Thinking About Little Willie John and a Few Nice Things

James Brown’s Thinking About Little Willie John and a Few Nice Things is a mixture of slow blues and uptempo funk tracks, along with jazz instrumentals featuring James on the organ. In December 1968, Brown released this album as a tribute to his former King Records labelmate Little Willie John, who died on May 26, 1968 at a Walla Walla, Washington prison at the age of 30 while he was incarcerated on a manslaughter charge. Willie was an influential singer who achieved success on the pop charts with his #1 R&B hit “Fever” and his Top 20 pop hit “Talk To Me, Talk To Me,” which is one of several Little Willie John songs James covers on this album.

In his 1986 autobiography The Godfather of Soul, Brown talked about his motivation to create the album:

See, the people who were all at King together were like family. Sometimes we even fought the way families will. Willie was like a brother. When I heard he’d died, I decided while I was still at the Apollo [Theater in Harlem, New York] that I wanted to record a tribute album the first chance I got.