Now Available: The Complete Stax/Volt Singles (1959-1968)
When it comes to '50s and '60s R&B, there's a lot of competition in terms of which label delivered the best stuff, but there's no question that any and every list of possible contenders would feature Stax Records. But you can't talk about Stax without talking about two other labels: Satellite and Volt. Satellite came first, then the label changed its name to Stax in honor of its two owners (Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton). Volt, meanwhile, was Stax's sister label, but at a certain point the two labels became so synonymous that people started referring to them in the same breath.
Okay, that's enough history: now it's time to talk about The Complete Stax/Volt Singles (1959-1968), a five-star compilation if there ever was one, and a set that's been out of print for far too long. That situation has now changed, and this nine-disc, 244-track set is available again, featuring every single A-side released by the label during the nine-year span. That's a disc for every year! (Yeah, we know, that observation probably didn't warrant an exclamation point, but we were kind of caught up in the moment.)
We won't put the entire track listing here, because…well, frankly, think of how tired our fingers would be after we've typed out 244 tracks! Have a little sympathy, won't you? Instead, though, we'll steer you toward AllMusic.com's original review of the set: not only will it provide you with a complete list of everything that's on the set, but if a five-star review isn't going to do the trick to convince you that it's a must-buy, we're out of ideas!
