Search - Various Artists :: Motown: The Classic Years

Motor City Soul Bonanza

Steve Vrana | Aurora, NE | 10/18/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Berry Gordy Jr. and Motown changed the face of the pop music landscape. And over the course of the 40 tracks on this two-disc set (1960-73) you can hear for yourself the impact his stable of artists had. It's worth noting that the Beatles' Capitol debut contained no fewer than three Motown songs, two of which ("Money" and "Please Mr. Postman") are included here. The only problem with a Motown anthology is that for every great song you include, there are a dozen that had to be left off. Essentially what this set amounts to is a condensed version of 1992's Hitsville USA box set. Only nine of these songs did not appear on the Hitsville Box: "Where Did Our Love Go," "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "Someday We'll Be Together" by the Supremes, "I Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops, "Going to a Go-Go" by the Miracles, "Your Precious Love" by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, "I Heard Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye, "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" by the Temptations and "Neither One of Us" by Gladys Knight & The Pips. [The last two were on Hitsville, vol. 2.]This is a terrific collection of songs and if you don't already have these in your music library, this is a great way to add these classic Motown tracks to your collection. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"

"Classic Years" Sound of Young America for New Millenium

Anthony G Pizza | FL | 02/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After the plethora of box sets, one and 2CD artist anthologies, movie soundtracks and TV compilations (not to mention the original artist albums and "16 Greatest Hits" compilations from the 1960s), you had to wonder if any other (let alone correct) way existed to compile Motown's fundamental song/textbook of popular music. The 2CD set "The Classic Years," from the Universal Music TV department that provided a series of bestselling "Pure" CD reissues ("Pure Ella," "Pure 80s," "Pure Tenors") , represents the most successful attempt yet to capture priceless Motown magic in an affordable bottle. Of course too many songs are missing; even the casual music fan will miss seminal tracks like "Love Child," "Get Ready," "I Second That Emotion," and dozens of others. Meanwhile, "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" and "Someday We'll Be Together, " (the Temptations and Supremes last #1 hits, respectively) are weightier productions than actual songs, best left off the next anthology.Credit goes to Harry Wenger's liner notes, which do not yet again attempt to chart the road in and out of "Hitsville USA" or contemporize it (a fault of Nelson George's essay in 1998's "Motown 40 Forever" ). Instead, you get interesting background stories and ironic commentary within songs. For example, the notes on Gladys Knight and Marvin Gaye's respective versions of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" bridge their drastically different, magnificent renditions. The annotation on David Ruffin's still-powerful solo hit "My Whole World Ended" (a rarity on compilations like this) point out that the song originally was for his former group, the Temptations.But these 40 songs, covering 1962-71 (considered the "classic years," when the label was headquartered in Detroit), form as good (and good-sounding, thanks to Suha Gur's exceptional remastering) a time capsule of a music and era as we may get in the still-new millenium. No Motown collection (or pop music collection) is complete without "My Girl," "I Can't Help Myself," "I Want You Back," "Do You Love Me," and almost all the other songs here. This is a value-added, intelligent way to acquire them, and "The Classic Years" delightfully introduces "The Sound of Young America" to yet another generation."

BAD SOUND

Jadwiga | 05/16/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"STAY WITH MOTOWN'S BOX SET HITSVILLE EARLY YEARS. YOU GET SAME SONGS AND MANY MORE PLUS PERFECT SOUND FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER
TAPES. NICE SELECTION HERE, BUT IT IS MYSTIFYING WHY THEY DIDN'T
USE HITSVILLE'S TRACKS. SO STAY AWAY AND SPEND THE EXTRA MONEY FOR THE BOX SET
FOR A PURE MOTOWN SOUND YOU NEVER HEARD BEFORE."