The Anthology 1961-1977 is a compilation album of songs by Curtis Mayfield when he was with the Impressions and when he was solo. Of the 40 tracks, 30 are from Mayfield's time with the Impressions. The album includes liner notes written by Robert Pruter. In 2003, the album was ranked number 178 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,[2] maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list.[3]
In his review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau felt The Anthology was an "A+"; in his view the selection could have used less of the early songs with the Impressions and more of Mayfield's "radically sporadic solo career", though for Christgau "a songwriter this gifted has no trouble filling two CDs, and he's his own aptest vocal interpreter."[7] In his 2000 guide to Curtis Mayfield for Rolling Stone, Christgau gave it four-and-a-half out of five stars and said that, apart from the few "generic" Chicago R&B selections, the lesser-known songs on the album "vividly demonstrate why Mayfield is mentioned in the same breath as Smokey Robinson."[8]
