At this point in the digital era, classic soul compilations are a dime a dozen ? given how many times Motown, Atlantic, Stax, and Chess have reissued and repackaged their biggest hits, there's a good chance you have songs like the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go" and the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk" on at least a dozen anthologies. What makes Bear Family's Sweet Soul Music: 31 Scorching Classics from 1964 worth adding to your collection is that it spans across all of the major U.S. R&B labels, negotiating the typical licensing snafus to offer a truly panoramic overview of soul music's epic scope and scale. Moreover, each volume boasts the lavish, thoughtful packaging that is Bear Family hallmark: the accompanying booklets average 60 pages in length, stuffed with color photos, track by track commentary and related recording data ? in short, it's the rare retrospective that's as educational as it is entertaining. Additional highlights include Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Ain't Nothing You Can Do," the Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do," and Mitty Collier's "I Had a Talk with My Man."