There's No Town Like Motown

I'll confess that I've cheated a little: whilst all of these artists have been on the Motown roster, not all of the tracks in today's selection were released on the label. But when the songs are this amazing, I'm not going to complain.

Some stone cold classics here, along with a few cover versions and perhaps relatively lesser known songs. No surprise that a third of the selection was written by the mighty Holland-Dozier-Holland but just look at the rest of the songwriters:

Norman Whitfield, William 'Mickey' Stevenson, Barrett Strong, Marvin Gaye, Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Vernon Bullock, Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson, Berry Gordy, Jr., Anna Gordy Gaye, Iris Gordy, Janie Bradford, Elgie Stover, Anette Minor, Jack Goga, Johnny Bristol, Peter Green and Ed Cobb, not forgetting Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

 

My parents didn't own any Motown albums, but I was exposed to many of these songs via Radio 1 during my childhood in the 1970s and 1980s, regularly played even though most of them were several years old by this point. A few I've discovered as an adult, thanks for various music magazine CDs, compilations by the likes of Saint Etienne or my fellow travellers in the blogosphere. I never get tired of listening to these songs, no matter how familiar they've since become.

 

Play loud.

Side One

1) I Got A Feeling: Barbara Randolph (1967)

2) Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart: Diana Ross & The Supremes (1966)

3) Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While): Kim Weston (1965)

4) Money (That's What I Want): Barrett Strong (1959)

5) Light My Fire (Cover of The Doors): Stevie Wonder (1969)

6) He Was Really Sayin' Somethin': The Velvelettes (1964)

7) What Does It Take (To Win Your Love): Jr. Walker & The All Stars (1969)

8) You're All I Need To Get By: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (1968)

Side Two

1) Cloud Nine (Album Version By Norman Whitfield): The Temptations (1968)

2) The Bells: The Originals (1970)

3) Reach Out I'll Be There: Four Tops (1966)

4) Didn't You Know (You'd Have To Cry Sometime): Gladys Knight & The Pips (1969)

5) Got To Get You Into My Life (Cover of The Beatles): Chris Clark (1967)

6) Come To Me: Marv Johnson (1959)

7) No One There: Martha Reeves (1971)

8) Every Little Bit Hurts: Brenda Holloway (1964)

Side One (22:46)

Side Two (24:00)

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

You can thank/blame John Medd for today's selection. His quite literally stunning post of Elizabeth Taylor photos inspired a playlist of songs named after her movies (I attempted the same trick with Faye Dunaway last year). No clever sequencing here: I started with the earliest match - and Elizabeth Taylor's 2nd film from 1943 - through to her uncredited appearance in a 1979 political conspiracy movie starring Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins and Toshirô Mifune "as Keith". 

 

I think it mostly works, though for 1976 film The Blue Bird I was torn between equally great songs from Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Hope prevailed.

 

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? was one of the set texts for my English Literature O Level (too many years ago to count) and we got to watch the 1966 film as part of the study. It's a great play and a great cast, but Elizabeth Taylor transcends all. Arguably her greatest performance, and that's saying something.

Unfortunately, I don't currently have a song named Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? but Jimmy Smith has kindly obliged with this classic from 1964, which I must get hold of.

 

1) Lassie Come Home: Alphaville (1986)

2) A Place In The Sun: Stevie Wonder (1966)

3) Rhapsody: Siouxsie & The Banshees (1988)

4) Giant (Radio Edit) (Cover of The The): DJ Food ft. Matt Johnson (2012)

5) Cleopatra (John Peel Session): Adam & The Ants (1978)

6) The Comedians: Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1984)

7) Ash Wednesday: The Psychedelic Furs (2020)

8) Blue Bird: Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions (2009)

9) Winter Kills (Electronic Periodic's Sub / Piano Mix): Yazoo (2008)

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (42:00)

I Dream In Colours And My Dreams Are Only Shades Of You

A soulful selection today, including some popular classics by Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder and Jamo Thomas, with some songs that have only really come into my orbit in the last decade by Soul-Walkers, Patti LaBelle and The Brothers Of Soul. The latter appeared on Mayer Hawthorne's Soul With A Hole Vol. 1 mixtape, which I posted in September. Two sharp sides guaranteed to add a shuffle to your early morning, sleepy-eyed stumble and a smile to your post-work slumber.

Side One

1) Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter (Album Version): Nina Simone (1974)

2) Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing: Stevie Wonder (1973)

3) Need A Replacement: The Winstons (1968)

4) I Spy (For The FBI): Jamo Thomas & His Party Brothers Orchestra (1966)

5) Dreamer's Hall Of Fame: Jeb Stuart (1969)

Side Two

1) I'm Tired Of What People Say Or Do: Soul-Walkers (1970)

2) I Don't Go Shopping: Patti LaBelle (1980)

3) Can't See Myself Doing You Wrong: Milt Matthews Inc. (1971)

4) A Lifetime: The Brothers Of Soul (1970)

5) Rolling Down A Mountainside: The Main Ingredient (1975)

Side One (18:12)

Side Two (19:01)