Stop, children, what's that sound?  For nearly half a century, the sound of The Staple Singers was one of tremendous power.  Roebuck "Pops" Staples, daughters Cleotha, Mavis, and (sometimes) Yvonne, and son Pervis raised their voices in song to celebrate the Lord, but also to fight for civil rights and espouse messages of positivity and resilience to listeners worldwide.  At Epic Records, the group transitioned from pure gospel and blues to soul and R&B - a move that would take them to the heights of commercial success at Stax Records.  Cherry Red's SoulMusic Records imprint has just collected the Staples' six Epic albums on a 3-CD box set, For What It's Worth: The Complete Epic Recordings 1964-1968.

The Chicago-based Staples came to Epic in 1964 following stints on labels including United, Vee-Jay, and Riverside.  Their Vee-Jay release "Uncloudy Day" famously caught the attention of the young Robert Zimmerman, who as Bob Dylan would become one of the brightest stars in the firmament at Epic's parent label Columbia.  Epic teamed the group with Nashville producer Billy Sherrill.  While Sherrill would become famous for his pioneering of the lush countrypolitan sound, he also spent his early years as a producer honing his craft with pop and R&B acts.  His first album, the Staples' Epic debut Amen! (1965), continued in the gospel-folk vein in which they'd recorded at Riverside.  It featured rousing renditions of such familiar melodies as "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," "Mary, Don't You Weep," and the title song, which was popularized in the 1963 film Lilies of the Field and then turned into a hit recording by Curtis Mayfield's Impressions.  The Staples revisited some of their Riverside material including "More Than a Hammer and Nail."  Amen! is paired on the box set's first disc, for timing reasons, with the group's third Epic album, Pray On (1966).  It once again concentrated on traditional pieces including "The Lord's Prayer" and "How Great Thou Art," but also found room for Pervis' recitation of Bob Dylan's "John Brown."  The Staples weren't strangers to Dylan's catalogue.  Not only had he befriended Mavis (and, the story goes, once proposed to her!) but they had recorded his songs including "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" at Riverside.

Freedom Highway, the Staples' sophomore LP, opens CD 2.  In April 1965, The Staples were joined by drummer Al Duncan and bassist Phil Upchurch at Chicago's New Nazareth Church to record the album. It recognized that year's historic civil rights marches from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama.  The recording of Freedom Highway followed a tumultuous, important month in American civil rights history. Three landmark marches were held in March 1965 along the 54 miles connecting Selma, Alabama with the state capital of Montgomery. The March 7 march became known as "Bloody Sunday" when 600 marchers were violently confronted by state and local police forces. The March 9 event, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., likewise reached a standoff between police and protesters. The climactic March 21 protest found the marchers protected by a staggering 2,000 U.S. Army troops, 1,900 Alabama National Guard members, and other law enforcement personnel. In the years since, the marchers' route has been proclaimed the "Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights Trail" and deemed a U.S. National Historic Trail. The acclaimed, new motion picture Selma, which opens nationwide tomorrow, January 9, dramatizes these dramatic events which led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Staple Singers took the opportunity afforded by their status on the Epic roster to record a service inspired by the actions of the marchers. The set preserved on Freedom Highway featured familiar civil rights anthems ("We Shall Overcome"), traditional gospel melodies ("When the Saint Go Marching In") and religious pleas ("Precious Lord, Take My Hand," "Help Me, Jesus") along with the Staples' newly-written "Freedom Highway." Pops played his six-string guitar throughout the service - the same sound that made the passionate preacher an unlikely soul music star.  Sony's Legacy Recordings expanded Freedom Highway to its complete form in 2015 with six additional tracks (and over 30 minutes of music).  Despite the "complete" subtitle of this box, only the original 11-track album is included here.  That seminal record is joined on the second disc by 1966's Why, their fourth and final album to be produced by Billy Sherrill.  It was named after perhaps Pops Staples' most famous composition, which charted for jazz great Cannonball Adderley and was also recorded by artists like The Sweet Inspirations and Brian Augur and The Trinity.  It was inspired by the plight of the Little Rock Nine, the black students who tried to integrate Little Rock's Central High School in 1957.  Pops' original songs and arrangements of traditional spirituals and folk songs such as "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" (which they had first recorded at Vee-Jay) made for one of the singers' most affecting and inspirational LPs.

The third disc has the two albums that most radically changed the sound of the Staple Singers.  Larry Williams ("Dizzy Miss Lizzy," "She Said Yeah") was tapped to produce the 1967 album For What It's Worth.  Pops Staples' penchant for protest and message songs found a vivid expression with the Stephen Stills-penned hit for Buffalo Springfield.  "For What It's Worth" may have been written about the riots on the Sunset Strip (when police placed a curfew on the thoroughfare's popular clubs and incited a response from the young people affected), but The Staple Singers tapped into its value as an anti-war anthem.  They were rewarded with a No. 66 Pop chart entry.  Williams ramped up their soulful, bluesy sound, even though the balance of the material was more traditional, including covers of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer" and the gospel tune-turned-jazz-hit "Wade in the Water."  The final album on the box, What the World Needs Now Is Love, represented a shift to pop-flavored R&B.  Helmed by Epic staff producer Ted Cooper, it featured not only the Burt Bacharach/Hal David title song but Ron Miller and Bryan Wells' Motown hit for Stevie Wonder, "A Place in the Sun," as well as the oft-covered "Let's Get Together" (soon to be a hit for The Youngbloods), Curtis Mayfield's anthem "People Get Ready," and the Elvis Presley hit "Crying in the Chapel" as credited to lead singer Mavis with the group.  Dylan was once again present with a new recording of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall."  SoulMusic has expanded this album with "Power of Love," the non-LP B-side of "Let's Get Together."  Both sides were produced not by Cooper, but by R&B powerhouse Jerry Ragovoy.

What the World Needs Now Is Love closed out The Staple Singers' tenure at Epic; they signed with Stax later in 1968 and began the next, phenomenally successful chapter of their career with songs like "I'll Take You There" and "Respect Yourself."  SoulMusic's set, housed in a compact clamshell box, has a 16-page booklet with detailed liner notes by compiler Bob Fisher.  Simon Murphy has remastered all six albums.  For What It's Worth: The Complete Epic Recordings 1964-1968 is a valuable document of a fascinating period in the career of one of America's most beloved vocal groups.  It's available now at the links below!

The Staple Singers, For What It's Worth: The Complete Epic Recordings 1964-1968 (Cherry Red/SoulMusic SMCR5175BX, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

1. More Than a Hammer and Nail
2. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
3. My Jesus Is All
4. This Train
5. Praying Time
6. Be Careful of Stones That You Throw
7. Samson and Delilah
8. Nobody's Fault But Mine
9. Mary Don't You Weep
10. As An Eagle Stirreth to Her Nest
11. Do Something for Yourself
12. Amen
13. It's Been a Change
14. Waiting for My Child
15. How Great Thou Art
16. Wish I Had Answered
17. The Tramp on the Street
18. When Was Jesus Born?
19. Pray On
20. Glory, Glory Hallelujah!
21. The Lord's Prayer
22. Had No Room
23. John Brown

CD 2

1. Freedom Highway
2. What You Gonna Do?
3. Take My Hand, Precious Lord
4. When I'm Gone
5. Help Me Jesus
6. We Shall Overcome
7. When the Saints Go Marching In
8. The Funeral
9. Build on That Shore
10. Tell Heaven
11. He's All Right
12. Why (Am I Treated So Bad)
13. King of Kings
14. Step Aside
15. If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again
16. What Are They Doing (In Heaven Today)
17. Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
18. I've Been Scorned
19. I'm Gonna Tell God (About My Troubles)
20. My Sweet Home
21. Move Along Train

CD 3

1. For What It's Worth
2. Father Let Me Ride
3. Deliver Me
4. He
5. If I Had a Hammer
6. Are You Sure
7. Wade in the Water
8. I'm the Light of the World
9. Jacob's Ladder
10. Good News
11. What the World Needs Now Is Love
12. Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around
13. A Place in the Sun
14. I Wonder Why
15. Let That Liar Alone
16. Let's Get Together
17. Crying in the Chapel
18. Downward Road
19. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
20. Nothing Lasts Forever
21. People Get Ready
22. Power of Love (Bonus Track)

CD 1, Tracks 1-12 from Amen!, Epic LN 26132, 1965
CD 1, Tracks 13-23 from Pray On, Epic LN 26237, 1966
CD 2, Tracks 1-11 from Freedom Highway, Epic LN 26163, 1965
CD 2, Tracks 12-21 from Why, Epic LN 26196, 1966
CD 3, Tracks 1-10 from For What It's Worth, Epic LN 26332, 1967
CD 3, Tracks 11-21 from What the World Needs Now Is Love, Epic LN 26373, 1968
CD 3, Track 22 from Epic single 10294-B, 1968