Customer Reviews
The First of a Legengary Series - By: David R. Bishop, 08 Jun 2008 
A couple of decades before the 'Now' series started, even years before all those 'K-Tel' & 'Ronco' albums, Tamla Motownin Britain were trotting out their finest on compilations.
This one releasedin autumn 1967, catalogues the patchy but growing popularity of the Motown soundin Britainin 1966/7. It may have seemed folly to put so many hits on one album, but they were looking to raise their profile & to consolidate on their recent successes.
Let me take it back a little further. Tamla Motown's first albumin Britain, releasedin spring 1965 was '16 Big Hits'. That series continued for the rest of the 60s, reaching Volume 8. They continuedin conjunction with the Chartbusters, featuring betwixt & between hits, & songs that did not make the British charts. I have a couple on vinyl, & would love to see the lot out on CD, just for nostalgia.
Speaking of nostalgia, I have every track of this one on other albums, but I had to buy it, for old times sake. It reminds me of when I just had a few albums, & knew every note & word of them.
My favorite track is Martha Reeves & The Vandellas' 'Ready For Love'. It's like a toughened up adult version of The Supremes 'You Can't Hurry Love'. That one was released first, but I believe 'Ready For Love' was recorded first. That riff has been borrowed by Hall & Oates & The Jam, to name but two.
My least favorite track here is 'The Happening' from The Supremes. To me it marks the low point of their twee novelty excesses. I heard it on the radio the other day, & found myself singing along, so what can I tell you? When I hear any of these songs on the radio, I hear the next one beginin my head when it ends.
Many of us moved on to different, deeper styles of soul music, while others switched to various styles of music, but so many of us started out with this music. We saved our pocket money to by the latest volume of Chartbusters. This was the first, & one of the best.
Volume 1 of 12 looks at 1966 and 1967 - By: Peter Durward Harris, 14 Mar 2005 This series of Motown recordings isin approximate chronological order but only beginsin 1966. This means that some notable early UK hits are missing from the series including hits by the Supremes (Where did our love go, Stopin the name of love, You can't hurry love) & the Four tops (It's the same old song, Loving you is sweeter than ever, Reach out I'll be there) as well as tracks by the Temptations, Stevie Wonder & others - & that's not counting all the great Motown songs from the early sixties that were big hitsin America but didn't chartin Britain. Some early classics such as Baby love, Dancingin the street & My guy, all of which first made the UK chartsin 1964, re-entered the UK charts later & are includedin the volumes covering their time of re-entry. A few other big hits are also missing, notably a couple of other Four Tops tracks that made the UK top ten (Bernadette, Walk away Renee). So you cannot build a definitive collection of Motown's UK hits by collecting this series, but it is still a fine series (especially at the price) & the omitted tracks are easy to find elsewhere.
On this volume, you get plenty of famous songs including three Supremes tracks (You keep me hanging on, The happening, Love is here & now you're gone) & other classics by the Four Tops (Standingin the shadows of love, Seven room of gloom), Stevie Wonder (Blowingin the wind, I was made to love her), Martha Reeves & the Vandellas (I'm ready for love, Jimmy Mack), Jimmy Ruffin (What becomes of the broken hearted, Gonna give her all the love I've got), the Temptations (I know I'm losing you), the Marvelettes (When you're young &in love) & others. A look at the charts shows that many of these classics weren't such big hitsin the UK charts as you might expect, but Brits were slow to appreciate Motown.
This is a great compilation of some of Motown's classic songs from 1966 & 1967.
