what is the best collection of unreleased Sup/DR content?

as fans, we've been very fortunate. over the years a ton of unreleased content has been packaged and sent out. there have been a few one off songs here and there [[like Love Train and Sha La on At Their Best or Take Me Where You Go). But starting really with 25th Anniversary, we got a large selection. then came Never Before Released Masters, the R&H set and then all of these wonderful EE releases

so which "collection" is your favorite? meaning which cd or digital set are you most happy to have? doesn't necessarily mean every song is the best.


For me, it would have to be both of the R&H sets. IMO this is the definitive example of the brilliance of the Supremes, Berry, motown, gil and all the rest. all of the vocals are only DMF [[no A's), it's just the perfect example of Berry's and motown's desire for crossover success, the production is impeccable, the singing proves without a doubt the amazing talents of DMF.

so having the entire set in full, including 2 different versions of 2 of the tunes, is just wonderful

Triple tie for me..25th anniversary,never before released masters and lost and found

For me it would have to be “The Never-Before-Released Masters” from 87. This was such an exciting release at that point in time, having never heard many of the songs before.
I do love the R& H collection, but tend to find the remastering a little clinical sounding.
It would be interesting to hear what others consider the best sound quality available for this collection.

My favorite is probably the 25TH ANNIVERSARY collection. I still remember ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT announcing its release. At the time I thought it was just another hits collection. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that it contained 20 unreleased recordings. A few months after buying the vinyl, I purchased the cd version and it was the first cd I ever bought. It had a few additional songs as well as an additional Coke commercial [although my first pressing copy didn't have the extra commercial. Instead, it mistakenly split one commercial in half.]

Particular faves: ARE YOU SURE LOVE IS THE NAME OF THIS GAME, OOOWEE BABY, SINCERELY, THOSE DJ SHOWS, HEAVEN MUST HAVE SENT YOU, and JUST A LITTLE MISUNDERSTANDING.

The next year, I bought the NEVER BEFORE RELEASED MASTERS collection. Although I like quite a few of the songs on it [SWEET THING and STORMY, amongst them], I didn't like it as much as 25TH ANNVERSARY. But I am still glad that I purchased it as I never saw another copy until eBay.

I also like the LOST AND FOUND collection a lot. There are some repeats from the earlier collections but there were still a lot of great songs like BELIEVE IN ME, THOSE PRECIOUS MEMORIES, and IN THE EVENING OF OUR LOVE.

here are my takes on a few of the collections

25th - very well rounded. a few R&H, a few Disney, a few Broadway to Hollywood and a good array of material from regular sessions

Never - to me the highlights are the early songs and Disney

Meet EE - the live tracks

WDOLG - my take on this was it was very interesting to hear what else they were recording, if for no other reason than to show how amazingly superior WDOLG was

More hits - wasn't overly excited with this set as many of the tracks were repeats

Symphony - the alt versions are really nice and the Roostertail is superb

A Go Go - most of the tracks were repeats but i liked learning in the liner notes about earlier versions of the album line up. so i've made all of these as playlists

HDH - copa 67 of course

Anthologies & L&F - probably the best out of all of these are the alt versions of the hits, along with the Promises Kept content. Although most of that unreleased material isn't up to the level of SL or Ladder. not by a long shot. Frankly IMO the best are Frank's Tears Left Over, Pam Sawyers Oh My Poor Baby and I'll Let Him Know and A&S Can't Get You Out. those 4 could have anchored the PK album. but the rest isn't all that thrilling

Greatest Hits & Rare Classics - just to get this much 70s material in the early 90s was a dream!!! and George's naughty efforts to slip different versions on the cassette and cd lolol. and alt versions. apparently he got into quite a bit of trouble for doing this, but we sure love him for it

There’s A Place For Us has to be right up there with the best of the unreleased material. Production quality alone is excellent.

Given the various unreleased packages that we’ve had over the years, for me, the Never Before Released Masters disappoints in the packaging and presentation. I think it was the first not to have also been released on vinyl. Sure, it was still early days for CD sales, but the very basic insert and song annotation almost reminds me of a bootleg quality. Interesting that the cd was labelled as a “special price”. This must have had something to do with the basic level of presentation. I remember just spotting the cd in a store by chance – I wouldn’t’ have been aware of any pre-release publicity in those days in the UK. Imagine how the cd would be packaged if it was released today?

Never before
25th anniversary
There's a place for us