Jimmy Ruffin - Motown's Greatest Hits [Import]

Jimmy Ruffin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 6, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal Import
• ASIN: B000026OG0
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #331,564 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted

2. Baby I've Got It

3. I've Passed This Way Before

4. Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got

5. World So Wide Nowhere To Hide (From Your Heart)

6. Don't You Miss Me A Little Bit Baby

7. Everybody Needs Love

8. It's Wonderful (To Be Loved By You)

9. Gonna Keep On Tryin Till I Win Your Love

10. This Guy's In Love With You

11. Farewell Is A Lonely Sound

12. Stand By Me - David Ruffin

13. As Long As There Is L-O-V-E, Love

14. Sad And Lonesome Feeling

15. I'll Say Forever My Love

16. Don't Let Him Take Your Love From Me

17. Maria (You Were The Only One)

18. Living In A World I Created For Myself

19. Let's Say Goodbye Tomorrow

20. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother - David Ruffin

Editorial Reviews

Excellent compilation from Jimmy Ruffin, the older brother of The Temptations' original lead singer David. He scored numerous hits for Berry Gordy's Soul label, a Motown subsidiary, including the wonderful 'What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted' which became his signature song. This collection features 20 of his best-loved performances including the aforementioned hit as well as 'I've Passed This Way Before', 'Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got' plus two tracks recorded with brother David as The Ruffin Brothers ('Stand By Me' and 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'). Motown.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than just What becomes of the broken hearted, April 19, 2003

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jimmy Ruffin - Motown's Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

Jimmy Ruffin's brother David was a member of the Temptations, so talent was obviously in the blood. However, Jimmy was somewhat fortunate to hit big with What becomes of the broken hearted. Diana Ross and the Supremes had recorded it and their version was intended for release as a single. Jimmy heard their version soon after it was recorded and begged Motown to let him record it, and to hold the Supremes version until they heard his. The rest is history. The original Supremes version, which is excellent and would have been a huge hit for them, appeared on one of their albums, but Jimmy's version, which is even better, was released as a single and became a huge hit in Britain, America and elsewhere.

The Supremes could afford to lose the competition for What becomes of the broken hearted, but it turned out to be the biggest hit Jimmy ever had. Jimmy had a few minor hits in America but was more successful in Britain where I'll say forever my love and It's wonderful proved that he was more than a one-hit wonder.

All those hits are to be found here, together with many other great songs that Jimmy recorded for Motown. These include covers of Stand by me, on which his brother David joins Jimmy, and This guy's in love with you.

Jimmy Ruffin was not Motown's most important singer, but he recorded some great music and this is the most comprehensive collection available. More recent collections have been re-mastered with better sound quality, but the sound here is plenty good enough and a lot of these tracks are not available on any other CD.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All the Motown hits, anyway, February 9, 2002

By 

Zub "Zubenelgenubi" (Forks Twp., PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jimmy Ruffin - Motown's Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

This U.K. Motown-issue CD collection is the first Jimmy Ruffin to contain ALL his top-100 pop hits from his Soul label days. Considering he had (only) seven, it's odd that none of the other JR compilations include them all. The recently released domestic Millennium Collection neglected his last Soul label charter, "Maria (You Were The Only One)". The much darker tone of this tune, considerably different most of his earlier sides, may have been the reason for its neglect. The Spectrum import, although containing 18 tracks, leaves off two of his hits. From the standpoint of completeness along with the most number of tracks then, this is the best choice.

Sound quality-wise however, the Millennium collection would take an edge. The sound quality on this piece is pretty good overall but there is notable distortion in the beginning parts of track three and substantial sandiness on track 16. Another distinction here is that all tracks except two are the stereo versions, unlike the Millennium CD. The major fault in all these collections is the omission of Ruffin's 1980 top-10 hit, "Hold On To My Love" achieved after having left Motown. At least this piece admits this limitation in that it titles itself as his Motown hits. Considering that song was done on RSO and all these labels are now under Universal's music belt, it should not have been an obstacle to include that track in this collection.

The liner notes here are limited to a listing of the included tracks and again, the Millenium CD is a bit better in that respect. While "hits" make up only seven of the twenty tracks here, many of these sides are well-constructed tunes, most with a single-issue quality making the disc enjoyable for Ruffin fans all the way through. Although pricier, this CD has nearly twice as many tracks and overall would get the edge over the Millennium piece unless one is satisfied with the much more abbreviated repertoire provided there.