FORGOTTEN MUSIC #95: 25 #1 HITS FROM 25 YEARS (Volumes 1 & 2)



I found these Motown compilations at a Library Book Sale. They cost me a dime each! All of the songs included on these CDs were #1 hits for Motown. All the major singers are represented: The Temptations, Four Tops, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, the Commodores (with Lionel Richie), Marvin Gaye, and Rick James. There’s plenty of memorable music on these two discs. Do you see any of your favorites here? GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
VOLUME ONE:
–The Marvelettes Please Mr. Postman 2:29
–The Supremes Baby Love 2:33
–The Temptations My Girl 2:55
–Four Tops I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) 2:39
–The Supremes You Can’t Hurry Love 2:44
–Four Tops Reach Out I’ll Be There 2:54
–Marvin Gaye I Heard It Through The Grapevine 3:13
–The Jackson 5 I Want You Back 2:57
–The Jackson 5 ABC 2:57
–Diana Ross Ain’t No Mountain High Enough 3:40
–The Jackson 5 I’ll Be There 3:57
–Smokey Robinson & The Miracles The Tears Of A Clown 2:58
–The Temptations Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) 3:45
–Marvin Gaye What’s Going On 3:52
VOLUME TWO:
-The Temptations Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone 6:55
-Stevie Wonder Superstition 4:24
-Stevie Wonder You Are the Sunshine of My Life 2:52
-Marvin Gaye Let’s Get It On 4:00
-Eddie Kendricks Keep on Truckin’ (Part I) 3:28
–Thelma Houston Don’t Leave Me This Way 3:38
–Marvin Gaye Got To Give It Up (Part 1) 4:09
–Commodores Three Times A Lady 3:35
–Commodores Still 3:42
–Rick James Give It To Me Baby 3:52
–Diana Ross & Lionel Richie Endless Love 4:26

24 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN MUSIC #95: 25 #1 HITS FROM 25 YEARS (Volumes 1 & 2)

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    Lot of good stuff here. Although they were not all number one on the pop chart but number one on the R&B charts. Could do without Endless Love. Not a big fan of The Ciommodores or Diana Ross. Don’t even remember Keep On Truckin by Eddie Kendricks

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Steve, Eddie Kendricks had a brief solo career after he was ousted from The Temptations. But alcohol and drugs destroyed him. His decline and fall was a compelling part of AIN’T TOO PROUD, the popular Broadway musical about The Temptations.

      Reply
  2. Deb

    I like all of the songs here—but I prefer the four-CD set, Hitsville USA, which covers a wide swath of Tamla/Motown history and includes everything from “Don’t Mess with Bill” to “More Love” to “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” to “Nathan Jones” to “I Just Want to Celebrate.” Great stuff.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Dan, I’m finding dozens of music CDs at thrift stores and Library Book Sales each week at bargain prices. The Library Book Sale season is winding down. Just one more big Sale on September 6 and that’s it for 2019.

      Reply
  3. Jeff Meyerson

    Deb is right, as usual. I bought that 4 CD set (covers 1959, starting with the first Motown hit – “Money” – to 1971) when it came out and play it often.

    There are only a few things on this I dislike, the worst being Diana Ross’s self-indulgent butcher job on Ashford & Simpson’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell did the great original.

    Favorites:
    My Girl (one of my all-time favorites)
    The two Four Tops songs
    You Can’t Hurry Love
    Please Mr. Postman (the first #1 Motown song)
    I Heard It Through the Grapevine
    Just My Imagination

    Reply
      1. Jeff Meyerson

        I had over 500-45s when we gave them away.

        Steve, Eddie Kendricks did the “high” leads on early Temptations songs like The Way You Do the Things You Do, Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue), and Get Ready, while David Ruffin did the lead on My Girl, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg, Beauty is Only Skin Deep, and I Wish It Would Rain.

      2. george Post author

        Jeff, I had over 100 45s when I switched to buying vinyl albums. I ended up with about a 1000 of those before I switched to CDs in the early 1980s.

  4. wolf

    My favourite of course:
    I Heard It Through The Grapevine
    I didn’t enjoy too much the standardMotown stuff, too formulaistic for me.

    I’ve told the story before:
    I was lucky and so happy that I could get American Forces Network on my new (second hand …) FM radio – and copy some of the songs to my tape recorder which I’d bought from working as a proof reader over the summer holidays.
    A bit OT:
    I remember hearing some songs also on Radio Luxemburg – the English channel in the evening, during the day they had those horrible German pop songs, often cheap copies of US/British songs …
    And then I realised there were different versions – Luxemburg often had the “white” version while AFN of course had the original black version, usually much better, more intense.

    Reply
  5. George Kelley

    Wolf, I grew up listening to Motown music on my transistor radio. Later, after making money from mowing lawns, I bought records and listened to them on the stereo system my parents bought. Every time I hear one of these classic songs, it takes me right back to the 1960s!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, Diane was cleaning a bedroom for Katie’s visit and she “moved” my CPAP supplies (hoses, CPAP replacement parts, alternate CPAP masks, etc.). Now, they seem to have vanished. We can’t find any of this stuff! Maddening!

      Reply
      1. wolf

        George, still happy with your CPAP?
        My wife says my sleep is good (she now snores a little bit – I don’t at all) – just got a new Resmed mask and I’m happy.

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