Stevie Wonder - "Front Line"

 

In 1982, Stevie Wonder released a two-disc album of greatest hits titled Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I. (To date, there hasn't been an Original Musiquarium II, but I digress). On this album, he included four new tracks, all of which were also released as singles and became sizable hits.

I don't know if the four songs were specifically recorded for this compilation, they were leftover tracks from previous albums or if Wonder had originally penned them for a new album. Whatever the case, I wanted to take the four songs and see if I could find other stray tracks from the same period to create what could have been a new studio album for 1982 instead of a greatest hits package.

SIDE A

1. Front Line

2. Ribbon in the Sky

3. Stay Gold

4. What's That You're Doing?

SIDE B

1. That Girl

2. Front Line Revisited (instrumental)

3. Do I Do

Besides the four new tracks -- "Front Line," "Ribbon in the Sky," "That Girl" and "Do I Do," I also included "Stay Gold" from the soundtrack of the film "The Outsiders." Interestingly, when "The Outsiders" was rereleased several years later, director Francis Ford Coppola decided the score by his father Carmine (who co-wrote "Stay Gold") wasn't right for the film, and he changed the music. So moving the song to this album kind of saves it.

In addition, I included Wonder's collaboration with Paul McCartney, "What's That You're Doing?" It's actually not that uncommon for two singers to do a duet and then have the song appear on both of their respective solo albums (see "My Little Town" by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel). Plus, "What's That You're Doing?" always seems out of place on McCartney's Tug of War album, and I think it fits better here.

Finally, to fill out the album, I added the instrumental version of "Front Line" (found on the B-side of the single) to act as a coda before launching into the epic 10 1/2-minute "Do I Do" that concludes the album. Both sides end up clocking in at a little over 21 minutes.

I think overall this is a pretty good album with a nice musical variety and would have fit in well as a followup to Wonder's 1980 album Hotter Than July. Plus, the four tracks from Original Musiquarium I are allowed to better shine here.

I titled the album Front Line since I use two different versions of the song, and I repurposed the single's cover for the album cover after I did a little Photoshopping.

Listen to the YouTube playlist.

Marvin Gaye - "Marvin Gaye Sings Romantic Standards"

Between 1963 and 1973, Marvin Gaye released a solo studio album every year except 1967. Yes, there was a best-of collection and a duet album with Tammi Terrell released that year, but the lack of a solo studio album seems like an oddity given the Motown Machine's constant pumping out of material, especially for its biggest acts.

In fact, Gaye appears to have planned a 1967 album, even though one doesn't appear on the Tamla Records schedule for that year.

In 1965, Marvin Gaye released an album titled A Tribute to the Great Nat "King" Cole. The album didn't sell very well, and the following year Gaye's next album, In the Groove, was a return to tunes by Motown songwriters. Yet not only were there leftover tracks from the Nat "King" Cole tribute album, but Gaye had recorded a number of other standards and songs from musicals at that time that weren't released.

In early 1967, Gaye went into the studio and re-recorded his vocals on a dozen of the 1965 outtakes. It seems to me that there can only be one reason for doing so -- this was to be a new album. Why else go to the trouble?

SIDE A

1. She Needs Me 

2. Emily 

3. The Shadow of Your Smile 

4. Fly Me to the Moon (in Other Words) 

5. Maria

6. All the Way 

SIDE B

1. Funny (Not Much) 

2. More (Theme from “Mondo Cane”) 

3. This will Make You Laugh

4. Fanny

5. What’s New 

6. Where are You?

At least four of these songs had previously been recorded by Cole, and others had been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams and Bobby Darin.

Why work was done on these old songs when the Nat "King" Cole tribute album wasn't a big seller is a bit of a mystery. And it may have been the reason an album was never realized. Although 1967 did see the release of The Four Tops doing an album of Broadway musical tunes (Four Tops on Broadway) and there was a plan for The Supremes to release an album titled From Broadway to Hollywood (the plan was eventually scrapped). So in this light, a Gaye album of standards isn't surprising.

Without a track list, I just assembled the songs with six tunes on each side. All tracks can be found on Motown Unreleased 1967. For a cover, I used a photo of Gaye I found online and added titles and the Tamla logo.

The Supremes - "Sing Ballads and Blues"

The album The Supremes Sing Ballads and Blues was scheduled for release in September 1963. However, it was canceled and has never seen the light of day as it was originally intended. It would have been the group's second album if it had been released.

SIDE A
1. Come On, Boy
2. Mr. Blues
3. My Heart Can't Take It No More
4. Sunset
5. You Need Me
6. Tears in Vain

SIDE B
1. Tumbling Tumbleweeds
2. You Didn't Care
3. The Tears
4. Hey Baby
5. Heavenly Father
6. It Makes No Difference Now

There is debate on what tracks were supposed to be on this album, and in fact, there may not have been a finalized track list before it was canceled. The track list I offer here is conjecture based on what I've read on some fan sites.

While the album may not have been released, all the tracks are now available:

• The expanded version of the group's debut album, Meet the Supremes, includes "The Tears," "Hey Baby" and "Heavenly Father." 
• The expanded version of the album Where Did Our Love Go that was released in 2004 includes "Mr. Blues" and "Come On Boy."  
• On The Supremes Sing Country, Western and Pop, which was released in 1965, the tracks "My Heart Can't Take No More," "It Makes No Difference Now," "Sunset," "You Need Me," "You Didn't Care," "Tears in Vain" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" are included.

Believe it or not, over the years, at least eight Supremes albums were canceled for one reason or another. The "Motown Machine" could be an odd system with projects coming and going, artists signed and disappearing, and what seemed surefire hits collecting dust.

As for a cover, I found this on the Soulful Detroit message board and thought it looked perfect.

Barrett Strong - "Money and Other Big Hits"

The Tamla discography on the Both Sides Now website shows an unissued album, catalog number TM-226, titled Money and Other Big Hits by Barrett Strong. Strong's song "Money (That's What I Want)" was the first big hit on any of Motown's labels.

But Strong's subsequent singles on Tamla didn't come close to the success of "Money." In 1962, Strong left Motown/Tamla. In an apparent attempt to make one last cash-in on Strong's songs, Tamla scheduled the release of an album in either late 1961 or in 1962 that would compile all of his singles (a dozen songs in all) for the label. But for whatever reason, Tamla apparently had second thoughts and the album was never released.

SIDE A
1. Money (That's What I Want)
2. Let's Rock

3. You Got What It Takes

4. Do the Very Best You Can

5. Oh I Apologize

6. You Knows What To Do

SIDE B
1. Misery

2. Whirlwind

3. I'm Gonna Cry (If You Quit Me
4. Money and Me

5. Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

6. Yes, No, Maybe So

Since this is a compilation of all the A and B sides of his singles, there isn't much work involved. I tried to mix up the newer and older singles, and led off with "Money (That's What I Want)."

All these songs can be found on the compilation album Barrett Strong - The Complete Motown Collection.

After I arranged this track list, I discovered that there's a CD available as an import that recreates the Money and Other Big Hits album as well. I'm not sure if it's a bootleg or if it's licensed. It has the same songs, just in a different order.

For a cover, I took a photo of Strong I found on the web and fooled around in Photoshop until I came up with something I liked that I thought looked appropriate for an album in 1962. That's the original Tamla logo in the bottom right corner (in case you were wondering).

Strong would later return to Motown in the mid-1960s and co-wrote several big hits with Norman Whitfield.

Brenda Holloway - "Hurtin' and Cryin'" and "Spellbound"

Motown Records scheduled the second album of Brenda Holloway to be released in November 1965 on its Tamla label. Titled Hurtin' and Cryin', the album never materialized. This is the reported track listing:

SIDE A
1. When I'm Gone
2. Just Look What You've Done
3. You've Made Me So Very Happy
4. I Don't Want Nobody's Gonna Make Me Cry
5. Till Johnny Comes
6. Hurt a Little Every Day

SIDE B
1. Starting the Hurt All Over
2. You Can Cry on My Shoulder
3. A World Without You
4. I'll Be Alright
5. Everybody Knows
6. Make Him Come to You

There are a number of possible reasons the album was shelved. Her hits had been moderate, and the Motown forces were more focused on the acts that were making them money, specifically Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations and The Miracles. Also, Holloway was from L.A., one of the few non-Detroit-based acts on the label at the time. Perhaps most significantly, Holloway tended to rebel against the Motown machine, not going to its grooming school and often at odds with the material Motown was providing her.

Crazy enough, not only was the second album shelved, but two of the songs, "Just Look What You've Done" backed with "Starting to Hurt All Over" didn't see the light of day until released as a single 16 months later. And the Holloway-penned "You've Made Me So Very Happy" (later a big hit by Blood, Sweat and Tears) wasn't released as an A-side of a single until nearly two years after it was recorded.

All the tracks were eventually released in 2005 on Brenda Holloway: The Motown Anthology.

I found this album cover shown above online and simply added the Tamla logo.

SIDE A

1. I’m Giving Up

2. You Got a Little of Everything

3. Keep Me

4. What Good am I Without You?

5. The Lonely Heart and Lonely Eyes of Lonely Me

6. I Still Get Butterflies

7. Baby I’ve Got It

SIDE B

1. Spellbound

2. Whenever You Need Me

3. I Feel Your Love Growin’ on Me

4. Without Love You Lose a Good Feelin’

5. Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’?

6. Can’t Hold the Feeling Back

As if Holloway's tenure at Motown wasn't strange enough, even though some songs from the aborted 1965 album were eventually released as singles in 1967, there appears to have been an attempt to record another Holloway album in 1966. The compilation Motown Unreleased 1966 includes 13 songs recorded by her to build this potential third album.

As far as I know, no track list, album title, or album cover exists for this. So, I created my own or used what I could find on the Internet. In creating the track list, I tried to mix it up as best as possible. Most songs are dance-pop or ballads. Since we had an odd number of tracks, I put most of the longer tracks on the side with the fewest songs.

"What Good am I Without You?" had originally been titled "Talk Still Going On" and had been assigned to Tammi Terrell.

There was already a compilation album for Holloway titled Spellbound, so I simply took that cover and made a few changes to make it look more like an album from '66.

Holloway eventually recorded one more album for Tamla, The Artistry of Brenda Holloway, in 1968 before leaving the label for good.

The Underdogs - S/T

After three singles on Hideout Records in 1965 and 1966 that went nowhere, Detroit garage rockers The Underdogs probably thought they were finally going to break out in 1967 following the group's signing to Motown's V.I.P. imprint.

In January 1967, V.I.P. released their single "Love's Gone Bad" (b/w "Mojo Hanna"). The band recorded more tracks as well for what I assume was to be their debut album. However, according to the Both Sides Now website, V.I.P. Records only scheduled eight albums during its short life (and two of those were never released), and there's no mention of an Underdogs LP.

The band's newest single didn't sell any better than their previous ones, V.I.P. lost interest and the band faded away.

Then in 2016 and 2017 the collections Motown Unreleased 1966 and Motown Unreleased 1967 came out respectively and included a combined 12 Underdogs tracks. There's also one other track that can be found on the album Motown Sings Motown Treasures. Add the failed single and we've a nice 15-song album:

SIDE A

1. You Hit Me Where It Hurt Me
2. Come on Up
3. If You Don't Want My Love
4. Come See About Me
5. The Way You Do the Things You Do
6. One of These Days
7. Love's Gone Bad [extended version]

SIDE B
1. It's My Time
2. Mojo Hannah
3. I Want A Love I Can See
4. I Got A Feeling Baby
5. Bring It on Home To Me
6. Last Train to Clarksville
7. Need Your Lovin' (Want You Back)
8. Turn on Your Lovelight

This is an interesting collection, and it can be entertaining listening to a garage rock band perform Motown soul hits. A cover of the Supremes' "Come See About Me" doesn't stray far from the original. But "The Way You Do the Things You Do" is almost unrecognizable at the beginning, and the odd "na na na na" from "Land of a Thousand Dances" added in the middle is unexpected. I found an extended version of "Love's Gone Bad" online and included it here as a longer album version of the single.

I opened the second side with "It's My Time" as it seems like the obvious next single. It had actually been originally assigned to The Mynah Birds, but when Rick James was incarcerated and his band broke up, I guess the track was up for grabs.

The oddest choice is a cover of The Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville." Other than some fuzz guitar, it's basically the same song. Even more odd, according to notes on Motown Unreleased 1967, the song was originally assigned to the Isley Brothers.

I closed out the album with "Turn on Your Lovelight" as it gets the full Motown horn backup and it gives the album a grand conclusion. While most of these songs are enjoyable, there's nothing here that suggests to me that The Underdogs were anything other than standard '60s garage rock.

For a cover, I took one of the two or three band photos I could find, tinted it, and added the group name and VIP Records logo.

The Supremes -- "Promises Kept" and "Dreams"

When I decided to put together The Supremes' unreleased Promises Kept album, I didn't quite understand what I was getting myself into. It didn't take long for me to realize that Motown continues to sit on a crazy amount of unreleased songs. I'm not sure what the lack of motivation is, but it seems ridiculous. A true embarrassment of riches.

There were reportedly 19 songs recorded for the Promises Kept sessions. But there were also leftover tracks from a previous album, Right On, and stray tracks from a couple of compilations. In all, I came up with 24 songs, enough for two albums. (Actually, there are quite a few other tracks from 1970-71 that are either lost or collecting dust somewhere). 

Although Motown created a catalog number for Promises Kept, it apparently never produced a tracklist. So to create Promises Kept, I compiled my own, and I made a second album with the rest that I've titled Dreams.

Promises Kept
SIDE A

1. Oh My Poor Baby

2. I'll Let Him Know I Love Him

3. Chained to Yesterday

4. If I were Your Woman

5. I Ain’t Easy to Lose

6. The Day Will Come Between Sunday and Monday

SIDE B

1. Life Beats

2. It’s Too Late

3. Take a Look Inside

4. Eleanor Rigby

5. Can't Get You Out of My Mind

6. May His Love Shine Forever

In selecting the songs for Promises Kept, I think I took a unique approach: I chose only songs that had been co-written by women. The one exception is Lennon/McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby,” which of course is about a woman. The first side is dominated by the writing team of Gloria Jones and Pam Sawyer. “If I Were Your Woman” had already been recorded by Gladys Knight and The Pips. "The Day Will Come Between Sunday and Monday" had been originally scheduled for The Supremes’ Right On album, and ended up being the debut Motown single for Kiki Dee.

The second side kicks off with “Life Beats,” which had been scheduled to be an A-side of a Supremes single in 1970 but was pulled and removed from the Right On album as well. Besides “Eleanor Rigby,” this side includes another cover in Carole King’s “It’s Too Late.” The album ends on a spiritual note with “May His Love Shine Forever,” which was included on a 1971 Motown compilation Rock Gospel, The Key to the Kingdom.

For the Promises Kept album cover, I found the group photo online and added titles. 

Dreams

SIDE A

1. Walk with Me, Talk with Me, Darling

2. I Ain't Got the Love of the One I Love

3. Still Water (Love)

4. Take Your Dreams Back

5. Never Can Say Goodbye

6. Tears Left Over

SIDE B

1. Steppin’ on a Dream

2. All I Need

3. And I Thought You Loved Me

4. I Don't Want to Own You (I Just Want to Love You)

5. Make It with You

6. You've Got To Pay The Price

This Dreams album contains more cover tunes, including “Still Water (Love)” [Four Tops], “Never Can Say Goodbye” [Jackson 5], “Steppin’ on a Dream” [Jimmy and David Ruffin], “All I Need” [Temptations], “Make It with You” [Bread] and “You’ve Got to Pay the Price” [Gloria Taylor].

“Steppin’ on a Dream” was originally meant for The Supremes’ Right On album. “Still Water (Love)” is the only track on either of these albums to feature Mary Wilson on lead vocals rather than Jean Terrell. With two of the song titles including the word “dream” or “dreams” I decided to use that for the title.

For the Dreams album cover, I found this on the Soulful Detroit message board and just made some alterations.

The Mynah Birds -- EP

SIDE A

1. It's My Time

2. Go On and Cry

SIDE B

1. I Got You (In My Soul)

2. I'll Wait Forever

There may or may not be a whole Mynah Birds album locked up in the Motown vaults. According to the Motown discography, there was an album scheduled for release in 1969. But by this time, only one member from the original group that signed with the record label in 1966 was still there.

The group that initially signed with Motown's subsidiary label VIP included Rick James, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, Rick Mason and John Taylor. However, reportedly, after only recording four songs and right when the band's first single was to be released, word got out that James was a U.S. Army deserter and arrested. 

Motown pulled the single, and the other four members went their separate ways -- Young and Palmer traveled to L.A. and became members of Buffalo Springfield.

Eventually, after serving his jail time, James made it back to Motown and continued to record as the Mynah Birds with other musicians, but those tracks have yet to surface. 

However, the original four songs have been released on Motown compilation albums in recent years. What I've done here is simply make a self-titled EP of those tracks. UMe Records issued "It's My Time" and "Go On and Cry" as a 7-inch single in 2012 for Record Store Day (only 46 years after Motown pulled it). I took the record sleeve artwork for that and made some adjustments (removing excess verbiage and adding the VIP logo and song titles) to create the EP cover.

 "It's My Time" and "Go On and Cry" can be found on The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966; and "I Got You (In My Soul)" and "I'll Wait Forever" can be found on Motown Unreleased: 1966.

It would be great if someone would collect all the Mynah Birds tracks and issue them in one set.

Marvin Gaye's "You're the Man"

In 1972, Marvin Gaye appears to have been at a crossroads, not sure what direction to take next. He’d followed up his hugely successful What’s Going On? album with a soundtrack to Trouble Man.

At first, his focus was an album of socio-political songs, kicked off with the title track “You’re the Man.” However, when the title song didn’t become a crossover hit when released as a single, enthusiasm for a full album appears to have waned. Plus, Gaye seems to have been brimming with lots of different ideas.

In the book “Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye,” author Michael Eric Dyson writes, “As [Harry] Weinger sorted through the tapes vault, he was bewildered by the huge amount of material. It became clear that Marvin had many false starts and pursued a number of directions – and even another album – before settling on the songs that became Let’s Get It On.”

Indeed, besides tracks for the You’re the Man album, Gaye also recorded instrumentals, and songs written by Willie Hutch, and even began a Christmas album that Motown put on its schedule (only one holiday single was produced). There were also plans for a duet album with Diana Ross. 1972 was a busy year.

The result is that there are basically three partially created albums between Trouble Man and Let’s Get It On. My first attempt was to create You’re the Man with the six tracks that were known to have originally been planned for it and fill in the blanks with three instrumentals. But the more I looked into what had been recorded, I thought maybe there was something bigger and better possible. You can arrive at a surprisingly good double album if all the tracks are gathered and carefully assembled.

SIDE A

1. Running from Love, Part 1
2. I’m Going Home (Move)

3. You’re the Man (Parts 1 & 2)

4. I’m Gonna Give You Respect

SIDE B

1. This World is Rated X

2. Sad Tomorrows

3. Try It, You’ll Like It

4. Checking Out (Double Clutch)

5. We Can Make It Baby

SIDE C

1. Woman of the World

2. My Love is Growing

3. Cakes

4. You are That Special One

5. Mandota

SIDE D

1. Where are We Going?

2. Symphony

3. Running from Love, Part 2

4. Piece of Clay

I book-ended the album with the two parts of "Running from Love." The angrier-sounding version kicks off the album, and the moodier version ends it, with "Piece of Clay" as an epilogue. The social and political songs remain, along with more personal songs and one instrumental punctuating each of the four sides.

Gaye’s popularity was certainly strong enough to support a double album, and “Woman of the World” "Where Are We Going?" and “Piece of Clay” could have been strong contenders for singles. It seems to me to be a missed opportunity. One final thing – the inclusion of “Sad Tomorrows” is kind of a cheat. It was a non-album B-side to “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” from 1971. However, I needed one more song and it fit well, I think.

Most tracks are available on the extended versions of What's Going On? and Let's Get It On.

I can’t take any credit for the cool cover shown at the top – I found that on a blog and was impressed with how great it looks. I also made an attempt at a cover, using a similar photo from the "You're the Man" single sleeve, but as you can see below it didn't come out anywhere near as nice.

Here's the album via a YouTube playlist.