Search - Marvelettes :: Forever: The Complete Motown Albums 1

Essential

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 07/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One aspect of Motown's brilliance was to capture in sound the exuberance, naivety and, not least, need to dance of the American teenager in the early sixties, often performed by artists who were teenagers themselves; and then to mirror with deadly accuracy their emotional, intellectual and musical maturity throughout the rest of the decade. The Marvelettes were a perfect example of this as they were initially a five piece from Inkster who were all at high school when they signed to Tamla, and still were five hit albums later.



The Marvelettes have been overlooked in the Motown reissue programme for far too long, with none of their original albums being in print prior to this very welcome box set, and as they are quite possibly my most preferred Motown artists I couldn't wait to get my hands on this, which tells the story up to early 1966 with the release of their Greatest Hits album. By then they had become a trio of just Wanda, Gladys and Catherine, but had the genius of Smokey Robinson as producer and writer, creating some of the most adroit and pithiest hits in Motown history.



Georgia, who was the primary writer of their first hit, Please Mr Postman, apparently dropped out just before they signed to the label, with Juanita leaving circa April 1962 and Georgeanna around two years later.



Forever - The Complete Motown Albums Vol. 1 contains their first five albums plus the compilation Greatest Hits and a further twenty-six extra tracks which were all B-sides, non-album singles, live recordings from mixed artists compilations and outtakes which were not released at the time. It really is complete in that every known official release is here in at least one form.



Disc One contains their first three albums: Please Mr Postman, The Marvelettes Sing (Smash Hits Of '62) and Playboy, released 1961-1962. On the early albums the gloriously hoarse and intense voice of Gladys Horton was featured on most of the hit singles although Wanda Young (who had stepped in to replace Georgia Dobbins when the band were signed) sings lead on over half of the Please Mr Postman album, and on four from The Marvelettes Sing. On that album sleeve all the girls were name checked apart from her, with Gladys solely credited as lead singer; Wanda was pregnant at the time and Tamla may have wanted to depict the group as it would appear on live appearances over the following few months. This probably also explains why she is only heard in the foreground on a couple of songs on Playboy. These include Forever, which later doubled as a B-side, and did well in the US R&B charts.



Motown was still finding its composers and trademark sound in those early years and the second album entirely consisted of covers of pop and R&B hits from 1962. Mashed Potato Time, a hit for Dee Dee Sharp, had actually been written by several Motown writers including Brian Holland, though it was to be 1963 before the familiar signature of Holland-Dozier-Holland was to appear on a Marvelettes record (Locking Up My Heart). Although Juanita Cowart had left by the time the Playboy album came out in July 1962, she can be heard on three of the older tracks on the record.



The Marvelous Marvelettes opens Disc Two. Released in February 1963, regular producers Mickey Stevenson and Brian Holland were joined on this album by Norman Whitfield, who was later to provide many of the girls' mid-sixties hits. It featured Locking Up My Heart and My Daddy knows Better, both singles, as well as the stage favourite Strange I Know, which had been out as a single the previous October.



Strange I Know also featured on their live souvenir The Marvelettes On Stage - Recorded Live, complete with spoken section, and is reprised in another live version they contributed to Recorded Live At The Apollo Vol. 1, and again on Recorded Live: The Motortown Revue Vol. 2 as part of a medley. The Marvelettes On Stage mostly featured their recorded repertoire with Motown's touring band, but does have a cover of Bobby Lewis' 1961 hit Tossin' And Turnin'.



The rest of Disc Two is taken up with Bonus Tracks - namely B-sides, tracks unreleased at the time and a single designed to sound like a Phil Spector production, in particular the Crystals. It came out under the name the Darnells, but the singer was clearly identified by radio listeners as Gladys Horton. As the Andantes were also involved on the single it's possible that the rest of the Marvelettes were not on it. The B-side, Come On Home, is a largely instrumental track borrowed from a Holland And Dozier session, with some vocal interjections from Gladys and Brian Holland near the end, and was also released in a version by Holland And Dozier.



After 1963's The Marvelous Marvelettes, they did not have another new studio album until March 1967, although their Greatest Hits compilation album, released in February 1966, contained five recent singles that had not appeared on an album. These were amongst their strongest releases to date. There was enough material in the can for an album but Motown was presumably too stretched promoting the Supremes to bother. Ironically, the "no-hits" Supremes had finally hit pay dirt with Where Did Our Love Go, a song that had been turned down by the Marvelettes for being too childish and dumb, opting instead for Too Many Fish In The Sea. It was probably a better record, and reached no. 21 in Cashbox, but was not the phenomenon that Where Did Our Love Go became.



The other non-album singles included were As Long As I Know He's Mine (1963), You're My Remedy (1964), Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead and Don't Mess With Bill (1965). All but the first of these feature Wanda, whose voice had matured into an altogether more sensuous and vibrant instrument, and had been developed by Smokey Robinson, following his regular work with the girls from 1963 onwards. The album was released in mono and stereo versions, and it is the stereo version that has been included here, at the start of Disc Three. It also affords the opportunity to hear the stereo versions of seven of the singles taken from previous albums. In the case of Please Mr Postman this is a completely different take to the mono single (I cannot say which version the mono edition of Greatest Hits used). These are the only stereo tracks on the box set.



The rest of Disc Three is titled Mono Singles & Rare Sides and features the mono single mixes of the four non-album singles on Greatest Hits, and their B-sides, the A-side He's A Good Guy (Yes He Is)(1964), the single I'll Keep Holding On/No Time For Tears (my personal favourite Marvelettes record, and their first release as a trio)(1965) and three excellent stockpiled tracks that were not released at the time, recorded between 1964-1965.



All that is missing from what has been released thus far is the stereo mix of the entire Playboy album that came out on CD in 1992, and the pin-sharp stereo mix of I'll Keep Holding On that first appeared on A Collection Of 16 Original Big Hits Vol. 5 in August 1966. I am hoping these have been earmarked for Volume Two. Perhaps they might also unearth a stereo mix of No Time For Tears, surely the most unjustly neglected work in the Marvelettes canon?



This is an essential, unmissable slice of sixties Motown."

Marvelettes Delivered!

R. M. Desjardins | Vancouver, B.C. Canada | 07/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is ironic that in 1961, Motown's first number one pop single was the Marvelettes Please Mr. Postman, and now in 2009 the easiest way to obtain The Marvelettes Forever, The Complete Motown Albums Volume I is to have the postman deliver it! The three disc set distributed by Hip-o Select in a limited 5,000 edition is not readily available in stores and sold primarily online.

The Marvelettes, long revered as one of the premier examples of the girl group gendre, finally get the respect they deserve. The long out of print first four studio albums, Please Mr. Postman, The Marvelettes Sing, Playboy and The Marvelous Marvelettes are included here in their entirety in digital remastering which greatly adds to the listening pleasure of these classic recordings. A live album, On Stage: Recorded Live comprises of tracks recorded at the Apollo Theater in 1962, and the Regal Theater In Chicago in 1963. The stereo version of their Greatest Hits album, along with mono singles and rare sides, plus bonus tracks of recordings the Marvelettes recorded under the name of the Darnells, round off this superb collection.

The packaging is up to the usual high standard Motown enthusiasts have come to expect of the Hip-o Select line. The accompanying booklet is well researched, featuring plenty of rare photographs, reproductions of the album graphics front and back and notes on individual recording sessions.

Disc three hints at the sophisticated soul that the Marvelettes would evolve into during their second phase of their career when Smokey Robinson would mastermind a new direction for the ladies. Hopefully a follow up volume two of their complete final albums is in the works.

This highly anticipated set is well worth the wait and goes a long way in underscoring the Marvelettes contribution as pioneers in rock and soul. Sure to sell out quickly, this is a must have addition to the collection of any serious fan of Motown music."

Marvelous!

Eddie from Flushing | Flushing, N.Y. United States | 06/25/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Best ever collection for The Marvelettes! Every album from 1961 through 1966 is on board for this 3CD set (and a second volume is promised later this year to cover the rest of The Marvelettes work from the late '60s). And while it's billed as "The Complete Motown Albums-Vol. 1", Universal/Motown really went the extra mile with this set by including the original album artwork from every LP, the non-LP singles (and their B sides), the mono mixes of singles from the "Greatest Hits" album, and rare gems like "Maybe I Dried My Tears (For The Last Time)", "Little Girls Grow Up" & "I Should've Known Better" which were previosly released only in England. If you're a fan of The Marvelettes, this set is highly recommended (pick it up quick since it's a "Limited Edtion" set)."