Song #85 is "The Boss" from 1973. It was issued as the A side of a single but failed to make the Billboard Soul chart. It was on the "Black Caeser" soundtrack album by JB. The album reached #31 on the Billboard LP chart in a 21 week run. The song was sampled in the Nas record "Get Down."




Okay, after a run of 5 funk things we are heading back to the 50s for song #84.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2gHpdPgFGk

I like the one where he goes HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!

There's about 50 of them.

Song #84 is "Hold My Baby's Hand" from 1956. The song was mentioned on 5 ballots and totaled 107 points in the voting. It was JB's third single, flip side of "No, No, No, No, No."It was later included on the "Please, Please, Please" album, in 1958.





Up next is song #83, and we are staying in the 1950s for this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOYx6I4MzJo

Song #83 is "Messing With The Blues" from 1957. It was on the flip side of "Love Or A Game" and later was included on the "Try Me!" album (in 1959).





Next up is song #82, and we go to 1970 for this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZJnCPoY7w

Song #82 is "Brother Rapp" from 1970. The single reaches #2 on the Billboard Soul Chart and #32 on the Hot 100 Pop Chart. It is included on the "Sex Machine" album, which is a studio album with a phony audience dubbed in.

In his 1986 autobiography, Brown related the lyrical message of "Brother Rapp" to his support of hip hop music:

I admire the rap and the break dancing and all the stuff coming out of hip hop. A lot of the records are messages that express community problems. Used right, those records could help prevent the riots of the sixties from happening again. If you know how a community feels about things, then you can do something about it... That's what my song "Brother Rapp" is all about. A fella is calling on his lady and protesting at the same time: "Don't put me in jail before I get a chance to rap. Here what I'm saying. When you see me on a soapbox out there complaining, don't lock me up. Sit down and join me." And that's what I'm saying about these records. Let 'em testify. Let the brothers rap.




Coming up now is song #81. This one was JB's last hit single of 1968:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWh_-Ig1kcI

Diane pointed out:

Writer's credit says James Brown but the song was written by Memphis Slim, recorded by him as "Messing Around (With The Blues)."

Thank you Diane. Here's Slim's version. It was a number one R&B hit in 1948.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crs3Yna01Ag

Song #81 is "Goodbye My Love" from 1968. This one reached #9 on the Billboard Soul chart. It was included on the "Say It Loud - I'm Black And I'm Proud" album in the spring of 1969. Occasionally some of JB's King singles were issued on label colors other then the usual blue.




RANK-BALLOTS-POINTS-TITLE
081 - 03-114 - Goodbye My Love
082 - 03-112 - Brother Rapp
083 - 02-112 - Messing With The Blues
084 - 05-107 - Hold My Baby's Hand
085 - 03-107 - The Boss
086 - 03-102 - Hell
087 - 03-100 - Unity
088 - 04-97 - Get It Together
089 - 03-95 - Escape-ism
090 - 02-95 - And I Do Just What I Want
091 - 02-95 - Shoot Your Shot
092 - 03-92 - I Don't Know
093 - 04-87 - Baby Cries Over The Ocean
094 - 03-87 - There It Is
095 - 04-85 - Stoned To The Bone
096 - 02-83 - Signed Sealed and Delivered
097 - 05-82 - It Hurts To Tell You
098 - 03-81 - Got To Cry
099 - 03-79 - Coldblooded
100 - 03-79 - I Don't Care
101 - 03-79 - Let A Man Come In And Do The Popcorn
=================================================

Song #80 is up now. This one is from 1962:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXHK_hWwMuU

Song #80 is "Shout And Shimmy" from 1962. It reached #16 on the Billboard R&B chart and got to #61 on the Hot 100 Pop Chart. The critic Douglas Wolk described the song as "a truly shameless ripoff of The Isley Brothers' 1959 hit "Shout"... basically the fast parts of "Shout" with the gospel inflections removed and the word 'shimmy' added." Wolk argues that Brown and The Famous Flames probably performed "Shout and Shimmy" in the October 24, 1962 concerts at which Live at the Apollo was recorded, but that it was left off of the album to prevent sales competition with the studio version of the song. Evidence to support this contention includes the fact that Brown customarily began his concerts with his latest hit (which "Shout and Shimmy" was at the time), and the presence of "Shout and Shimmy"'s a cappella opening ("You know I feel all right...") immediately before the first song on the album, "I'll Go Crazy". James and The Famous Flames sang and performed this song on Dick Clark's American Bandstand,on a telecast dated June 11th, 1962. A performance of "Shout and Shimmy" was the first track on Brown & The Flames' next live album, 1964's Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal,featuring a comedy skit between Brown and Famous Flame Bobby Bennett.

The song was the title track of the album shown below, with of course, two white people on the cover!




We now head back to 1959 for song #79.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fNKNHdSFfw

Song #79 is "There Must Be A Reason" from 1959. It was on the flip side of "I Want You So Bad" on a single. It was also included on the "Try Me!" album.





Song #78 is next, and we jump ahead 20 years to 1979 for this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AKF8Iupox4

Song #78 is "It's Too Funky In Here" from 1979. It got to #15 on the Billboard Black chart. It also appeared on the album The Original Disco Man.




Song #77 is next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz48PR__uSo

Song #77 is "Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto," from 1968. The song was written by Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis, Charles Bobbit and Hank Ballard and was the lead track on the "A Soulful Christmas" album, also from 1968.




We now go to song #76. This one is from 1972:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aml7u5CCwQ8

Song #76 is "Public Enemy #1" from 1972. It expanded upon the idea of "King Heroin" which may or may not be coming up later in the countdown. Both songs were on the "There It Is" album.




Next up is #75. We go back to 1960 for JB's version of a classic hit from Clyde McPhatter and the Dominoes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2UCnG-0LIc

Song #75 is "The Bells" from 1960. It was his first single on the King label after they moved him over from Federal, the flip side of song #90 "And I Do Just What I Want." "The Bells" reached #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was included on the album "The Amazing James Brown" in 1961.


"The Bells" played an important part in the early careers of James Brown and The Famous Flames. In their performances on the chitlin' circuit the group would act out the story of bereavement told in the lyrics, pushing a doll representing the dead woman across the stage in a baby carriage. As they passed Brown, he would fall to his knees crying and sobbing, eventually segueing into "Please, Please, Please." The routine was so popular that audiences sometimes became violent if they tried to perform the song without it.

Here is the Dominoes version:




Up next at #74 is JB's first ever release, from January of 1956:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-TaPJzSorg