"The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 9: 1969" by VARIOUS ARTISTS – featuring Edwin Starr, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, The Originals, David Ruffin, Soupy Sales, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Shorty Long, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Chuck Jackson, The Fantastic Four, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Earl Van Dyke, Jonah Jones, Billy Eckstein, Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, The Honest Men, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, The Isley Brothers, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Bobby Taylor, The Lollipops, Blinky, Terry Johnson, Wes Henderson, Joe Harnell, Stu Gardner, Monk Montgomery, Arthur Adams, The Spinners, The Jackson 5, Dorothy, Oma & Zelpha, Rare Earth, The Rustix and more (December 2007 US Hip-O Select/Motown 6CD 148-Track Compilation - Book Set With Front-Cover Attached 45 Single – A Non-Numbered Limited Edition of 6000 Copies – CD Volumes Nos. 44 to 49 in the Series - Ellen Fitton Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With Nearly 195 Others Is Available in my

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

"SOUL GALORE!" 

60ts Soul, R&B, Northern Soul

Mod, New Breed, Funk, Rare Grooves

Atlantic, Chess, Motown, Stax Labels and many more...

 

Your Guide To The Best CD Reissues and Remasters 

Thousands of E-Pages

All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs 

(No Cut and Paste Crap)

 

<iframe sandbox="allow-popups allow-scripts allow-modals allow-forms allow-same-origin" style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B08YS58MPX&asins=B08YS58MPX&linkId=3962ed6fb1283b3f93519653796b8ade&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>

 

"...Want You Back..."

This is a truly gorgeous CD reissue – the kind of 6CD sexpot that actually is worth standing up Scarlett Johansson for (well maybe).

I diligently collected all of these now-legendary Hip-O Select American-issued Book Volumes except of course (like a pillock) the elusive and expensive Vol. 6 covering 1966 (a very stupid oversight). My advice would be not to make that same mistake with 'any' volume in this extraordinary series. Much to discuss - so let's hear from 'My Cherie Amour' right away...

US released December 2007 - "The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 9: 1969" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Hip-O Select/Motown B-0010270-02 (Barcode 602517507722) is a 6CD 148-Track Book Set with Front-Cover Attached 45 (a repro of the US single "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5) – A Non-Numbered Limited Edition of 6000 Copies (CDs are Volumes 44 to 49) that plays out as follows:

CD1, Disc 44, 72:55 minutes (23 Tracks)

The A&B-sides of 10 US singles by Edwin Starr, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, The Originals (one extra Alternate Mix), David Ruffin, Soupy Sales, Stevie Wonder (Promo and Commercial Versions of the A-side as well as the more famous B-side "My Cherie Amour"), The Temptations, Shorty Long (Three Tracks, two different A-sides offered - one was withdrawn) and Gladys Knight & The Pips

CD2, Disc 45, 71:39 minutes (25 Tracks)

The A&B-sides of 12 singles by Diana Ross & The Supremes and The Temptations, Chuck Jackson (one extra Alternate Long Version of the B-side "Are You Lonely For Me Baby"), The Fantastic Four, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Earl Van Dyke, Jonah Jones, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Billy Eckstein, Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, The Honest Men and Jr. Walker & The All Stars

CD3, Disc 46, 71:51 minutes (25 Tracks)

The A&B-sides (see NOTE) of 13 singles by The Temptations, The Isley Brothers, The Originals, Diana Ross & The Supremes, (one extra Alternate Take of the A-side "No Matter What Sign You Are"), Edwin Starr, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (four tracks - two singles – the second 45 5565 is A-side only but has an extra Alternate Mix), David Ruffin, Diana Ross & The Supremes and The Temptations, Captain Zap and The Motortown Cut-Ups, Bobby Taylor and The Lollipops

(NOTE: The Isley Brothers, The Originals and one of the two Smokey Robinson & The Miracles single - A-sides only)

CD4, Disc 47, 74:18 minutes (25 Tracks)

The A&B-sides (see NOTE) of 13 singles by Blinky & Edwin Starr, Terry Johnson, Bobby Taylor, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Jackson, The Originals, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Wes Henderson, Diana Ross & The Supremes and The Temptations, Shorty Long, The Fantastic Four and Joe Harnell

(NOTE: Bobby Taylor - A-side only)

CD5, Disc 48, 71:49 minutes (24 Tracks)

The A&B-sides of 11 singles by The Marvelettes, Stu Gardner (three tracks, one extra A-side), Monk Montgomery, Stevie Wonder (three tracks, one extra A-side), Arthur Adams, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Spinners, The Jackson 5, Jimmy Ruffin and Dorothy, Oma & Zelpha

CD6, Disc 49, 75:43 minutes (26 Tracks)

The A&B-sides of 12 singles by Diana Ross & The Supremes, Four Tops, Chuck Jackson, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Rare Earth, David Ruffin (one extra Alternate Mix), Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (one extra Alternate Mix), Anonymous Children Of Today, The Rustix, The Five Smooth Stones, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations

As you can see from the lists above, CD3 in this 6-disc set for instance contains tracks by The Isley Brothers, The Originals and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles that have only the A-side – this will be because the flip will have been on Volume 8 for 1968 or Volume 7 for 1967 and so on (the liner notes tell you what master-volume contains the B-side). Also, if you take CD1, you notice that it has a Shorty Long release that had different A-sides on the Motown sheets so this set provides both – stunning attention to collector detail. And you can see that acts like Soupy Sales, The Honest Men, Anonymous Children Of Today, The Five Smooth Stones, Dorothy, Oma & Zelpha and Captain Zap and The Motown Cut-Ups are not exactly household names that trip of your average Soul fan's tongue – so deep level stuff sitting alongside hits like Marvin being "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" or The Temptations pondering life in the "Psychedelic Shack".

You have to talk about the presentation of these things that in every case will have a Motown/Soul Music 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 140 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 148 tracks, you get 71 singles and there are just so many great discoveries in here – the beautifully soulful Originals assuring us that "We've Got A Way Out Of Love", the wall of male-singer class that was Chuck Jackson on his "Are You Lonely For Me Baby", Blues Guitarist extraordinaire Arthur Adams feeling "It's Private Tonight" for him and his gal while Rare Earth span that Rock/Soul divide with their wake-up people tune "Generations (Light Up The Sy) ". And of course you get to return to absolute Mono classics, as you would have heard them on the radio of the day - "Twenty Five Miles" by Edwin Starr, "I Can't Get Next To You" by The Temptations, "My Whole World Ended..." by David Ruffin and loads more. You can also feel the winds of change on this Box set like that of 1967 and 1968 as soppy Saturday night girly themes get supplemented with worries of the day – picket signs and picket lines – I'm still a struggling man – everybody needing clarity and a safe home as the dark clouds get even darker both domestically and abroad.

If you can't afford the physical product in 2020 (which ranges from £80 to over £90) - the MP3 version of 1969 sometimes becomes available from Amazon as a Download for £39.99 (individual tracks are usually 99p). 

Either way - if you want to hear 'The Sound Of Young America' at its best – then look no further my fellow traveller. Stunning...

"The Complete Motown Singles" Series by Hip-O Select

(14 Releases as of September 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