For twenty years Bobby Byrd was James Brown's
right-hand man. In the latter part of this time he
recorded some groundbreaking funk such as the
much-sampled 'I Know You Got Soul' produced by
Brown. Before that he had spent the 1960s
recording a series of 45s, all produced by Brown.
This is the first-ever compilation of that work.
Byrd's family helped rescue Brown from his time in
prison in the early 50s. Byrd then let Brown join his
vocal group which was the starting point for his
singing career. Byrd led his backing group the
Famous Flames from this point on.
When Brown had established himself well enough to
make records with members of his revue, Byrd was
top of the list of those he wanted to record. This
compilation shows the power of both Brown as a
producer and Byrd as a singer. 24 songs have
Brown pushing the sound of R&B and soul, looking
for the next successful direction for his music.
These recordings, released on Federal, Smash and
King, are the missing links in the development of
James Brown's music and, as such, are historically
important as well as fantastically good music.
