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"...The Real Thing..."
I've
made mistakes in life. Selling state secrets to the Russians, trusting my
horoscope to conspiracy theorist David Icke, not sleeping with Scarlet
Johansson when I had the chance but instead canoodling with ugly farmyard animals
that looked pretty good after a few kegs of Scrumpy - and then, just recently -
trusting a haircut to my wife and her DIY scissors techniques in a Coronavirus
lockdown. You know, the usual growing pains of a record shop employee.
But
the biggest mistake I ever made was not buying Volume 6 of "The Complete
Motown Singles" which covered the year 1966. Man that was a doozy. I
diligently collected all of the other 13 Volumes from 1 to 12B (see list below),
but for some reason put 1966 on the
long finger, and now of course it regularly clocks in at £250 to £350 depending
on the source. So when I win the Lottery (or hear back from Moscow about that
Cayman Island account and their really good face surgeon, called, oddly enough,
Shorter Long) – I'll snap it up.
Which
brings me to this gorgeous reissue – the kind of thing that actually is worth
standing up Scarlett for (well maybe). Let's hear it from the grapevine...
US
released October 2007 - "The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 8: 1968" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on
Hip-O Select/Motown B0009708-02 (Barcode 602517431775) is a 6CD Book Set with
Front-Cover Attached 45 (a repro of the US single "I Heard It Through The
Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye) – A Non-Numbered Limited Edition of 6000 Copies
(CDs are Volumes 38 to 43) that plays out as follows:
CD1,
Disc 38, 67:48 minutes (25 Tracks)
The
A&B-sides (see NOTE) of 13 US singles by Rita Wright, Shorty Long, Four
Tops, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Chuck Jackson, Debbie Dean, Billy Eckstine,
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Chris Clark, Jimmy Ruffin, Bobby Taylor
& The Vancouvers, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Isley Brothers
(NOTE:
Chris Clark and Diana Ross & The Supremes, A-sides only).
CD2,
Disc 39, 65:43 minutes (24 Tracks)
The
A&B-sides (see NOTE) of 13 singles by Stevie Wonder, Edwin Starr, Barbara
McNair, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, The Monitors, Martha Reeves & The
Vandellas, R. Dean Taylor, Four Tops, The Temptations, The Detroit Wheels, The
Marvelettes, Shorty Long, The Volumes,
(NOTE:
Barbara McNair, The Monitors, A-sides only)
CD3,
Disc 40, 65:02 minutes (24 Tracks)
The
A&B-sides (see NOTE) of 13 singles by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles,
Gladys Night & The Pips, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Jimmy Ruffin,
Stevie Wonder, Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and
Tammi Terrell, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Temptations, Jr. Walker
& The All-Stars, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
(NOTE:
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, A-sides
only)
CD4,
Disc 41, 65:38 minutes (22 Tracks)
The
A&B-sides (see NOTE) of 12 singles by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Paul
Petersen, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Billy Eckstein, Barbara Randolph, Marvin
Gaye, The Ones, The Monitors, Elvets Rednow (Stevie Wonder spelt backwards),
The Marvelettes, The Detroit Wheels, Marvin Gaye [A] with Gladys Knight &
The Pips [B],
(NOTE:
Barbara Randolph, Marvin Gaye, A-sides only)
CD5,
Disc 42, 69:12 minutes (24 Tracks)
The
A&B-sides of 11 singles by Four Tops, The Fantastic Four, Marvin Gaye &
Tammi Terrell, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Barbara McNair, Marv Johnson,
Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Stevie
Wonder, Abdullah, The Spinners
CD6,
Disc 43, 73:53 minutes (25 Tracks)
The
A&B-sides of 12 singles by The Temptations, Edwin Starr, The Isley
Brothers, Blinky, Jimmy Ruffin, Diana Ross & The Supremes & The
Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles,
Jr. Walker & The All Stars, The Marvelettes
As
you can see from the lists above, the first four CDs in this 6-disc set contain
tracks by Barbara McNair, Diana Ross & The Supremes and Smokey Robinson
& The Miracles that have only the A-side – this will be because the flip
will have been on Volume 7 for 1967 or Volume 6 for 1966 and so on. The liner
notes tell where to find the B. Also, if you take CD6, you notice that it has
25 tracks for 12 singles (24 sides) – that’s because the Diana Ross & The
Supremes & The Temptations ensemble song "The Impossible Dream"
on Motown M 1137 had two different B-sides – both are included.
You
have to talk about the presentation of these things - that in every case will
have a Soul/Motown fan weak at the knees. I have bought and reviewed a lot of
tasty Hip-O Select reissues – Muddy Waters, Jimmy Cliff, Emitt Rhodes, Tammi
Terrell, Howlin’ Wolf, The 15-Disc Chess Story, Stephen Bishop, Buddy Miles and
so on. But these Motown Volumes are the best they ever did – a profoundly fab
project that eventually stretched out from 1959 to 1972 with 75 CDs and 1847
Tracks. All transfers were taken from original tapes and included the Single
Mono Mixes, Stereo Versions if on Promo 45s, Previously Unreleased Variants and
full annotation for every single song. You get catalogue numbers, musician
personnel, Producers, overdub details, Billboard R&B and Pop chart
placements (if any) and long paragraphs on the recording and its history.
As
the packaging has to fit a 45 single on the front cover – the 132 pages of text
are large inside the hardback book – allowing full-page colour plates that are
genuinely some of the most beautifully rendered photos of Soul Artists that
I’ve ever seen. The six discs are housed in individual card leaves at the back
with three indexes preceding them – By Artist, By Title and By Label. This
allows collectors a way of tracking what they need – very thorough. The only
minor miscall for UK fans would be that every catalogue number is American – if
you want their British equivalents – I cannot recommend enough a book I
reviewed a good few years ago now called “TAMLA MOTOWN: The Stories Behind The
UK Singles” by TERRY WILSON - a tall paperback with over 710 pages published by
Cherry Red Books. It provides both the US and UK details and is the very best
reference source on TM you can get.
The
Audio comes via an Engineer I’ve sung the praises of before – ELLEN FITTON –
one of Universal’s top Remaster types. Across a total of 144 tracks, you get 71
singles and there are just so many great discoveries in here – the sexy sway of
Blinky, the kick-ass motion of The Detroit Wheels and the unsung heroines of
Motown Barbara Randolph and Chris Clark tackling tunes like "Can I Get A
Witness" (made famous by Marvin) and the lesser heard
Holland-Dozier-Holland sweetie "Whisper You Love Me Boy". And of
course you get to return to absolute classics, as you would have heard them on
the radio of the day - "Cloud Nine" by The Temptations, "For
Once In My LIfe" by Stevie Wonder and what many rate as the greatest Soul
single (ever) – the mighty "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" by
Marvin Gaye – an album afterthought that quickly became his signature tune.
If
you can't afford the physical product in 2020 (which ranges from £80 to over
£100) - the MP3 version of 1968 is available from Amazon as a Download for £39.99
(individual tracks are usually 99p). Spend the money, man! I did, and am a well happy bunny because of
it. Stunning...
"The Complete Motown Singles" Series by Hip-O Select
(14 Releases as of May 2020)
75
x CD Volumes, 1847 CD Tracks Plus 28 Tracks On 14 x 7" Vinyl Singles:
1.
Volume 1: 1959-1961, Released January 2005, Catalogue No. Hip-O Select
B-0003631-02 (Barcode 602517643310), 6CDs, Ltd Edition of 5000 (Non-Numbered),
155 Tracks, CDs are Volumes 1 to 6
2.
Volume 2: 1962, May 2005, 4CDs, B-00004402-02 (Barcode 602517807552),
Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non Numbered), 112 Tracks, Volumes 7 to 10
3.
Volume 3: 1963, October 2005, B-0005352-02 (Barcode 602517845691), 5CDs,
Ltd Edition of 7500 (Non-Numbered), 119 Tracks, Volumes 11 to 15
4.
Volume 4: 1964, February 2006, B-0005945-02 (Barcode 602517882443),
6CDs, Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non-Numbered), 163 Tracks, Volumes 16 to 21
5.
Volume 5: 1965, August 2006, B-0006775-02 (Barcode 602517789414), 6CDs,
Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non-Numbered), 166 Tracks, Volumes 22 to 27
6.
Volume 6: 1966, November 2006, B-0007872-02 (Barcode 602517092761),
5CDs, Ltd Edition of 6000 (Non-Numbered), 125 Tracks, Volumes 28 to 32
7.
Volume 7: 1967, May 2007, B-0008993-02 (Barcode 602517341906), 5CDs, Ltd
Edition of 6000 (Non-Numbered), 120 Tracks, Volumes 33 to 37
8.
Volume 8: 1968, October 2007, B-0009708-02 (Barcode 602517431775), 6CDs,
Ltd Edition of 6000 (Non-Numbered), 144 Tracks, Volumes 38 to 43
9.
Volume 9: 1969, December 2007, B-0010270-02 (Barcode 602517507722),
6CDs, Ltd Edition of 6000 (Non-Numbered), 148 Tracks, Volumes 44 to 49
10.
Volume 10: 1970, June 2008, B-0011056-02 (Barcode 602517659209), 6CDs,
Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non-Numbered), 144 Tracks, Volumes 50 to 55
11.
Volume 11A: 1971, February 2009, B-0011579-02 (Barcode 602517776555),
5CDs, Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non-Numbered), 119 Tracks, Volumes 56 to 60
12.
Volume 11B: 1971, January 2010, B-0012227-02 (Barcode 602517876903),
5CDs, Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non Numbered), 120 Tracks, Volumes 61 to 65
13.
Volume 12A: 1972, May 2013, B-0012935-02 (Barcode 602527044453)), 5CDs,
Ltd Edition of 7500 (Non Numbered), 117 Tracks, Volumes 66 to 70
14.
Volume 12B: 1972, December 2013, B-0019213-02 (Barcode 602537532193),
5CDs, Ltd Edition of 7500 (Non Numbered), 100 Tracks, Volumes 71 to 75
