My Most Played Motown Albums

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06-07-2020, 06:04 AM
TomBairdFan

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My Most Played Motown Albums

Attachment 17504

As something to do during lockdown days, I took a pic of 30 of some of my very favorite Motown CD albums. They're the ones that get played many, many times all the way through! They all have their own examples of Motown magic, and I never get tired of enjoying the music, the songs, the arrangements and the productions that were put together by all those skilful people. For example, mega-praise to whoever assembled the tracks for Gladys' 'All I Need Is Time' and made it into such a perfect album. Ditto to the compiler of the Four Tops 'Master Series' CD who turned it into the most cool-vibe Tops collection that outdoes any of their studio albums because it's such a pleasure to listen to from start to finish. I'm in Richard Morris heaven when I listen to Martha`s 'Ridin`High'; and those three Van McCoy/David Ruffin albums? Sophisticated soul indeed! And then there's Stevie's jaw-dropping-for-just-a-kid vocal phrasing on his easy listening album; the Motown-ized standards on the 'B side' of 'Mary Wells Sings My Guy'; Gordon Frewin's 'very best of the best years' all squeezed into two 'Hits Of Gold' volumes; and contrast that with the completely hitless but peak of the early days 'Switched On Blues'. There are also many individual highlights in among all the tracks: Melvin Moy's delightfully inappropriate 'Home Cookin' lyrics; Dennis taking 'A Song For You' to church; Smokey's perfectly constructed 'Composer'; the spine-chilling moment when 'Cherish' modulates and Lawrence Payton's Tops/Andantes vocal arrangement carries the song aloft until the end; the Originals' 'Green Grow The Lilacs' [[that I could play all day); Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers' simple but superb 'One Girl'; the Fantastic Four's ultra-hummable 'Romeo And Juliet's I Don't Want To Live Without You [[Play)'; and Mickey Stevenson's creative and gorgeously melodic 'Need Somebody' on Marvin's 'How Sweet It Is' album. All great songs on their own, but you still end up playing the CD all the way through!

Maybe you'll see some of your own favorites, or maybe not. It's good that we all have different tastes in music. We may be different on the outside, but inside we're all the same - we all simply enjoy a good song. That's what brings us together.

I could go on, but I've got albums to play...
06-07-2020, 06:24 AM
mysterysinger

Nice mixture of releases there - I see a Marginal one too. Good to see a Mojazz one in there [[2 if you count Eivets Rednow). Plus both early Originals Album CDs - that's great taste.

Plus mention of "The Composer" - Smokey's version comes across deep and dirty to me [[in contrast to DRATS) and I love it. Those Master CDs are really good - very nice sound on all those. There's Yvonne Fair too - is that the Reel CD or a Japanese version?

In a large part, the "Switched On Blues" album was the basis for the UKs "Motown Memories Volume 3" and when I got that album I was blown away with Gino Parks "Same Thing". The UK added other tracks as well though, such as The Supremes "Buttered Popcorn" and Shorty Long's "I'm Walkin' ".

Nice job there - thanks for sharing.
06-07-2020, 09:44 AM
davidr

Tops

Love Tops version of ‘cherish’ one of their best covers

Also thumbs up for the great Junior Walker

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomBairdFan

Attachment 17504

As something to do during lockdown days, I took a pic of 30 of some of my very favorite Motown CD albums. They're the ones that get played many, many times all the way through! They all have their own examples of Motown magic, and I never get tired of enjoying the music, the songs, the arrangements and the productions that were put together by all those skilful people. For example, mega-praise to whoever assembled the tracks for Gladys' 'All I Need Is Time' and made it into such a perfect album. Ditto to the compiler of the Four Tops 'Master Series' CD who turned it into the most cool-vibe Tops collection that outdoes any of their studio albums because it's such a pleasure to listen to from start to finish. I'm in Richard Morris heaven when I listen to Martha`s 'Ridin`High'; and those three Van McCoy/David Ruffin albums? Sophisticated soul indeed! And then there's Stevie's jaw-dropping-for-just-a-kid vocal phrasing on his easy listening album; the Motown-ized standards on the 'B side' of 'Mary Wells Sings My Guy'; Gordon Frewin's 'very best of the best years' all squeezed into two 'Hits Of Gold' volumes; and contrast that with the completely hitless but peak of the early days 'Switched On Blues'. There are also many individual highlights in among all the tracks: Melvin Moy's delightfully inappropriate 'Home Cookin' lyrics; Dennis taking 'A Song For You' to church; Smokey's perfectly constructed 'Composer'; the spine-chilling moment when 'Cherish' modulates and Lawrence Payton's Tops/Andantes vocal arrangement carries the song aloft until the end; the Originals' 'Green Grow The Lilacs' [[that I could play all day); Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers' simple but superb 'One Girl'; the Fantastic Four's ultra-hummable 'Romeo And Juliet's I Don't Want To Live Without You [[Play)'; and Mickey Stevenson's creative and gorgeously melodic 'Need Somebody' on Marvin's 'How Sweet It Is' album. All great songs on their own, but you still end up playing the CD all the way through!

Maybe you'll see some of your own favorites, or maybe not. It's good that we all have different tastes in music. We may be different on the outside, but inside we're all the same - we all simply enjoy a good song. That's what brings us together.

I could go on, but I've got albums to play...