The Andantes: Motown's Secret Blend

[kenneth]

There you go, Kenny! Your last sentence [[following the "gulp") says it all. Motown was on a mission to be #1 and they succeeded beautifully/brilliantly. Had they released material with 2nd-rate, off-key performances, they would have never achieved that. So they used the most professional-sounding voices they had which was The Andantes.

Actually, the "gulp" was because I was afraid of offending other fans of the groups, like me, who would prefer to hear the real singers in the background even if [[occasionally) they were off key, yes I can admit that!

I can't pretend when I first heard and bought these records that I had an idea the singers were not all in the Supremes, Vandellas or Marvelettes. But I did notice that the backgrounds got more and more, "antiseptic" sounding. They were, if anything, too polished and too slick for my liking. Amongst the first Motown albums I ever bought was the 2-LP Supremes Greatest Hits, which was probably in the mid-70s, and prior to that time, I heard most of the songs as oldies.

But the change in sound in the backgrounds became more and more the case as the records and production themselves got more professional and subsequently, slicker sounding, to my ears anyway.

I know we'll never agree on this, as we rarely do on anything Motown related! But don't worry, guy, I still love ya!