Complete Motown Singles 10: 1970 [Box set]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 12, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 6
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Hip-O Select
• ASIN: B001CI8T6G
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,399 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is it 1970 already ?, August 18, 2008

By 

Jim Z "music aficionado" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Complete Motown Singles 10: 1970 (Audio CD)

If you have been reading the reviews , you know what the series is about. The (nearly) "Complete Motown Singles" from the Detroit era 1959-1972. A very few songs had to be left off due to licensing in the series. But what you do have with the fresh , new decade starting year of 1970 is 144 songs on 6 discs clocking in at 7 hours , 33 minutes , and 3 seconds. Marvin , Smokey , The Marvelettes , The Temptations , The Jackson Five , Diana Ross without the Supremes , the Supremes without Diana Ross , Rare Earth ...and "War ! What is it good for ? Absolutely nuthin' (say it again y'all).....I am going to be so depressed when this unbelievable series comes to a close next year. Total series to date : 1,398 songs on 55 discs at over 64 hours....BUY THEM ALL NOW !!!!!!!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WARNING ABOUT SERIES AVAILABILITY, January 31, 2009

By 

Tome Raider (California, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete Motown Singles 10: 1970 (Audio CD)

This entire series is amazing. I believe it will be completed at the publication of the 12th volume, and each volume has 5 or 6 discs. I am up to Volume 9, and I can't really say there has yet been a single weak song. And I have now discovered so many awesome Motown songs I had never even heard before! This truly is a treasure trove. Yes, some songs are better than others, but all the music from this amazing dozen-year Motown era is great. The British Invasion may have brought over the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and many others, but our American Motown is of equal or better historic significance. This music is just so consistently CLASSY it defies words. Elegance just pours out from each disc here, it is unprecedented and will never be equaled in the future.

I've been surprised to learn that there are styles of music other than soul on the Motown label. There is some very good country music as well. These discs also have a smattering of interviews and some other holiday-type nonsense which are very fun to hear and which puts the entire era in context.

The packaging for the entire series is the best I've ever seen. It is a little hard to hold the book open so you can pull out or put in the discs, but this is a minor struggle and it is well worth it. The discs are held tightly in place and are well protected, and the historical information about any particular song is readily accessible. The 45 disc which slots into the front cover is really an innovative and clever flourish, and it gives the volume's book a really nice upgrade.

Okay, here is the bummer, and it is a major one. If you are like me, you are going to want the entire series if you buy even a single volume. You will buy the first volume and you will immediately realize that it is a worthwhile investment to obtain the entire series. And who really wants to own only part of a series of anything? The cost of even one volume here is enough that you'll probably want the entire collection. Well, as I write this, in January of 2009, volume 6 is no longer available. Gone. Completely gone, except for some guy trying to sell copies for $2000 as an Amazon-affiliated seller. As good as this music is, I'm not going to spend $2000 on a single volume. Yes, I've searched eBay relentlessly for months, with no luck at all. Yes, I've searched the virtual catacombs of international online sellers, with no luck at all.

So, I'm already over a thousand bucks into this series and yet my collection is missing one of the best volumes (it covers 1966 when a lot of the talent was at their crescendos). I've twice emailed Hip-O Select Records, the publisher, and not heard a word back. I've called their customer service, and they were clueless and indifferent. The girl who answered the phone for them did not know a thing about the series. Basically what has happened, by proclaiming this as a "Limited Edition," is that they have created an inducement for various opportunistic sellers to hoard the best volumes and then to gouge Motown fans later when the inventory held by legitimate sellers is gone. They then jack the price up into the stratosphere.

So, one can only hope that Hip-O Select does another run of these amazing Motown volumes. If you are a Motown fan, you will be astonished when you hear all the incredible treasures which this series contains.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new decade, and Motown's still churning out the hits!!, February 28, 2009

By 

whatever_gong82 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 10: 1970 (MP3 Download)

What I find fascinating about this particular year is that everything good/bad/indifferent in the 1960s finally got to be expressed by Motown in 1968 and 1969. However, one thing wasn't: The Vietnam War. It looks like that the main reason the War wasn't touched on was that Berry Gordy wanted to not alienate his atypical Motown buyer, which was a wise business move.

However, as it became clear that Mainstream America detested that War, Gordy allowed anti-war music to be releaed by his various labels. One song that people don't know of is one that Martha and The Vandellas did called "I Should Be Proud" also became the first explicitly anti-war song Motown Records ever did (and was pulled from radio stations as a result, probably because it mentioned the then current Vietnam conflict by name). Later on though, the Edwin Starr "War" and Stevie Wonder's "Heaven Help Us All" were released to wide acclaim, and since radio stations didn't pull them, they ended up being classic songs that are still listened to today.

Other popular songs, such as "You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You?)", "The Tears Of A Clown", "It's A Shame", and so on, show that 1970 started off for Motown the same way 1969 did: with that R&B company from Detroit making hit after hit.

As we all know, the end of the Detroit run was about 2 years into the future, and I hope that Universal will release all the singles that Berry Gordy & Company were cranking out back then. They'll be worth it!!