Warner Bros. is just about to release a new compilation, “Someone To Watch Over Me: The Definitive Little Jimmy Scott,” the first career retrospective of Scott’s work. Though it’s only a single disc, it will contain tracks from most of the labels that Scott has recorded for since 1949. If the new anthology whets your appetite, here’s what to follow up with.

EVERYBODY’S SOMEBODY’S FOOL

(Verve/GRP 669): Mr. Scott’s first 15 studio recordings, done with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra in 1950 and 1952, are worth purchasing for the title song alone.

THE SAVOY YEARS & MORE

(Savoy Jazz 92857-2): This three-CD box is a grandly mixed bag. Most of his sessions for producer Fred Mendelsohn, done over a long span between 1952 and 1975, are at least worth listening to. But more than once the label tried to make him a kiddie pop star or update him in some other egregious manner.

FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL

(Rhino Handmade 7814): The first and still perhaps greatest indication of what Jimmy Scott could do. One of the all-time great male vocal albums, on a par with “John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman” and Nat Cole’s “After Midnight.” The tragedy of this record is not only that it wasn’t really available until 2002, but that Mr. Scott was never able to follow it up.

THE ATLANTIC ALBUMS

In 1969 and 1972, Mr. Scott recorded an album and a half for producer Joel Dorn, an hour’s worth of music that is currently available but spread over two CDs, “Lost and Found” (Rhino 71059) and “The Source” (Label M 495722). The 13 tracks contain some of Mr. Scott’s most soulful, angst-ridden singing.

THE LATER ALBUMS

Between 1992 and 1996, in the aftermath of his performance at Doc Pomus’s funeral, Mr. Scott made three albums for Sire – “All the Way” (1992), “Dream” (1994), and “Heaven” (1996), the best of which is the first.