Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Band Of Gold - Payne, Freda
2. Give Me Just A Little More Time - Chairmen Of The Board
3. Why Can't We Be Lovers - Holland, Dozier, Holland
4. Want Ads - Honey Cone
5. Finders Keepers - Chairmen Of The Board
6. Westbound No 9 - Flaming Ember
7. Somebody's Been Sleeping (In My Bed) - 100 Proof (Aged In Soul)
8. Deeper And Deeper - Payne, Freda
9. Working On A Building Of Love - Chairmen Of The Board
10. Women's Love Rights - Lee, Laura
11. Stick Up - Honey Cone
12. Everything's Tuesday - Chairmen Of The Board
13. She's Not Just Another Woman - 8th Day (1)
14. I'm Not My Brother's Keeper - Flaming Ember
15. Elmo James - Chairmen Of The Board
16. Crumbs Off The Table - Glass House (1)
17. One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Honey Cone
18. Pay To The Piper - Chairmen Of The Board
19. You've Got To Crawl (Before You Walk) - 8th Day (1)
20. You've Got Me Dangling On A String - Chairmen Of The Board
21. Rip Off - Lee, Laura
22. Day I Found Myself - Honey Cone
23. Boy's Home - Payne, Freda
24. I'm On My Way To A Better Place - Chairmen Of The Board

Disc 2:

1. Patches - Chairmen Of The Board
2. Love Factory - Laws, Eloise
3. That's Love - Hi-Lites
4. While You're Out Looking For Sugar - Honey Cone
5. I Shall Not Be Moved - Barrino Brothers
6. Taster Of The Honey (Not The Keeper Of The Bee) - Jones Girls
7. Wanting You - English, Earl
8. Can't Get Enough Of You - Edwards, Tyrone
9. Cherish What Is Dear To You (While It's Near To You) - Payne, Freda
10. I'm So Glad - Holland, Brian
11. VIP - Payne, Scherrie
12. Everything Good Is Bad - 100 Proof (Aged In Soul)
13. New Breed Kinda Woman - Holland, Dozier, Holland
14. Try On My Love For Size - Chairmen Of The Board
15. Let Love Grow - Holloway, Brenda
16. You Made Me Over - Davis, Melvin
17. I Don't See Me In Your Eyes Anymore - Hunter, Ty
18. Something New About You - Silent Majority (3)
19. Your Love Controls Me - Jones Girls
20. Mama's Little Baby (Loves Lovin') - Brotherly Love
21. Music Box - Copeland, Ruth
22. Don't Leave Me Starvin' For Your Love - Holland, Dozier, Holland
23. You Brought The Joy - Payne, Freda
24. I've Been A Winner I've Been A Loser I've Been In Love - Smith Connection

Disc 3:

1. Gimme Shelter - Copeland, Ruth
2. Life And Death - Chairmen Of The Board
3. Come In Out Of The Rain - Parliament
4. Unhooked Generation - Payne, Freda
5. Bump Your Lady - Natural High
6. Free Your Mind - Politicians
7. Bar B Q Ribs - Wynglas, Rachel
8. Sunday Morning People - Kennedy, Harrison
9. Time Gonna Change Everything - Lucifer (1)
10. Sittin' On A Time Bomb (Waitin' For The Hurt To Come) - Charles, Lee
11. I Need It Just As Bad As You - Lee, Laura
12. Stop The World And Let Me Off - Flaming Ember
13. Hanging On To A Memory - Chairmen Of The Board
14. I'm Bugging Your Phone - Smith Connection
15. Cheba - 8th Day (1)
16. Misery's Favourite Child - Payne, Freda
17. Chairmen Of The Board - Chairmen Of The Board
18. I Call My Baby Pussycat - Parliament
19. I Got It - New York Port Authority
20. Sliced Tomatoes - Just Brothers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26413 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set

Customer Reviews

Invictus Soul Box Set
This is real 'treasure trove' and higly entertaining as the style is one that is so familiar but which sounds fresh and new as you don't really know many of the songs. This stands comparison with any Motown compilation of the 1960's. Full of foot tapping, feel good stuff but with more throbbing bass than most of the earlier Tamla stuff could muster. Although many of the tracks were never UK 'hits', there is very little to grumble about on this 3 disc set.

the good stuff
I buy loads of random soul compilations and most of the time it's the same kind of thing, still great but nothing new. This compilation however is absolute quality. I'm not really sure if this material has appeared before on other compilations, but I've never came across most of these tracks. The whole collection is packed full of great tunes and there are very few, if any, that are doubtful. 68 tracks from feelgood tunes to soulful love songs, highly recommended.

The best and lots of the rest...
When Holland-Dozier-Holland escaped from Berry Gordy's Motown and started their own "thang" the eventual result was Invictus Records. This collection shows what mixed results that really had.

Sometimes the magic was still flowing like wine: many of the Chairmen of The Board tracks, and Lamont Dozier's "Why Can't We Be Lovers" being evidence for this, listen to the latter a couple of times to get the groove. However, sometimes the magic was almost nonexistent - pick unknown tracks in this collection for evidence of that, the Brotherly Love track for example. The musicianship is almost always great, but the material and the arrangements often fail to sparkle.

So, this collection is a "warts and all" retrospective of Invictus' output. It includes pretty much all the hits (actual hits and turntable hits). In that latter category are the excellent, but largely un-feted, "While You're Out Looking for Sugar" by the Honeycone, and "Westbound No. 9" by Flaming Ember. Also "Somebody's Been Sleeping" by 100 Proof Aged In Soul makes a welcome appearance here complete with its strange portentous intro (often omitted from compilation re-isues).

All the "Chairmen..." hits are here, and have been processed well, restoring the immense power these tracks had on Vinyl, but often lacked in various CD re-issues since (I always wondered how engineers managed to make "Give Me Just A little More Time" sound so feeble on those CDs!)

The label's signature global smash hit, Freda Payne's "Band of Gold", is here too, but what's this?? Freda's superb, but uncharted, version of "I Shall Not be Moved" is replaced by the Barrino Brothers version - which is, IMHO, not a patch...

In fact, having listened to the whole 3 discs, I would venture to say you could probably just keep disc 1 and discard the other two without TOO much regret. Sure, there is good stuff on discs 2 & 3 ("Try on my Love For Size" by the Chairmen... and the aformentioned Honeycone track) but the cream of this collection has definitely risen to the top.

So, should you buy this? Well, if you're an avid soul/motown fan and want to make a thorough exploration of the Invictus story, then you will find a great deal to enjoy in this box, but if you're only interested in the very best hit soul music, then probably there are better products with more concentrated soul goodness on them than this.