch of the imagination, missing such obvious hits as "I'm So Excited," yet it does offer a good variety of Pointer Sisters highlights. It covers the early, eclectic years: the Sisters' first hit, "Yes We Can Can"; the bluesy "Wang Dang Doodle"; their Grammy-winning country hit, "Fairytale"; the epic funkfests "How Long (Betcha' Got a Chick on the Side)" and "Going Down Slowly"; and the Car Wash soundtrack inclusion "You Gotta Believe."

The second volume of The Complete Goldwax Singles sees us hit the labels golden period, where classic southern soul 45s pour out at a rate of knots. James Carr cements his place in the pantheon of great soul singers with a series of simply jaw-dropping singles. On this volume we have You Got My Mind Messed Up, Love Attack and Pouring Water On A Drowning Man before we get to Dark End Of The Street, the song that not only defined him, but quite possibly the whole southern soul genre. Volume Two is not just James Carr: the Ovations made amazing 45s at this period of the labels history, as did soul man Spencer Wiggins, who serves up the sublime Uptight Good Woman, among others. Other brilliant slices of southern soul featured are from Percy Millem, Eddie Jefferson, George (Jackson) and (Dan) Greer and Barbara Perry.

In a post modern world filled with mediocre music this album is a refreshing take on a genre that has its heart planted in the soul of almost every other genre of music heard today. Nelsen and the band kick off the party with a rockin’ blues tune titled “Don’t Stop Now” if you were sitting still before this number started playing you won’t by the end…..

British Beat was the term adopted to describe the exciting new sounds out of Liverpool and other cities in the wake of The Beatles' explosion onto the world stage in 1963/64. Named after the slang term forever associated with The Beatles, this mammoth 6-CD box set offers around 180 tracks in chronological order from the mid-1960s, many of which are new to CD and some of which are previously unissued. Fab Gear includes many of the era's biggest names such as The Kinks, The Moody Blues, The Searchers and The Tremeloes and other hit acts such as The Marmalade, The Alan Price Set, The Rockin' Berries, David & Jonathan, The Ivy League, Twinkle, Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers, Chad & Jeremy, The Tornados, Arthur Brown, Tony Jackson & The Vibrations, The Undertakers, Billie Davis, The Migil 5, The Truth, The Quiet Five and The Sorrows.

Who do we become when we live our dreams? It’s all here—the high hairdos, the dreams and schemes, the tender camp, the wedding bell fantasias and chaste tragedies. Sister acts, studio receptionists, classmates, angelic voices of the 1960s; some legendary, many hidden in the basement of expired rainbows. Gathered on this deluxe double CD are 56 (28 on the 2LP) foiled escape attempts, now free to soar in girl group heaven.