Kool & the Gang - Les plus grands succès

This collection of Greatest Hits comes as Kool celebrates its 75th anniversary and the band is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a dozen “kool” songs spanning five decades.

Kool and the Gang started out in Jersey City in the 1960s as a teenage jazz group, formed around Robert "Kool" Bell and his brother Ronald, which explains why their funk always displayed more musicality than the genre strictly demanded. These brass arrangements were composed, not improvised. It's also why three generations of hip-hop producers sampled them raw, and why much of this material still sounds like it was recorded last week.

The collection covers both bands they became. “Jungle Boogie” is the first, rawest, all growls and brass stabs, and “Hollywood Swinging” struts with a bassline that refuses to hurry. Then James "J.T." Taylor came along and turned them into a hit machine: "Get Down On It" is a purely irresistible instruction, and "Celebration" became the most played party song in history, which is either a success or a curse, depending on how many weddings you've been to.

A detailed historical essay is included inside the sleeve, but the twelve titles are sufficient in themselves. Fifty years of making people move, without any frills.