Not content with my current Kent Soul Sunday series this week I am throwing in a bit of Tamla Motown Thursday. You can't have too much of a good thing.
It seems that their Big Hits & Hard to Find Classics series, which does what it says on the tin has four volumes. One and four were already on the shelves so after picking this one up in Missing only number three requires to be hunted down. The series was from 2000 or thereabouts with the CDs appearing on the Spectrum label
Here is a entry from Discogs which gives details of the tracklist. There are a couple of leftfield ones towards the end. I had absolutely no idea that Charlene and R Dean Taylor were on Motown. I shall spare you them for now
Amazingly The Velvelettes failed to chart with any of their original releases or subsequent reissues of their three featured songs.
Shorty Long is perhaps better known for Here Comes the Judge but Function at the Junction is pretty funky. Sadly he died in a drowning accident in 1969.
Finally let's have something by Brenda Holloway. It seems that she may be still recording and touring having become one of the most popular acts on the Northern Soul scene.
Eyes now firmly peeled for number three
The Velvelettes - He Was Really Saying Something
Brenda Holloway's version of Smokey's "When I'm Gone" is one of my favorite Motown records. She should have been a much bigger star back in the '60s, but doesn't seem to have gotten the same kind of promotional attention as Diana Ross, or even Tammi Terrell. Back then the Hitsville assembly line was cranking out more great records than the market could absorb.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe the Velvelettes didn't chart at all. They fitted the Motown bill perfectly. Bananarama did really well with that song in the '80s. They were the cover queens and usually did better than the original artists.
ReplyDelete