Motorcity forum

Should there be a separate forum for Motorcity recordings discussion? It seems to have taken over the main Motown forum in recent times, and seems to be lots and lots of posts by the same few people. Just thinking…..

I'm in the midst of reading an excellent history of Stax Records called Respect Yourself. Robert Gordon is the author. In the book he talks about how in the late 60s/early 70s, how Stax employed a man named Johnny Baylor to promote their records. Baylor and his team were not above using threats of violence and gun play in their efforts to ensure Stax releases got radio play.

This leads me to wonder how far did Motown promotion heads went to get Motown records airplay? Does anyone know if they engaged in similar tactics as Baylor did with Stax?

The fun thing about Motorcity Various-Artists collections is that they were often-times based on a theme. One such example is the 2-CD "DIVAS" collection and the Tribute to H-D-H collection, among others. Enjoy!

Philles/Motown Gary

Hattie Littles - February 14, 1937 to 15 June, 2000.

I absolutely love this track from Hattie Littles. She recorded some very good stuff for Motorcity - including 2 solo albums and a "Very Best Of". Another favourite of mine is "The Right Direction". But thank goodness Ian Levine brought her back for his Motorcity project.

I find Hattie's vocals one this very touching [[no pun intended) and I really enjoy listening to her. Of course it's such a great song to begin with - and at least we have Hattie's version for posterity.

Wasn't sure where to post this - the track "No Competition" featured on both the EU "Dancing In The Streets" series [["Blue Eyed Soul" Volume 14) and on "The Best Of Motorcity" Volume 15 but this version surpasses the earlier one by some margin. In fact it's a classic. I'm getting shades of "Midnight Johnny". Love it.

This is what Ian Levine says about it
"This song is by The Valadiers and was co-written with me and lead singer of The Satintones, Vernon Williams, who has now sadly passed away to that Soul Heaven in the sky. It is a fun stomping piece of Motownesque exuberance. We remixed and revisited it for our 2006 album "Solid Ground". I must particularly thank "Hitsville Chalky", real name Roy Gennard, who went to Detroit and specially filmed this performance. Let's just say they've still got it!! The Valadiers were Motown's first official white group, but fooled everybody because lead singer Stewart Avig's voice sounded so black. Despite recording a multitude of songs between 1960 and 1963, they only had three singles released, their huge hit "Greetings This Is Uncle Sam", released in October 1961 on the Miracle label, and their two follow ups, "Because I Love Her", in May 1962, and "I Found A Girl" in January 1963, both on the Gordy Label. The last of these was released in England on the Oriole label's Motown series. The group never actually split up, but changed their name to The Latin Counts and became a more multi-racial group, as Stewart changed members of his group over the years. The Latin Counts have had many local Detroit releases on independent labels through the last forty years. When we arrived in Detroit, in March 1989, original lead singer, Stewart Avig, came to see me at the St. Regis Hotel and asked me to record them, if they changed their name back to The Valadiers. In recent years, they have merged with another mid Sixties Detroit group, The Shades Of Blue, who made the hit "Oh How Happy", which was originally written for them by Edwin Starr. The Valadiers were booked to come over to England for a Soul Weekender in Northampton and I was bitterly saddened and disappointed that their appearance got cancelled, that was truly unfair."

And now it seems I must look out for a 2006 album called "Solid Ground". It's a never ending story lol

INTRODUCTION:

As you'll discover below, most of the MOTORCITY recording artists featured an album of their own [[titled after one of their recent single releases) as well as a "Very Best Of" album.

At the time of purchase back in the mid-to-late 1990's, I bought every one I could get my hands on. Unfortunately, I have only 22 of them which was all that were available to me at the time. It boggles the mind to see how many individual-artist album titles were planned but never released.

For now, let me share with you the MOTORCITY individual-artist CD titles from my personal collection which I've compiled for you here!

Also, another HUGE thanks to Kenny [[Kenneth) for uploading this project for me.

PHILLES/MOTOWN GARY