A Plethora Of Previously Unreleased Music

[Motown4Ever518]

As I await the release of the Motown Unreleased 1967 Edition with the rest of you. I took a moment to pause and think about the staggering amount of unreleased material that we have been fortunate enough to have released. In tandem with this output, is the exceptional high quality. I would say that 25% of these titles could have made an LP released at the time, and 10% of these songs were better than what was released as a single instead of these songs. Maybe 1% would have gone Top 40. "Come On Back" by the Temptations would have been #1 on the R&B Charts IMO.

Going back to 1979, I remember the release of, Never Before Heard Masters. The LP had what in the CD era would be a meager 10-12 songs. There was another LP of the same concept, and I thought we were done. I was good. 20 strong songs that for whatever reason did not see the light of day when recorded. Then beginning in the Cd era, we had the Anthologies, of all generations. The Box Sets, Lost and Found, the Cellar Full of Motown series, the artist specific unreleased sets such as, Brenda Holloway, Contours, Fantastic Four etc. Motown Girls and Motown Guys, which had a lot of unreleased material. The Extended versions of the Supreme's LP's up to and including The Supreme's A-Go Go. And last, but not certainly not least, the at this point mostly digital year by year Unreleased sets.

I don't know what the future holds as far as unreleased material, but we have had a great ride up to now. A tip of the chapeau to all involved in the releasing of these previously unreleased jewels. it looks to me to be a fun job, but I can appreciate all of the hard work that goes into producing this. I also don't want to forget to mention the role of this forum, which is how I find out about a lot of these titles.

Looking forward to more great Previously Unreleased material.

[Quinn]

I agree that it is indeed a jubilation to be able to hear much of what was deemed rejects. We have hundreds of them in our possession. Nearly 300 of them from "Cellarful Of Motown" alone. I think we're nearing the bottom of the well though my friend. I hope I'm wrong, but that's what I believe. As good as the songs on "Unreleased" or any other collection are, I tend to side with QC on 95% of it. It's a blessing to be able to hear them today and appreciate them but I rarely argue. What I have the tendency to do is listen to the tunes,study the timeline in which they were recorded,then try to replace them with a song that made the album it was intended for.I'm continually lost."The Soulful Shack" is a Smokey classic, but would throw off the direction of "Going To A Go Go". He must've known cause he didn't lay his vocal until the " Away We A Go Go" timeline. The re cut fit into "Make It Happen" just fine. Without comparison they're nice, comparison takes power off. I am grateful though and surprised myself how many are out in the air to be shared. Hopefully there's more adventures on the shelf,but if not we've had a great run. Keith Hughes needs to partake in this thread.

[Quinn]

Edit your post 518."Holloway" my friend.

[paul_nixon]

I agree that it is indeed a jubilation to be able to hear much of what was deemed rejects. We have hundreds of them in our possession. Nearly 300 of them from "Cellarful Of Motown" alone. I think we're nearing the bottom of the well though my friend. I hope I'm wrong, but that's what I believe. As good as the songs on "Unreleased" or any other collection are, I tend to side with QC on 95% of it. It's a blessing to be able to hear them today and appreciate them but I rarely argue. What I have the tendency to do is listen to the tunes,study the timeline in which they were recorded,then try to replace them with a song that made the album it was intended for.I'm continually lost."The Soulful Shack" is a Smokey classic, but would throw off the direction of "Going To A Go Go". He must've known cause he didn't lay his vocal until the " Away We A Go Go" timeline. The re cut fit into "Make It Happen" just fine. Without comparison they're nice, comparison takes power off. I am grateful though and surprised myself how many are out in the air to be shared. Hopefully there's more adventures on the shelf,but if not we've had a great run. Keith Hughes needs to partake in this thread.

I was thinking just the other day just how many vaulted tracks had appeared on the compilations I've been involved in - never really counted them or listed all the CD's. Like you say although there are still a few nuggets in the vault left we have raided the very best for Cellarful and the Anthologies - a price probably worth paying I would say. But as I've said a hundred times 'when it come to Motown - never say never'

[jbpintus]

And there’s the we-will-never-hear Stevie tracks. There is quite a few ones that’ll always give the vaults a guarantee these are still filled with wonders...

Anyway, the amount and quality of previously unreleased tracks that we now have is absolutely incredible.

Many thanks to all those involved.
HW has not been mentioned yet. So here’s to you Harry! Without you...

And Keith, Andy, John, Paul, George, Richard - not I’m not talking bout the Fab Four but real Motown heroes to me,... and many many more!

JB

[Motown4Ever518]

Paul, I salute you for your involvement with the Cellar Full series. While I do miss it, I would rather it end on a high note, pun intended, than to contain less sterling material.

I wonder what those of you on this site felt about the James Epps "solo", or "Fantastic One", song on a recent Fantastic Four release. Because it had been recorded a couple times before by other artists, I noticed that the other 3 group members were not on the track, which was mentioned by the liner notes writer. So would we be interested in incomplete tracks, once the well is dry? In other words, incomplete songs.

[kenneth]

I totally agree with the fact that we have been treated to so much great music and even the not-so-great tracks are fun to listen to, just like that feeling when you'd open a new Motown album and then sit back and listen to it for the first time. Hearing unreleased tracks by all these groups has just been phenomenal.

I also remember the original LPs "From the Vaults" and "Motown Superstars Sing Motown Superstars" [[which I think was the 2nd album of previously unreleased tracks) back in the day. What a revelation those albums were, and who'd ever think that it was barely the tip of the iceberg!

[simon.millar]

And not forgetting the hiposelect expanded / deluxe versions of Marvins 70s and 80s albums, some great alternative versions... WGO Detroit mix... and I never ever thought I would hear the “love man” / odessy “In Our Lifetime” tracks after it took me an age to find a “Love Man” album jacket!