The 1960 R&B Hits Collection

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.