Search - Mary Wells :: The Best of Mary Wells - The Millennium Collection

20TH CENTURY MASTER = MARY WELLS

Bradly Briggs | TOLUCA LAKE, CALIFORNIA | 02/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This soulful legendary lady was Motown's 1st Superstar who had hit after hit and this wonderful collection shows clearly why Mary Wells should be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame!! Mary wrote her first hit the raw and gritty "Bye Bye Baby" which launched a career that built Motown in the early days and was quickly followed by classics such as "Two Lovers" and "The One Who Really Loves You". Mary continued turning out lots of hits and the variety of these were really amazing!!! From her sultry numbers to soulful rhythm cookers such as "You Lost The Sweetest Boy" and "What's Easy For Two Is So Hard For One", Mary Wells was a major hit maker who continued with this quality all the way through the eighties with her last major label release on Epic Records "In And Out OF Love" still timeless in its beauty and deserving to be released on CD!! Though for some strange reason radio seemed to refuse to play Mary's records after leaving Motown Records, "Gigolo" was a major dance hit from her last release and still sounds great today!!! The mega-hit "My Guy" sounds timeless today in all its glory here and could be a hit all over again today. Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells duet hit "Once Upon A Time" is another song of great beauty and this solid sampler shows that Mary Wells was a once in a lifetime classic whose talent still shines bright today. The music industry needs to give this lady her just due...it's overdue!!!!"

Not quite 5 stars...

Zub | Forks Twp., PA | 07/04/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This compact compilation comes so very close to being a 5-star collection in spite of its meager 11 tracks. The inclusion of just one more tune, Wells' duet with Marvin Gaye "What's The Matter With You Baby" would have put it over the top and made this a top-notch, no-filler CD. The omission of this top-20 song is all the more frustrating considering that it's B-side, "Once Upon A Time" rightfully appears here. That point aside, this is an all-hits collection of Mary Wells' Motown sides. Once Wells was teamed up with Smokey Robinson, their combined output catapulted Motown into the spotlight. Robinson's incredible talent with lyrics and production and Well's maturing style culminated in the all-time classic chart-topper "My Guy". While the Robinson-Wells combo produced some outstanding tunes, Wells was also able to handle the up-and-coming powerhouse writing talents of Holland-Dozier-Holland as evident in the pounding "You Lost The Sweetest Boy". While it is doubtful Wells could have ever surpassed the supreme accomplishment of "My Guy", with Robinson and the Holland-Dozier-Holland team behind her, there is no telling the heights she could have reached had she not bolted Motown at the apex of her output. But that was not to be and this collection does provide the cream of the Wells Motown crop. Sound quality is reasonably good exhibiting the sometimes typically muddy sound of Motown recordings with some tracks noticeably hissy. All cuts here except 9 are the stereo versions. Includes 8-page flopover liner notes booklet with a brief musical biography. For the hits-only purchaser, the best of the lot."