Ray Charles · 1959 Spin it Again - The 1959 compilation that proved gospel and the blues could live together in one voice — engineering by Tom Dowd, songs that still define soul.

Bobby Womack · 1972 Spin it Again - Bobby Womack wrote a soundtrack for a movie about Harlem's mean streets and ended up making the most honest soul album of the early 70s.

Curtis Mayfield · 1972 Spin it Again - One man. One score. One of the most perfect album-length statements of the 1970s.

Isaac Hayes · 1971 Spin it Again - The wah-wah guitar and string arrangements on this 1971 soundtrack defined a decade, one slow monologue at a time.

Curtis Mayfield · 1972 Spin it Again - He sang like an angel on the side of the street that didn't have any angels left.

Nina Simone · 1965 Spin it Again - A singer who understood that a spell is not a performance but a transformation, and she damn well meant every word.

Stevie Wonder · 1973 Spin it Again - He played the clavinet like it was a typewriter and the Moog like it was a gospel choir.

Sam Cooke · 1963 Spin it Again - A man who knew he was extraordinary caught in the moment, with nothing but his band and the sound of a room that came to listen.

Otis Redding · Spin it Again - A timeless record from Otis Redding that rewards close listening.

Al Green · 1975 Spin it Again - Al Green and Willie Mitchell made songs so economical they sound like they recorded themselves.

Marvin Gaye · 1976 Spin it Again - Marvin Gaye recording in a Belgian castle to avoid the IRS, making an album so sensual it stalled on radio.

Paul Simon · 1973 Spin it Again - A 1973 record from Paul Simon that rewards close listening.

Booker T. & the M.G.'s · 1968 Spin it Again - A 1968 record from Booker T. & the M.G.'s that rewards close listening.

Otis Redding · 1968 Spin it Again - Released four months after he died in a plane crash, this album is less about discovery than it is about the particular cruelty of hearing someone you've just lost.

Sam & Dave · 1967 Spin it Again - A 1967 record from Sam & Dave that rewards close listening.

Otis Redding · 1965 Spin it Again - A 1965 record from Otis Redding that rewards close listening.

Toto · 1978 Spin it Again - Geoff Emerick produced their debut with the same meticulous discipline he brought to the Beatles, and Toto proved that arena rock perfection was still music.

Stevie Wonder · 1972 Spin it Again - A 1972 record from Stevie Wonder that rewards close listening.

Stevie Wonder · 1980 Spin it Again - A 1980 record from Stevie Wonder that rewards close listening.

Mahmoud Ahmed · 1975 Spin it Again - Mahmoud Ahmed proved in 1975 that the greatest jazz was being made three thousand miles east of where anyone was looking.