Well, Kenny, just off the top of my head, some of my favorite Motown album covers are:
THE SUPREMES - "More Hits By..."
SUPREMES & TEMPTS - "TCB"
MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS - "Watch-Out"
MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS - "Sugar 'N' Spice"
THE MARVELETTES - Pink Cover [[Self-Titled)
THE MARVELETTES - "Sophisticated Soul"
THE MARVELETTES - "In Full Bloom"
FOUR TOPS - "Four Tops"
THE TEMPTATIONS - "Sing Smokey"
THE MIRACLES - "Going To A Go-Go"
MARVIN GAYE - "Moods Of Marvin Gaye"
MARVIN GAYE & KIM WESTON - "Take Two"
MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL "You're All I Need To Get By"
STEVIE WONDER - "I Was Made To Love Her"
EARL VAN DYKE & THE SOUL BROTHERS - "That Motown Sound"
MARY WELLS - "Vintage Stock"
THE NEW SUPREMES - "Right On"
THE NEW SUPREMES - "Touch"
DIANA ROSS - "The Boss"
@Philles_Motown Gary,
My buddy Gar and I always have to disagree on most things Motown related.
In this list I can understand nearly all of them. You like the Hollywood golden age style glamour portraits of the stars! But the one I can’t understand is…Vintage Stock? A most generic rush cover design to cash in on the interest that Mary Wells may have generated and to eat into her album sales on another label at the time, using a, well, “stock“ photo!
Last edited by kenneth; 03-23-2021 at 10:33 AM.
Yeah, Kenny, I know the LP cover on "Vintage Stock" is plain without Mary Wells' photo. But it had some previously-unreleased tracks [["When I'm Gone", "One Block From Heaven", "Goodbye And Good Luck", etc.) and I remember how thrilled I was to get the LP for Christmas. Because of that, I've always loved the LP's cover photo. Ditto for Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston's "Take Two" album. Despite there being no artist photos, the music contained within combined with the cool director's chairs and double meaning of the words "take two" and "second take" made me love the album's cover. Probably weird, I know, but that's just me.
We in the UK got lucky with the "Take Two" album, but the release of "Vintage Stock" got cancelled. I suspect they'd have given it a different cover had it been released here.
Yeah, mysterysinger, you guys on the other side of the pond got lucky with the Marvin & Kim LP and also the Martha & The Vandellas "Dance Party" LP cover. Yours shows an exciting scene of Martha, Betty and Rosalind performing on stage, while we in the U.S. got stuck with a bunch of cartoon characters supposedly dancing up a storm for our front cover. Gotta wonder what photo of Mary Wells Motown would have used had "Vintage Stock" been released in the U.K.
Well we also got these among many others ....
"I Like It Like That" was the third UK Tamla Motown album issued [[1964) Mary Wells "My Baby Just Cares For Me" was a re-issued "My Guy" album. "The Marvellous Marvelettes" was a UK compilation.
TML11003
I Like It Like That
The Miracles
UK Tamla Motown Album
From album [[to re-create the tracklist)
MM = Mickey's Monkey
FM = The Fabulous Miracles
FB = Greatest Hits From The Beginning
TC = Complete Motown Singles Vol 4
Side One
1 "I Like It Like That" [[FB)
2 "Dance What You Wanna [[MM)
3 "The Wah-Watusi" [[featuring Claudette Robinson) [[MM)
4 "Such Is Love,Such Is Life" [[FM)
5 "The Groovy Thing" [[MM)
6 "I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying" [[MM)
Side Two
7 "That's What Love Is Made Of" [[FB)
8 "The Monkey Time" [[MM)
9 "You're So Fine and Sweet" [[featuring Bobby Rogers) [[TC)
10 "Would I Love You" [[FB)
11 "Dancin' Holiday" [[MM)
12 "Twist And Shout" [[MM)
TML11008 The Marvellous Marvelettes.
This is a UK mono only compilation album made up from various US album and other tracks - including many from the US album similarly titled The Marvelous Marvelettes. Consequently it is not available on CD in this form. However all the songs are now available on The Marvelettes Forever CD.
Track list including the US album from which each originates, or CD availability if not an album track.
side 1
01 As Long As I Know He's Mine [[Greatest Hits)
02 Strange I Know [[The Marvelous Marvelettes)
03 Love Letters [[The Marvelettes Sing)
04 I Forgot About You [[The Marvelous Marvelettes)
05 Which Way Did He Go [[The Marvelous Marvelettes)
06 Silly Boy [[The Marvelous Marvelettes)
side 2
01 It's Gonna Take A Lot Of Doing [[to undo all the damage that you've done) [[The Marvelous Marvelettes)
02 My Daddy Knows Best [[The Marvelous Marvelettes)
03 Good Luck Charm [[The Marvelettes Sing)
04 A Little Bit Of Sympathy, A Little Bit Of Love [[The Marvelettes Forever)
05 A Need For Love [[The Marvelettes Forever)
06 Why Must You Go [[The Marvelous Marvelettes)
Boy, mysterysinger, you sure went to a lot of work here! As Motown fans, we from the U.S. and you folks from the U.K. all love pretty much the same songs. It makes you wonder why Motown didn't just release the same tracklist to the U.K. as were released here in the U.S. Over the years, it would have spared the nerves of countless Motown fans and collectors who were trying to sort it all out!
I remember when I first learned that there was a Martha Reeves and the Vandellas greatest hits volume two album released in the UK only. I never was able to find a copy, which I would still buy today just for collecting purposes. I also never knew that Marv Johnson had a Motown album released in the UK. In fact I didn’t know that until the CD on him came out from the Ace/Kent label.
Of course it makes collecting all the more fun, but those UK releases are always hard to find. I wonder if the US releases are as difficult to find in the UK.
Yeah track lists are something else as in the early days and on Greatest Hits releases much tweeking took place on the UK releases. There were some very tasty UK compilations as well.
Yeah, mysterysinger, you guys were getting previously-unreleased Motown tracks long before we ever did here in the U.S. I still find myself wondering if we ever caught up to the stuff that you had gotten.
And, Mystery & Kenny, I never knew that the U.K. got a Martha/Vandellas Greatest Hits Vol. 2 collection. Did it pick up with subsequent singles where our Greatest Hits left off? [[Singles from "Ridin' High", "Sugar 'N' Spice", "Natural Resources", "Black Magic", and non-LP singles like "I Gotta Let You Go, "I Can't Dance To That Music...", and "Sweet Darlin'"?)
When "Dancing In The Street" was a hit again on re-releasem they released a compilation album to try and cash in....
STML11223
Greatest Hits Volume 2
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
Tamla Motown UK LP
SIDE 1
A1 Jimmy Mack
A2 Honey Chile
A3 I Gotta Let You Go
A4 Love Bug Leave My Heart Alone
A5 Third Finger, Left Hand
A6 I Should Be Proud
A7 Your Love Makes It All Worthwhile
A8 I Promise To Wait My Love
SIDE 2
B1 I Cant Dance To That Music You're Playin'
B2 Sweet Darlin'
B3 [[We've Got) Honey Love
B4 Bless You
B5 I Tried
B6 In And Out Of My Life
B7 Forget Me Not
B8 What Am I Going To Do Without Your Love
Marvin and Tammi - You'll All I Need - for me is classic 60's Motown.
Latterly, I love the Marvin Gaye covers for I Want You, Here My Dear and In Our Lifetime.
[[I recall years ago the original sketch for In Our Lifetime being auctioned)...
When EMI gave Tamla Motown its own label, although the old albums had never been released before, it didn't make marketing sense to issue them all at once separately. It was thought to be more commerciallly viable to focus on one album per artist, hence the compilations.
I don't know whether this decision was taken in the US or the UK, nor who was responsible for the choice of which tracks to use.
That's it, Mystery! I've died and gone to Heaven! I would have given my right arm for this "Greatest Hits Vol. 2" back in the day! 16 glorious tracks of which 5 were non-LP, 45-only tracks! And that gorgeous cover featuring Martha, Lois, and Sandi. The U.S. got seriously screwed on this one.
Bookmarks