The crucial subtitle missing is that this is the best of Tower of Power on Columbia, not a career-spanning anthology that takes in their material with other labels.
Since their most popular stuff was done for Warner Brothers, that creates quite a problem when you're representing this material in particular as their best.
With the understanding that this disc is limited to their Columbia catalog, it's a decent selection, through chronologically haphazard, drawing from the '90s, the late '70s, and nothing else.
For the most part it's competent funk, a little too heavy on the feets-don't-fail-me now braggadocio, as on "Attitude Dance." Yes, there are versions of their well-known "So Very Hard to Go" and "What Is Hip?," but take caution: these are 1998 live recordings, not the famous originals.
There's a previously unreleased alternate mix of "I Love That Girl So Much" from the sessions for their 1979 album, Back on the Streets, and it would be a pretty heavy price to pay for the whole disc just to get that one track, even for insistent completists.
Very Best of the Warner Years and the more extensive What Is Hip? remain far better best-of compilations on this band.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soul With a Capital "S"Emilio Castillo, Stephen "Doc" Kupka | Tower of Power | Play | 04:56 | 11 MB | 35 MB |
| 2 | You Ought to Be Havin' FunEmilio Castillo, Stephen "Doc" Kupka, Hubert Tubbs | Tower of Power | Play | 02:58 | 6 MB | 17 MB |
| 3 | And You Know ItEmilio Castillo, Stephen "Doc" Kupka | Tower of Power | Play | 03:00 | 6 MB | 19 MB |
| 4 | Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us NowEmilio Castillo, Stephen "Doc" Kupka | Tower of Power | Play | 03:59 | 9 MB | 23 MB |
| 5 | We Came to PlayEmilio Castillo, Stephen "Doc" Kupka | Tower of Power | Play | 03:31 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 6 | So Very Hard To Go (Live) | Tower Of Power | Play | 03:51 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 7 | What Is Hip? (Live) | Tower Of Power | Play | 05:57 | 13 MB | 44 MB |
| 8 | You're Still A Young Man (Live) | Tower Of Power | Play | 05:45 | 13 MB | 40 MB |
| 9 | Attitude Dance (Album Version) | Tower Of Power | Play | 05:34 | 12 MB | 41 MB |
| 10 | Funk The Dumb Stuff (Album Version) | Tower Of Power | Play | 05:27 | 12 MB | 39 MB |
| 11 | So I Got To Groove (Album Version) | Tower Of Power | Play | 05:39 | 12 MB | 41 MB |
| 12 | Souled Out (Album Version) | Tower Of Power | Play | 03:47 | 8 MB | 27 MB |
| 13 | Diggin' On James Brown (Album Version) | Tower Of Power | Play | 04:38 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 14 | I Love That Girl So Much (Previously Unreleased) | Tower Of Power | Play | 05:06 | 11 MB | 35 MB |
| 64 mins | 147 MB | |||||
| 64 mins | 447 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank "Frankie Foto" Abadie Jr. | Photography |
| 2 | Greg Adams | Flugelhorn, Horn Arrangements, Trumpet, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 3 | Ron E. Beck | Drums, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 4 | Tom Bowes | Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 5 | Lisa Buckler | Project Director |
| 6 | Michael Caplan | A&R |
| 7 | Brent Carter | Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 8 | Emilio Castillo | Compilation Producer, Composer, Producer, Sax (Tenor), Vocals |
| 9 | Alan Chinowsky | Engineer, Mixing |
| 10 | Bill Churchville | Flugelhorn, Trumpet, Vocals (Background) |
| 11 | Bruce Conte | Guitar, Vocals (Background) |
| 12 | Victor Conte | Bass, Vocals (Background) |
| 13 | Steve Cropper | Producer |
| 14 | Barry Danielian | Trumpet, Vocals |
| 15 | Biff Dawes | Engineer |
| 16 | Maureen Droney | Engineer |
| 17 | Dave Eskridge | Horn Arrangements |
| 18 | Richard Evans | Producer |
| 19 | Tom Flye | Mixing |
| 20 | Jim Gaines | Mixing |
| 21 | David Garibaldi | Drums, Syndrum |
| 22 | Carmen Grillo | Guitar, Vocals (Background) |
| 23 | Steve Grove | Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor) |
| 24 | Danny Hoefer | Guitar (Electric) |
| 25 | Michael Jeffries | Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 26 | Ken Kessie | Composer, Engineer, Mixing |
| 27 | Stephen "Doc" Kupka | Composer, Sax (Baritone), Vocals (Background) |
| 28 | Fong Y. Lee | Packaging Manager |
| 29 | David Mann | Horn Arrangements, Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor) |
| 30 | Patti Matheny | A&R |
| 31 | Herman Matthews | Composer, Drums, Percussion |
| 32 | Marlon McClain | Composer |
| 33 | Edward McGhee | Vocals |
| 34 | Jesse McGuire | Trumpet, Vocals (Background) |
| 35 | Russ McKinnon | Drums, Percussion |
| 36 | Alan Meyerson | Mixing |
| 37 | Nick Milo | Keyboards, Organ, Vocals (Background) |
| 38 | Gary Montalvo | A&R |
| 39 | Joseph M. Palmaccio | Mastering |
| 40 | Paul Perez | Sax (Alto) |
| 41 | Lenny Pickett | Lyricon, Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor) |
| 42 | Francis "Rocco" Prestia | Bass |
| 43 | Clark Rigsby | Mixing |
| 44 | David Ritz | Liner Notes |
| 45 | Leo Sacks | Compilation Producer |
| 46 | Darren Salmieri | A&R |
| 47 | John Scarpulla | Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor) |
| 48 | Al Schmitt | Engineer, Mixing |
| 49 | Paul Serrano | Engineer |
| 50 | Norbert Stachel | Sax (Tenor) |
| 51 | Jeff Tamelier | Guitar, Vocals (Background) |
| 52 | Chester Thompson | Arp Strings, Bass Pedals, Clavinet, Fender Rhodes, Mini Moog, Moog Synthesizer, Organ, Piano, Piano (Electric), Polymoog, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 53 | Lee Thornberg | Flugelhorn, Trombone, Trumpet |
| 54 | Tower of Power | Primary Artist, Producer |
| 55 | Hubert Tubbs | Composer |
| 56 | Kyle Wofford | A&R |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |