The First Time You Recognized A New Record As Being MOTOWN!!!

[Motown Eddie]

I consider The Supremes' "Where Did Love Go" my first Motown Record from the time it hit the radio in the summer of 1964. From then on I became familiar with the classic Motown Sound and I could identify songs like "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Dancing In The Street", "My Girl" & "I'll Always Love You" [by The Spinners] as being made by Motown.

[Philles/Motown Gary]

I consider The Supremes' "Where Did Love Go" my first Motown Record from the time it hit the radio in the summer of 1964. From then on I became familiar with the classic Motown Sound and I could identify songs like "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Dancing In The Street", "My Girl" & "I'll Always Love You" [by The Spinners] as being made by Motown.

Eddie, I cannot understand, for the life of me, why The Spinners' "I'll Always Love You" wasn't a hit. It has all the earmarks of a Motown hit [[4/4 on the snare, tambourine, baritone sax, piano, and up-front brass), and it's catchy as all get-out thanks to its top-notch arrangement, production, and perfect vocals, yet it got no airplay where I lived and, apparently, not many radio stations elsewhere, either. Same goes for its beautiful follow-up, "Truly Yours", which should have been a hit based on its gorgeous string passages alone.

[Motown Eddie]

Eddie, I cannot understand, for the life of me, why The Spinners' "I'll Always Love You" wasn't a hit. It has all the earmarks of a Motown hit [[4/4 on the snare, tambourine, baritone sax, piano, and up-front brass), and it's catchy as all get-out thanks to its top-notch arrangement, production, and perfect vocals, yet it got no airplay where I lived and, apparently, not many radio stations elsewhere, either. Same goes for its beautiful follow-up, "Truly Yours", which should have been a hit based on its gorgeous string passages alone.

I Agree!! At least "I'll Always Love You" was a moderate hit [#8 R&B/#35 Pop according to Billboard]. The same goes for "Truly Yours" [#16 R&B Billboard]. One thing about The Motown Sound; there were so many Great Songs once it got going, they needed their own radio station to play them all [and that's not even counting the songs that ended up the Vaults].

[Philles/Motown Gary]

I Agree!! At least "I'll Always Love You" was a moderate hit [#8 R&B/#35 Pop according to Billboard]. The same goes for "Truly Yours" [#16 R&B Billboard]. One thing about The Motown Sound; there were so many Great Songs once it got going, they needed their own radio station to play them all [and that's not even counting the songs that ended up the Vaults].

Eddie, the idea of Motown having its own radio station to plug their latest 1960s/early '70s releases is pure genius! I've heard of current-day radio stations on SeriusXM that play only Motown, but that's totally different. 1960's Motown playing ALL of their latest 45 and LP releases would have increased sales for ALL Motown artists -- the stars and the lesser-known artists alike! Just think -- artists like The Elgins, The Monitors, Chris Clark, Barbara Randolph, Shorty Long, and The Velvelettes would have had an equal chance at chart positions and sales as Motown's stars like Diana/Supremes, Smokey, Marvin, and Stevie, as well as boosting sales for Brenda Holloway, Kim Weston, Martha/Vandellas & The Marvelettes -- all of whom recorded top-notch recordings for Motown which received little or no airplay at times. If only we could turn the clock back to the '60s to take advantage of such a Motown commodity!