32 Essential Soul, Funk & R&B Vinyl, Ranked
By Keith, Viking Records · May 2026
Soul, funk and R&B form the longest continuous thread in popular music. Sixty years of recordings, from Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding through Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, Sade and Prince, Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo, to Olivia Dean, SZA and Raye. The connective tissue is always the same: voices that mean what they sing, rhythm sections that make you move whether you want to or not, and a tradition of producers (Quincy Jones, Jerry Wexler, Questlove, Mark Ronson) who know exactly how much space to leave around the singer.
This guide is a curator's route through our Soul, Funk & R&B collection — thirty-two albums I keep coming back to, ranged from the contemporary records driving most of our current buying through to the 1960s and 70s foundations everything else is built on. Lead with what your audience already loves, then walk backwards through the history that produced it.
Every record on the list is in stock at Viking Records, new and sealed, with fast UK delivery.
Shop All Soul, Funk & R&B Vinyl →
Sixty years from Aretha at Muscle Shoals to Olivia Dean in London — soul music's only constant is a singer who means it, in a room that knows how to listen.
Part One — Contemporary R&B & Neo-Soul (2010s–2020s)
Six records that have shaped what R&B and neo-soul sound like over the last fifteen years — the contemporary canon driving most of our current soul buying.
1. The Weeknd — After Hours (2020)
The Weeknd's fullest pop-noir statement, recorded in the long shadow of Beauty Behind the Madness but pushing further into 80s-synthesised R&B. Blinding Lights became the most-streamed song of its decade for a reason — it is a perfectly engineered piece of contemporary R&B pop. The album beneath it is darker, more cohesive, and built on the warmth of analogue synths that vinyl serves beautifully.
Key track: Blinding Lights
 |
The Weeknd — After Hours In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore The Weeknd on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
2. SZA — CTRL (2017)
The debut that re-set the R&B template for the late 2010s and 2020s. SZA writes about anxiety, self-doubt and complicated love with a conversational candour that feels closer to bedroom-pop than to her Top Dawg labelmates, but underpinned by genuinely great singing and arrangements that breathe. On green double vinyl, the bass and vocals separate beautifully — much of the production here is built around quiet space.
Key track: The Weekend
 |
SZA — CTRL In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore SZA on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
3. Olivia Dean — Messy (2023)
Olivia Dean's debut announced one of the most quietly authoritative new voices in British soul. Unhurried arrangements, strings and acoustic guitars sharing the stage with a remarkably warm vocal, and writing that feels lived-in rather than performed. The kind of record that sounds like a new classic on first listen and reveals more on every return.
Key track: Dive
 |
Olivia Dean — Messy In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Olivia Dean on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
4. Solange — A Seat at the Table (2016)
Solange stepped out of her sister's commercial shadow with this album of long-form neo-soul that takes its time. Cranes in the Sky and Don't Touch My Hair are the most-cited tracks, but the record functions as a single sustained meditation rather than a string of singles. Quiet rage and quiet grace, recorded with a level of detail that earns every replay.
Key track: Cranes in the Sky
 |
Solange — A Seat at the Table In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
5. Lola Young — I'm Only F**king Myself (2025)
South London singer-songwriter Lola Young's most fully realised record so far. The voice is one of the great rasp-and-honey instruments in current British soul — and the writing here matches the singing. Coloured-vinyl pressing in the Punching Bag Edition; one of the records that confirms the British soul lineage from Amy Winehouse forward is in safe hands.
Key track: Messy
 |
Lola Young — I'm Only F**king Myself In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Lola Young on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
6. Raye — This Music May Contain Hope (2025)
Raye's follow-up to the BRIT-sweeping My 21st Century Blues. Yellow double-vinyl gatefold, with a writing sensibility that draws as freely from big-band swing and jazz balladry as it does from contemporary R&B. The independent-route artist proving the major-label gatekeepers were the problem, not the music.
Key track: Suzanne, Are You Bored Yet?
 |
Raye — This Music May Contain Hope In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Raye on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
Part Two — Modern British Soul & Crossover
British soul's modern golden age. Four albums that built the bridge from Sade to Olivia Dean.
7. Amy Winehouse — Back to Black (2006)
The most influential British soul album of the century so far. Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi built a record that openly referenced the Shangri-Las, Motown girl groups and Phil Spector's wall of sound, then put a once-in-a-generation voice on top. Amy Winehouse wrote about her own life with a directness that re-shaped what mainstream British pop sounded like — Adele, Duffy, Sam Smith and Raye all came through the door this record opened.
Key track: Back to Black
 |
Amy Winehouse — Back to Black In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Amy Winehouse on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
8. Adele — 21 (2011)
The post-Winehouse British soul album that became the biggest-selling record of the 2010s. Rick Rubin produced much of side two; Paul Epworth gave us Rolling in the Deep. The voice is the headline, but the arrangements — gospel piano, sparse drums, country-soul flickers — are what make it stand up to repeated listening. 21 sounds like a record made by people who had been listening to Aretha and Dusty Springfield very carefully.
Key track: Someone Like You
 |
Adele — 21 In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Adele on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
9. Mariah Carey — The Emancipation of Mimi (2005)
Mariah Carey's comeback record sold ten million copies and proved her writing instincts were sharper than the 90s ever fully credited. We Belong Together became one of the longest-running R&B singles of all time; the rest of the album sits squarely in the lineage of mid-decade R&B production at its slickest. The double-vinyl reissue captures the depth the original CD compressed.
Key track: We Belong Together
 |
Mariah Carey — The Emancipation of Mimi In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Mariah Carey on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
10. Maxwell — BLACKsummers'night (2009)
Eight years between albums, and Maxwell came back with a record that re-set neo-soul's standards. The arrangements are spare and confident, the falsetto somehow even more controlled, and Pretty Wings is one of the loveliest songs of the 2000s. Where D'Angelo went mysterious, Maxwell went refined; both ended up in the same conversation.
Key track: Pretty Wings
 |
Maxwell — BLACKsummers'night In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
Part Three — 90s/00s R&B & Neo-Soul
Five albums from the era when neo-soul, hip-hop soul and contemporary R&B all crystallised into the genres we listen to now.
Lauryn Hill's Miseducation is the pivot point. Every neo-soul record after it is measured against it.
11. Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
The pivot point. Miseducation takes hip-hop's rhythmic instincts, post-Marley reggae and classic Motown soul and welds them into one of the most cohesive solo debuts of the late twentieth century. It won five Grammys, sold 19 million copies, and remains the album every neo-soul record after it is measured against — D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Solange, SZA all owe it.
Key track: Doo Wop (That Thing)
 |
Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Lauryn Hill on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
12. D'Angelo — Voodoo (2000)
Recorded at Electric Lady with Questlove on drums and a cast of musicians who treated the studio like a jazz club, Voodoo sounds different from every other R&B record of its era — looser, woozier, more open to silence and shuffle. Untitled (How Does It Feel) is the famous one; The Root and Africa are where the album earns its reputation as the defining neo-soul statement.
Key track: Untitled (How Does It Feel)
 |
D'Angelo — Voodoo In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore D'Angelo on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
13. Erykah Badu — Mama's Gun (2000)
Erykah Badu's second album is where neo-soul stops being a movement and starts being a body of work. Didn't Cha Know, Bag Lady and Cleva all live here, alongside the Stephen Marley collaboration In Love With You. The 180g audiophile reissue with gatefold sleeve does justice to one of the warmest mixes in the genre.
Key track: Bag Lady
 |
Erykah Badu — Mama's Gun In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Erykah Badu on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
14. TLC — CrazySexyCool (1994)
One of the best-selling girl-group records of all time, and the album that defined what 90s R&B radio sounded like. Waterfalls, Creep and Red Light Special run through the same kind of confident, hooky, Dallas Austin-helmed production that every 90s and 2000s R&B group tried to match. The 180g 2xLP reissue is the best way to hear it.
Key track: Waterfalls
 |
TLC — CrazySexyCool In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
15. Mary J. Blige — What's the 411? (1992)
The album that invented the 'hip-hop soul' template — Mary J. Blige's gospel-trained voice over Puffy-produced beats that sound like they could host a rapper at any moment. Every Mariah collaboration with a hip-hop producer, every R&B singer over a hard-knock beat through the 2010s, started here.
Key track: Real Love
 |
Mary J. Blige — What's the 411? In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
Part Four — 80s Soul & Pop-Soul
Five albums from the decade where soul went pop without losing what made it soul.
16. Michael Jackson — Bad (1987)
The follow-up to Thriller, and arguably the album where Michael Jackson's writing fully caught up with his performing. Five US number-one singles came off this record — The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror, Smooth Criminal, Dirty Diana and the title track. The Picture Disc Diamond Celebrations edition is the format to own it on.
Key track: The Way You Make Me Feel
 |
Michael Jackson — Bad In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Michael Jackson on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
17. George Michael — Faith (1987)
The British answer to Bad — released the same year, by the same kind of pop talent stepping decisively out of teen-idol territory into self-produced soul-pop authority. Father Figure, One More Try and the title track all live here. The Red & Black Marble double-vinyl reissue is the best-presented edition we currently stock.
Key track: Father Figure
 |
George Michael — Faith In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore George Michael on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
18. Prince — Sign O' the Times (1987)
Prince's double album, made largely alone in his Paisley Park studio, ranges from minimalist funk (the title track) through synthesised gospel (The Cross) to one of the great late-night ballads (Adore). It is the single most ambitious statement in his catalogue and arguably the high-water mark of 80s pop ambition full stop.
Key track: Sign O' the Times
 |
Prince — Sign O' the Times In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Prince on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
19. Sade — Diamond Life (1984)
British soul's quietest masterpiece. Sade Adu's voice — restrained, gently inflected, never raised — sits above a band (Stuart Matthewman, Andrew Hale, Paul S. Denman) who play with the patience of jazz musicians. Smooth Operator became the unavoidable single; the rest of the album rewards close attention. The Abbey Road half-speed mastered reissue is the format to hear it on.
Key track: Smooth Operator
 |
Sade — Diamond Life In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Sade on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
20. Tina Turner — Private Dancer (1984)
The comeback record that made Tina Turner the biggest solo performer in the world at the age of 44. What's Love Got to Do with It is the global hit; the Mark Knopfler-written title track and Bryan Adams's Better Be Good to Me show the breadth of the album. A near-perfect bridge between classic soul vocal authority and 80s pop production.
Key track: What's Love Got to Do with It
 |
Tina Turner — Private Dancer In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Tina Turner on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
Part Five — 70s Funk & Soul Peak
Seven records from the moment when soul, funk, jazz and Black political consciousness fused into the most fertile decade in American popular music.
21. Marvin Gaye — What's Going On (1971)
The album that re-defined what soul music could be about. Marvin Gaye fought Motown's Berry Gordy to release a concept record about Vietnam, ecology and inner-city poverty; it became the label's biggest-selling album of the decade. The arrangements — strings, congas, jazz-flute, multi-tracked Marvin harmonising with himself — sound like they have been heard a thousand times because every soul record since has tried to learn from them.
Key track: What's Going On
 |
Marvin Gaye — What's Going On In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Marvin Gaye on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
22. Stevie Wonder — Innervisions (1973)
Stevie Wonder at twenty-three, playing nearly every instrument himself, making one of the greatest albums in any genre. Living for the City's seven-minute social-realist narrative, Higher Ground's clavinet riff, Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing's Latin lift — the run of songs is faultless. The remastered 180g pressing is the most accessible way to hear what is one of the great American albums.
Key track: Living for the City
 |
Stevie Wonder — Innervisions In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Stevie Wonder on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
23. Stevie Wonder — Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
The ambition that closed out Stevie Wonder's imperial run. A double album plus a four-song EP, covering jazz, funk, gospel, soul and pop with a generosity of spirit that has rarely been matched. Sir Duke, Isn't She Lovely, I Wish and As sit on the same record. Comes with a 7-inch EP of bonus material — the format is part of the experience.
Key track: Sir Duke
 |
Stevie Wonder — Songs in the Key of Life In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Stevie Wonder on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
24. Sly & The Family Stone — There's a Riot Goin' On (1971)
After the optimism of Everyday People and Stand!, Sly Stone retreated into a Bel Air mansion and made one of the bleakest, druggiest, most strangely beautiful soul records ever released. The grooves are dragged, the vocals slurred and overdubbed; Family Affair is the bitterest hit single of its era. A landmark in how Black music could sound disillusioned without losing its rhythmic force.
Key track: Family Affair
 |
Sly & The Family Stone — There's a Riot Goin' On In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Sly & The Family Stone on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
25. Earth, Wind & Fire — That's the Way of the World (1975)
Maurice White's nine-piece soul-funk orchestra at full strength. Shining Star won the Grammy, Reasons became the wedding-band staple, and the title track is one of the great gentle-soul ballads of the decade. The 180g blue vinyl pressing captures the brass and falsetto vocal arrangements with the warmth this record needs.
Key track: Shining Star
 |
Earth, Wind & Fire — That's the Way of the World In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Earth, Wind & Fire on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
26. James Brown — The Payback (1973)
Originally intended as the soundtrack to a blaxploitation film that rejected it, The Payback became the funkiest record James Brown ever released — and the most-sampled. The title track alone has been lifted by Public Enemy, En Vogue, LL Cool J and dozens more. Two LPs of slow-burning, talking-and-singing funk, and a foundational text for hip-hop production.
Key track: The Payback
 |
James Brown — The Payback In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore James Brown on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
27. Bill Withers — Still Bill (1972)
Bill Withers's second album, and the most concentrated statement of his quiet authority. Lean on Me and Use Me are the famous ones, but the whole record is a masterclass in songwriting that says exactly what it needs to and stops. 180g pressing of one of the great singer-songwriter-soul records of the 70s.
Key track: Lean on Me
 |
Bill Withers — Still Bill In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Bill Withers on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
Part Six — 60s Motown, Stax & Foundations
Four foundational records. Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Nina Simone and Dusty Springfield — the singers and the studios that built modern soul.
28. Aretha Franklin — I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967)
Aretha Franklin had been making records for six years before Jerry Wexler took her to Muscle Shoals and recorded the album that finally let her sing the way she wanted to. Respect, Do Right Woman and Dr. Feelgood all live here, in mono, with the rhythm section playing tight and slow and Aretha doing the rest. The foundational document of modern soul.
Key track: Respect
 |
Aretha Franklin — I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Aretha Franklin on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
29. Otis Redding — Otis Blue (1965)
The Stax house band — Booker T. and the MGs, the Mar-Keys horns — played as well on this record as anyone has ever played behind a soul singer. Otis Redding tore through his own Respect, Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come and the Stones's Satisfaction in 24 hours. There is no fat on this album. Soul music's most concentrated single statement.
Key track: I've Been Loving You Too Long
 |
Otis Redding — Otis Blue In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
30. Nina Simone — I Put a Spell on You (1965)
Nina Simone was technically a jazz singer, classically trained at Juilliard, but the records she made for Philips in the mid-60s belong as much to soul as they do to anything. The title track's Hammond-organ-and-strings arrangement and her famous reading of Feeling Good both live here. One of the most distinctive voices in twentieth-century music.
Key track: Feeling Good
 |
Nina Simone — I Put a Spell on You In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Nina Simone on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
31. Dusty Springfield — Dusty in Memphis (1969)
A white British pop singer flew to American Sound Studios, sang Goffin-King and Randy Newman songs over the Memphis Boys rhythm section and made one of the loveliest soul records of the decade. Son of a Preacher Man is the famous one; Just a Little Lovin' and The Windmills of Your Mind show the breadth of the album. The half-speed mastered 180g reissue is essential.
Key track: Son of a Preacher Man
 |
Dusty Springfield — Dusty in Memphis In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
Part Seven — Global & Genre-Crossing
One record from outside the American–British axis that re-shaped what groove music could be.
32. Fela Kuti — Zombie (1976)
Afrobeat's foundational statement, recorded with the Africa 70 band — Tony Allen on drums, a fifteen-piece horn section, hour-long grooves that change direction without breaking pulse. The title song's attack on the Nigerian military prompted a state raid on Fela's compound. The record itself is one of the most influential pieces of African music ever made, sampled and studied by everyone from Brian Eno to Common.
Key track: Zombie
 |
Fela Kuti — Zombie In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Fela Kuti on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
Additional Canon
Six foundational records added after a stock audit revealed missing pillars. Sly & The Family Stone, James Brown live, Funkadelic, the modern jazz-funk lineage.
33. Sly & The Family Stone — Stand! (1969)
Often cited as the greatest funk-soul album ever recorded. Sly Stone’s integrated band (multi-racial and gender-mixed when both were rare) made a record that took everything the 60s soul tradition had developed and pushed it into something more political, more psychedelic, and more rhythmically inventive. Everyday People, I Want To Take You Higher, the title track — the records that James Brown, Funkadelic and Prince all drew on.
Key track: Stand!
 |
Sly & The Family Stone — Stand! In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Sly & The Family Stone on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
34. Funkadelic — One Nation Under A Groove (1978)
George Clinton and the P-Funk collective at their commercial and creative peak. The title track is one of the most quoted funk grooves of all time, and the album functions as a sustained dance-floor statement about Black self-determination wrapped in cosmic costumes. 12” single edition.
Key track: One Nation Under A Groove
 |
Funkadelic — One Nation Under A Groove In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore Funkadelic on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
35. James Brown — Sex Machine: Live At Home In Augusta Georgia (1970)
James Brown’s live document of the JB’s era, captured in his hometown in 1970. Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine in its extended live form, with Bootsy Collins on bass and Catfish Collins on guitar — the funk band that defined what the genre could do in a live setting. 2xLP.
Key track: Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine
 |
James Brown — Sex Machine: Live At Home In Augusta Georgia In stock at Viking Records Shop NowMore James Brown on vinyl → Browse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
36. Rick James — Street Songs (1981)
Rick James’s commercial peak and the record that introduced a young Eddie Van Halen-influenced rock guitar sensibility to mainstream funk. Super Freak became one of the most-sampled funk songs of all time (most famously by MC Hammer); Give It To Me Baby holds up as one of the great post-disco dance-floor records. 180g LP.
Key track: Super Freak
 |
Rick James — Street Songs In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
37. Tower Of Power — Back To Oakland (1974)
Oakland’s ten-piece funk band at their peak, with one of the tightest horn sections ever recorded and the rhythm section that subsequently played on records by Santana, Elton John and dozens of others. Don’t Change Horses, Squib Cakes, Just When We Start Makin’ It — tight, complex, deeply danceable. 180g Music On Vinyl pressing.
Key track: Don’t Change Horses (In The Middle Of A Stream)
 |
Tower Of Power — Back To Oakland In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
38. Janis Joplin — Greatest Hits (comp)
Joplin straddled blues, soul and rock with a voice that influenced a generation of singers from Robert Plant to Florence Welch. This compilation gathers Piece of My Heart, Cry Baby, Mercedes Benz and Me and Bobby McGee — the songs that turned a Texas hippie into a soul-blues icon.
Key track: Piece of My Heart
 |
Janis Joplin — Greatest Hits In stock at Viking Records Shop NowBrowse Soul, Funk & R&B → |
Honourable Mentions & Deep Cuts
The records that nearly made the main list, plus the deep-catalogue picks that reward going further.
British Soul: Sade — Love Deluxe (1992) is the late-night Sade record. Sade — Promise (1985) is the immediate Diamond Life follow-up. Amy Winehouse — Frank (2003) is the jazz-heavy debut. Adele — 25 and Adele — 30 continue the run.
80s & 90s Pop-Soul: Prince & The Revolution — Purple Rain (1984) is the album that put Prince in the same room as Michael Jackson commercially. Janet Jackson — The Velvet Rope (1997) is Janet's most personal record.
90s/00s Neo-Soul & R&B: D'Angelo — Brown Sugar (1995) is the debut that started everything. D'Angelo and The Vanguard — Black Messiah (2014) is the long-awaited follow-up to Voodoo. Erykah Badu — Baduizm (1997) is the neo-soul debut that defined the movement.
70s Soul & Funk: Al Green — Let's Stay Together (1972) and Al Green — Greatest Hits are the Hi Records sound at its peak. James Brown — Live at the Apollo (1963) is the live album that re-invented what soul shows could be. Chic — C'est Chic / Best Of is the Nile Rodgers groove school in one place. The Meters — Rejuvenation is the New Orleans funk template.
60s Soul Foundations: Sam Cooke — Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 is the rawer, more soulful Sam Cooke that RCA originally suppressed. Diana Ross & The Supremes — Number 1s is the Motown girl-group canon in one place. Ray Charles — Best Of covers the soul-blues-gospel-country range no one else managed. The Ronettes — Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes is Phil Spector's wall of sound at its peak.
Contemporary R&B Crossover: SZA — SOS (2022) is the follow-up to CTRL. Whitney Houston — Whitney Houston is the debut that introduced the most powerful pop voice of the 80s.
Jazz-Soul & Trip-Hop Adjacent: Herbie Hancock — Maiden Voyage (1965) is the modal jazz record that sits right next to the soul-jazz crossover tradition. Massive Attack — Blue Lines (1991) and Massive Attack — Mezzanine (1998) are the trip-hop records that drew their entire DNA from soul samples.
Soul Compilations & Greatest Hits: Marvin Gaye — Collected is the 2LP greatest-hits set as a Marvin completist starting point. Sade — The Best of Sade is the same for Sade.
Where to Start
If you're building a Soul/Funk/R&B collection from scratch, three records will give you the spine: What's Going On, Innervisions, and Songs in the Key of Life are the three masterpieces of the 1970s peak. Add Bad from the 80s, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill from the 90s, Voodoo from the 00s, and CTRL or Messy from the contemporary era, and you have a seven-album decade-by-decade backbone to grow from.
If you already own most of those, the records I'd push you toward next are There's a Riot Goin' On, The Payback and Otis Blue — three records that reward the most rewatching of any on the list.
Worth reading alongside: our 32 Essential Hip-Hop Vinyl Records, Ranked covers the genre that grew directly out of soul and funk samples, and our 32 Essential Pop Vinyl Records picks up the commercial-crossover thread where this guide leaves off.
For further reading on the genre's history, the BBC's Soul Music documentary series (available on BBC Sounds) covers individual songs in depth — What's Going On, A Change Is Gonna Come and Respect all have full episodes.
Shop All Soul, Funk & R&B Vinyl →
Keith runs Viking Records — a UK online vinyl shop with a curator's ear and a 5-star rating. Every record listed above is in stock, new and sealed, with fast UK delivery. Browse the full Soul, Funk & R&B collection or jump into a sub-category: Soul, Funk, R&B, Rhythm & Blues.
