Rainbow....Martha

[lakeside]

Rainbow - Martha Reeves

Does anyone know about this album? Apparently released in 1975?
Is it an entire album, single or rehash of previous songs??

[kenneth]

It's an entire album. So obscure even Martha didn't talk about it in her book. I think it is the same release as the occasional "Dancing in the Streets" album with the weird generic cover you occasionally see on Ebay. I have that release, but I only have a bootleg of the actual "Rainbow" LP on CD. When I'm home later I'll try to snap photos of the covers for you.

[reese]

Here's some previous threads with interesting info.

https://soulfuldetroit.com/showthrea...inbow-quot-LP-[[aka-quot-Dancin-In-The-Streets-quot-)

https://soulfuldetroit.com/showthrea...reeves+rainbow

[kenneth]

Thanks Reese!

[copley]

Gosh, so many names on the old links have disappeared without trace having not been active for years! Makes me wonder why and are they OK?

[carlo]

It's an entire album. So obscure even Martha didn't talk about it in her book. I think it is the same release as the occasional "Dancing in the Streets" album with the weird generic cover you occasionally see on Ebay. I have that release, but I only have a bootleg of the actual "Rainbow" LP on CD. When I'm home later I'll try to snap photos of the covers for you.

I came across this thread, as I was recently listening to the "Dancing in the Streets" compilation of re-recordings, which according to Martha's book, were originally released in 1986 by Object Enterprises, and then went on to be reissued by K-Tel. I took out my "Rainbow" vinyl afterward [released as "Dancin' in the Streets" by Phonorama] and noticed that the version of Dancing in the Streets is indeed different than the version on the Object/K-Tel comp, as the arrangement is slower and a bit more jazzy. Martha's vocal is different as well [it sounded 'uninspired' compared to the K-Tel version lol]. That would lead me to say that these albums/sessions are not the same. It's interesting that we've never really gotten the full story on this Rainbow LP, after all of these years! lol.

[reese]

It does seem strange that Martha never mentioned this project in her book as she did discuss practically all of her other albums. But she didn't mention the Motorcity recordings either so maybe she doesn't have pleasant memories of those projects.

[motony]

sometimes my memory is a little foggy but I think that Rainbow was one where they were paid a flat fee per track. Mary Wells did one like that & said it was good money more then what royalties would pay.

[Otsiningo]

I had done some research about those two projects in the past and the conclusion I was able to come up with is that those rerecordings that have been released dozens of times were done in 1981 in Nashville and subsequently licensed over and over again. I've found that these recordings were released in 1981 in Italy and the Netherlands, licensed from "Key-Seven, Nashville".

The "Dancin' In The Streets" album, also known as Rainbow, was released the following year [[1982). The copyrights on my copy mention "Southampton" and "Indigo Music" in Nashville as well, but I believe these were different sessions from those rerecordings.

The whole thing is still a bit of a mystery, but I believe motony is correct that Martha was likely paid a flat fee per track for all of these like Mary Wells.