Cellarful of Motown: Rarest Motown Grooves [Import]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 30, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: Polygram UK
• ASIN: B00005V1AY
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,540 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #96 in Music > R&B > Soul > Northern

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Baby A Go-Go - Barbara McNair

2. All Your Love - Brenda Holloway

3. He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' - Earl Van Dyke (AKA The Funk Brothers)

4. Danger, Heartbreak Dead Ahead - The Contours

5. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) (Alternative Mix) - Chris Clark

6. Baby Hit And Run (Alternative Version) - The Contours

7. How Can I - Brenda Holloway

8. I Like Everything About You - The Contours

9. All I Do Is Think About You - Tammi Terrell

10. Lucky Lucky Me - Jimmy Ruffin

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. My Sugar Baby - Frank Wilson

2. Here Are The Pieces Of My Broken Heart (Single Reference Mix) - Gladys Knight & The Pips

3. There's A Definite Change In You - The Temptations

4. Who You Gonna Run To - Brenda Holloway

5. (It's Easy To Fall In Love) With A Guy Like You - Martha & The Vandellas

6. The Touch Of Venus - Patrice Holloway

7. I Wish I Like You (As Much As I Love You) - Marvin Gaye

8. Trapped In A Love Affair - Brenda Holloway

9. I Know How To Love Her - Jimmy Ruffin

10. Riding High On Love - Jr. Walker & The All Stars

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great set of Motown rarities - Give us more please!, October 16, 2002

By 

James E. Bagley "Jim Bagley" (Sanatoga, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cellarful of Motown: Rarest Motown Grooves (Audio CD)

This forty-track, double-disc of rare Motown recorded between 1962 and 1970 is one of the year's most delightful sets. Issued first in England (where collecting rare Motown is an everyday obsession for many), the vast majority of these tracks were never commercially released. In addition, none were previously available on cd and all are remastered from the original tapes.

Upon my first listen, it sinks in just how underappreciated Brenda Holloway was at Motown. On each of her five tracks (the most allotted to any artist on this set) - such as the frantic "Trapped In A Love Affair" and the despondent "How Can I" - Holloway caresses even the most mundane lyrics into something special. It is incomprehensible that these recordings took over 35 years to get released (and even more perplexing that there are still a lot more unreleased Holloway tracks in the Motown vaults). Incidentally, her little sister Patrice Holloway finally gets a Motown track released with the enclosed enchanter "The Touch Of Venus."

With repeated listenings, it also becomes abundantly clear that most of these unearthed recordings are of an astonishingly high quality. Kim Weston's hypnotic plea "Don't Let Me Down" is easily among the best half-dozen recordings she made at Motown, while Jimmy Ruffin's soulful "On The Avenue" displays a vocal range far beyond what he utilized on his hits ("What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted," "I've Passed This Way Before"). Other gems include the scorching "I Like Everything About You" by the Dennis Edwards-led Contours, as well as a shelved Gladys Knight & the Pips single "Here Are The Pieces Of My Broken Heart" (recorded in 1966, almost a full year before their first released single) that presents Knight at her most tormented.

Near the end of the second disc, the quality drops off considerably with the Isley Brothers caught in an unmelodic "A Weakspot In My Heart," followed by some off-key vocals by the Lewis Sisters (their lasting legacy at Motown lies in their songwriting, not their singing) on "Don't Make Me Live Without Your Love," and a badly matched Yvonne Fair and Chuck Jackson (she sings him under the table) on the Marvin and Tammi castoff "It Must Be Love Baby." Fortunately, the always dependable Velvelettes end the collection on a high note with the bouncy company anthem "Ain't No Place Like Motown."

If your Motown collecting tastes are limited to the major artists, this collection isn't likely to tempt you (there is one track each from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and the Temptations, with nothing at all from the Supremes, Four Tops, and the Miracles). If you're like me, however, and get as much (if not more) enjoyment from artists like Holloway, Carolyn Crawford, the Monitors, and Velvelettes, then this is a set that you've gotta get! While you're at it, check out the British import Motown Big Hits And Hard To Find Classics Vol. 4 for more rare Motown magic.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only Motown Could Do It, June 15, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cellarful of Motown: Rarest Motown Grooves (Audio CD)

Well worth hunting down, this collection issued in Great Britain includes more than three dozen unreleased Motown gems, again illustating that the recording which went on day and night at Hitsville was turning out a massive amount of unique music, much more than could be marketed and a lot of which deserves still to be heard. When you consider it's not just hundreds of unreleased singles in the vaults but dozens and dozens of full albums no one has ever heard outside the Motown offices, the neglected history here is overwhelming. The "Cellarful" album, two beautifully packaged and annotated C.D.s, makes a good start toward getting this music out finally. What's startling is the quality. Virtually everything here is as strong as the music which WAS released. Some of it is remarkably clever. The Barbra McNair opener could just be the best record she made for Motown (the company didn't have a clue what to do with her, as was true with all its artists who came from the outside). But there's SO much more out there--Martha's "Coney Island," "In A World of My Own (Martha's Song);" The Marvelettes' "I'm So Glad That Summer's Here;" the entire "Supremes Sing and Perform the Disney Classics" album; Diana Ross' "Cupie Doll" and "In the Evening of Our Love"--great record after great record. As for already-released material, where is Mary Wilson's solo album augmented with all her leads for the Supremes?; why haven't the post-Diana Supremes' albums been rereleased (there are TONS of extra tracks in existence); where is Syreeta's unreleased album; and where is Diana's fabled Harold Arlen album? There's SO much gold in them thar vaults being unmined. Well, this is a great start, beautifully mastered and wonderfully packaged. If you want more like it, you've got to let Motown know by BUYING it in BIG numbers!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ain't No Place Like Motown!,, August 25, 2002

By 

John Pumilia (Southern Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cellarful of Motown: Rarest Motown Grooves (Audio CD)

A MUST BUY is "A Cellarful of Motown", a 2 CD set of 40 of the hottest dance-floor cuts from the classic Detroit era of this much-loved label.

Among my favorites are: Frank Wilson's infectious "My Sugar Baby" (which would have been a sure-fire hit if he had ever had a single released on the label), Chris Clark (getting her first ever official CD release of Frank Wilson's excellent "Do I Love You", which removed his vocals and replaced them with hers), Tammi Terrell's haunting original version of the Stevie Wonder composition "All I Do" (which Stevie recorded over a decade later on his "Hotter Than July" album), Martha & The Vandellas' catchy "(It's So Easy To Fall In Love) With A Guy Like You", Jr. Walker and the All Stars' joyous "Riding High On Love" (previously released only on vinyl, though), Kim Weston's smooth-as-silk "Don't Let Me Down", and The Velvelettes' spirited anthem "Ain't No Place Like Motown", a sentiment with which I heartily agree! "Baby A Go-Go"!

Why some of these gems weren't released when they were originally recorded will remain a mystery, but you're guaranteed to find a cellarful of your own favorites on this classy collection of cuts that sounds more like a greatest hits compilation than a couple of discs of previously unreleased tracks!