AllMusic's Favorite Compilations of 2012

This year, Ace excelled in producing multi-artist compilations, spotlighting labels both celebrated (the folk legend Vanguard) and forgotten (psych-pop imprint Mainstream) and continuing their excellent Songwriter series with notable entries spotlighting Allen Toussaint, Don Covay, and Boyce & Hart. But Ace was hardly the only label with great compilations to its credit. Numero dug up a bunch of Illinois power pop oddities for Buttons, Light in the Attic spotlighted the seriously earthy country funk of 1969-1975 and the Black Power movement of those same years, Bear Family produced an exhaustive doo wop history called Street Corner Symphonies, and, perhaps best of all, Legacy gave the great '80s hip-hop label Profile Records its due with the tremendous Giant Single.
Action! The Songs of Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart

All Kinds of Highs: A Mainstream Pop-Psych Compendium 1966-70
The Best of Perception & Today Records

Buttons: From Champaign to Chicago
Country Funk: 1969-1975
Disco Discharge: American Hot
Fac. Dance 02: Factory Records 12" Mixes & Rarities 1980-1987
Giant Single: The Profile Records Rap Anthology
Girls on 45: A Collection of Girl Groups, Girlie Pop & Soulful Ladies 1963
Golden Gate Groove: The Sound of Philadelphia Live in San Francisco 1973
Have Mercy! The Songs of Don Covay Juke Box Pearls: Meet the Pearls
Keb Darge & Little Edith's Legendary Wild Rockers, Vol. 2
Listen, Whitey! The Sounds of Black Power 1967-1974
Make It Your Sound, Make It Your Scene: Vanguard Records & the 1960s Musical Revolution
Metal Dance
Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984
Rolling with the Punches: The Allen Toussaint Songbook
Sofrito: International Soundclash
Soul Cal: Disco & Modern Soul, 1971-1982

Listen to the best tracks from our favorite Compilations of 2012 in this playlist: