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.