Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
#8 R&B
“Hum Along and Dance” is another smash from the minds of the songwriting team Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield. It appeared on the Tempting Temptations 1970 hit LP “Psychedelic Shack.” (#1 R&B & #9 Pop).
The original tune was 3 minutes and 52 seconds long making it a very long song for the era. I consider this song the writing duo’s precursor to “Smiling Faces.”
Please listen and enjoy.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
#95 R&B
Rare Earth’s 5 minute and 19 second version of “Hum Along and Dance” comes from their 1973 release “MA.” Take a listen to this even longer version of this classic.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Jackson 5′s 8 minutes and 37 second version appeared on their 1973 LP “Get It Together.” “GIT” was the J5′s second album release of 1973 (September): they had released “Skywriter” earlier that year in March. Like the entire LP, “HAaD” was an awesome track — but even better is the 15 minute and 7 second extended version. This one is here for your listening pleasure: it was one of the bonus cuts on my “Joyful Jukebox Music” re-issue CD.
This version is tops IMHO!
Now that you have seen this vintage J5 performance of “HAaD” with the handsome Jackie Jackson doing Eddie Kendricks’ high tenor lead part, vote for your favorite here and now. Be sure to leave comments as to why you prefer one rendition over the other.
Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland and Eddie Holland compositions, as performed by the Funk Brothers, are a major part of the “Motown Sound” and this song is no exception.
I will just let you listen to all of these renditions by the Motown artists and let you hear for yourself. This is Classic Motown at it’s best IMHO.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
#9 R&B, #50 Pop
First here is the extended version by the very under-rated and so often over -looked Elgins. This 1966 hit is my favorite!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
And this version of “Heaven Must Have Sent You” is the Funk Brothers with The Andantes on vocals. For those of you that don’t know — this is the Motown “House Band” and the “House Backup Singers”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This Supremes rendition comes from my 2000 Box Set Bonus Disc (Now OOP). Since I have digitized most of my music collection I don’t have the Box Set Booklet at my fingertips, but I will eventually locate it and see if it has a recording date for this tune and update this post accordingly.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Naturally Bonnie Pointer’s first Motown LP released in 1978, produced by her husband Jeffrey Bowen, had the required Jobete published cover tunes, but this one was given a “Disco” flavor to update it to the then current sound of pop music. It was actually quite successful in 1979.
Now it is time for your opinion readers. Pick you fave and tell us why in the comments section.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
#1 R&B, #2 Pop
An American Musical Treasure, Stevie Wonder, had this smash hit single “I Was Made To Love Her” in 1967. Composed by Henry Cosby, Lula Mae Hardaway (Stevie’s Mom) , Sylvia Moy and Stevie Wonder , the song also appeared on a subsequently released LP (#7 R&B, #45 Pop) with the same name.
This was, and still is, one of my early Stevie favorites that I wore the grooves off of my little 45! ( And BTW I still have that beloved 45 rpm disc too!)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Motown’s next child prodigy also recorded a cover of “I Was Made To Love Her”. I don’t know in what year this J5 rendition was recorded, but I can tell you that it was removed from “The Vault” and put on wax and released after the J5 left Motown and had started making their hits on Epic records.
This track appeared on the LP “Boogie” released in 1979. According to the MJFCL:
‘Boogie’ is a very rare Jackson 5 LP which was released in Canada in January 1979. It was released by Natural Resources (a division of Motown) and included tracks not available anywhere else. Due to legal problems, it was withdrawn shortly after its release and it is now very hard to come by. (SOURCE: The Michael Jackson Fan Club)
The original LP may be rare, but you can still get the songs that were on “Boogie” along with the songs on another Motown Vault release from 1976 entitled “Joyful Jukebox Music” on a two-fer that is currently in print: it combines the songs from both LPs with additional bonus tracks. The name of the release is “Joyful Jukebox Music.”
The “IWMTLH” also appeared on another much later Motown Vault release entitled “Looking Back on Yesterday.” It is labeled as a Michael Jackson product (not J5) and was released in 1986 to capitalize on MJJ’s solo superstardom no doubt. This song set is also out of print.
Forty years later another former young group of Motown artists, Boyz II Men, would also cover “IWMTLH” for their 2007 Decca release “Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA.” An d why not — this song is classic Motown!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Now it is time to vote for your song preference while you listen to the San Remo Golden Strings performance of “I Was Made To Love Her” to help you decide who’s lead you prefer, Stevie’s or Mike’s.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen] I remember playing this Gordy 45 rpm over and over and over again on my grey and white record player. In fact I still have the record! The day I first heard it was the day that I purchased the “Get Ready” Single, the last song Smokey Robinson [...]
[Audio clip: view full post to listen] #3 R&B, #18 Pop Composed by The Miracles’ members Warren “Pete” Moore and Smokey Robinson, “It’s Growing” comes from The Temptations’ second Motown LP — “The Temptations Sing Smokey.” This LP topped the R&B charts at #1 and was #35 on the Pop LP charts. [Audio clip: view [...]
[Audio clip: view full post to listen] #1 R&B, #8 Pop This chart topper, co-written by producer Norman Whitfield, Eddie Holland and The Temptations guitar player Cornelius Grant, was another hit from the fabulous “Gettin’ Ready” Album. Not too much I can say about this song that hasn’t already been said except this is Classic [...]
Even though I am a huge Eddie Kendricks fan, “Get Ready” is not high on my list of Kendricks’ led Temptations songs. I think this is because the song has been so over- used (IMHO) when it comes to Motown references over these past decades. But this song is a perfect way to kick off [...]
.”
