Customer Reviews

Chrome Collection

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I just received my Chrome in the mail and feel like I've died and gone to heaven. Oh yeah, all the goods are here, "It's a Shame," "Could it be I'm falling in Love," "One of a Kind (Love Affair)," "Mighty Love," "I'll Be Around," "Then Came You," and on and on and on. Plus there are plenty of fantastic non-hit album cuts such as "Toni My Love," and "He'll Never Love You Like I Do."

It's all here! The early Motown stuff, the late dance stuff including "Cupid" and "Working My Way Back to You," and thankfully the ENTIRE "Spinners" album from Atlantic, all 10 blockbusters including the aforementioned "One of a Kind," "I'll Be Around," "Could It Be ..." plus "Ghetto Child," and other gems.

Wow, Rhino did it right -- the whole nine yards and then some. The packaging is top notch, great photos and the box is very nice.

One of the highlights is the 60-page booklet, with some truly excellent writing featuring some interesting anecdotes even I, a Spinners fanatic, hadn't heard before. The notes about how Thom Bell produced the group are priceless.

Despite all the hits, The Spinners remain one of the most underrated groups of all time. They truly are one of the top groups ever and this collection proves this. If you like smooth grooves, tremendous singing, impeccable production (no drum machines here, it's the REAL stuff!), and just feel good music, the Chrome Collection is for you.

This is by far the best CD collection I've bought in years -- perhaps ever -- and I can't recommend it enough.

Rhino has done it again. It's another collection that sums up the life and times of The Spinners. Now don't get me wrong, their are many Spinners collections out there. None other than the 1991 anthology, A One Of A Kind Love Affair, which is a great overview of their career. Now, many people thought that the 2-disc anthology was the most comprehensive collection on the market, think again. The Chrome Collection is here. The first box set that gives the listener a better insight on The Spinners.

When I brought this box set, I got a little nervous because I knew this would give me more than what I was asking for. This collection starts at the year 1961, which starts out with the song "That's What Girl's Are Made For". This is maybe the only song I know that they made in the 1960's. I mean people including me love their 70's hits like "I'll Be Around" or "Sadie", but this gives you more songs just like other Rhino collections. Anyway, you also get the 1973 mix of "Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music which is great. This is the mix from the 1973 Motown issue, The Best Of The Spinners. Yeah, you get the well-known hits from 1970-1976. For example, "It's A Shame"-1970, "I'll Be Around"-1973, "Sadie"-1974, "Games People Play"-1975, and "The Rubberband Man-1976. I love listening to all of them, but this is where the problems start with some of the first-time listeners. The John Edwards Era starts on disc 3, you know when Philippe left the group. I just love this disc because I'm music collector, I love rare and unheard stuff. It starts at with "Heaven On Earth (So Fine)", which is my all-time favorite Spinners song. Let me tell you, I am getting real adjusted to Edwards' voice now, so I love their other 1970's hits with John Edwards, the new singer. It also has their 1979 hit, A Plain And Simple Love Song, which is my favorite also. Disc 3 gets a little involved with their latter hits like "Working My Way Back To You", "Cupid", and "Funny How Time Slips Away". So, this box set is for the serious collector but, it's the best Spinners collection out their now.

This 3-disc box set features a smart and detailed booklet, focusing on the Spinners and why they left the music scene in the 90's. It also has unseen and rare photographs and a selected discography. The discs and booklet is housed in a hardback digi-book, you know like hardback editions of regular books. Caution: the spine of the digi-book won't last for long. You can hear the cracked noise, but the spine and digipak doesn't break. It'll last for a lifetime. This box set is for the serious Spinners fan. For starters, buy The Very Best Of The Spinners.

This box is as smart as it as soulful. Practically the first words out of the booklet's mouth, so to speak, are there are plenty of Spinners compilations out there. If you're a Spinners fan, you know them and you own them. But own this too. It's worth it.

The story of the Spinners is practically tearful. Not in the usual "Behind The Music" sense (though Phillipe Wynne might deserve one posthumously), but in that here was one of the industry's great underutilized treasures, allowed to spin its wheels, so to speak, throughout the '60s while Motown tended to its established acts. The accompanying booklet, practically worth the price of admission, tracks the progress or lack thereof of the Spinners at Motown and how many fans among their peers--Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder--they collected along the way. With all that, they were given enough room for one hit, the glorious "It's A Shame," and it was off to another label, thankfully.

At Atlantic, the story of Thom Bell and the Spinners gets going, and the booklet again takes us to the studio to hear him work his magic. Bell and Linda Creed get their props in the box as does G.C. Cameron who was the sacrificial lead singer who made possible the Spinners' getaway to Atlantic.

I didn't think I could appreciate the Spinners anymore than I already did, but the Chrome Collection brought them home once more. It's curious to me that they're never quite mentioned in the pantheon of great soul groups, overshadowed at the time of their development by the Tempts and Tops, obscured in memory for some reason by the likes of the O'Jays and Earth, Wind & Fire. The box sets the record straight. This was THE group of its time, soul and pop. It doesn't really matter, but the group that gave the charts "I'll Be Around," "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love," "One of a Kind (Love Affair)" and "Ghetto Child" inside a year ought to be in the R&R Hall of Fame.

With twenty-nine top 100 pop chart entries spanning over twenty years, the Spinners have finally received a truly worthwhile box set treatment. Here is an outstanding CD collection of the group assembling three discs with 62 tracks in excellent sound quality overall, an extraordinary set of liner notes and discography, lots of pics and illustrations and populated with singles and album cuts with including all their hits... almost.

Therein lies the rub however, in that in Rhino's all-too-common extradinarily annoying practice of leaving off one, just one, charting single, the Spinners' second pop charting entry, "Love (I'm So Glad I Found You)" is absent. With three discs here, there is plenty of room for this one additional track and without it, unlike the claim within the set, this does not include ALL the hits. A very minor fault in the scheme of things here but nevertheless, especially for collectors, a seemingly unnecessary compilation misstep. To further split hairs but in the interest of absolute truth here, the version of "Sadie" here is a "new edit" and why it was felt necessary to stray from the original here is unclear.

Nitpicking aside, this remains the ultimate Spinners collection available and for the fan wanting a bit more than the usual greatest-hits skimming, this is a superbly constructed set and at this time, the best available, bar none.

I've always been one for giving credit where it's due...and in the case of THE SPINNERS, one person gets way TOO MUCH, and another doesn't get NEARLY ENOUGH.That person is the fantastic BOBBIE SMITH. BOBBIE has been the REAL LEAD SINGER OF THE SPINNERS FROM DAY ONE !!! He sang lead on the SPINNERS VERY FIRST HIT BACK IN 1961... ( That's What Girls Are Made For )...and also their first million seller ( "I'll Be Around" ). In between ,he lead virtually ALL of their PRE MOTOWN HITS ("Too Young, Too Much, Too Soon","What Did She Use " ,etc.)and such MOTOWN CLASSICS AS "TRULY YOURS" (my favorite SPINNERS song },"I'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU "(the group's second biggest Motown hit} ,"SWEET THING",AND TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE SUCH SWEET MUSIC "("IT'S A SHAME WAS LED BY G.C. CAMERON,who couldn't go with the group when they went to ATLANTIC,because he was still under contract to MOTOWN). And SMITH also led THEIR BIGGEST ATLANTIC HITS "COULD IT BE I'M FALLING IN LOVE " ,"GAMES PEOPLE PLAY ","MIGHTY LOVE",(a shared lead} and "THEN CAME YOU"...Yet , Bobbie get's VIRTUALLY NO CREDIT FOR HIS PART IN THE SPINNERS' SUCCESS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS..AND NEVER HAS !! In newspaper & magazine articles, music history books , even in ATLANTIC RECORDS own liner notes... all the credit goes to PHLLIP WALKER {aka PHILLIPPE WYNNE )!! Some music writers have even gone so far as to credit Phillippe for songs BOBBIE ACTUALLY SANG LEAD ON!! While I don't take anything away from Phillippe (he was a fantastic singer & dancer ), the REALITY is that his initial single with the SPINNERS, "HOW COULD I LET YOU GET AWAY"(which he sang lead on), ONLY REACHED #77 ON THE BILLBOARD pop chart! It was only after the nations' disc jockeys TURNED THE RECORD OVER TO IT'S FLIP SIDE,"I'LL BE AROUND" which BOBBIE SMITH sang lead on,, that the group had it's FIRST MILLION SELLER !! BOBBIE ALSO SANG LEAD ON THE GROUP'S SECOND MILLION SELLER, " COULD IT BE I'M FALLING IN LOVE ".By the time their 1st ATLANTIC ALBUM'S 3rd single , the WYNNE- lead "ONE OF A KIND LOVE AFFAIR" came out, (which also sold a million ),the two SMITH -LED SONGS had already established the SPINNERS as SUPERSTARS,and propelled the sales of that album to GOLD RECORD STATUS. The fact is that while PHILLIPE was hopping and skipping across the stage,driving audiences wild ,it was BOBBIE SMITH that was selling all the records,WYNNE having led on only one other million seller,the fun and funny novelty song "RUBBERBAND MAN "(Most of the WYNNE-led tunes were bigger on the R&B charts than on the POP. BOBBIE also sang lead (with DIONNE WARWICK}, on the million-selling # 1 smash,"THEN CAME YOU", and another million seller "GAMES PEOPLE PLAY".(Can you believe MOTOWN rejected his voice ? BIG MISTAKE !!) However , Wynne's powerful performance of "I COULD NEVER REPAY YOUR LOVE " was also a highlight of their INCREDIBLE FIRST ATLANTIC ALBUM,many radio stations having played the song right off the album.Sadly, Wynne's DAVID RUFFIN-LIKE attitude , demanding TOP BILLING, and causing turmoil within the group, and with their producer,THOM BELL,threatened to tear the SPINNERS apart. But the SPINNERS existed long before PHILLIPPE WYNNE,and they still exist today.....And,GUESS WHAT? BOBBIE SMITH is still their lead singer.It's time HE got the credit he deserves.

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once&for all this should put the Spinners amongest the elite Groups Ever with all that is offered here.Vocally you can put the Word Soul right next to there name.from Motown to the Philly SOund they truly thrived.there association to me with Thom Bell is like Michael Jackson with Quincy Jones in that never mind what they did before but once you get with the New you almost forget what happen before.the Spinners are finally showcased at there Best&reach a full zentih here.if you don't get but One Box Set all year then this is the one especially if you are a Huge R&B Fan or enjoy Rich Vocal Groups that truly brought the Pain.

music anthologies that's ever been compiled. When you talk about the Spinners you talk about longevity and a lotta hits. Practically everything you need to know about the sweet grooves these guys laid down is in this outstanding boxset. Actually, it's just occurred to me, that this is most likely the best box set I own, and for a music man like myself, that's speaks volumes. Anyway, I'm sure if I rack my brain, I'll come up with a Spinners song or two that was overlooked, but I tell ya, you know how you can get disappointed and frustrated with compilers when they attempt to showcase the best of an artist? Well you won't be frustrated with this one. I also want to mention, as was pointed out by a previous reviewer, Willgee I believe, that despite Phillippe Wynn doing all that "just a moving, just a moving, just a moo moo moving, rubberband, rubberbandman", and that "hey can I say, canna canna say lalalalalalalalalala baby---mighty love", (LOL) that the underrated, understated lead vocals of Bobbie Smith need to be recognized. Essential.

Great lookin box set with great music. Their are two problems i have with this collection. #1 It should have been four disc in this set,they have enough good materal do do it ,too many fillers.#2 Only two songs from the lp yesterday,today & tommrow (1977)Where is track 2 i found love when i found you and track 5 i must be living for a broken heart?.I know i said two things but there is on more.Where the hell is can,t shake this feeling?.I must say the booklet that comes with it was well done. And I do love the fact that in this collection you have some motown hits as well as the alantic hits.No it,s not perfect but close.I have an idea when ever a group or band wants to do a box set or greatest hit cd let us the people who buy the music pick the content. enjoy!

It's hard to find a bad Spinners' recording and this one lends more credability to that statement. From 1961's "That's What Girls Are Made For" to their Motown and VIP success through the Atlantic years, THE SPINNERS have always delivered first class effort.This Chrome Collection is a must for any SPINNERS' fan or any fan of the music of the 1970's.From "I'll Be Around" to "Cupid" this is THE SPINNERS at their best during the height of their incredible career.In 2009, they're still spinning!

What a great cd and every song is worth listening to over and over again. Alot of memories with every song on Disk 1 and 2. The Spinners were a power house of great hits. You would always see an excellent show with them performing their hits from the cd. I remember them in New Jersey at the Latin Casino what a great show and these songs I hear on the cd brings back the fun memories of seeing them. There is so Rare Spinners song on this cd also that are very good and I enjoy listening to them also.