This continues the strand of R&B and country collections associated with Acrobat’s highly popular “America’s Greatest Hits” series, this one focusing on the top R&B records in the US Billboard charts during 1960. This great value 115-track 4-CD anthology includes, with the exception of certain records which are unavailable for inclusion due to copyright restrictions, just about every record which peaked in the Billboard R&B Top 15 during that year. By this time, the R&B scene had evolved considerably as the rock ‘n roll scene had matured and Tin Pan Alley had marketed its teen-oriented offshoots, and there was an exciting feel to the charts, with substantial crossover of pop artists into the R&B chart and vice versa, with artists like Jackie Wilson, The Drifters, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke.

The big chart winner of the year was Brook Benton with three No. 1s and 23 weeks at the top, fourteen of those with Dinah Washington. With the blurring of the boundaries between the genres, the more traditional blues and R&B artists whose music had helped lay the groundwork for rock found it harder to reach the top positions. However, there was still a solid representation of old school blues artists like B.B. King and Jimmy Reed, and top class R&B singers like Etta James, Bobby Bland and James Brown formed the core of the chart, as well as the first chart incursions from the Motown stable by Barrett Strong and Marv Johnson.

As with all these collections, it provides a window onto a dynamic and exciting musical environment, and includes a number of unfamiliar names and recordings of which even enthusiasts of the genre may not be too aware, and which will be welcome additions to their collections. It contains a 12,000+ word booklet featuring background notes on every record.Acrobat’s British Hit Parade series has been established for well over a decade as a unique range of completist original artist collections comprising every record that appeared in the UK record sales charts in every year since the charts began in 1952. In recent years Acrobat has introduced parallel collections which consist of the B sides of all the records included in the main compilations, and these have proved hugely popular with collectors, since many of the records concerned have never been available on CD and are very rarely heard.

REVIEWS

“It’s R&B – but not as we know it… the collection includes some fine pop recordings by Elvis, The Everlys, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison, Sam Cooke and others alongside a lot of pop. Let’s consider what is R&B, and top of the pile has got to be the quartet of cuts by James Brown. Don’t you just love his pleading vocals on I’ll Go Crazy, the irresistible beat of (Do The) Mashed Potatoes – under the guise of Nat Kendrick & The Swans – or the double header on Federal 12370 hitching the grooving rocker Think to You’ve Got The Power, a fantastic duet with Bea Ford. The blues element of R&B is represented by three greats B.B. King platters, the Jimmy Reed favourite, the classic The Sky Is Coming from Elmo James and Buster Brown’s raucous plea to Fannie Mae to please come home. In complete contrast, Aretha Franklin is superb on the sophisticated Columbia cut, Today I Sing The Blues. The collection comes with a fat booklet providing vital statistics and notes about all 115 tracks…” – Fred Rothwell (Now Dig This Issue 445)

“Here's a package consisting of four  CDs, 115 tracks with almost five hours playing time, and a 48-page booklet… detailed notes are provided by Paul Watts and, backed up with information re the original label. It is a mixed bag, but a blast from the past that will not break the bank.”  –  Paul Harris (Blues & Rhythm Issue 352)