On the evening of March 25, 1983, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium was alive with the sound of music – the Sound of Young America, to be more specific. Motown Records was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and producer Suzanne de Passe wasn’t pulling any stops. “Once in a lifetime” was as overused in 1983 as it is today, but the galaxy of stars assembled by de Passe couldn’t be described any other way: Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie and the Commodores, Smokey Robinson and
Calling all '80s Motown fans! Universal's U.K. arm has issued a double disc set of 20 classic club mixes from the label, curated by noted remixer John Morales. Motown of course crafted the sound of young America throughout the '60s and created some deeply affecting funk and soul in the '70s, but the '80s was still a prolific time, thanks to popular R&B/dance acts including Rick James and DeBarge as well as established acts like The Temptations and Commodores frontman Lionel Richie.
Three recent releases from the team at Real Gone Music feature the solo music of David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, two-fifths of the original Temptations line-up. The label has reissued Ruffin's first four albums on two single CDs, two to each CD, and has premiered Kendricks' post-Motown LP Love Keys, for Atlantic Records, on CD. David Ruffin had departed The Temptations after the April 1968 release of the Wish It Would Rain album, with Dennis Edwards officially joining the group onstage in
Second Disc HQ may be surrounded by layers of detestable snow, but a new release schedule from Real Gone Music is as good as any sunshine! (Plus, these titles are due in April, by which everything will have melted...WE HOPE.) You've already read about two of the label's new April releases courtesy of Joe's post about Doris Day earlier today, but that's not all they're offering. A complete singles collection by Patti LaBelle and The Bluebells - featuring the three future members of LaBelle with
Motown aficionados have a lot of fun stuff to dig through on a number of formats, with the recent release of a box set collecting 14 rare cuts on vinyl and a new, copyright law-busting compilation of 52 previously unavailable outtakes from some of the label's biggest names. Recently issued in the U.K., The Motown 7s Box: Rare and Unreleased Vinyl seems to take more of a tack about "tracks unreleased to vinyl" than "never-before-released tracks on vinyl." Everything here has been made available
They did it. Nearly nine years after the first volume in Hip-O Select's The Complete Motown Singles box set series was released, the 14th and final entry in the series, Volume 12B: 1972, will be released on December 10, just in time for the holidays. The year 1972 marks, for many, the end of the "classic Motown" period. Label founder Berry Gordy moved label operations from Detroit to Los Angeles, and many of his most treasured acts were in periods of transition. Diana Ross was long a solo
Let's dispense with the "Get Ready" puns: after a four-year wait, Hip-O Select's Complete Motown Singles series inches closer toward the finish line with Volume 12A: 1972. This five-disc set includes every single side released by Motown during the first half of 1972, a time of transition for the company. Berry Gordy had already moved his Detroit-based media empire westward to Los Angeles, leaving some of his flagship groups in a transitional period. The Jackson 5 still had their hits, but not
Various Artists, Motown the Musical - Originals: The Classic Songs That Inspired the Broadway Show (Motown/UMe) The Sound of Young America is now the sound of The Great White Way, with a new musical entering previews this week. This new compilation presents all the original versions of the songs that feature in the show! 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TV Mania, Bored with Prozac and the Internet? (Tapemodern) Completed by Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes and
When Motown: The Musical opens at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 14, it will mark yet another career landmark for Berry Gordy, the songwriter-producer-entrepreneur who turned Detroit, Michigan into Hitsville, USA some fifty-five years ago. The musical, written by Gordy and directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, depicts the rise to prominence of the Sound of Young America, with Brandon Victor Dixon (The Color Purple, The Scottsboro Boys) starring as Gordy. He’s joined by a cast of
What you will see after the jump are eight more of Universal's generic ICON titles, released this past Tuesday. There are two country acts, two Motown acts, two Motown compilations, one from Dean Martin and one from pop/rock band Fall Out Boy. A stranger collection you'll rarely find. I'd give a halfhearted recommendation to the Motown ones if you want to spend a little money on someone who has the distinct displeasure of never having heard any Motown song, ever. If you have more money to spend,
It's Tuesday, but most of the new music this week has already been out for a day. But assuming you were too busy to get out to the shops, here's a look at what's new. And there's quite a bit! Various Artists, Phil Spector Presents The Philles Album Collection (Phil Spector Records/Legacy) Six of the first seven Philles albums presented in mono, along with a bonus disc of those delightfully out-there instrumental B-sides. Seriously, have you heard any of them? They're crazy. In a good way, that
Motown's 50th anniversary was celebrated in style in 2009 - a year before The Second Disc even existed - with some excellent box sets and reissues. But this year marks another important set of golden anniversaries for the label: the debut of Motown's world famous groups, The Supremes and The Temptations. And no commemoration would be complete without a little bit of product to attract fans and collectors. With that in mind, Hip-o Select announced over the weekend a pair of triple-disc sets
Jimi Hendrix, Winterland / Hendrix in the West / Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival / The Dick Cavett Show (Experience Hendrix/Legacy) Another wave of Hendrix catalogue titles from Legacy, all of a live nature. The Winterland set captures The Jimi Hendrix Experience's legendary run at the venue of the same name over four discs (or one, if you're into the whole brevity thing), while In the West provides an expanded, slightly alternate presentation of the posthumous live LP. The
Oh, for the days when there was a bounty of venues to hear the latest, greatest music on television. By far, one of the greatest vanguards of popular music in the halcyon days of the medium was Ed Sullivan, host of his eponymous show from 1948 to 1971. While Sullivan found himself somewhat bemused by the wide variety of talent he showcased - legendarily confining camera angles on Elvis Presley to tight shots that wouldn't expose too much of his gyrating hips - he generally picked performers
It's Motown Monday here at The Second Disc as we're pleased to spread the news of the latest title in Ace Records' series of lost Motown treasures! Previous releases have been devoted to The Satintones, The Contours and Marv Johnson, and this June will see the first-ever CD anthology dedicated to the recordings of The Monitors. Led by future Temptation Richard Street, The Monitors released five singles on Berry Gordy's V.I.P. and Soul labels and one LP on Soul. Say You!: The Motown Anthology
Two newly-announced catalogue titles bring some rare tracks by R&B and soul legends to CD for the first time - and both have a bit of a Motown collection. First up is Reel Music's CD debut of Pressure Cookin', the only LP cut by Labelle for RCA Records. Recorded a year before "Lady Marmalade" shot the group to success, this record features some intriguing highlights, including a medley of Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" and Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be
I've been waiting for this one for a long time: Hip-O Select is releasing a new compilation of classic Motown songs in a whole new way. Motown Around the World: The Classic Singles compiles 38 songs from the label as recorded in other languages for international markets. The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Velvelettes, Smokey Robinson and Edwin Starr sing the songs you know and love (plus a few folk ballads native to other countries) in Italian, Spanish, French and