Very motown- lots of instrumentation. Simplistic but upbeat.

Proving once and for all that she could carry herself as a solo artist and sing a dramatic love song, Ms. Ross slowed down the tempo and sank her emotions into this wonderful tale of unending love and devotion. The original full-length version clocks in at 6:16 but was brutally chopped down to around 3:30 for radio airplay and some of the song's most intimate words are removed. Sadly, the shorter version was featured on her box set a few years back. (what were they thinking???!!!) Get your hands on the 6 minute version and enjoy a true classic american song by a great american artist!

This is a 1974 album track on the UK album Last Time I Saw Him. Why this wonderful ballad was never issued as a single or included on a 'ballads' album is beyond me. Wonderful stuff.

this is possibly the first Motown-influenced Doves number i've heard -- and it's fucken brill, with the right dose of thumping beaty-ness, atmospherics and excellent lyrics. as it is, i suspect that "Some Cities", the band's new album will be on my list of Top 10 Records of the year... but this track totally knocked my socks off, and is now slated to be a mixtape favourite too. :-)

Quite possibly the most beautiful soul ballad of the late 60s.... despite being a slow song it is incredibly uplifting.... it speaks of holding out for someone you truly love when temptation surrounds you, which fits perfectly with my mindset. "Just remember that lovers have sorrow.... just remember we'll make up tomorrow". Immensely touching, beautiful and timeless.

Tony Mansfield (New Musik) produced mock-soul from the best beehive in the biz next to Kate & Cindy; from the spoken intro, to the soaring brass and strings, it is the blend of Bacharach and Motown that should've translated into a much bigger hit than it did.

'60s Motown rarely strayed from that classic sound, but this one attempts an earthier, Muscle Shoals/Stax-like sound -- with brilliant results. Martha's voice could even be mistaken for Aretha here. An underrated, mighty danceable single with killer rhythmic guitars, tambourines and a bubbling bassline.

An accusatory narrative on his marriage to Motown owner Berry Gordys daughter.Sweet but bitter not the same as bittersweet.Strangely compelling with no distinct melody ,bridge or chorus and the title only mentioned in the last few bars .However you feel after one listen an intimacy with the songs creator and this confessional opus .In places you can hear four or five Marvins pleading and apologising and blaming.I think in this instance it would appropriate to use the word genius .The moral being never marry the boss,s daughter.

One of the few bands involved with the short lived "romo" movement, Orlando were the only ones to release an album, and were far superior to any of the other indie chancers jumping on the badnwagon. This song, along with the other excellent single "Just For A Second", were attempts to meld postcard Records, Motown and PWL into bright, shiny pop. Dickon's keyboards soared, and singer Tim Chipping's vocals sounded like a young David MacAlmont taking flight. Of course, obscurity beckoned - Dickon went on to play guitar for Spearmint and form Fosca, and Chipping's current whereabouts are unknown. A brief, bright moment in pop, snuffed out all too soon.

I happened across this LP in a friends shop. I went to listen to it and this song blew me away. It's almost like a tune from a lost Jimmy Webb opus, or a Galt McDermott musical.... Like "HAIR".

The group sings in a loose ensemble with a very gospel-like arrangement that jumps from a driving, fuzzy, Motown like groove to waltz-y 3/4 skip. It represents the two impressionistic counterpoints in the songs drama :

" We see the phonies, you and I.... Their faded posies make us cry...." to " I smell the flowers... I smell the roses, and buttercups...."

It also reminds me of the Rotary Connection stuff that was around the same time.

The arranger is what turned me on to it, Ralph Carmichael. His label, Light, released stuff by the Oral Roberts kids, which is worth checking out for novelty's sake.

50% of this record is preach-y, but the rest of the songs, like this one, are well done with a lot of personality.RC is well known in sample circles for his famous cut "Addict's Psalm",from the Xian film soundtrack "The Cross & The Switchblade".

Use caution!

Take a Motown classic, a French conductor, a harpsichord, a sitar and something that could be either a melodica or a kazoo, and what do you get? I'm not sure either, but it'd sound a lot like this. A truly odd version that sounds vaguely off-key the entire time (although it seems intentional). A great example of the "Now Sound".

A very swinging, groovy Latin jazz take on Shorty Long's Motown classic finds Lewis at the height of his form. As expected, Richard Evans turns in an astounding arrangement, utilizing handclaps, studio chatter and a magnificent horn chart.

Long instrumental introduction like in " I just Want To Celebrate" or "Ma"....the band is having fun and setting the mood. Old rock from my jukebox days sounds really good right now. Different than the War versionof this song.

Rick James rocks. but he also can croon. His 1985 LP, "Glow," was highly underrated, and because of this fact, many folks passed up this gem of an album. "Moonchild," with its lush bassline - dreamy keyboards - and somewhat inspired lyrics, is one of the many tracks should've made RJ a bigger star than he was. Motown really dropped the ball on not releasing this ballad as a single or promoting the album, PERIOD. Mary J. Blige brought this song back to life (without butchering it) with 1997's "Love is All We Need."

Nice version of Jim Webb�s classic!

Prior to hearing her "Something" LP, I always referred to Dame Shirley as "The Godzilla of Song". By this I meant I always felt she treated a tune the way Rodan treated Tokyo, like something to be smashed underfoot. While I lived/died by her Bond themes, and such like, I never thought she was capable of nuance, restraint, and/or sexiness. Then I heard this god-like album, brilliantly produced and arranged by Johnny Harris. This cover of The Doors' song perfectly sums up the record's strengths. It's jazzy, sexy, incredibly funky, yet still totally Dame Shirley in all her over-the-top-glory. Probably the best Doors cover ever (though Nico's toxic reading of "The End", and Siouxsie and The Banshees' strangely Motown-esque version of "You're Lost Little Girl" come awfully close.)

classic motown at its best.

Simple lyrics, simple melody.

Yet it makes me wanna fall in love starting now.
Stevie's such a badasssss.

this is motown at it's best in my opinion. i bought the album "a cellarful OF MOTOWN!" when it was released in 2002. however i just re-discovered it a couple of weeks ago when i was cleaning. the track was (as it say in the booklet) originally assigned to the supremes. great stuff!

Very nice, laid back summer song. Stevie Wonder struck Gold when he worked with Syreeta.

Great funk/soul track with a healthy dose of political and social commentary circa 1970 set to a killer bass line - it's scary how much of it is still relevant today. "A ball of confusion, that's what the world is today..."

I like a lot of the Black Keys music but I'll Be Your Man is my favorite. Their music is hard to explain. It has a lot soul. It sounds kind of like new motown if that makes any since. I think fans of motown music will enjoy this song.

Disco, dance, superficial, but SO fun! Who hasn't heard this song a million times? It's still great!

The Cure meets Tamlla Motown ,well sort of, the ideas in Robert Smiths head celebrated the sound of black America yet still kept their fledgling gothic credentials intact.A syncopated bass line and drum pattern is supported by a persistant but low fi organ ,the song goes from sinister and unerving to joyous and euphoric in just a couple of minutes thanks to some well timed horns and hand claps whilst the original rhythym never misses a beat.A time when any band could try any thing and occasionally meet with a happy accident.

An obscure b-side of an obscure one hit wonder from 1983! but thats where you find the treasure ,by digging.A band from the tail end of the mod revival of 79 ,a sixties pastiche played on synthesisers but an overwhelming Motown influence played and written in good faith with a lush melody that would have suited the lonely spy from any movie from 1967 onwards .An eighties version of sixties soul heard 25 years later when pop almost lives on its reference points makes this sound like the first of its kind .The other side, Heartache Avenue ,is also a little nugget and worth a listen too.These boys were also City Boy of 5 7 0 5 fame from 1978.

Classic uptempo Motown girl sound! Fits the Berry Gordy formula so perfectly that it should have been a huge hit. Features a terrific bubbling bassline and mesmerizing finger snaps!

What can I say! I always imagined there would be a vocal version of this classic Santo and Johnny instrumental, but I had never located one until I found this recording. This track remained unreleased until the mid-1980s, was recorded in March 1965.

I can't deny that much of the appeal of this song for me lies in the novelty factor of hearing lyrics sung to this classic tune. If you're interested, the lyrics go something like this:

Sleep walk, instead of dreaming I
Sleep walk, cause I lost you and
Now what I am I to do;
Can't believe that we're through
(I don't care how much you tell me)

Sleep talk, cause I miss you I
Sleep talk, while the memory of you lingers like a song;
Darling I was so wrong
(but I'll be right some day)

Night
Fills me my lonelyness;
I see your face
Spinning through my brain

I know
I miss you so
I still love you
And it drives me insane

Sleep walk, every night I just
Sleep walk; and when
You walk inside the door,
I will sleepwalk no more

If you're having trouble imagining how these words would fit to the tune, I think the Supremes did too; this may explain why the track remained unreleased. Don't get me wrong - the overall sound is very cool, and the verses work quite well. But I think the tune is so well-known that they didn't feel they could change a note, and so some of the vocals are a bit laboured.

Still, a great track, which seems to hold up to repeated listens!

If you are looking for Classic but Overlooked 80's Electro Soul, look to one of Prince's girls to fill your need. Vanity, who at this time was a 'vamp' going it alone after Prince, got together with Bill Wolfer and Morris Day with a serious sound of synthesizers, clean electric guitar, and risque lyrics, making it one of the two releases from her first solo album, "Wild Animal." The grooves in the song and the french breakdown has me going wild everytime. I have loved the song since I was a little boy (when I was told that I couldn't listen to songs like that), and I don't think I will tire from it anytime soon.