The Marvelettes had "The Marvelettes Sing".
The Miracles had "Mickey's Monkey"
The Temptations had "Sing Smokey"
Martha & The Vandellas had "Heat Wave"

These are albums, that, to me, are example of The Motown Quickie Album. Albums where you can tell all the basic tracks were recorded quickly and with fairly sparse instrumentation. Maybe they were recorded in one session. Then the artists came in and recorded their vocals just as quickly.

The "Heat Wave" album is already legendary for the fact that the group flew in from a tour and at some ungodly hour, like 2 in the morning, recorded the whole thing [[except for the hit) and flew back out to rejoin the tour! When I read that, it explained a lot of things about that album, but I was also greatly impressed with what these young kids had to endure as recording artists.

The "Marvelettes Sing" may have been the first of these Quickie Albums. I wouldn't consider the "Please Mr. Postman" Lp in the same category because while many of the songs do sound a bit sparse, it does seem there was some time spent on the recording of those songs. [[for example, "I Want A Guy" has a nice full sound that doesn't at all sound rushed.) The "Playboy" album comes close to sounding like a Quickie Album, but the "Sing" album definitely has all the earmarks.

"The Temptations Sing Smokey" may not have been a 100% Quickie Album, but there are quite a few songs loaded that do sound as if they were somewhat quickly recorded with sparse arrangements. By this time, though, The Funk Brothers' sound was really gelling to the point that they could have recorded a song in 30 seconds and it would have sounded good.

My favorite of the Motown Quickie Albums though is The Miracles' "Mikey's Monkey" album. If anyone could run down an album at warp speed and make it sound exciting and fun, it was Holland-Dozier-Holland. This album is just sheer fun. Instead of sounding like a quick cash-in, the album just sounds like everyone crammed the studios and had a ball recording. "The Groovy Thing" is one of the most enjoyable pieces of fluff I've ever heard anywhere. It's one of the tunes I can't resist playing multiple times.

End of Rave