Unreleased old 2fers

[jbpintus]

The 1986-87 2fers are very special to me. Probably because I was able to get so many Motown lps on cd back then.


1/ George Solomon confirmed a few days ago that the art for the SUPREMES Copa / Cooke cd has been designed. I'd love to see what it would have looked like, front and back. Has anybody seen it?


2/ George Solomon also said Meet the Supremes / Country Western and Pop was an idea at some point.
Was there any other ideas floating around that never materialized?

3/ The discography on Sharon Davis' Motown book lists a non manufactured FOUR TOPS Live / Keeper of the Castle Tamla Motown cd. What gives?

4/ The Temptations Copa / Lot o Soul cd was released in the US with the wrong art for the Copa lp - using the 1967 live album instead. The first Tamla Motown European release of that 2fer used that same artwork with the mistake. But then it was corrected with the correct picture for the Copa lp.
Was it ever corrected in the US?
[I mean the 2fer as I know the stand alone Copa cd was released with the wrong cover first, and later with the corrected art as a stand alone cd - and I'm dying to see it on eBay as I'm ready to put the price on the stand alone correct artwork for the Copa lp lol!

JB

[mysterysinger]

"Keeper Of The Castle" was issued as a 2fer with "Nature Planned It". I made a mock up for the unreleased Supremes Live 2fer but it probably is nothing like the real thing. You can see all the original 2fers here.... https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookephotography/albums/72157637231731375

[kenneth]

@mysterysinger, how did it happen that Motown ended up with the Al Green [[Hi Records) and Duane Eddy [[Jamie) titles? Did Motown acquire those labels at some point?

[mysterysinger]

I believe it was simply through a distribution deal that these things happened [[rather than purchase of the labels). In a similar way, Motown ended up issuing CDs on Little Richard. Jimmy Reed etc., and later Lucky Dube, Alexander O'Neal, SOS Band and so on. Motown distributed Hi's back catalogue from some time in the 80s until the mid 1990s but mainly Al Green and Willie Mitchell product. Individual CD albums were also issued on all the titles from the 2fers and more besides.

[mysterysinger]

Duane Eddy13462

The Compact Command Performances series also contained some interesting titles. Take a look.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookephotography/albums/72157677040166624

[kenneth]

Very interesting! I happen to have the Jimmy Reed Compact Command Performance disc. But I never knew about the Al Green, Little Richard, Duane Eddy or MLK. I wonder if the MILK is from the early Gordy albums of MLK's marches and speeches.

Interesting they never touched Ann Peebles' catalog on Hi.

Also, the photo of Grover Washington on his CCP disc resembles a young Berry Gordy.

[woodward]

These double CDs are extremely difficult to locate. It appears that the majority were issued in the UK. Sadly, I only have one in my entire collection: Four Tops.

Do a search in this website: Motown 2 Classic Albums 1 CD

This began back in April of 2015 and there were a total of 27 responses as a result of the thread. A lot of the background is given in that thread.

I wish they were resume production of these. They would certainly sell.

[jack020]

These twofers were the reason I bought my first cd-player.
Amsterdam store luxury store De Bijenkorf had most of these titles in a sale once. They were probably sold as overstock then.
I bought a lot of these titles [[ I already had bought quite a few over the years) but regret not buying them all.

[mysterysinger]

The original 2on1 series was in the US and all in an 08xxx numbering sequence. Whilst mostly Motown label issues, some had Tamla or Gordy logos instead [[the prefix was MCD, TCD or GCD respectively. There were corresponding issues on Tamla Motown or Motown in the UK/EU in a ZD7xxxx series and in Japan, for example with R32M prefixes. My collection consists of some examples from each [[along with some duplicates cross series). I've not found them hard to come by, often at very cheap prices, but there are some that command very high prices, such as The Supremes Liverpool/TCB. There was a later UK series from around 2001 which was great and had better art work, then a little later came those on Gladys Knight & The Pips which were different again.

13463

[booty]

Very interesting! I happen to have the Jimmy Reed Compact Command Performance disc. But I never knew about the Al Green, Little Richard, Duane Eddy or MLK. I wonder if the MILK is from the early Gordy albums of MLK's marches and speeches.

Interesting they never touched Ann Peebles' catalog on Hi.

Also, the photo of Grover Washington on his CCP disc resembles a young Berry Gordy.

One album was released on Ann Peebles
I Can't Stand The Rain [Motown 5288]

[jbpintus]

Note that there are some slight differences in the cover arts for the US and European releases of the first 2fers.

DIANA ROSS - Touch me in the morning / Baby it's me has no black printing on the US front art, thus the albums names and the line "now digitally mastered on 1 compact disc' is absent on all US releases. European Tamla Motown has the thing corrected.

STEVIE WONDER - For Once In My Life / Uptight : US version has the album names on the front cover. The Tamla Motown cd hasn't. Funny as on the first US cd release of "For Once In My Life" on the A MOTOWN COMPACT CLASSIC series, both artist and album name are missing ...

JACKSON 5 : Diana Ross presents / ABC has different colors in the US or in Europe for the 'original cover art' writing at the bottom

TEMPTATIONS : Copa / Lot O Soul has two different albums pictured for Copa [[both in Europe)

And to get things clear, in my original post, I mentionned a non manufactured European Tamla Motown FOUR TOPS Live / Keeper of the Castle cd. It's not a mistake and I know Keeper of the Castle was coupled in the US with Nature Planned it.

Finally, we still need some of those old 2 fers today as they still contain mixes unavailable elsewhere to this day. This include single versions, non released single edits and most of all, an extended version of the COMMODORES "Just To Be Close To You" that was never repeated ever since. That's funny as the 2fer it appears on had to edit down many track 'for time purposes'

Oh, and not forgetting RICK JAMES "Throwin Down" being available on cd on that series only, and this for 20 years or so...

JB

[mysterysinger]

Great info JB. "Throwin' Down" was released in 2013 on a Japanese Motown CD and can be picked up at a reasonable price these days.

[George Solomon]

The unreleased Copa/Sam Cooke - Front cover was the same as all the others with the 2 LP's. Back then they only had one additional full page pic. This one had the picture of Mary and Flo lifting Diana with her hands in the air. They are outside ... Kind of an odd shot for this pairing but I wasn't picking the photos back then!

[mysterysinger]

Thanks for the info George.

So there never was a Supremes Talk of the Town and Copa pairing in planning [[wonder where I got that idea from lol). That makes 2 imaginary ones I've made since I also wanted a San Remo Golden Strings "Swing" and "Hungry For Love" 2fer.

A certain other forum member imagined a double CD containing 3 albums - "From The Vaults", "Motown Superstars Sing Motown Superstars" and "Motown's Brightest Stars - Never Before Released Masters". Kinda defeats the object of 2 albums on 1 CD but what a release it would be.

[jbpintus]

Thank you George for the post!

May I ask you what color was the background on the front side of the Copa/Sam Cooke 2fer?
I've always thought it had to be blue - same color as the letters COPA on that album art.

I also assumed the fonts used matched that of the back insert of the "Supremes at the Copa" MOTD version of the stand alone cd.

JB

[kenneth]

Thanks for the info George.

So there never was a Supremes Talk of the Town and Copa pairing in planning [[wonder where I got that idea from lol). That makes 2 imaginary ones I've made since I also wanted a San Remo Golden Strings "Swing" and "Hungry For Love" 2fer.

A certain other forum member imagined a double CD containing 3 albums - "From The Vaults", "Motown Superstars Sing Motown Superstars" and "Motown's Brightest Stars - Never Before Released Masters". Kinda defeats the object of 2 albums on 1 CD but what a release it would be.

That would be a great release. Those albums were ground breaking when they were released. I couldn't believe we were actually hearing something from the vaults. Whoever thought we would be able to have heard all the treasures we have until now, with more to look forward to? Just the sheer volume of it all is kind of hard to comprehend, let alone how good most of it is!

So "God Bless Whoever Sent You" that started on this road way back in the [[late 70s?). Gulp!

[mysterysinger]

Ah The Originals. One of my favourites.