Various Artists – SUPER BAD – 20 Orginal Hits / 20 Orginal Stars (1973)

When I was a kid there was a ubiquitous  TV ad for “K-Tel Presents: SUPER BAD, 20 soul-sational hits by the brother and sister who made them bad…” Not quite the right tagline, but I like my memory better than the video evidence below.

K-Tel made their fortune putting together compilation albums and marketing them on TV – they were one of the original “as seen on TV” companies. They are still in business and according to their website they have sold over half a billion albums.

Amazingly I have never owned this album and never heard it until I picked up a nice vinyl copy at the Electric Fetus this past weekend.  So after waiting 40 years how is it?  There are several songs most music heads would know: Isaac Hayes- Them From Shaft (which it is hard not to be alive and not know that song), Staple Singer – Respect Yourself, James Brown – Good Foot Part One and the Main Ingredient – Everybody Plays the Fool.

I discovered some pretty cool songs that I have never heard of and artists I have never heard of.  Number one find is Timmy Thomas – Why Can’t We Live Together.  This is an amazingly stripped down soul song: a simple beat, ball park organ and vocals – yet it is thermal nuclear funk. Put this song in the hands of the right producer and you could have an amazing hip hop song.  I have really never heard anything like it.  Although I swear Hall & Oates – I Can’t Go For That is based on this song.  Here is a pretty cool video of a live version of the song  (and ten time sexier than Robin Thicke’s Blured Lines video)

So if you want an inexpensive taste of early soul/funk pick this up.  I probably overpaid a $3 – but hey it was a Mint copy.

Below is the classic commercial from my youth: