This Audio CD Music item from Polygram UK was reviewed on 18-Mar-2009. A Cellarful of Motown! Reference Music. Classifications : General Pop Styles Music General R&B Styles Music Soul Compilations R&B Styles Music Motown R&B Styles Music Quiet Storm R&B Styles Music Northern Soul R&B Styles Music General AAS Soul R&B Styles Mus . Click the following link to view the cover of A Cellarful of Motown!. Related topics: Baby a Go-Go - Barbara McNair. All Your Love - Brenda Holloway. He Was Really Sayin´ Somethin´ - Van Dyke, Earl,. Danger, Heartbreak Dead Ahead - The Contours. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Chris Clark. Baby Hit and Run - The Contours. How Can I - Brenda Holloway. I Like Everything About You - The Contours, 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 - The Marvelettes. Save My Love for a Rainy Day - Marv Johnson. Tell Me It´s Just a Rumour Baby [Instrumental] - The 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 - The Velvelettes. My Sugar Baby - Frank Wilson. Here Are the Pieces of Broken Heart - Gladys Knight & the Pips. There´s a Definite Change in You - The Temptations. Who You Gonna Run To - Brenda Holloway. (It´s Easy to Fall in Love) With a Guy Like You - Martha & the Vandellas, Martha & the Vandellas. 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 - Junior Walker & the All-Stars. Why When Love Is Gone - The Originals. If This World Were Mine - The Fantastic Four. Don´t Let Me Down - Kim Weston. Don´t Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today - The Monitors. (Tell Me) Ain´t It the Truth - J.J. Barnes. You Made Me Feel Like (Everything Is Alright) - Syreeta. Weakspot in My Heart - The Isley Brothers. Don´t Make Me Live Without Your Love - The Lewis Sisters. It Must Be Love Baby - Yvonne Fair, Chuck Jackson. Ain´t No Place Like Motown - The Velvelettes. General. Pop. Styles. Music. General. R&B. Styles. Music. Soul. Compilations. requestid: 6c846f37-17f8-4a9e-8797-d79f5293e97e
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1) Audio CD Music A Cellarful of Motown! by Polygram UK. And this is the material Gordy chose NOT to release ? Volume 2 is every bit as good , and something tells me that each subsequent volume will maintain that quality ! How can material from Detroit , Michigan USA fail ? These recordings deserve to be treasured.¤ 2) Audio CD Music A Cellarful of Motown! by Polygram UK. Imagine uncovering a box of pristine auto parts in a long-abandoned Detroit classic car garage. Each has its story as to why it didn´t fit. Some may have made their models too fast or slow, others may have been thought rusty or lacking polish and chrome. Others may have fallen victim to timing or a perfectionist engineer´s whims. But you could see any on a muscle car, riding from assembly line to showroom to highway to driveway.
"A Cellarful of Motown" gathers 40 such musical spare parts from the legendary label´s classic Detroit era (1963-71),led (and in these case led out) by its dictatorial genius and label head, Berry Gordy. These coulda-been soul contenders, most unreleased even as B-sides or LP tracks, cover the gamut from Motown bedrock artists (Temptations, Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye), semi-neglected artists who´d reach later superstardom (Gladys Knight & The Pips, Isley Brothers, the recently deceased Barbara McNair) and lesser-known acts whose minor hits fueled Britain´s Northern Soul movement (Chris Clark, Frank Wilson, and J.J. Barnes, whose surging "Ain´t It The Truth" alone justifies the admission price.)
Hearing these makes you realize Motown´s cutting room floor could have been a fine place to dance. Singer/songwriter Brenda Holloway, represented and appreciated here like she never seemed to be on regular Motown releases, delivers "All Your Love" with coy sensuality Diana Ross could only imitate on the Supremes´ similar-sounding "Stop! In The Name of Love." Jimmy Ruffin, who scored with heartbroken melodramatic hits for the label, delivers "Lucky Lucky Me" as the punchy merger of Marvin Gaye´s "Wonderful One" with "Pride And Joy."
Other songs well-known to Motown aficionados show in fresh versions. The Contours slowly stomp through the minor Marvelettes´ hit "Danger, Heartbreak Dead Ahead." Tammi Terrell strolls through Stevie Wonder´s "All I Do" nearly 15 years before Stevie´s faster, keyboard-dominated version on "Hotter Than July." Even Motown´s legendary Funk Brothers´ back-up band (appreciated all the more here for these tracks´ freshness) step up with a version of the Velvelettes´ "He Was Really Sayin´ Somethin´" recalling an uptown Booker T & The MG´s Memphis grit. You may not prefer the Fantastic Four´s "If This World Were Mine" to Marvin & Tammy´s dramatic reading, but theirs is a fuller vocal take on the song and worth hearing.
Coming between the renowned 1990s "Hitsville USA" boxes and Hip-O´s limited release of complete, year-by-year singles sets from its archives, "Cellarful of Motown" (Volume 2 is available as an import) allows those loving classic Motown new ways to enjoy music until recently unavoidable in pop culture for nearly 50 years. We should hold such hidden, dancable treasures, and "Cellarful of Motown" is essential for oldies and R&B fans.
¤ 3) Audio CD Music A Cellarful of Motown! by Polygram UK.
I tend to agree with the below review that said there´s a reason why these weren´t released. I picked it up at the library, very eager to listen to these lost gems.
My take: Good, but not great. Not one song on the two disc set had super hit quality. It´s Motown so it´s great. The classic Motown sound is there and because Berry Gordy hired phenomenal musicians, trained in jazz, of course the musicianship is awesome.
However, there´s a reason many of the singers were second or third string at Motown. Jimmy Ruffin is not his brother David Ruffin of The Tempations; the female singers are good, they are not Mary Wells, Diana Ross, or Martha Reeves. Like the below reviewer said, "Berry Gordy knew what he was doing."
Now this is still definitely worth buying, the music is fun, uplifting, and better than 90 percent of the garbage that comes out of your radio today because it´s Motown, which was steeped in musical excellence.
However, there´s a reason these had to be dug out of the vaults. They´re not super hit quality. Let´s say "Stop! In the Name of Love," or, "I Can´t Help Myself," or "Ain´t Too Proud To Beg," or "Uptight," weren´t previously released and came out on a two-package set like this, we´d feel we´d died and gone to heaven. Yes, The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder (though he has a tune on this set as do The Temptations) were pushed to the forefront and these singers and groups weren´t: they were better.
The best song on the set is one by The Temptations, with a classic lead by Eddie Kendricks ... that says it all.¤ 4) Audio CD Music A Cellarful of Motown! by Polygram UK. there is some really great stuff on this here CD, although not every song is a winner. But Tammi Terrell shines, as does The Temps (check out the Eddie Kendricks vocal on "Definite Change In Me"). All in all, you will like this CD and love some of the songs in particular. I would recommend it if you like Motown Music, R&B, Soul and music from the 60´s.¤ 5) Audio CD Music A Cellarful of Motown! by Polygram UK. It´s always amazed me that Americans have had to go to England for their knowledge of American music -- rockabilly (remember that the Stray Cats had to go to England, the land where Gene Vincent is a god, to become big first) and especially Northern Soul. (My ins to these wonderful, lesser-known soul sounds were Paul Weller, on the cusp of The Jam and The Style Council in the early ´80s, and the many Goldmine/Soul Supply compilations.) And that deep knowledge even applies to one of the most familiar fountains of American music.
As a happy accident, all those soul record hounds from England who turned Major Lance and Gloria Jones and J.J. Barnes and Edwin Starr and Martha Starr into icons managed to unearth a ton of rare and/or previously unreleased Motown gems. We knew the label ran deep, but THIS deep? Damn! The revelations for us as ignorant Americans include the young Brenda Holloway ("Trapped in a Love Affair") (!!!), Barbara McNair ("Baby-a-Go-Go") and the fact that The Contours went deeper than "Do You Love Me" ("Baby Hit and Run"). I mean, why didn´t these songs come out in the day? These are flat-out scorchers -- would-have-been smash hits -- and people who listen to them for the first time will think they turned on their AM radios in a parallel universe. Anyway, I´m glad this English import was eventually released in our own country.
Actually, for all the riches here, were I able to give it only 4.9 stars instead of 5, that would have done the trick. The only flaws: The liner notes print is so small and condensed that you can´t read it, even with 20/15 eyes; and 2) The disc includes Chris Clark´s fine version of "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)," but it doesn´t include the holy grail of Northern Soul record collecting -- Frank Wilson´s version, which has appeared on other Northern Soul compilations. There are only two or three of the original-pressing 45s, which go for $20 large each, and I would´ve liked to have heard what all the fuss is about ...¤ 6) Audio CD Music A Cellarful of Motown! by Polygram UK. A stunning collection of the most sought after & most bootlegged Motown rarities. 40 of the hottest dance-floor cuts from Frank Wilson ´My Sugar Baby´, Chris Clark ´Do I Love You´, Barbara McNair ´Baby A Go-Go´, Monitors ´Don´t Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today´ (Extended Single Mix), Stevie Wonder ´Are You Sure Love Is The Name Of The Game´ & many more. Slipcase.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 15-Apr-2009, 731454461924, E6B-AYB-8OB-J4B-NWB-BAB-RIB-8 
A Cellarful of Motown!, Music, Image © Polygram UK
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