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...
Bookmarks