Search - Various Artists :: Motown Story 1: The Sixties

James T. from PRINEVILLE, OR
Reviewed on 1/5/2021...

Great album, I used to have it on a record

The worst

Redgecko | USA | 09/15/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Oh, the music is great, but what the other reviewers conveniently forgot to mention was that the songs are marred by a narrative introduction that is included on the same track as the song. In other words, you have to listen to the narrative introduction every time you play the song. Who wants that? It would have been great if the intros were on separate tracks but they were too stupid to think of doing the obvious.



"

A Condensed Version of the HITSVILLE USA Box Set

Steve Vrana | Aurora, NE | 02/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This collection begins with Barrett Strong's 1960 classic "Money" and ends with the Supremes' final hit with Diana Ross in 1969, "Someday We'll Be Together. Throughout the entire decade of the Sixties, was there a week when there wasn't at least one Motown artist in Billboard's Top 40? I doubt it. And with the Motown vaults teeming with hits, it wasn't difficult to fill two CDs with classic songs. In fact, both CDs had room for an additional four or five tracks each. [This would have allowed for greater representation of some artists by including Mary Wells' "The One Who Really Loves You" or the Marvelettes' "Don't Mess with Bill," as well as including some of Motown's lesser artists like The Originals' "Baby I'm for Real" or The Elgins' "Heaven Must Have Sent You."]
The bottom line is you can't get a definitive Motown collection in a two-disc set--even if you limit it to the Sixties. That's why Motown put out the 4-disc box set HITSVILLE USA in 1992. In fact, if you look closely at the track listing for THE MOTOWN STORY, essentially they just distilled that 104-track box set down to 42 tracks. There are only six tracks on STORY not found in the box set: an additional track by Marvin Gaye ("Can I Get a Witness), and five tracks by The Supremes. [The earlier box set had five Supremes' songs, but only "Love Child" is carried over to this compilation.]If your budget can afford it, the HITSVILLE USA box set is still the best choice. But track for track, you can't go wrong with the song selection on THE MOTOWN STORY. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"