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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Cellarful Of Motown! (Motown)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
A Motown freak's dream come true. Let's face facts: every label has a vault full of unreleased music. It's what turns up a few tracks at a time on boxed sets, usually seen as "kinda cool" or "somewhat interesting," but rarely right up there with the A-list material. When Motown raids the vaults, it's news. When they put out a 2-CD set of high quality songs, all but one of which have never been heard before, it's big news. Or at least it should be.
I remember reading about the weekly meetings at Motown, when all the producers would bring in their newest acetates, which would be played for the large gathering of employees and, of course, Berry Gordy. Only so many singles could be released at a time, so these meetings were designed to get opinions, watch reactions and thin out the herd of candidates. At the end of each meeting, several of those acetates were vault-bound. Of course, many of them resurfaced soon after, but many have been in the dark for up to forty years.
After just a few spins, I'm hooked this material. Most of it should have been heard long ago. Now, I don't claim that Brenda Holloway's "All Your Love" should have been given the release nod over, say, The Supremes' "Baby Love," but I'll bet you Brenda's tune was far better than most of the songs in the top 40 that week. And it's just now being heard. How strange that is. There are Motown-quality R&B tunes from Gladys Knight & The Pips, Tammy Terrell, The Contours, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Velvelettes, Jimmy Ruffin, Martha & The Vandellas, Kim Weston, The Isley Brothers and other, now finally reaching our ears.
So there you go. Dream come true. The classic Motown sound (because it IS the Motown sound) in at least 39 songs you've never heard before. Oldies stations always like to say "Here's another lost classic" before playing something that's anything but lost, like "Summer In The City" or "Monday, Monday." Here's a chance for them to mean what they say. The irony is that oldies radio stations won't touch it because they think we can only handle songs we've heard 6,000,000 times, and rock stations will find this music far too positive. So forget airplay and be part of the word of mouth campaign that assures enough sales to bring us future volumes, because they make it clear in the liner notes that there's plenty more where this came from.
Track List - Disc One:
Baby a Go-Go (Barbara McNair) * All Your Love (Brenda Holloway) * He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' (Earl Van Dyke & The Soul Brothers) * Danger, Heartbreak Dead Ahead (Contours) * Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) (Chris Clark) * Baby Hit and Run (Contours) * How Can I (Brenda Holloway) * I Like Everything About You (Brenda Holloway) * All I Do Is Think About You (Tammi Terrell) * Lucky Lucky Me (Jimmy Ruffin) * On the Avenue (In the Neighborhood) (Jimmy Ruffin) * My World Is Crumbling (Brenda Holloway) * Poor Little Rich Girl (Marvelettes) * Save My Love for a Rainy Day (Marv Johnson) * Tell Me It's Just a Rumour Baby (Funk Brothers) * If You Ever Get Your Hands on Love (Gladys Knight & The Pips) * Are You Sure Love Is the Name of the Game (Stevie Wonder) * Until You Came Along (Carolyn Crawford) * Before It's Over (Sammy Ward) * Long Gone Lover (Velvelettes)
Disc Two:
My Sugar Baby (Frank Wilson) * Here Are the Pieces of Broken Heart (Gladys Knight & The Pips) * There's a Definite Change in You (Temptations) * Who You Gonna Run To (Brenda Holloway) * (It's Easy to Fall in Love) With a Guy Like You (Martha & The Vandellas) * The Touch of Venus (Patrice Holloway) * I Wish I Liked You (As Much as I Love You) (Marvin Gaye) * Trapped in a Love Affair (Brenda Holloway) * I Know How to Love Her (Jimmy Ruffin) * Riding High on Love (Jr. Walker & The All Stars) * Why When Love Is Gone (Originals) * If This World Were Mine (Fantastic Four) * Don't Let Me Down (Kim Weston) * Don't Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today (Monitors) * (Tell Me) Ain't It the Truth (J.J. Barnes) * You Made Me Feel Like (Everything Is Alright) (Syreeta) * A Weakspot in My Heart (Isley Brothers) * Don't Make Me Live Without Your Love (Lewis Sisters) * It Must Be Love Baby (Chuck Jackson & Yvonne Fair) * Ain't No Place Like Motown (Velvelettes)
© 2002 - DJ Johnson