Philadelphia International The Collection edition with SOS Band box set

Here we go with the latest edition of the Teenbeat series launched a few years back where I look at music that for me at least is linked with my childhood.

Released Monday May 5th in the UK comes this box set of 20 individual artist studio cds from the label synonymous with that styling of Soul Music from the late 1960's to the early 80's around the city of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia International record label where most but not all the key artists issued their recordings.
And that's really where this set scores over previous box sets as it gives you prime slices of the artists albums  as issued of which at least five I and many others would regard as essential albums in a soul collection
Album list:
1.Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (1972)
2.Back Stabbers – The O’Jays (1972)
3.360 Degrees of Billy Paul – Billy Paul (1972)
4. Save The Children – The Intruders (1973)
5.The Three Degrees – The Three Degrees (1973)
6.Ship Ahoy – The O’Jays (1973)
7.Love Is The Message – MFSB (1973)
8.Keep Smilin’ – Bunny Sigler (1974)
9.Wake Up Everybody – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (1975)
10.All Things In Time – Lou Rawls (1976)
11.Life On Mars – Dexter Wansel (1976)
12.The Jacksons – the Jacksons (1976)
13.Teddy Pendergrass – Teddy Pendergrass (1976)
14.Jean Carn – Jean Carn (1976)
15.The Jones Girls – The Jones Girls (1979)
16.Edwin Birdsong – Edwin Birdsong (1979)
17.McFadden and Whitehead – McFadden and Whitehead (1979)
18.When You Hear Lou You’ve Heard It All – Lou Rawls (1977)
19.I’m In Love Again – Patti LaBelle (1983)
20.Life is A Song Worth Singing – Teddy Pendergrass (1978)

A good number of these albums were re-issued on cd  as part of the Sony Legacy Blues&Soul series from the 1990's to early 00's but are out of print attracting high prices new  as well as used but this set uses the same mastering so at a stroke restoring them to the catalogue.

They come in thick card lp style jackets reproducing front and rear lp art clearly with a booklet that gives a brief synopsis of each album and full credits.

Highlights for me are Save The Children, an Intruders album I grew up with on the amazingly clunky 8 Track tape with songs like "I'll Always Love My Mama", the Three Degrees self titled with it's clutch of hit singles such as When Will I See You Again" and the very jazz influenced Life On Mars by arranger and recording artist Dexter Wansel.

For around GBP £38 it's an amazing bargain that gets you exploring further this musically rich seam.

Recently another box set arrived but altogether a different proposition for this was the entire output of a single band whose label was together with Los Angeles based Solar Records the next wave with Motown's star begin eclipsed in the early 70's by Philadelphia International and itself being eclipsed by Solar and this bands label, Tabu Records whose artists who included Alexander O'Neal and Cherrelle of whom I liked in my teens.

Many would say the SOS band were one of the finest pervasive  soul groups of the 1980's but their recordings had been unavailable new for a good while with the earliest titles not even receiving a cd release. 

I had cassette issues of a few albums at the time but they were worn and I was looking for replacements.

In 2013 a Tabu Records re-issue campaign was launched which included the re-issuing of their albums with bonus tracks and a by-product of this was a boxed set version where each album was packaged as a mini lp with just the original tracks and with extra discs for 7 and 12 remixes with a booklet.

I opted for that in around March 2014 this was eventually released as it was just what I was looking for - a complete set of albums - and also it was cheaper than the individual editions.
While some of the bonus tracks have been taken from vinyl, the main albums were not and sound very good on this set.