| Soul on Top | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | James Brown |
| Cover: | Jb-soul-on-top.jpg |
| Released: | April 1970 |
| Recorded: | November 10–11, 1969 |
| Genre: | Soul, jazz |
| Length: | 51:57 (2004 reissue) |
| Label: | King |
| Producer: | James Brown |
| Prev Title: | Ain't It Funky |
| Prev Year: | 1970 |
| Next Title: | It's a New Day – Let a Man Come In |
| Next Year: | 1970 |
Soul on Top is the 28th studio album by American musician James Brown. The album was released in April 1970, by King. Brown and saxophonist Maceo Parker worked with arranger/conductor Oliver Nelson to record a big band, funk and jazz vocal album. It was recorded with Louie Bellson and his 18-piece jazz orchestra at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, California in November 1969, and features jazz standards, show tunes, and middle of the road hits, as well as a new arrangement of Brown's funk hit "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag".
The album was reissued in 2004 with one previously unreleased bonus track, a big band version of Brown's 1967 hit "There Was a Time", and new liner notes by jazz critic Will Friedwald.
Reviewing the Verve reissue for The Village Voice in September 2004, Tom Hull said, "This extends Ray Charles's omnivorous big-band soul, with Brown reinventing standards—'That's My Desire,' 'September Song,' 'Every Day I Have the Blues,' 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag'—in front of Louie Bellson's orchestra, which arranger-conductor Oliver Nelson barely manages to discipline, so caught up is the band in the singer's excitement. In Brown's discography, just a curio. But in the whole history of big band jazz, there's never been a singer like him."