Trying a little harder than its generic packaging might imply, Playlist: The Very Best of Charlie Wilson kicks off with a 12" mix of the former Gap Band member's hit "Outstanding" before rounding up all the obvious highlights from the ...

There's probably a better way to celebrate "35 years of soul." This Greatest Hits, oddly enough, is a compacted edition (not advertised as such, for obvious reasons) of another Greatest Hits title released roughly seven years prior. It is that ...

It was inevitable that Whitney Houston would be subjected to a greatest-hits album after her untimely death in the spring of 2012 death, and I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston is the first of these, an ...

Many Stylistics collections are good, but this one features their biggest and best hits, including "I'm Stone in Love with You," "Rockin' Roll Baby," "Betcha by Golly, Wow," and "You Make Me Feel Brand New." ~ Cub Koda Live Recording The Stylistics ...

LIFE AFTER DEATH was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. "Hypnotize" was nominated for a 1988 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. "Mo Money Mo Problems" was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best ...

The first pressings of THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION included a bonus disc featuring rare tracks. Although Lionel Richie was AWOL for most of the '90s, he's still a pop culture force to be reckoned with, and THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION ably supports this ...

Eighteen tracks, from the early '70s to the mid-'80s, including his early Top Ten singles, but also minor hits like "Grandma's Hands," "Kissing My Love," and "Lovely Day." Those who admire songs like "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine" ...

ME AGAINST THE WORLD was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. "Dear Mama" was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance. Forget everything you've heard and assumed about rapper/actor 2Pac and think only of his music, which has ...

Recorded between 1987 & 1997. Includes liner notes by Tracey Helen New. Singer/songwriter Keith Sweat struck gold, platinum actually, right out of the gate with the multi-million-selling MAKE IT LAST FOREVER, an electric debut that spawned four top-10 R&B hits, one ...

Recorded from 1965 to 1972. Includes liner notes by Parke Puterbaugh. A satisfying budget-priced compilation, THE VERY BEST OF THE RASCALS is as good as any (Young) Rascals compilation out there. While Rhino's two-disc ANTHOLOGY 1965-1972 has it beat in terms ...

Lionel Richie's birthplace is Tuskegee, Alabama so for his 2012 country duets album, Tuskegee, he is trumpeted as the country boy returning to his roots. And there's something to that: as a songwriter, Richie has had success on the country ...

Recorded between 1956 & 1967. Includes liner notes by Fred Bronson. This is a superb single-disc distillation of the Platters' biggest hits, with all 15 of their first Top Forty hits, an astonishing run that went from 1955's "Only You (And ...

Aaliyah's debut paved the way for a legion of teen-aged female R&B singers, including Brandy, Monica and 702. Aaliyah is no kid, though; she sings with a maturity that belies her age. Much about her life has changed, but she ...

This stellar 1995 Christmas album is not your typical release of holiday standards. In fact, Luther helped pen most of the songs on this album. His originals include the excellent "With a Christmas Heart," "This Is Christmas," and "A Kiss ...

After switching his attention to supergroup S.M.V. and two consecutive live efforts, Brooklyn jazz multi-instrumentalist Marcus Miller returns to the studio for his first solo effort in four years, Renaissance. Showcasing a new stripped-down sound and backed by a young ...

That's Nas' ex-wife Kelis' wedding dress on the cover: she's a fellow recording artist, the two have a kid together, and she wasn't consulted about the album cover or the album itself. Life Is Good is that kind of album, ...

The soundtrack for Think Like a Man, director Tim Story's film adaptation of author Steve Harvey's best-selling book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment, features a who's who ...

After a stint judging the U.S. TV talent show The Voice, the hugely popular diva returns to making music of her own with this seventh studio album, the follow-up to 2010's Bionic. Having divorced in 2010, she viewed this album ...

It should come as no surprise that a woman who counts Dionne Warwick as a cousin, Aretha Franklin as a family friend, and whose mother was a legendary session and gospel singer, became a phenomenally successful R&B act. Perhaps more ...

It doesn't take much listening to Amy Winehouse's 1960s pop period piece to realize that this is a tribute with an edge--nice girls back then didn't sing about boozing and rehab. Since her 2003 debut album, FRANK, Winehouse has been ...

Originally released on Argo (4003). Includes liner notes by Andy McKaie. Digitally remastered by Erick Labson (MCA Music Media Studios, North Hollywood, California). When Etta James signed with Chess Records in 1960, the label decided to pair her raw, bluesy singing with ...

The '60s Blues Revival begins here. Calling this album influential is an understatement akin to calling the Grand Canyon a rut; suffice to say that an entire generation of musicians (mostly young and white) heard this and had their lives ...

This Special Edition includes all her videos and previously unreleased live performances. Some of the songs featured: YOU GIVE GOOD LOVE, SAVING ALL MY LOVE FOR YOU, ALL AT ONCE, IF YOU SAY MY EYES ARE BEAUTIFUL, DIDN'T WE ALMOST ...

Boz Scaggs's 1976 breakthrough, SILK DEGREES, was not only his biggest-selling album, it was also one of his best. Here Scaggs collaborated with keyboardist and bandleader David Paich, who would soon form the hugely successful band Toto with this record's ...

All the subtle variations on Kem's sound -- his exceptionally smooth adult contemporary R&B, modern quiet storm that has earned the singer two gold-selling albums -- add up to a set that doesn't sound like a mere rehash of his ...