Tamla Motown Gold

by

Various Artists

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This triple CD contains 81 tracks from the vaults of Motown, all except the opening track (Money that's what I want) recorded in the sixties, generally regarded as Motown's best period. British fans are often surprised when they first discover that Motown released their first single in 1959. It took almost five years before the British public embraced the sound of Motown.

So this British compilation includes only a few tracks from the early years and the ones chosen are sometimes familiar to Brits via cover versions or re-releases. Personally, I would have liked better representation of these early years, but the tracks chosen are Money that's what I want, Shop around, Please Mr Postman, Do you love me, Beechwood 4-5789, Stubborn kind of fellow, Fingertips, Heatwave, How sweet it is, The way you do the things you do, Baby I need your loving and Needle in a haystack - every one a classic. There are many great songs from this period that were omitted, but if you are particularly interested in this period of Motown history, you must look for an American compilation or (as I did) buy compilations of the individual artists.

Motown became successful in Britain in 1964 when Baby love (Supremes) and My guy (Mary Wells) became huge hits. After that, there was no stopping the seemingly endless stream of hits, although a look at the singles charts will show that Motown were much more successful in America than in Britain at the time. The remainder of the sixties is strongly represented, with plenty of tracks from Marvin Gaye (solo and duets), Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Junior Walker and the all-stars, the Isley brothers, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Gladys Knight and the pips. Those artists dominate, but Motown's lesser names from the sixties are here too, with excellent tracks by Brenda Holloway, Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr and others.

Even with 81 tracks, it is not possible to include all the hits (or even all the hits from 1964-1969), but this is the best compilation of sixties Motown I've found. If you only want one Motown collection, this is an excellent choice.