Search - Marvelettes :: Marvelettes: The Essential Collection [Karussell]

Essential Marvelettes

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 10/21/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"According to the spine of this CD and the disc itself, the title of this album is The Best Of The Marvelettes, whereas the front and back cover and insert booklet call it The Essential Collection - The Marvelettes.



Either way it is an 18-track retrospective which duplicates little from other Marvelettes collections (it inevitably recycles three of their best known pieces - When You're Young And In Love, Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead and Please Mr Postman - in their mono single mixes).



The opening track is a rip-roaring romp, I Just Can't Let Him Down, a Smokey Robinson production from 1964 featuring Gladys Horton. It sounds like a hit single of the time but is previously unreleased, one of six recordings making their debut here, all of which provoke the cry: why?, as there is no sense of barrel-scraping whatsoever. I would like to know why they were left in the can and who the lead singers are. Most date from 1964-1965 but Sugar's Never Been As Sweet As You is a William Weatherspoon/Jimmy Dean production from 1969, around the time of the In Full Bloom sessons.



Five of the other tracks come from out of print albums which are welcome since Motown has not yet favoured the Marvelettes with any re-releases in their excellent 2 Classic Albums 1 CD series. All the other rarities make a fascinating listen. Your Cheating Ways was tucked away on the B-side of Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead, while The Boy From Crosstown is another song that sounds like a classic hit, but seems to have been buried on a Motown compilation from 1966. Norman Whitfield had also produced the same song the year before with the Velvelettes but it was never released in their lifetime. Similarly, Finders Keepers Losers Weepers is a lost Holland-Dozier-Holland classic from 1964, which may not have been released at the time, though it did come out over here on the other side of a Kim Weston single as an anniversary edition in 1980.



Perhaps most interestingly of all another Holland-Dozier-Holland song, Too Hurt To Cry, Too Much In Love To Say Goodbye came out as a single under the pseudonym of the Darnells on the Gordy label in 1963. It is very much a pastiche of the Spector sound of the time, the arrangement sounding exactly like a copy of the Crystals.



The Marvelettes deserve to be as well remembered as Martha and the Vandellas and the Four Tops."

Marvelettes reign Supreme

funnstuf | Wheat Ridge, co USA | 08/12/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Purchased this CD while vacationing in Paris in April 2002. (Was excited to grab such a "rare" find...) Very suprised to see the amount of unreleased material included in this collection.
Enjoyed the entire album, with my two faves being "I Just Can't Let Him Down" (unreleased...featuring Gladys Horton on lead.) and "Our Lips Just Seem To Rhyme Everytime" (previously released....featuring Wanda Rogers on lead.) Great cross-section of music from their early years up to the end of the group. Buy it...you'll like it!!!!!!!"

GREAT MARVELETTES TRACKS UNRELEASED ON THIS CD

Michael D. Skudar | 01/20/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I AM A HUGE MOTOWN FAN. I MUST SAY THE MARVELETTES ARE MY
FAVORITE AND THEY ARE MOTOWN'S MOST UNDRRATED GROUP. THE
SUPREMES WERE GREAT AND SO WERE ALL THE OTHER GROUPS. IN MY
OPINION THE MARVELETTES WERE THE GIRL GROUP OF ALL GIRL
GROUPS. THEIR SONGS WERE ABOUT INNOCENT RELATIONSHIPS. THIS
CD IS FULL OF GREAT UNRELEASED TRACKS. THE TWO LEAD SINGERS
GLADYS HORTON AND WANDA YOUNG EACH SING LEAD ON THE 18 TRACKS.
SOME OF THEIR HITS ARE ON THE CD BUT THE UNRELEASED SONGS
ARE A DREAM COME TRUE FOR ANY MARVELETTES FAN. THE SOUND QUALITY
IS EXCELLENT. IF YOU LIKE THE MARVELETTES YOU NEED TO BUY THIS
CD. IT IS FANTASTIC"