Complete Motown Singles 3: 1963 [Box set]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 26, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 5
• 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: B000BPC7DM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,327 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

By 1963, Berry Gordy and company were fine-tuning Motown's sound. Jumping on the charts were Martha & The Vandellas, with "Come And Get These Memories" and "Heat Wave," signaling the emergence of the writing/production team Holland-Dozier-Holland. "Little" Stevie Wonder was No.1 with the record-breaking "Fingertips (Part 2)." Mary Wells' "You Lost The Sweetest Boy" and "What's Easy For Two Is So Hard For One" turned out to be a double-sided hit. The Supremes made their Top 40 chart debut. This five-CD set captures the hits and the misses during the label's fifth year of existence. It features the A-side and B-side of every single released by Motown and its subsidiaries during the high-growth phase of Detroit's entertainment juggernaut. Over the course of the set's 119 tracks, you can hear The Chuck-A-Lucks and Jack Haney & "Nikiter" Armstrong with a couple of Cold War novelties, Martha & The Vandellas following one hit natural disaster "Heat Wave" with another "Quicksand", and an outstanding H-D-H production The Marvelettes' "Locking Up My Heart" that should have been a much bigger hit than it was. Leaving the fold were the Workshop Jazz, Divinity and Miracle labels; new to the company was the V.I.P. imprint. The set is bound in a scaled-down 78-rpm-era "album," with cardboard sleeves to hold each of the discs, and 92 pages of rare photos, detailed annotations and liner notes. It also features a reproduction 45-rpm single from its era; in this case, it's Martha & The Vandellas' "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave" b/w "A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knockin' Every Day)." Martha Reeves contributes an essay to the set detailing the artist's-eye-view of life in the label's early years. Also included is an historical overview by author and scholar Craig Werner, and, as in previous volumes, copious track-by-track annotations researched by noted authors and discographers Bill Dahl and Keith Hughes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 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
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Motown Singles 3: 1963 (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 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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Third one now : 1963, November 7, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: Complete Motown Singles 3: 1963 (Audio CD)

Holy Toledo ! Holy Motown !!! 1963- 5 discs , 119 songs , 5 hours , 26 minutes , 55 seconds. You probably already have the other two. You know what you're gonna get. Gem after gem. I challenge anyone to be able to NOT listen to any of these complete sets straight through. Makes a great evening! Volume 4 , 1964 anyone ?

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Holland Dozier Holland hit big!, September 9, 2008

By 

musiqluv (Oxnard. CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Motown Singles 3: 1963 (Audio CD)

This Vol. 3 box set features recording dates and interesting facts about tracks & artists (including other working song titles), single scheduled for released, and more. Here are some worth mentioning:

- Just when you thought you heard everything produced by Smokey, here's "Good Bye Cruel Love" and "Envious" by Linda Griner.

- "It Should Have Been Me" listed as the A-side, then later reissued as the B-side to "Love Me All the Way", is Norman Whitfield's 1st production.

- "Come and Get These Memories". Berry Gordy was quoted saying, "That's the Motown Sound...That's the sound I've been looking for!"

- "Oh Freddy", a Smokey composition for Connie Van Dyke.

- Lesser-known Holland & Dozier A-sides include "Pa I Need A Car", "What Goes Up Must Come Down", "Who Wouldn't Love A Man Like That" (remake), and "Forget About Me". But once "Heatwave" hit, the string of H-D-H hits came along for other Motown artists.

- The Marvelettes B-side titled "He Won't Be True (Little Girl Blue)" on this collection, but titled "Little Girl Blue" on their 1993 2-CD singles box set.

- "Too Hurt to Cry, Too Much in Love to Say Goodbye": Gladys of the Marvelettes, and the Andantes masqueraded as The Darnells.

- Patrice Holloway sings about the same person on "Stevie" and "(He Is) The Boy of My Dreams". Who is this Stevie-person?