Search - Velvelettes :: The Best of the Velvelettes

An under-rated Motown group

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 12/31/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Velvelettes never actually had an album release during their time with Motown, so this compilation comprises three hit singles, their B-sides, some unsuccessful singles and some tracks never released during their years together. Some of the previously unreleased tracks were made available on an American compilation released in 1999. Four more were dug out of the archives for this British compilation released in 2001, which also includes everything available on the earlier American set. The four extra tracks include a cover of The boy from Crosstown (first recorded by the Marvelettes) and Stop beating around the bush (a track that had previously been popular with collectors via bootleg copies).There he goes failed to chart in 1963. Needle in a haystack was an American number one hit in 1964 and was followed up by He was really saying something, another huge hit. Lonely lonely girl am I and A bird in the hand missed the charts in 1965. These things will keep me loving you provided the Velvelettes with their third and last hit in 1966. Their comparative lack of success is probably due to competition from their own label-mates, the Marvelettes, the Vandellas and the Supremes, but though there are some similarities in style with all of those fine groups, they had a distinctive sound of their own.If you are a fan of sixties Motown and not just the obvious stuff, the Velvelettes are well worth a listen."

The Boy From Xtown ........at last

Mr. J. L. Lester | London England | 08/25/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The last track on the album.......but one of the best! Thank you UK Spectrum for this and the other 3 never before issued tracks from my favourite singer of all time....... Cal Street - you are the best!"

Expanded version of only LP

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 03/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Although the Velvelettes gave Motown a number of hit singles in the mid-sixties, they had to wait until 1999 before they were awarded the luxury of their own LP, a US compilation fleshed out with some unreleased nuggets from the legendary Motown vaults. This very welcome more recent UK collection improves on that album as its final four additional tracks are previously unreleased.

These include their version of The Boy From Crosstown, which as it was laid down between January and August 1965, pre-dates the Marvelettes' released version recorded May/June 1966 and also produced by Norman Whitfield; and the Mickey Stevenson produced Stop Beating Around The Bush, recorded in 1964. This has long been sought after on acetates and bootlegs and has gone down very well in the Northern clubs, so its legitimate release is alone cause for celebration.

When they signed to Motown in 1963 the Velvelettes featured lead singer Cal Gill, her sister Mildred, Norma and Bertha Barbee and Betty Kelly, though Betty left in 1964 to replace Annette Sterling in Martha and the Vandellas. In 1966 they were upgraded from the subsidiary VIP label to the Soul label. The quartet line-up remained stable until 1967 when two left to marry and were replaced by Sandra Tilley and Annette McMillan, who feature on I'm So Glad It's Twilight Time, one of the tracks that was quite undeservedly left unreleased until 1979. Slightly confusingly, only three girls are shown in the cover picture and are not identified.

Possibly the domination and promotion of the Supremes at the time was at the expense of other Motown acts such as the Velvelettes as listening to and enjoying these 19 songs now it seems surprising that only their handful of hits are at all well known.

This is an extremely worthwhile and overdue collection, at a very generous price. Disappointingly, all tracks are in mono. Of their major hits included here, to my knowledge Needle In A Haystack and He Was Really Saying Something appear on Big Motown Hits And Hard To Find Classics Vol. 2 in true stereo; likewise Lonely Lonely Girl Am I, These Things Will Keep Me Loving You and A Bird in The Hand are to be found in full stereo on This Is Northern Soul! Vol. 2. I do not understand why Motown or the labels who license their recordings are still so parsimonious with their stereo mixes 30-40 years after the fact, or why they do not clearly state on the sleeve whether tracks are stereo or mono"