Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia
VARIOUS ARTISTS
(Sony Legacy)

This four-CD boxed set lovingly chronicles the subgenre spearheaded by songwriter/producers Gamble & Huff, who combined elements of R&B, symphonic soul and smooth jazz, and made a helluva lotta hits. By the mid-1970s, Philly soul had become a precursor to disco but was rarely as mindless. Love Train includes material by such benchmark artists as The O'Jays, The Spinners, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes and those slow-jam stalwarts The Stylistics. Among the iconic hits are Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones," William DeVaughn's transcendent "Be Thankful for What You Got" and The Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again." Release date: Oct. 21.

This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...