Star Time

Disc 1 ("Mr. Dynamite")

1. "Please Please Please" (James Brown, Johnny Terry) – 2:43
2. "Why Do You Do Me" (Bobby Byrd, Sylvester Keels) – 2:59
3. "Try Me" (Brown) – 2:30
4. "Tell Me What I Did Wrong" (Brown) – 2:20
5. "Bewildered" (Leonard Whitcup, Teddy Powell) – 2:21
6. "Good Good Lovin'" (Brown, Albert Shubert) – 2:18
7. "I'll Go Crazy" (Brown) – 2:05
8. "I Know It's True" (Brown) – 2:40
9. "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes, Pt. 1" (Dessie Rozier) – 1:39
10. "Think" (Lowman Pauling) – 2:46
11. "Baby, You're Right" (Brown, Joe Tex) – 2:58
12. "Lost Someone" (Brown, Byrd, Lloyd Eugene Stallworth) – 3:28
13. "Night Train" (Oscar Washington, Lewis Simpkins, Jimmy Forrest) – 3:38
14. "I've Got Money" (Brown) – 2:29
15. "I Don't Mind" [live] (Brown) – 2:29
16. "Prisoner of Love" (Leo Robin, Russ Columbo, Clarence Gaskin) – 2:24
17. "Devil's Den" (Ted Wright) – 4:48
18. "Out of the Blue" (Wright, Terry) – 2:15
19. "Out of Sight" (Wright) – 2:19
20. "Grits" (Nat Jones, Wright) – 3:58
21. "Maybe the Last Time" (Wright) – 3:02
22. "It's a Man's World" (Brown, Betty Jean Newsome) – 3:22
23. "I Got You" (Wright) – 2:27
24. "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, Pts. 1, 2 & 3" (Brown) – 6:56

Track 9 published under the James Brown pseudonym of Dessie Rozier. Tracks 17-21 & 23 are published under the James Brown pseudonym of Ted Wright.

Tracks 1-7, 10, 12, 15, and 21 recorded with The Famous Flames

Disc 2 ("The Hardest Working Man In Show Business")

1. "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, Pt. 1" (Brown) – 2:06
2. "I Got You (I Feel Good)" (Brown) – 2:45
3. "Ain't That a Groove" (Brown, Jones) – 3:31
4. "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (Brown, Newsome) – 2:46
5. "Money Won't Change You" (Brown, Jones) – 6:01
6. "Don't Be a Dropout" (Brown, Jones) – 4:31
7. "Bring It Up (Hipster's Avenue)" (Brown, Jones) – 3:48
8. "Let Yourself Go" (Brown, Bud Hobgood) – 3:53
9. "Cold Sweat" (Brown, Alfred Ellis) – 7:30
10. "Get It Together" (Brown, Hobgood, Ellis) – 8:57
11. "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me), Pt. 1" (Brown) – 3:29
12. "I Got the Feelin'" (Brown) – 2:39
13. "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" (Brown, Byrd, Ellis) – 4:52
14. "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud, Pt. 1" (Brown, Ellis) – 2:59
15. "There Was a Time" [Live] (Brown, Hobgood) – 4:59
16. "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" (Charles Bobbit) – 3:10
17. "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open up the Door I'll Get It Myself)" (Brown) – 5:59

Disc 3 ("Soul Brother No. 1")

1. "Mother Popcorn" (Brown, Ellis) – 6:18
2. "Funky Drummer" (Brown) – 7:00
3. "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" (Brown, Byrd, Ron Lenhoff) – 5:15
4. "Super Bad, Pts. 1 & 2" (Brown) – 4:26
5. "Talkin' Loud & Sayin' Nothing" (Brown, Byrd) – 8:59
6. "Get Up, Get into It and Get Involved" (Brown, Byrd, Lenhoff) – 7:03
7. "Soul Power, Pts. 1 & 2" (Brown) – 4:25
8. "Brother Rapp/Ain't It Funky Now" [live] (Brown) – 7:44
9. "Hot Pants, Pt. 1" (Brown, Fred Wesley) – 3:06
10. "I'm a Greedy Man, Pt. 1" (Brown, Bobbit) – 3:36
11. "Make It Funky, Pt. 1" (Brown, Bobbit) – 3:34
12. "It's a New Day" [live] (Brown) – 3:48
13. "I Got Ants in My Pants, Pt. 1" (Brown) – 3:01
14. "King Heroin" (Brown, Bobbit, Dave Matthews, Manny Rosen) – 3:57

Disc 4 ("The Godfather Of Soul")

1. "There It Is, Pt. 1" (Brown) – 3:20
2. "Public Enemy #1, Pt. 1" (Brown, Bobbit, Henry Stallings) – 5:09
3. "Get on the Good Foot" (Brown, Wesley, Joseph Mims) – 4:07
4. "I Got a Bag of My Own" (Brown) – 3:44
5. "Doing It to Death" (Brown) – 5:14
6. "The Payback" (Brown, Wesley, John Starks) – 7:28
7. "Papa Don't Take No Mess, Pt. 1" (Brown, Wesley, Starks, Bobbit) – 4:22
8. "Stoned to the Bone, Pt. 1" (Brown) – 3:28
9. "My Thang" (Brown) – 4:37
10. "Funky President (People It's Bad)" (Brown) – 4:01
11. "Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)" (Brown) – 5:03
12. "Get Up Offa That Thing (Release the Pressure)" (Diedre Jenkins, Deanna Brown, Yamma Brown) – 6:14
13. "Body Heat, Pt. 1" (Jenkins, D. Brown, Y. Brown) – 4:29
14. "It's Too Funky in Here" (George Jackson, Walter Shaw, Brad Shapiro, Robert Miller) – 5:39
15. "Rapp Payback (Where Iz Moses)" (J. Brown, Susaye Brown, Henry Stallings) – 4:36
16. "Unity, Pt. 1" (J. Brown, Khayan Aasim Bambaataa, Douglas Wimbish, Bernard Alexander, Keith LeBlanc, Robin Haplin) – 3:40

Other compilations

At the time of its release Star Time was the most comprehensive collection of James Brown's recordings ever issued. A series of Polydor compilations released in the 1990s expanded on Star Time by including additional songs, alternate takes, previously unreleased recordings, and longer, unedited versions of key tracks:

Two other Polydor collections similarly anthologize Brown's instrumental recordings:

In 1992, Scotti Brothers Records released The Greatest Hits of the Fourth Decade, a compilation of Brown's charting songs from the 1980s which were left off of Star Time. The album's cover art was modeled on Star Time's.

In 2006, Hip-O Select Records began a multi-volume reissue of James Brown's complete singles (both A-sides and B-sides) on CD. The volumes are only available through mail order. As of October 2011, eleven volumes have been released, covering the periods 1956-1960, 1960-1963, 1964-1965, 1966-1967, 1967-1969, 1969-1970, 1970-1972, 1972-1973, 1973-1975, 1975-1979 and 1979-1981.