Amazon.com: Motown did so many things well in the '60s and early '70s that this overview of the label's smashes (and some lesser-known classics) practically demands four CDs. It gets them, too, filling them with single mixes of more than 100 tracks. That the running order begins with Barrett Strong's statement of purpose "Money (That's What I Want)" and ends with Marvin Gaye's statement of concern "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" says a lot about how far the company moved in its golden decade--but no more so than what the same two cuts' differences in sound get across. The company was able to blend the smooth and the harsh in ways that few other pop entities have ever mastered, thereby getting over not only to the feet and the wallet, but to the heart. --Rickey Wright
Disc 1:
Money (That's What I Want) - Barrett Strong
Shop Around - The Miracles
Please Mr. Postman - The Marvelettes
Jamie - Eddie Holland
The One Who Really Loves You - Mary Wells
Do You Love Me - The Contours
Beechwood 4-5789 - The Marvelettes
You Beat Me To The Punch - Mary Wells
Stubborn Kind Of Fellow - Marvin Gaye
Two Lovers - Mary Wells
You've Really Got A Hold On Me - The Miracles
Come and Get These Memories - Martha & the Vandellas
Pride And Joy - Marvin Gaye
Fingertips- Part 2 - Little Stevie Wonder
(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave - Martha & the Vandellas
Mickey's Monkey - The Miracles
Leaving Here - Eddie Holland
The Way You Do The Things You Do - The Temptations
My Guy - Mary Wells
Devil With The Blue Dress - Shorty Long
Every Little Bit Hurts - Brenda Holloway
Baby I Need Your Loving - Four Tops
Dancing in the Street - Martha & the Vandellas
My Smile Is Just a Frown (Turned Upside Down) - Crawford, Carolyn
Needle in a Haystack - Velvelettes
Baby Love - Supremes
Come See About Me - Supremes
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) - Gaye, Marvin
Disc 2:
My Girl - The Temptations
He Was Really Sayin Somethin' - The Velvelettes
Ask The Lonely - Four Tops
Shotgun - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
Nowhere to Run - Martha & the Vandellas
When I'm Gone - Brenda Holloway
OOO Baby Baby - The Miracles
I Can't Helf Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) - Four Tops
First I Look At The Purse - The Contours
The Tracks Of My Tears - The Miracles
It's The Same Old Song - Four Tops
Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things) - Martha & the Vandellas
Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While) - Kim Weston
Uptight (Everything's Alright) - Stevie Wonder
Don't Mess With Bill - The Marvelettes
Darling Baby - The Elgins
This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You) - Isley Brothers
Greetings (This Is Uncle Sam) - The Monitors
Function At The Junction - Shorty Long
(I'm A) Roadrunner - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
Ain't Too Proud To Beg - The Temptations
What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted - Jimmy Ruffin
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
Love Gone Bad - Chris Clark
You Can't Hurry Love - The Supremes
Beauty Is Only Skin Deep - The Temptations
Heaven Must Have Sent You - The Elgins
Disc 3:
Reach Out I'll Be There - Four Tops
I'm Losing You - The Temptations
Standing In The Shadows Of Love - Four Tops
It Take Two - Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston
The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game - Marvelettes
Jimmy Mack - Martha & The Vandellas
Bernadette - Four Tops
Ain't No Mountian High Enough - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
More Love - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Gladys Knight & The Pips
I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
I Wish It Would Rain - The Temptations
I Can't Give Back The Love I Feel For You - Rita Wright
Does Your Mama Know About Me - Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers
Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrel
Love Child - Diana Ross & The Supremes
For Once In My Life - Stevie Wonder
Cloud Nine - The Temptations
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
Baby, Baby Don't Cry - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Twenty-Five Miles - Edwin Starr
My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me) - David Ruffin
What Does It take (To Win Your Love) - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
I Can't Get Next To You - The Temptations
Baby I'm For Real - The Originals
Up The Ladder To The Roof - The Supremes
Disc 4:
I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
The Bells - The Originals
Gat Ready - Rare Earth
ABC - The Jackson 5
Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today) - The Temptations
Great Motown Collection for Great Price JULY 2008 REVIEW: I purchased this particular box set a little over a month ago, and I must say: it does NOT disappoint. You really can't complain; although the box set was released several years ago, and therefore the early 1990's CD mastering here isn't necessarily as strong and powerful sounding as a 2008 mastering might be, the tracks presented here are bright and clear. Approximately 100 tracks fill out this 4-CD box set, and most of the songs are winners. And they are presented here in their original mono sound mixes as originally released (an apparent problem for some reviewers here, but I had no issue with it; the songs sound the same as they always have). I was certainly surprised upon listening, track after track, that I was familiar with almost every song on the set. And this many songs for the price!?! Right now, you really can't beat it. I am very aware of the new MOTOWN box sets chronicling every "single" released over the years ("The Complete Singles Collection-1967" for example), but at roughly 100 bucks each, those exhaustive sets are very pricey and really only for hardcore Motown fans (and I for one would love to collect all of those sets one day, but purchasing the entire 1960's collection would run over one thousand dollars!!). With this box set, of course everything cannot be represented, but a 100+ song collection for (as of now) 35 bucks is a real bargain for a casual fan looking for a basic overall Motown song experience.
Motown Greats After visitng the Motown Museum, this complilation of hits was just what we needed for great memories. Takes one back to their dancing days!
Nice collection I was a little torn about whether to purchase this box set. I already own many of the cuts. But there are so many great songs from the time when I was a huge Motown fan that I decided to get it. Putting all the hits (and not just the most familiar) together makes for a fun collection. It is great to listen to while at work or on the road.
Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971 The Motown Hits Collection is absolutely marvelous! It is a varied collection of memories and history of music in the 60's and 70's from the African-American perspective. It is music for those who enjoy excellent musical arrangements,clear and wholesome lyrics, and music that is filled with love and inspiration from the Motown writers, arrangers, and singers. Above all, it is tribute to Barry Gordy who founded Motown when our world was in racial and political turmoil. He reached in and made some sense of it all. Thanks to him, Smoky Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Ashford and Simpson, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terell, Kim Weston, Mary Wells, Brenda Holloway, The Marvelettes, Martha and The Vanellas, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Temptations, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Diana Ross, and many others for making this magnificant music that we have today. This music is timeless and universal. It's guaranteed to please, to soothe, to stimulate, to conjure up memories, and to entertain your deepest sense of pleasure. Sit back, quiet your mind, listen, snap your fingers, stomp your feet as you journey into a galaxy of historical and musical delight.
The REAL Story: This set is PURPOSELY in Mono, for those of you who are wrongly complaining! This set was PURPOSELY mastered in all mono, for the uninformed complainers among you! These are the tracks THE WAY THEY WERE ORIGINALLY RELEASED AND THE WAY YOU STILL HEAR THEM ON THE RADIO TODAY!
Motown had been releasing stereo versions of these songs on CD for YEARS starting in about 1985-86. Many customers complained that those were NOT the versions they had remembered hearing, in the 1960s OR the 1980s (on oldies radio). The artists' voices sounded wrong, for one thing. That's because the stereo versions were usually NEW recordings made with the artist RE-SINGING the song--and they sounded different--not the way we remembered. So, Motown in 1992 brought in top remastering engineers to go through the original tapes and re-master the original hits, the way they were originally cut, as SUNG originally.
This set represents the fruit of those efforts, and it is SUPERB. The mono recordings at all times have more punch than the stereo verions, since the stereo cuts were made for albums compiled LATER. The stereo effect itself was often a phony "stereo-like" dilution only, not true stereo. The true hit versions are what you hear on this unrivaled set.
The complaining reviewers here simply have no idea about the history of this set, which was a MAJOR project undertaken to bring back the best and ACTUAL sound, period.
My only concern . . . "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye was, as I recall, the name of a song and its album. It was released on the album first, hence the mono version on this boxed set (which isn't as smooth and is more "funky" to me), was the afterthought version. While mono, it's NOT the original, so I don't see why it's here.
Otherwise, the only omission of real substance on this set appears to be some of the early Supremes hits . . . though, to me, if anything has been overplayed for years, those were the songs, and hence were the best choice to be omitted.
This set is the definitive Motown box set, ESPECIALLY CONCERNING AUDIO QUALITY. Those who desire stereo are just asking for the inferior versions. And those versions were available for years, because the Motown executives interviewed in the early 1990s indicated that they thought (wrongly) that stereo would be preferred on CD, even at the expense of having the true hit versions. They admitted their error, sought to correct it, and this project is the end result.
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