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Motown.


Ken

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Speaking of soundtracks.

This isn't necessarily bona fide Motown but definitely in the same vein.

From a different thread

... I rented a DVD of the movie "Radio" starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris. The soundtrack refreshed my memories of some great 70s R & B.

Wake Up Everbody and If You Don't Know Me By Now by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

I'll Be Around and Rubber Band Man by The Spinners

Going In Circles by Friends of Distinction

Songs by Al Green, The Isley Bros. plus Stevie Wonder's cover of the Beatles' We Can Work It Out.

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Oh, you certainelly will... you´ll love:

The Marvelettes- "Please, Mr. Postman"

Martha and the Vandellas: "Dancing in the streets"

The Supremes: "You can´t hurry love"

The Temptations: "My Girl", "Just my Imagination", "Pappa was a rolling Stone"

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles: "Shop Around", "Tears of a clown", "Going to a go-go", "I second that emotion"

The Four Tops: "Reach Out", "I can´t help myself"

The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Thelma Houston...

and I´m just reading one of my compilations...

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well, i recognise all the songs you mentioned, so i guess i do like motown then!

...and they are uppers! You can´t help feeling happy when you´re listening to them... I had all these songs in my walkman and I might say they changed my life many many years ago...

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The only Motown our local classic rock station plays is Stevie Wonder and Rare Earth. Our oldies station however plays tons of Motown and even had a Motown Monday theme for several years with Motown interspersed all day and a 5 hour Motown only show from 7-12. W have a classic R&B station that plays lots of Motown, too.

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It's because most US classic rock stations define classic rock as music that originated between the British Invasion and the early 80's. Music that preceded it is considered Oldies in the radio industry. Programmers get stuck in the process. The local classic rock station just recently added some select 80's tunes to the mix. The Oldies station recently dipped into the late 70's and early 80's. As their listening audience gets younger and younger the definitions will become broader and broader. Oldies (50's, early 60's) eventually will be like Big Band music is now as the baby boomer generation (me, sniff) dies off. In ten years late 90's and early 00's music will be considered classic rock. Eek!

Rock on kids, cause you only rock once!

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Most classic rock stations ignore Motown. To call yourself a classic rock radio station and not play Stevie Wonder is wrong. The oldies stations play much more...c'mon classic rock program directors...get Motown in the mix. :thumbsup:

I wouldn't class someone like Stevie Wonder as classic rock.

In my mind he's a SOUL man ::

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Motown is my middle name! I believe I know every Mowtown song there is, starting with Stevie Wonder's incredible "Contract on Love" from 1962. (How old was he? 12? He was just awesome with that beautiful young voice) :bow:

I recently bought "The Temptations sing Smokey", a compilation of songs written by Smokey Robinson, that includes the glorious "You beat me to the punch" and "What love has joined together". My brother has every Motown album (vynil) that was ever released. ::

One of my all-time favourites is Jimmy Ruffin's "What becomes of the broken-hearted." When my daughter was in Kindergarten, I used to drive her and she would always request that song on the way. So there we sat, mother and daughter, going to school and work respectively and singing What becomes of the broken-hearted at the top of our lungs!

:happybanana: :happybanana:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Uncle Joe named the Originals in his list. They didn't get the songs other Motown acts got but they had what I believe is one of the best soul songs ever to come out of Motown, that song being Baby I'm For Real. They also did some nice harmonizing on The Bells. I recommend giving them a listen.

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  • 7 months later...

I don't know if there is a post about Motown but I have loved gerat Motown music since I was a kid. Listened to a station out of Detroit CKLW and they played so many great Motown artists. I still listen to them today...

THE SPINNERS

THE FOUR TOPS

THE ISLEY BROTHERS

THE STYLISTICS

THE TEMPTATIONS

DELFONICS

TEDDY PENDEGRASS

AL GREEN

THE SUPREMES

OTIS REDDING

MARVIN GAYE

MARVIN GAYE AND TAMMY TYRELL

Just to name a few of my favs! Anyone else out there into the Motown groove?? Nothing like some grat Motown and some lovin!!

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MOTOWN ALL THE WAY! :bow:

I won´t list the artists because there is plenty of them, but I was a fan of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Supremes, Thelma Houston, Marvin Gaye, Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder...etc. R. Dean Taylor was also Motown...

I worked for the Spanish distributer of Motown for some years so I got to have a pretty collection of albums.

Otis Redding isn´t Motown though... I guess Al Green neither...

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I love, love, love Motown. I'm sure I've told this story a hundred times here, but let's go for a hundred and one. When my daughter was first born and we were go through the midnight feeding stage, the only thing that would settle her to sleep was me singing "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by The Temptations.

And all hail to Stevie Wonder. He is one of my favorite artists ever. Ever ever. :bow:

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About Stevie Wonder and Motown

from soulwalking

From 1965-70, Stevie Wonder was marketed like the other major Motown stars, recording material that was chosen for him by the label's executives, and issuing albums that mixed conventional soul compositions with pop standards.

He co-wrote almost all of his singles from 1967 onwards, and also began to collaborate on releases by other Motown artists, most notably co-writing Smokey Robinson And The Miracles' hit The Tears Of A Clown, and writing and producing the (Motown) Spinners' It's A Shame.

His contract with Motown expired in 1971, rather than re-signing immediately, as the label expected, Wonder financed the recording of two albums of his own material, playing almost all the instruments himself, and experimenting for the first time with more ambitious musical forms.

He pioneered the use of the synthesizer, and also broadened his lyrical concerns to encompass racial problems and spiritual questions.

Wonder then used these recordings as a lever to persuade Motown to offer a more open contract, which gave him total artistic control over his music, plus the opportunity to hold the rights to the music publishing with his own company, Black Bull Music.

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