Al Green - Greatest Hits

Few greatest hits albums are as consistently well-executed as this one. Released in 1975, Al Green's Greatest Hits distills one of the most productive creative partnerships in soul music, Green's work with producer Willie Mitchell at Memphis's Hi Records, into a single, front-to-back essential listen. Together, Mitchell and Green built the defining sound of '70s Memphis soul, lush strings, moody organ, punchy horns, and a steady, unhurried groove, across ten albums in just six years, and this compilation pulls the best of that run into one place.

The tracklist reads like a master class in soul songwriting: "Tired of Being Alone," "I'm Still in Love with You," "Love and Happiness," "Take Me to the River," and Green's signature song, "Let's Stay Together," all recorded during the most prolific and consistent stretch of his career. Green's voice, capable of moving from a whisper to a full-throated cry within a single phrase, sits perfectly inside Mitchell's warm, unhurried Memphis production, giving even the album's most upbeat moments an underlying intimacy.

Commercially, the compilation peaked at number three on Billboard's Top Soul LPs chart and number 17 on the Billboard 200, and it's held up over the decades as one of the best single-disc introductions to any soul artist's catalog. Green's influence on the genre was later cemented with his 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recognized as one of the most gifted voices soul music has ever produced.

This limited 180-gram vinyl pressing is the way to hear it, an essential entry point for any soul collection.