Motown Series (Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Supremes) - reissues (Elemental Music/Motown)

Elemental Music continues its Motown Sound series of vinyl LP reissues, offering an education in essential ‘60s and ‘70s pop. Coinciding with its 60th anniversary, 1964’s Meet the Temptations is reissued as a high quality pressing of its original monophonic master. The album collects the quintet’s early singles and documents growth that culminated in its first major hit “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” The song features the unmistakable tenor of Eddie Kendricks, who also leads the fray on charting 1962 single “Dream Come True.” Melvin Franklin grounds doo-wop song “Paradise” with his subterranean bass vocal, allowing Kendricks’ unchained melody to soar overhead. Paul Williams leads the hand-clapping “Just Let Me Know” and soulful R&B crooner “Your Wonderful Love” with his gravel-etched baritone. All five Temps trade lead lines during the uptempo “Isn’t She Pretty.” Future Temptations producer (and writer of hits including “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”) Norman Whitfield co-writes the stroll “May I Have this Dance.” In addition to “The Way You Do the Things You Do” co-written by Smokey Robinson, the quintet also performs Robinson’s “Slow Down Heart” and “I Want a Love I Can See. “The Further You Look, the Less You See” finds Robinson and Whitfield collaborating on a captivating but less familiar track for the Temps. Meet the Temptations includes the group’s final work with Elbridge “Al” Bryant, who was sacked and replaced by eventual “My Girl” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” singer David Ruffin.

 
Love Child found Diana Ross and the Supremes navigating a major shift in 1968. It was the group’s fifteenth album and its first set of original material with no contributions from anyone on the winning Holland-Dozier-Holland team that had helmed the group’s greatest prior successes. Title track “Love Child” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late 1968, knocking the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” from the top spot. The intense song was about a young woman applying the brakes with her lover for fear of having a child out of wedlock. It was a far cry from the Supremes’ innocent 1964 single “Baby Love,” and the trepidation expressed was a reflection of some of Ross’ own challenges faced while growing up. “Keep an Eye” is the warning of an embittered woman whose lover is stolen by her best friend. The once-bitten, twice-shy “Does Your Mama Know About Me” is co-written by future stoner comic Tommy Chong. The Supremes’ take on Smokey Robinson’s “He’s My Sunny Boy” glides atop a bubbling bass groove with an effervescent arrangement that echoes Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing in the Grass.” “Some Things You Never Get Used To” was written by husband-and-wife team and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” authors Ashford & Simpson. With a driving beat, sparkling brass, and castanet percussion, the song rose to #30 on the Hot 100. The pair also provide “You Ain’t Livin’ Till You’re Lovin’,” which was a single for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell earlier in the same year as the Supremes version. Closing track “Can’t Shake It Loose” echoes Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” with an extra dose of swing.

 
Marvin Gaye’s 1968 LP In the Groove on the Tamla label would eventually be reissued under the name I Heard it Through the Grapevine after the surprise success of the album’s most popular single. This was Gaye’s eighth solo studio effort, and his first solo record following three duet projects with Tammi Terrell and Kim Weston. This reissue features the original title and cover artwork, which names five featured songs. The soon-to-be-immortalized “Grapevine” is relegated to the heading of “and others…” due to Motown head Berry Gordy’s reluctance to even include the Norman Whitfield-championed song at all. Although “Grapevine” became Motown’s best-selling single, Gaye’s ability to celebrate was dampened by his concern over Terrell’s deteriorating health. The album’s first single was the tough and soulful “You,” featuring a prime Funk Brothers soundtrack paired with Gaye’s muscular delivery and soaring falsetto. “Chained” is a hard-hitting soul single, which reached #32 on the Hot 100. Rendered as a pop cha-cha, Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s “Some Kind of Wonderful” is another highlight. Signaling strengths that would become more greatly exposed in the following years, Gaye placed two of his own compositions on In the Groove. These include the Gospel-infused funk rave-up “At Last (I Found a Love)” and the slow-strolling “Change What You Can.” Pleading soul shouter “It’s Love I Need” lays the blueprint for Daptone soul revivalists including Charles Bradley. Eddie Holland’s “Every Now and Then” recalls his Supremes smash “You Can’t Hurry Love.”