lp comparison and discussion - Let the sushine vs Cream of the crop

[sup_fan]

ok - here's another one!! and i realize these are not often at the top of people's fav album list. But let's compare!!

I think i'd go with Cream of the Crop. there are a LOT of covers on Sunshine. Plus Cream has Someday, Beginning of the End.

Comparing filler tracks:
You gave me love and Cant you see it's me. both are quite strong tracks. And I think Till Johnny Comes is a lovely song. and it's a Smokey one!! lolol which i'm not typically a fan of

from Sunshine, Discover Me is really a good track. Will This Be The Day and I'm So Glad are pretty good too

but i vote for Cream

[mindful1]

That's tough to decide because Loving You is Better Than Ever and You Gave Me love are two of my favorites but so is Discover Me and No Matter What Sign You Are. So I guess I'd say Cream wins because of Someday We'll Be Together [[flawless).

[reese]

I give CREAM the slight edge because it has six songs that I really like:
SOMEDAY
CAN'T YOU SEE IT'S ME
SHADOWS OF SOCIETY
LOVING YOU IS BETTER THAN EVER
TILL JOHNNY COMES
THE BEGINNING OF THE END

as opposed to LET THE SUNSHINE IN which only has five:
NO MATTER WHAT SIGN YOU ARE
HEY WESTERN UNION MAN
WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKENHEARTED
I'M LIVIN' IN SHAME
DISCOVER ME

But IMO, neither is as good as LOVE CHILD and definitely not as good as most of the albums from the Flo era.

[RanRan79]

Hands down Sunshine for me. Part of this is Sunshine was one of the albums I had the opportunity to add to my collection early on in my collecting life. Those songs remind me of a happy time in my life, so there's a certain element of nostalgia there...nearly 25 years after it's original release! I didn't get a copy of Crop until some time in the early 2000s.

Anyway, when it comes to Crop, of course I love "Someday". I also love "You Gave Me Love", "Young Folks", and "Loving You". I like "Can't You See", "Hey Jude", "Shadows", "Top" and "Beginning" [[the latter I once loved but have since cooled off of). I don't like "Johnny" and I HATE "Wind".

When it comes to Sunshine, the only song I really don't like is "Shame". I used to dislike "Everyday People" but it's grown on me. I even like "Aquarius", which is really a song I dislike in general. I love "The Composer", "No Matter", "Western Union", "Brokenhearted", "Let the Music Play", "Child's Heart" and "Will This Be the Day". I like "I'm So Glad". A lot of it has to do with Diana's vocals. She has this hoarse thing going on some of them that I find really appealing. I play Sunshine a lot. I play only the cuts I love or really like on Crop, which I normally call Cream Of the Crap.

[Ollie9]

It’s Cream Of The Crop for me. The album just screams 60’s in the best possible way. I really like the majority of songs and the Ross voice is centre stage and sounding great. I always think of it has her first solo album.
”You Gave Me Love” and Loving You” are exciting songs that really get inside your head ands stay there. Both had huge potential.

[johnjeb]

Two albums and three singles that didn't need to be released. The Love Child album was so good that, in hindsight, any song from LC could have been released as a single and charted as well as, or better than, the three singles from 1969 that are on the Sunshine album. And the Love Child album would have been a more satisfying last studio album from DRATS. As a Supremes fan I liked most of the releases, but 1969 was a real challenge for us DRATS fans, imo.

I think BG thought he had all these songs in the vaults so he might as well release a few of them to recoup some of the cost. I also think Composer, by Smokey, and Sign, by BG were attempts by them to try and get hits on DRATS before DR went solo. They shouldn't have bothered.

I prefer the Let The Sunshine In album. The singles were fun and the covers were enjoyable enough. I compare it to the Reflections album in that it was purely POP. Let the Music Play, With A Child's Heart and Will This Be The Day, although good, just weren't songs for teenagers. I liked Aquarius/Sunshine and Everyday People at the time but now find them unlistenable. I think choosing songs like A Little Breeze, Slow Down or several others [[later released on Never-Before-Released-Masters CD) would have strengthened this album. That's what I have done for my personal Playlists. The cover was decent. I remember getting this album in late Spring of 1969 and enjoyed it through the summer. Of course it helped I saw DRATS three times that summer and Aquarius was featured in their act.

Not a fan of Crop as an album. I like many of the songs, individually, but the album seems uninspired and lacks cohesion. A friend recently commented that he thought this album was just a "hodge-podge" of a mess. I didn't care for Jude or Wind [[although I like the alternate Wind from AGG EE) I don't know why they bothered to even record these songs much less include them on the final album. Shadow and Folks seemed gimmicky attempts at being socially relevant. You Gave Me Love, When It's Too The Top, and Loving You Is Better Than Ever seemed more like show-tunes for a Broadway album than this album. Beginning Of The End and Johnny [[Brenda's is better) seemed dated. Again, decent songs and vocals but not a great album. I don't like the cover. The head shot of DR is unappealing and unnecessary. It looked like a budget release. There were so many better pics of the group from this period that could have been used. The song choices and cover screamed rush-release.

[sup_fan]

Hands down Sunshine for me. Part of this is Sunshine was one of the albums I had the opportunity to add to my collection early on in my collecting life. Those songs remind me of a happy time in my life, so there's a certain element of nostalgia there...nearly 25 years after it's original release! I didn't get a copy of Crop until some time in the early 2000s.

Anyway, when it comes to Crop, of course I love "Someday". I also love "You Gave Me Love", "Young Folks", and "Loving You". I like "Can't You See", "Hey Jude", "Shadows", "Top" and "Beginning" [[the latter I once loved but have since cooled off of). I don't like "Johnny" and I HATE "Wind".

When it comes to Sunshine, the only song I really don't like is "Shame". I used to dislike "Everyday People" but it's grown on me. I even like "Aquarius", which is really a song I dislike in general. I love "The Composer", "No Matter", "Western Union", "Brokenhearted", "Let the Music Play", "Child's Heart" and "Will This Be the Day". I like "I'm So Glad". A lot of it has to do with Diana's vocals. She has this hoarse thing going on some of them that I find really appealing. I play Sunshine a lot. I play only the cuts I love or really like on Crop, which I normally call Cream Of the Crap.

love your line there Ran about how this album holds a special place. i'm gonna start a thread on that!!

[sup_fan]

i think with Sunshine and Cream, there are DEFINITELY some canned tracks the deserved to have been included versus some that did.

Stormy
A Little Breeze
wish i knew
if you should walk away
You're gonna hear from me
the look of love

Shadow of society is a mess. they could have skipped that one. not a fan of Hey Jude but it's a relatively decent cover. Blowing wasn't much.

[RanRan79]

It’s Cream Of The Crop for me. The album just screams 60’s in the best possible way. I really like the majority of songs and the Ross voice is centre stage and sounding great. I always think of it has her first solo album.
”You Gave Me Love” and Loving You” are exciting songs that really get inside your head ands stay there. Both had huge potential.

"You Gave Me Love" in particular deserved a single release. "Loving You" is probably my favorite cut on the album, after "Someday", but I'm only 50 percent willing to bank on it being a big hit had it been released as a single. I think "You Gave Me Love" could have gone top 10 easily.

[RanRan79]

love your line there Ran about how this album holds a special place. i'm gonna start a thread on that!!

Glad I could inspire something positive Sup.

[RanRan79]

i think with Sunshine and Cream, there are DEFINITELY some canned tracks the deserved to have been included versus some that did.

Stormy
A Little Breeze
wish i knew
if you should walk away
You're gonna hear from me
the look of love

Shadow of society is a mess. they could have skipped that one. not a fan of Hey Jude but it's a relatively decent cover. Blowing wasn't much.

There are really a nice amount of tracks that probably deserved album inclusion over what was actually released. When you take into account that Sunshine has not one, not two, but three cuts recorded during the Flo era, it really makes no sense. While I love all three of them, they really could've been replaced with more recent recordings. A Flo era cut even made it onto the Crap album, and a horrible Flo era cut at that. I really don't understand what exactly the company was thinking behind some of these decisions.

Regarding "Shadows", I love that it's saying something. Also Diana's vocal I love. That line when she sings "where has understanding gone" and she does this sort of run on "gone". I dig it.

[daviddh]

Cream of the Crop for me. Very lush sounding.
Didn't like Blowin in the Wind.
Sunshine. Omg.they really released this mess. I do like Sign.

[gman]

More than any 2 Supremes LP's...these 2 have the same strengths and weaknesses.

I have to say....I enjoy both sides of these 2 more than I personally enjoy side 2 of both the Reflections and Love Child LPs....although I think side 1 of both of those is better than either side of the above later 2 LPS

Funny, I've always liked The Weight [[it probably ties the Composer for the dismissed by most post '64 single)....if that replaced Impossible Dream on JOIN it would have been a flawless LP, IMHO...I love every other cut. The TCB version of Dream can't be topped. Diana sounds unstoppable, and Paul just creamed it...great performance.

[Ollie9]

Two albums and three singles that didn't need to be released. The Love Child album was so good that, in hindsight, any song from LC could have been released as a single and charted as well as, or better than, the three singles from 1969 that are on the Sunshine album. And the Love Child album would have been a more satisfying last studio album from DRATS. As a Supremes fan I liked most of the releases, but 1969 was a real challenge for us DRATS fans, imo.

I agree in that Love Child is a solid effort and for me probably their strongest album. There really were so many potential hits on display that had this been the groups final album, it would have ensured that as far as long players were concerned they departed on a real high.