Martha Reeves-Motor City Label Question

[daviddesper]

I was playing around with Spotify [[which I highly recommend by the way) and came upon a great track by Martha and the Vandellas that I had never heard before. You could tell it was from the reincarnation days when Ian Levine re-recorded a lot of the Motown stars. The fake drum machine was unmistakable and Martha's voice was definitely not her prime years sound.

Nevertheless I enjoyed this song tremendously. It was called "Number One" and all I could tell was that it was featured on a various artists CD entitled "A Tribute to the Motown Years." I don't think I have ever seen that CD either.

I have tried researching it and all I have been able to determine so far is that there were at least 3 volumes in the series released and that Barbara Randolph and Edwin Starr were some of the other artists featured.

I realize it has been almost 20 years now since Ian recorded all his stuff, but could this collection still be found anyplace, other than just lucking out in the occasional oldies shop? Does anyone have a track listing for either the CD that this song is on or any others in the same series?

Also did Martha and the girls ever release a Motor City album? If they did, I never saw it, although I know both the Marvelettes and Velvelettes did, because I have both of theirs. So it would seem odd that Martha never got an album released.

[marybrewster]

Volume 1:

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6966683/a/Tribute+To+The+Motown+Years.htm

Volume 2:

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6966684/a/Tribute+To+The+Motown+Years+Vol.+2+-+Tribute+To+The+Motown+Years.htm

Volume 3:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6966685

[reese]

In 1990, the Ian Levine productions were first released in the USA on the Quality label.

First was a 12-inch called DON'T FORGET THE CITY by Big Wheel and the Motor Mixers. Included were snippets of new recordings by Martha and the Vandellas, The Velvelettes, Mary Wells, and others.

A Mary Wells cd entitled KEEPING MY MIND ON LOVE was also released.

Then there was a five-volume series called MOTOR CITY DANCE PARTY with tracks from various former Motown artists, redoing their own and other artist's classics, as well as some new songs. Martha's NUMBER ONE was released on
Volume 4: SUMMER SIZZLERS.

To my knowledge, a full cd was never released on Martha. Judging from Ian Levine's YouTube comments, they had some business problems. Since then, most of these songs have been repackaged endlessly. When I was in London, I saw a cd called THIS IS SOUL that had some of these traks, as well as Martha's STEP INTO MY SHOES and ANGEL IN DISGUISE.