Album The Godfather: The Very Best of James Brown (James Brown). Songs and videos online

There are so many James Brown compilations out there that it can be tough to pick which one is the most suitable for a particular listener's budget or pleasure. This set from Polydor in the U.K. is -- for a single disc -- quite solid if bare in places. Containing 20 tracks and presented for a very attractive price point, it contains all major hits -- albeit edited single versions of some of them like "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine." Of course, there is plenty missing, but it would be easy to come up with what is -- tracks like "Mother Popcorn," "Hot Pants," and "Ain't It Funky Now" are all very conspicuously absent. But it's difficult to argue with what is here, even of the later 1970s material. There is no single compilation of James Brown's music that can really be considered complete, but this one, containing all original recording sources and stellar material, stands with the best of them despite lacking some cuts.