The Staple Singers - Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (LP) 2022 (Mint (M))

Be Altitude: Respect Yourself paired The Staple Singers’ gospel-rooted harmonies with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Al Bell producing and arranging at Stax in 1972. The combination produced two of the group’s biggest hits, ‘Respect Yourself’ and ‘I’ll Take You There,’ the Memphis Horns filling out the arrangements alongside Terry Manning’s Moog and Mellotron work. Mavis, Pops, Cleotha and Yvonne Staples had spent a decade moving from strictly gospel material toward message-driven soul by this point, and this is where that shift paid off commercially and artistically at once — ‘Respect Yourself’ still turning up as a protest anthem decades later.