“The Payback” by James Brown

James Brown's "The Payback" gave its name to his 1973 album, and Polydor put it out as a two-part single in February 1974: cold-blooded revenge funk with the temperature turned way down. Trombonist and bandleader Fred Wesley wrote the first set of words, John Starks shares the writing credit, and Brown reworked the lyric hard just before the session, turning it into a vow to get even with a man who betrayed him.

The groove is sparse and wide open, with wah-wah guitar prowling through it, something Brown's funk had rarely leaned on before, and his main backup singer Martha High supplies the women's voices. It kicked off a run of three straight R&B chart-toppers that year, the last number ones of his career, reached 26 on the Hot 100, and became his second and final gold single.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.