Will Cornell….Every 6 months a Motown comp came out from about 1962 on. I have the first–a friend sold to me out of his older sister’s record collection. The good (for fans) thing about these was that if you waited a mere 6 mos or so, Motown made them cutouts (bad for the artists, but I’m sure most made enough on their regular albums). The crème de la crème of all Motown Comps was a 5 LP box set called the Motown Story that came out in 1970, just as they left Detroit. It was actually like a radio documentary…had a DJ narrating and packed with interviews leading into each song from Barret Strong’s “Money” to Diana Ross’s first solo hits like “Ain’t No Mtn High Enough”. Was supposed to come with a booklet but I (of course) got even this gem as a cutout and I guess they were too cheap to include. Now, as for the 80s to early 90s, even tho no one except a few lucky Canadians got “Vertigo Sampler”, there was a very worthwhile budget priced series in 2nd place put out by Sire called “Just Say Yes”, then “Just Say Mao”, “Just Say”…(whatever). These had everything from Depeche Mode to Echo and the Bunnymen…Ice T and more. Liner notes were pretty stinko but I dug out and played the 3-4 volumes I still have a few months ago and they held up surprisingly good even tho my teens said “why are you playing techno Dad?”
Mick O’Dowd…..A good(but full priced) sampler on Atlantic was Solid Gold Soul featuring Ben E King, Don Covay, Wilson Pickett et al!
Will Cornell….Yes Mick…we had “History of Rhythm & Blues” series (covered the 40s to the 60s) on Atlantic of which I have a few, found in cutout bins also, like many Atlantic gems
Andy Qunta….I had this & loved it! Also I got a great Motown compilation called Motown British Chartbusters, about the same time as This Is Soul. Both classics in my opinion!!
Andre Martin…..Will I, can remember picking up some of these in the early 60s – round about 1964 in the Disc Jockey Record shop in Hastings and thought what classics they were in topes days, some of the tracks are essential to any programming today.
Will Cornell…..I guess on both sides of the Atlantic it would seem the best comps at the best price were, unfortunately for the artists, labels specializing in r&b, soul, black music in general. “Hillbillies” were also taken advantage of as well–labels like Gusto have really good bluegrass and classic country comps at a cheap cutout price but one wonders how much a underrated songwriter like Del Reeves saw of his true record sales. ALAN: “Soul” was the rebranding R&B took to in the 60s and pretty much invented by Ray Charles…Soul added a bit of gospel sound (maybe not the message) to R&B and Aretha took it a step further with her own gospel influences. Our stores in the late 70s to 80s started classifying black music in general under “Disco-Soul” then the moniker R&B came back.
John Storer…..Have all the Motown Chartbusters albums …. they reached their zenith with Volume 3 (quite simply, one of the best pop albums ever released) although Volume 4 was close … very close. Motown also embarked on a series of box set comilations of every single and b-side in chronological order. That has some gems that were never released over here. Latterly, samplers have tended to be freebies with magazines. MOJO has issued some great ones – the “Heavy Nuggets” series, and several Beatles and Dylan covers albums. During the 90s, some of the best samplers were issued free with dance magazines MixMag and Ministry – have some great mixes by Oakenfold, Tong, Tenaglia, Van Dyk amongst many others
Joe Knight…..14yr old then lol 😉
Andre Martin….Charted in UK just before Christmas 1966………great stuff !!
John Wilde….Nostalgia. Witch Doctor 65.
Mick Knights…..There’s a brilliant version by Joan Osborne on the “standing in the shadows of Motown” film, well worth checking out
Andre Martin…..That’s whole soundtrack is sensational, saw it in London a few years back when it was launched – The company ensured that we had a perfect sound system, and it blew the whole day away – if you get to see the DVD and or hear the soundtrack – its a must !!
Leigh Wieland-Boys…..Got it & Vol 2, 3 & 5 – not sure what happened to 4!
Will Cornell….Looks like ’66 maybe? Here’s the lineup on the first Motown comp over here, (“A Package of ’16’ Big Hits”–with a picture of a parcel box with stamps and the songs stamped on it–in other words a real cheapo cover and notes–MT614 is the cat.#) probably from ’61: Come & Get these Memories–Martha & the Vandellas; Beechwood 4-5789-Marvelettes; One Who Really Loves You–Mary Wells; Jamie-Eddie Holland (who’d go on w his brother and Lamont Dozier to write most of Motown’s hits); Stubborn Kind of Fellow-Marvin Gaye; Contract On Love-Little Stevie Wonder (yes, billed as such); Do You Love Me-Contours; Shop Around–The Miracles (Smokey is not billed!); Money-Barrett Strong; Pride & Joy-Marvin Gaye; Please Mr. Postman-Marvelettes (some band called the Beatles covered this along with “Money”); You Beat Me to The Punch-Mary Wells; You’ve Really Got A Hold on Me–Miracles (did the Beatles MEMORIZE this album or what?); Love Me All The Way–Kim Weston; Sunset–Little Stevie Wonder; and a new fledgling group at the time called the Supremes finish up with Your Heart Belongs to Me.
Mick O’Dowd….Where would we have been without these excellent compilations? At what number did they stop? Unlike The “That’s What I Call Music” series that is still going.
Leigh Wieland-Boys….. 12
Have all the Motown Chartbusters albums …. they reached their zenith with Volume 3 (quite simply, one of the best pop albums ever released) although Volume 4 was close … very close
Motown also embarked on a series of box set comilations of every single and b-side in chronological order. That has some gems that were never released over here
Latterly, samplers have tended to be freebies with magazines. MOJO has issued some great ones – the “Heavy Nuggets” series, and several Beatles and Dylan covers albums.
During the 90s, some of the best samplers were issued free with dance magazines MixMag and Ministry – have some great mixes by Oakenfold, Tong, Tenaglia, Van Dyk amongst many others