Best Motown

[Trinique_Fire]

And hits from the 50's, 60's, and possibly early 70's.

I'm not interested in groany white people music of that era. Sorry, but a lot of it is. So hit me with your favorites!

I just downloaded Ares and I need an uplifting CD.

I have all things Temptations already.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

No one?

 

[matriarch]

'Dancing in the Street' and 'Jimmy Mack' - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

Anything at all by Diana Ross and The Supremes. They're all good.

Stevie Wonder - 'For once in my life' (1968);

Gladys Knight and the Pips..........loved their music (first hit in 1961). 'Help me make it through the night' (1971); 'Midnight Train to Georgia' (1973).

Mary Wells - 'My Guy', (1963)

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - 'The tracks of my tears' (1965)

That's all I can think of, for now.

 

[R. Richard]

This is just off the top of my head:

Shop Around - Smokey Robinson
I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson
Tears Of A Clown - Smokey Robinson
Come And Go With Me - Dell Vikings
Whispering Bells - Dell Vikings
My Guy - Mary Wells
Chances Are - Johnny Mathis
Wonderful, Wonderful - Johnny Mathis
The Twelvth of Never - Johnny Mathis
When Sonny Gets Blue - Johnny Mathis
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
How Sweet It is - Marvin Gaye
Love Child - The Supremes
Baby Love - The Supremes
Back In My Arms Again - The Supremes
Little Egypt - The Coasters
Charlie Brown - The Coasters
Run Red Run - The Coasters
Drift Away - Dobie Gray
The In Crowd - Dobie Gray
Up On The Roof - The Drifters
On Broadway - The Drifters
Work With Me Annie - Hank Ballard
Roll With Me Henry - Etta James
Jim Dandy - LaVerne Baker
Nowhere To Run - Martha Reeves
Please Mr. Postman - The Marvelettes
Unforgettable - Nat King Cole
Don't Hang Up - The Orlons
My Prayer - The Platters
Silhouettes - The Rays
You've Lost That Loving Feeling - The Righteous Breothers [OK, blue eyed soul!]
Feel Like Makin' Love - Roberta Flack
Baby I Love You - The Ronnettes
Chain Gang - Sam Cooke
How Important Can It Be - Sarah Vaughn
Happy, Happy Birthday - The Tune Weavers
Da Do Ron Ron - The Crystals

 

[matriarch]

Try this link. It has some interesting information, and also more pertinent for you, splits it down to 50's, 60's and 70's.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Love all these songs...thank you both!

I also found another one of my favorites:

Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield
Brandy - Looking Glass

and not really Motown or anything, but I also found I Love Rock and Roll - Joan Jett

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Try this link. It has some interesting information, and also more pertinent for you, splits it down to 50's, 60's and 70's.

You rock.

 

[matriarch]

Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield

I ADORED Dusty Springfield. I had a huge crush on her, and bought everything she recorded.

The last time I saw her sing live, was on British TV, I think it was a 'Jools Holland Later' programme - she sang with Alison Moyet, another of my favourites.

It was shortly after that I heard she'd died of Breast Cancer. A great, great, great loss.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I ADORED Dusty Springfield. I had a huge crush on her, and bought everything she recorded.

The last time I saw her sing live, was on British TV, I think it was a 'Jools Holland Later' programme - she sang with Alison Moyet, another of my favourites.

It was shortly after that I heard she'd died of Breast Cancer. A great, great, great loss.

My dad exposed me to all great great music when I was growing up. In fact, until I was in fifth grade I thought I was super cool and didn't get why no one else had discovered this awesome world of Motown. I was a cool cat.

 

[R. Richard]

I collect 50's 60's music. The songs from that era are not complex, but they have a raw, driving soul that the newer stuff doesn't have.

The problen was that many of the really great groups were black teenagers with no business sense. The white promoters ripped them off and they passed into obscurity.

One exception to the white rip off was Lieber and Stoller they were two Jewish guys but they wrote true black anthems for such groups as the Coasters.

If you are not limiting yourself to black groups, also check out the Jerry Lee Lewis songs from the mid-50s. Try "Breathless," Great Balls of Fire," "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On."

Oh yeah, I forgot Little Richard and Lou Rawls, among many. many others.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I LOOOOOOVE Oogum Boogum - Brenton Wood

 

[cloudy]

Anything by Smokey Robinson (Cruisin' is my favorite, but his voice still makes me swoon)

Anything by Marvin Gaye or Al Green (another dreamy voice).

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Anything by Smokey Robinson (Cruisin' is my favorite, but his voice still makes me swoon)

Anything by Marvin Gaye or Al Green (another dreamy voice).

Hi Mommy!

I like Got to Give it Up

 

[cloudy]

Hi Mommy!

I like Got to Give it Up

Yep. And Sexual Healing and my all-time Marvin fave: Distant Lover.

Cruisin'

Baby, let's cruise away from here
Don't be confused, the way is clear
And if you want it you got it forever
This is not a one night stand, babe, yeah
So let the music take your mind, whoa
Just release and you will find

Your gonna fly away, glad your going my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
The music is playing for love
Cruisin' is made for love
I love it when we're cruisin' together

Babe, tonight belongs to us
Everything's right, do what you must
And inch by inch we get closer and closer
To every little part of each other
Ooh, babe, yes
Let the music take your mind, babe
Just release and you would find

Your gonna fly away, glad you're going way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
Music is playin' for love
Cruisin' is made for love
I love it when we're cruisin' together

(Cruise with me, babe)

(Cruise with me, babe)

Oh, oh, babe, yeah
So good to cruise with you, babe
So good to cruise with you
You need me, babe
Aaaaah, babe loves crusin'
Let's flow, let's glide
Ooooh let's open up, and go inside
And if you want it you got it forever
I can just stay there inside you
And love you, babe, oh
Let the music take your mind
Just release and you would find

Your gonna fly, yeah, glad you're going way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
The music is for love, cruisin' is made for love
I love it when we're cruisin' together
Oh, babe
We gonna fly away
Ohhh, yeah
Plan to go my way
I love it when we're cruisin' together
The music is for love, cruisin' is made for love
I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Any song by Sam Cooke
Soul Man and Mama Told Me Not to Come - Wilson Pickett
When a Man Loves a Woman - Marvin Gaye
Beachwood 45789 - Marvelettes
whatever you can find by Ronnie & The Ronettes
CC Ryder - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

 

[R. Richard]

Check out: "In the midnight Hour" - Wilson Pickett

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

I collect 50's 60's music. The songs from that era are not complex, but they have a raw, driving soul that the newer stuff doesn't have.

The problen was that many of the really great groups were black teenagers with no business sense. The white promoters ripped them off and they passed into obscurity.

One exception to the white rip off was Lieber and Stoller they were two Jewish guys but they wrote true black anthems for such groups as the Coasters.

If you are not limiting yourself to black groups, also check out the Jerry Lee Lewis songs from the mid-50s. Try "Breathless," Great Balls of Fire," "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On."

Oh yeah, I forgot Little Richard and Lou Rawls, among many. many others.

I have pretty much everything by the coasters, plus a great Rhino 4 disk collection called "the Doo Wop Box".

Name-drop time: I went out for a meal with Mike Stoller last time I was in New York -- he's cool, and so is his wife, who's also a shit-hot jazz pianist.

He was visiting because it was the premiere of "Blue Suede Shoes".

 

[S-Des]

Anything by Earth, Wind, & Fire. Most Stevie Wonder songs (I prefer Sir Duke, Do I Do, Signed Sealed Delivered, and Superstion). Marvin Gaye (Let's Get It On or What's Goin' On). Don't forget Grapevine (both MG & Gladys Knight's versions). Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Higher & Higher, or Jungle Boogie (Kool & The Gang ROCKS!!!!).

Would you like about 1000 more?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Don't forget the Jackson 5!
Whatever you may say about Michael these days- he had a voice like honey.
"I'll Be There"
Three of the blue-eyed soul singers;
And Carol King, who wrote so much for Motown and sang it as well as any of the stars did...
Seals and Crofts were English- but they had a pretty soulfull sound, like "Summer Breeze"
I never liked Hall and Oats, I thought they were too slick- but you might like 'em

What about funk, or the California sound- Santana, War, and Malo?

 

[R. Richard]

Try this one:
Gimmie Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group

If you have never seen the Spencer Davis Group perform and/or seen pictures of the Spencer Davis Group, who are they and where do they come from?

 

[Huckleman2000]

Sort of pre-Motown, but you might like Jackie Wilson for a pick-me-up. (Lonely Teardrops; [Your Love Keeps Liftin' Me] Higher and Higher)

Really, though, when I think of Motown I have to point to the distictive vocalists: Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Jackson Five-era Michael... there's no substitute. You can pick out those voices in about two notes.

I like the male vocal groups too - The Temptations, of course, but also The Isley Brothers, The Four Tops, and The Spinners.

I know it's sacriledge, but I mostly like other people doing Stevie Wonder's songs more than Stevie himself.

 

[R. Richard]

Don't forget the Jackson 5!
Whatever you may say about Michael these days- he had a voice like honey.
"I'll Be There"
Three of the blue-eyed soul singers;
And Carol King, who wrote so much for Motown and sang it as well as any of the stars did...
Seals and Crofts were English- but they had a pretty soulfull sound, like "Summer Breeze"
I never liked Hall and Oats, I thought they were too slick- but you might like 'em

What about funk, or the California sound- Santana, War, and Malo?

Try:
Smackwater Jack - Carole King
She's Gone - Hall and Oats

 

[R. Richard]

We seem a bit top heavy with male vocalists but there are two more who just gotta' be on the list:

Chuck Berry and his guitar.
And a white boy named Elvis something or other, his name escapes me but he did a lot of soulful tunes.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Try this one:
Gimmie Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group

If you have never seen the Spencer Davis Group perform and/or seen pictures of the Spencer Davis Group, who are they and where do they come from?

Yes, great song! English, aren't they?

 

[R. Richard]

Quote:
Originally Posted by R. Richard
Try this one:
Gimmie Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group

If you have never seen the Spencer Davis Group perform and/or seen pictures of the Spencer Davis Group, who are they and where do they come from?

Yes, great song! English, aren't they?

White boys from England. The song was popular for a while and then came back again as the theme song of the movie "Days of Thunder." I defy anyone to guess who the Spencer Davis Group were and where they came from by just listening to the song.