Motown Rarities Uncovered on Vinyl Box, Digital Outtakes Set

Motown aficionados have a lot of fun stuff to dig through on a number of formats, with the recent release of a box set collecting 14 rare cuts on vinyl and a new, copyright law-busting compilation of 52 previously unavailable outtakes from some of the label’s biggest names.

Recently issued in the U.K., The Motown 7s Box: Rare and Unreleased Vinyl seems to take more of a tack about “tracks unreleased to vinyl” than “never-before-released tracks on vinyl.” Everything here has been made available in some way, shape or form, including rare studio cuts from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Four Tops and even David Ruffin, The Spinners and Kim Weston. But perhaps only one of them, Frank Wilson’s “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” ever made it to vinyl before CD. (That original single is, in fact, one of the rarest in the world.) Producer Richard Searling offers track-by-track liner notes on the box, though no official mastering information is supplied.

Meanwhile, digital retailers have started carrying Motown Unreleased 1963 another copyright-savvy compilation of Motown outtakes from five decades past. (Outside the U.S., copyright law governs that recordings not issued within 50 years lapse into public domain, prompting rights holders to quickly issue collections from Bob Dylan to, this week, The Beatles and The Beach Boys. A similar volume from Motown cropped up last year, too.)

While it’s open to interpretation as to what, if any, true finds exist on the set, many of Motown’s best are featured herein on recordings you’ve never heard before, from The Miracles, The Supremes (a cover of “Funny How Time Slips Away”!), Stevie Wonder (alternate and early takes of “Fingertips” and “Blowin’ in the Wind”), The Temptations and even lesser-known acts on the roster, including Labrenda Ben and The Contours.

After the jump, you’ll find order links and full specs on each of these unique sets.

Holiday Tunes Watch: Sony CMG Celebrates The Season with Bing, Buck, B.J., JB, Elvis and More

Occasionally the aisles of your local grocery or big-box store turn up releases you won’t find even in your local indie music store.  Such is the case with a recent batch of holiday-themed titles from Sony Commercial Music Group.  Just in time for Christmas ’13, CMG has unveiled a number of holiday compilations – and a handful of straight album reissues – for fans of classic pop (Bing Crosby, Patti Page), country (B.J. Thomas, Buck Owens, Roy Clark), rock-and-roll (Elvis Presley) and R&B (James Brown, and latter-day incarnations of The Drifters, The Platters, The Miracles and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes).  As you’ll see, there are some buried treasures to be discovered here.

Bing Crosby Enterprises has released a number of projects in recent years featuring ultra-rare Crosby tracks from the late legend’s archives, and the new Christmas with Bing! is no exception.  This release follows other recent, unique seasonal collections like 2011’s Bing Crosby Christmas from Sonoma Entertainment and South Bay Music and Christmas Favorites from Somerset Entertainment. Produced by Robert S. Bader, the compilation offers 14 tracks including a few reprised from the indispensable Crosby Christmas Sessions (Collectors’ Choice Music, 2010).  Three duets are sprinkled in among vintage singles and rare radio performances, including Ella Fitzgerald on “A Marshmallow World,” Bing’s widow Kathryn Crosby on “Away in a Manger,” and David Bowie on, of course, “The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth.”   Real Gone Music has recently reissued the late Patti Page’s 1955 Mercury release Christmas with Patti Page; now CMG has delivered the singer’s 1965 Columbia set of the same name which featured re-recordings of some of the earlier album’s music plus new holiday songs.  The Columbia Christmas with Patti Page includes such favorites as “Silver Bells,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” “Christmas Bells” and “Pretty Snowflakes.”

The late Bakersfield, California country hero Buck Owens has been in the spotlight for much of 2013 thanks to Omnivore Recordings’ stellar release program and the release of his autobiography Buck ‘Em!.  CMG’s Christmas with Buck Owens, produced by Rob Santos and licensed directly from Owens’ estate, includes twelve originals from Owens and his Buckaroos, including “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy,” “Santa’s Gonna Come in a Stagecoach” and a still-relevant lament about “Christmas Shopping.”  Its eleven tracks sample Owens’ Capitol long-players Christmas with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos (1965) and Christmas Shopping (1968).  Buck’s Hee-Haw co-host and compatriot Roy Clark also gets a holiday overview with A Christmas Collection, produced by Doug Wygal.  Its fifteen tracks including such classics as “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” “Home for the Holidays” and “White Christmas” have all been licensed from Grand Ole Opry member Clark.

Sony collects twelve Christmas tunes from Lee Greenwood (“God Bless the U.S.A.”) on Christmas, licensed from Cleopatra Records.  As well as “Tennessee Christmas” and “Lone Star Christmas,” Greenwood sings traditional classics from “The Little Drummer Boy” to “White Christmas.”  For years, B.J. Thomas has successfully walked the line between country and pop, and he showcases his still-strong voice on his enjoyable Christmas Live set.  This collection, licensed from Cleopatra and of mid-2000s vintage, features twelve live Christmas songs from the “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” man, including “The Christmas Song,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Tennessee Christmas.”  A longer version of the concert, with some non-holiday material, can be obtained on CD-R from Goldenlane Records as Hooked on Christmas or on DVD from Video Music as B.J. Thomas’ Christmas.

B.J. shared some of his repertoire, such as “Suspicious Minds” and “I Just Can’t Help Believin’,” with Elvis Presley.  Twelve of the King’s Christmas staples are represented on Merry Christmas…Love Elvis, produced by Jeff James and Lisa Grauso and remastered by Tom Ruff.  The compilation is drawn from Elvis’ 1957 and 1971 Christmas albums plus the 1966 single “If Every Day Was Like Christmas.  On the classic rock front, CMG also offers up a reissue of Ann and Nancy Wilson’s A Lovemongers’ Christmas.  Originally released in 1998 as The Lovemongers’ Here is Christmas, credited to the Wilsons’ Heart side project, it’s since been reissued under the official Heart name.  This edition contains the two bonus tracks that did not appear in 1998 but have been added to subsequent reissues, Patty Griffin’s “Mary” and Ann Wilson and Sue Ennis’ “Let’s Stay In.”

After the jump: we have the scoop on the soulful titles in this series, plus full track listings and pre-order links for all releases, plus discographical information where available!

Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye): Final “The Complete Motown Singles” Volume Bows

They did it.

Nearly nine years after the first volume in Hip-O Select’s The Complete Motown Singles box set series was released, the 14th and final entry in the series, Volume 12B: 1972, will be released on December 10, just in time for the holidays.

The year 1972 marks, for many, the end of the “classic Motown” period. Label founder Berry Gordy moved label operations from Detroit to Los Angeles, and many of his most treasured acts were in periods of transition. Diana Ross was long a solo artist away from The Supremes, while Smokey Robinson would part ways with The Miracles in 1972 – the same year both The Four Tops and Gladys Knight & The Pips would break off from the label. At the same time, though, several of the label’s acts were coming in to their own, from The Temptations’ psychedelic soul styles, the increasing independence and experimentation of Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye and even the shine of the spotlight on solo members of The Jackson 5, namely frontmen Michael and Jermaine.

Included in the 100 tracks across five discs are some choice rarities, including Marvin Gaye’s beautiful (but long-lost) holiday single, “I Want to Come Home for Christmas” b/w “Christmas in the City,” an unissued solo single from longtime label songwriter Valerie Simpson, a duet by G.C. Cameron and Willie Hutch that never made it to an album with Hutch’s vocal, and even rare sides by several pop acts who made their name away from the Motown roster, including Lesley Gore, Bobby Darin and Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.

Packed, as always, with a bonus replica 7″ single (The Temptations’ classic “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”), The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 12B is loaded with notes and essays from Abdul “Duke” Fakir of The Four Tops, Susan Whitall of The Detroit News, journalist Bill Dahl and compilation producers Keith Hughes and Harry Weinger, who “contribute series postscripts that offer back stories of the Motown tape vault, session logs and tape cards.”

The Second Disc has, of course, spent most of its existence lightly prodding Harry, UMe’s vice-president of A&R, for information on the TCMS series; when we set up shop in 2010, the series had seemingly stalled at Vol. 11 the year before. Vols. 12A and 12B would not materialize until this year, though I certainly speak for both Joe and myself (not to mention countless readers and fans around the world) that the work has been well worth the wait.

On December 10, that wait is finally over. After the jump, you can pre-order your own copy of the set.

Where Were You When We Needed You: Latest Volume of “The Complete Motown Singles” Arrives in June

Let’s dispense with the “Get Ready” puns: after a four-year wait, Hip-O Select’s Complete Motown Singles series inches closer toward the finish line with Volume 12A: 1972.

This five-disc set includes every single side released by Motown during the first half of 1972, a time of transition for the company. Berry Gordy had already moved his Detroit-based media empire westward to Los Angeles, leaving some of his flagship groups in a transitional period. The Jackson 5 still had their hits, but not with the blinding intensity of their earliest years (though Michael still enjoyed hits off of his solo debut Got to Be There). Marvin Gaye released a one-off single, “You’re the Man,” in between two masterpieces (1971’s What’s Going On and 1973’s Let’s Get It On), while Stevie Wonder began his journey as a fully in-control adult artist with “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)” from Music of My Mind. Both Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Martha & The Vandellas released their farewell singles in this era, while a new up-and-coming band named The Commodores released their first.

It was certainly a unique time there, and now, it’s coming home, The Complete Motown Singles-style. That means gorgeous book packaging with a bonus 45 (devoted MoWest’s The Blackberries, whose single “Somebody Up There” actually was never issued as a 45), multiple essays (including by Motown engineers Russ and Ralph Terrana, Susan Whitall of The Detroit News), and track-by-track notes by Bill Dahl and producers Keith Hughes and Harry Weinger.

The box ships from Select on May 31 and from all retailers June 11. Hit the jump for a full track list and Amazon pre-order link!

Release Round-Up: Week of March 12

Various Artists, Motown the Musical – Originals: The Classic Songs That Inspired the Broadway Show (Motown/UMe)

The Sound of Young America is now the sound of The Great White Way, with a new musical entering previews this week. This new compilation presents all the original versions of the songs that feature in the show!

1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

TV Mania, Bored with Prozac and the Internet? (Tapemodern)

Completed by Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes and former band guitarist Warren Cuccurullo in the late ’90s and presumed lost until recently, this experimental concept disc offered some surprisingly trenchant social commentary on an increasingly wacky media culture. (MP3: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Jellyfish, Stack-a-Tracks (Omnivore)

Released last year as a Record Store Day/Black Friday exclusive, this 2CD set, featuring original, lead vocal-free mixes of the power pop legends’ Bellybutton and Spilt Milk, is now available for all audiences to enjoy. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Jamiroquai, Emergency on Planet Earth / Return of the Space Cowboy / Travelling Without Moving: Deluxe Editions (Sony Music U.K.)

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the U.K. dance group’s first album, the first three Jamiroquai LPs have been remastered and expanded.

Emergency 2CD: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S. :: 2LP: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S. (no pre-order link available at present)
Cowboy 2CD:  Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S. :: 2LP: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Travelling 2CD:  Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S. :: 2LP: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Paul Revere and the Raiders, Evolution to Revolution: 5 Classic Albums 1965-1967 (Raven)

Five of The Raiders’ classic Columbia LPs are put on two discs for the value-savvy collector. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Andrews Sisters, Greatest Hits in Stereo/Great Golden Hits / Enoch Light and the Light Brigade, Provocative Percussion 3 & 4 / Ethel Merman, Her Greatest / Various Artists, Stars for a Summer Night (Sepia Recordings)

The latest vintage hits compilations from Sepia include some classic compilations from The Andrews Sisters and Ethel Merman and a great set of easy listening classics for summertime!

Andrews: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Enoch: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Ethel: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Stars: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Ooo Baby Baby: Two Lost Miracles LPs Arrive on CD

The times they were a-changin’.  The Miracles, the group founded in 1955, by Smokey Robinson, Warren “Pete” Moore and Ronnie White, had been synonymous with Motown Records since 1960, and survived chief songwriter and lead vocalist Smokey’s departure in 1972.  But despite a chart smash in 1976 with the No. 1 “Love Machine,” the group was dissatisfied with Motown.  Pete Moore recalled in 2012, “Even after all of this success, we never had any calls from Smokey or Berry [Gordy].”  Indeed, Miracle Bobby Rogers once observed that “Motown ceased to be a family the day they moved from Detroit to California.”  And so, with no true family in place anymore, the Miracles (Moore, Rogers, White, Billy Griffin and Donald Griffin) departed their longtime home in 1977 and inked a deal with Columbia Records.  The group’s two Columbia releases, though, sank without a trace, and the second of the two LPs didn’t even see American or British release.  Cherry Red’s Soul Music imprint, however, is finally giving Love Crazy and The Miracles their due with long-overdue CD reissues available in stores now.

1977’s Columbia debut Love Crazy was written concurrently with The Power of Music, the group’s Motown swansong (also awaiting CD reissue).  Like 1975’s City of Angels (which included “Love Machine”), Love Crazy was an ambitious album complete with an Overture.  And like City, it wasn’t without its share of controversy.  “Ain’t Nobody Straight in L.A.” frankly addressed the subject of homosexuality (“Ain’t nobody straight in L.A./It seems that everybody there is gay”).  “Spy for Brotherhood,” on Love Crazy, was sung by a protagonist whose music was seemingly being suppressed by the U.S. government: “Got to get away/I’m runnin’ from the CIA…I’m a spy for brotherhood/They would stop my songs if they could!” Billy Griffin, lead singer and co-writer of the song with album producer and fellow Miracle Pete Moore, recounts in Lewis Dene’s new liner notes that “it never really got on pop radio in America; most people, including Columbia, said they had a problem with the U.S. government about the song.  If you know anything about the U.S. government, you’ll know they never make official statements –they just do stuff!”  Whether or not life imitated art, “Spy for Brotherhood” didn’t translate into sales for the album, although the single hit No. 37 on the U.S. R&B chart.

That wasn’t the only controversial single.  “Women (Make the World Go ‘Round)” came next.  Whereas Thom Bell and Linda Creed felt “People Make the World Go ‘Round” in their ballad for the Stylistics, Griffin’s song (co-written with brother Donald and Pete Moore) was a bit more specific.   In the song, women pull the strings of every relationship: “For years we’ve been told that this is a man’s world/But nothing could be further from the truth/There’s nothing a man can’t do that a woman couldn’t change his mind with a sexy wiggle of her behind.”  Was it a tribute to women or a condemnation?  Again, the controversy didn’t cause a commercial stir.  But all that aside, there’s plenty of just plain great, danceable R&B/soul music on Love Crazy, including the potent title song (a worthy follow-up to “Love Machine,” though it wasn’t selected as a single) and the lush “A Better Way to Live.”  Soul Music’s reissue is expanded with three bonus tracks: the 45 RPM versions of “Spy for Brotherhood” and “Women (Make the World Go Round)” and an extended version of “Spy” listed as “Special Version” but otherwise unidentified in the booklet.

After the jump: onto The Miracles!  And we have order links and track listings for both CDs!

Release Round-Up: Week of June 26

The Beat, I Just Can’t Stop It / Wha’ppen? / Special Beat Service: Deluxe Editions (Edsel)

The Beat’s discography is expanded in the U.K. by Edsel in fashionable 2 CD/1 DVD editions. (Don’t forget: a similar five-disc box is coming out from Shout! Factory in the U.S. next month.)

The Miracles, Renaissance / Do It Baby (Hip-o Select/Motown)

The first two post-Smokey LPs by The Miracles on one CD.

The Electric Prunes, The Complete Reprise Singles / The New Christy Minstrels, A Retrospective 1962-1970 / The Tokens, It’s a Happening World: Deluxe Edition / Timi Yuro, The Complete Liberty Singles / Rita Pavone, The International Teen-Age Sensation (Real Gone)

A veritable ’60s bonanza from our pals at Real Gone, including some international rarities, an expanded Tokens LP and some singles compilations.

Deniece Williams, Niecy / I’m So Proud: Expanded Editions / KC and The Sunshine Band, KC and The Sunshine Band: Expanded Edition (Big Break)

U.K. label Big Break’s offerings today: expanded editions of Deniece’s last two pre-Footloose LPs and the disco band’s breakthrough disc.

Teena Marie, Emerald City / Naked to the World: Expanded Editions (Soul Music)

Two high points in Lady T’s late-’80s work for Epic, newly expanded from Cherry Red’s Soul Music label.

Two Miracles! Classics from Motown Group Make CD Debut

What does it sound like when one of Motown’s most famous lead singers of the ’60s does the unthinkable and amicably parts from his group? For the first time on CD, fans are about to find out, with the release of The Miracles’ Renaissance and Do It Baby albums on the Hip-O Select label this month.

Longtime Miracles frontman and legendary singer Smokey Robinson had a hankering to walk away from his group for awhile, not due to infighting but his own multitude of commitments. His wife and bandmate, Claudette Rogers, had been off the road since 1964 (but continued to sing with the group) and the pair had been trying to start a family. Robinson also earned a second job as vice-president for his beloved label, and wanted to take a more behind-the-scenes role in the industry. Plans to retire from the group in the late ’60s were briefly jettisoned with the surprise success of “The Tears of a Clown,” but in 1972, after a lengthy farewell tour and a public transition to his successor, Billy Griffin, Robinson was out of the spotlight. (Robinson would, of course, begin recording solo within a few years; those works have been steadily compiled by Hip-O Select over the past year.)

The Miracles, now consisting of Griffin, Ronnie White, Warren “Pete” Moore, Bobby Rogers and Marv Tarplin (who would later depart to work with Smokey, and would be replaced by Griffin’s brother Donald), were guided by the executive producer credit of their former frontman, not to mention an embarrassment of hidden treasures from some of Motown’s best songwriters. Diana’s brother Arthur Ross and Leon Ware contribute “What Good is a Heart For,” Willie Hutch lends his pen to “I Wanna Be with You” and album closer “I Didn’t Know the Show Was Over” and the smoldering “I Love You Secretly” was written by Marvin Gaye, then-wife Anna Gordy-Gaye and Elgie Stover in the middle of the Let’s Get It On. (The Miracles’ recording was one of a few tracks from this LP available on CD, thanks to Let’s Get It On‘s deluxe edition.)

But without a heavily promoted lead single, Renaissance was a commercial failure despite high critical marks. Follow-up Do It Baby, with its sexual come-on of a lead single, fared far better. The title track peaked at No. 13 (the band’s most successful post-Smokey single until the No. 1 smash “Love Machine,” from 1976’s City of Angels), and the LP featured several songs previously recorded by The Jackson 5 (“Up Again,” “Can’t Get Ready for Losing You”). The Do It Baby album also lends itself to the sole bonus track on this two-fer reissue: a new, throwback remix of that title track by legendary disco mixer Tom Moulton.

This disc is now shipping online, with an in-store date of June 26, and it’s yours to order after the jump.

Eight More ICON Sets for You to Briefly Consider

What you will see after the jump are eight more of Universal’s generic ICON titles, released this past Tuesday. There are two country acts, two Motown acts, two Motown compilations, one from Dean Martin and one from pop/rock band Fall Out Boy. A stranger collection you’ll rarely find. I’d give a halfhearted recommendation to the Motown ones if you want to spend a little money on someone who has the distinct displeasure of never having heard any Motown song, ever. If you have more money to spend, though, get a box set or something. You won’t regret it. Trust me.

Follow the jump for order links (the single-disc Motown Classics did not appear on Amazon; we’ve used a Barnes & Noble link instead.)

The Need for Back-Up: Rock Hall Finally Inducts Classic Backing Bands

One of the many, many criticisms of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is their occasional neglect of certain bands in favor of other artists. From the first year of induction in 1987, when Smokey Robinson was inducted instead of all of The Miracles, it’s been a legitimate concern.

Today, the Hall attempted to alleviate some of that concern by announcing five such bands would be inducted alongside the five previously-announced members of this year’s class. The additional bands are:

• The Blue Caps: Tommy Facenda, Cliff Gallup, Dickie Harrell, Bobby Jones, Johnny Meeks, Jack Neal, Paul Peek, Willie Williams (Gene Vincent)
• The Comets: Fran Beecher, Danny Cedrone, Joey D’Ambrosio (a.k.a. Joey Ambrose), Johnny Grande, Ralph Jones, Marshall Lytle, Rudy Pompilli, Al Rex, Dick Richards, Billy Williamson (Bill Haley)
• The Crickets: Jerry Allison, Sonny Curtis, Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan (Buddy Holly)
• The Famous Flames: Bobby Bennett, Bobby Byrd, Lloyd Stallworth, Johnny Terry (James Brown)
• The Midnighters: Henry Booth, Cal Green, Arthur Porter, Lawson Smith, Charles Sutton, Norman Thrasher, Sonny Woods (Hank Ballard)
• The Miracles: Warren “Pete” Moore, Claudette Rogers Robinson, Bobby Rogers, Marvin Tarplin, Ronald White (Smokey Robinson)

A deserved congratulations to the inductees and a “took you long enough” to the RRHOF. What other backing bands do you think should be inducted?