Released December 1973 Length 72:52 The Payback
(1973) Hell
(1974) Release date December 1973 Genres Classic soul, Funk | Recorded February–October 1973 Producer James Brown Artist James Brown Label Polydor Records | |
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Similar Get On Up: The James Brown St, Wasting Light, Star Time, Love Over‑Due, Bring It On! | ||
The Payback is the 40th studio album by American musician James Brown. The album was released in December 1973, by Polydor Records. It was originally scheduled to become the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Hell Up in Harlem, but was rejected by the film's producers, who dismissed it as "the same old James Brown stuff." (A widely repeated story—including by Brown himself—that director Larry Cohen rejected the music as "not funky enough" is denied by Cohen.) It went to #1 on the Soul Albums chart for two weeks and cracked the Pop Albums chart in the Top 40. It was Brown's only album to be certified gold.
Contents
The Payback is considered a high point in Brown's recording career, and is now regarded by critics as a landmark funk album. Its revenge-themed title track, a #1 R&B hit, is one of his most famous songs and an especially prolific source of samples for record producers. Musically the album is largely cyclic grooves and jamming, but it also features departures into a softer soul-based sound on tracks like "Doing the Best I Can".
The album was reissued on CD in 1992 with liner notes by Alan Leeds.
Track listing
All tracks written by James Brown, Fred Wesley and Charles Bobbit; except where noted..
Note
Personnel
Charts
Album – Billboard (North America)
Songs
1The Payback7:37
2Doing the Best I Can7:42
3Take Some Leave Some8:34