Amazon.com essential recordingThere are several collections that cover the Isley Brothers' early years, but this is the one to own because it pulls tracks from several labels and mixes major hits and obscurities in an interesting way. Seminal cuts such as "Shout," the frantic "Nobody But Me," and "Twist and Shout" (later copied almost note for note by a little group in England called the Beatles) belong in every record collection. So do "Testify" (which contains the efforts of a young guitarist named Jimmy James, a.k.a. Jimi Hendrix), "Who's That Lady" (the prototype for the group's '70s smash "That Lady"), and some of the group's efforts from their Motown years, such as "This Old Heart of Mine" (later a hit duet for Ronald Isley and Rod Stewart) and "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)." --Daniel Durchholz