Junior Walker - 70's Albums on CD / iTunes

[motown01]

I'm a huge Junior Walker fan and I tend to be partial to his 70's work. I think it's absolutely insane that no albums from this period have been remastered or re-released in a digital form. There are so many great album tracks from this period, just a short list includes:

Killing Me Softly With His Song
Boogie Down
I Ain't That Easy To Lose
I Don't Want To Do Wrong
Bristol's Way
Still Water Medley
I Don't Need No Reason
It's Alright, Do What You Gotta Do
Right On Brothers & Sisters
Pieces Of A Man
Feel Like Makin' Love
Sax Appeal
What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted
Darling Come Back Home
Whopper Bopper Show Stopper
Leap & Peep
I Could Never Love Another [[After Loving You)

Why have these albums not been re-released? I know that Smokey Robinson is a bigger artist, but seeing the speed at which his solo albums have been re-released lately, it makes me wonder if Junior Walker could get the same kind of treatment [[only with a few bonus tracks!)

[tomato tom]

Ive never understood why Jrs later albums are not on CD. Rainbow Funk, Moody Jr etc are masterpieces. I agree about the Smokey albums being rushed out. The 1st two are in the bargain bin in my local store already. Bring on Mr Autrey De Walt...Paulo xxxx

[blkfrost]

I sent an email to Harry Weinger at Motown a few months ago about the Jr. Walker catalog and how much I loved his 1970's albums. He replied that he had been interested in doing something with the catalog for a long time. Not sure if anything will come of it, but you may want to send an email. Maybe we could start a campaign to free Jr. Walker from the vaults.

[Nothing But Soul]

I'm a huge Junior Walker fan and would love to see his 70s albums released on CD or at the very least made available for download. To my knowledge, his 1970 album "Gotta Hold On To This Feeling" [[aka "What Does It Take To Win Your Love") is the only one of his 70s album to have ever been released on CD and that one has been out of print for a very long time. For that matter, "Shotgun" is the only one of Junior's excellent "all killer, no filler" 60s albums that's still in print. It would be great if we could somehow get more of his recordings made available.

[gordy_hunk]

According to Amazon, there is a CD being released on June 27 2011, called 'Back street boogie' on Wounded Bird records. There are no tracks listed so far, but the price [[today) is 11.81.

[nabob]

Back Street Boogie
Whitfield Records WB 56 668, WHK 3331 ©1979

1 Back Street Boogie
Written-By – Norman Whitfield

2 Girl I Wanna Marry You
Written-By, Producer – Mark Kenoly

3 Wishing On A Star
Written-By – Billie Calvin

4 Hole In The Wall
Written-By – Norman Whitfield, Rochelle Runnells

5 Don't Let Me Go Astray
Written-By, Producer – Mark Kenoly

6 Tiger In My Tank
Written-By, Producer – Mark Kenoly

7 Sax Attack
Written-By – Autry DeWalt, James Hockaday

[vcq]

Awesome news, guys. I have "Back Street Boogie," and there are a couple of tracks on it that I really like. I'm still holding out hope for a Hip-O box; I also wrote Harry last year about a Junior Walker set and got roughly the same response, but Bear Family wrote back and said that Junior didn't have "enough material" to merit a Bear Family box [[I disagree)...

[motown01]

That's excellent that Back Street Boogie is being released.

I think I'll also send Harry Weinger an e-mail regarding the release of Junior's seventies Motown albums. Let the campaign begin!

[RossHolloway]

Why not give Jr. Walker and the All Stars the same treatment that was given to David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks? I would imagine that it would have to be a two or three volume set. But it would make a lot of people happy.

[tamla617]

there were 2 two fer releases in the uk around 2003/4 you can get them on amazon uk links for both below.

shotgun/soulsession
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shotgun-Soul...4363957&sr=1-6
home cooking/road runner
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Runner-...363957&sr=1-10

[tomato tom]

tamla617...yes, I have those..BUT WE want those lovely later albums on our CD players!.....Nice to see Back Street Boogie making an appearance too!..Paulo xxx

[tamla617]

i know i just slung that in incase anyone was wanting them

[RossHolloway]

there were 2 two fer releases in the uk around 2003/4 you can get them on amazon uk links for both below.

shotgun/soulsession
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shotgun-Soul...4363957&sr=1-6
home cooking/road runner
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Runner-...363957&sr=1-10

In one of the reviews on Amazon someone writes that in April 1966 James Graves, who played the drums, left the group. Do we know who replaced him in the group and the circumstances behind why he left?

[RossHolloway]

I just read this on Wikipedia:

Junior Walker died on November 23, 1995 in Battle Creek, Michigan of cancer at the age of 64.[1] He had been inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation that year. Drummer James Graves died in 1967 in a car accident, and guitarist Willie Woods in 1997 at age 60. Victor "Vic" Thomas died Sunday, November 28, 2010 in Battle Creek, MI. Tony Washington is the only Original surviving band member of the four that Harvey Fuqua signed to His Label in 1961, and took to Motown with him.

I had no idea that James Greaves passed in 1967 and that Vic Thomas just died this past November!

[motown01]

I wonder if 'Love Hangover' and 'Feel Like Makin' Love' are from the same sessions. They're very similar.