Marvelettes: The Essential Collection [Karussell] [Import]

Marvelettes | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 6, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Polygram UK
• ASIN: B00004NJNI
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,665 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Just Can't Let Him Down

2. On The Other Side Of Town

3. Maybe I Dried My Tears For The Last Time

4. Because I Love Him

5. When I Need You

6. Reachin' For Something I Can't Have

7. When You're Young And In Love

8. Our Lips Just Seem To Rhyme Every Time

9. Caught You Puttin' The Game On Love

10. I Have Someone (Who Loves Me Too)

11. I Need Someone

12. Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead

13. Please Mr Postman

14. Sugar's Never Been As Sweet As You

15. The Boy From Crosstown

16. You Cheating Ways

17. Too Hurt To Cry Too Much In Love To Say Goodbye

18. Finders Keepers Losers Weepers

Editorial Reviews

UK 'Best Of', tracks include 'Please Mr Postman', 'When You're Young And In Love', 'I Just Can't Let Him Down', 'Reachin' For Something I Can't Have', 'The Boy From Crosstown' and many more. 18 tracks in all. 1999 release. Standard jewel case.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential Marvelettes, October 21, 2004

By 

Laurence Upton (Wilts, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marvelettes: The Essential Collection [Karussell] (Audio CD)

According to the spine of this CD and the disc itself, the title of this album is The Best Of The Marvelettes, whereas the front and back cover and insert booklet call it The Essential Collection - The Marvelettes.

Either way it is an 18-track retrospective which duplicates little from other Marvelettes collections (it inevitably recycles three of their best known pieces - When You're Young And In Love, Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead and Please Mr Postman - in their mono single mixes).

The opening track is a rip-roaring romp, I Just Can't Let Him Down, a Smokey Robinson production from 1964 featuring Gladys Horton. It sounds like a hit single of the time but is previously unreleased, one of six recordings making their debut here, all of which provoke the cry: why?, as there is no sense of barrel-scraping whatsoever. I would like to know why they were left in the can and who the lead singers are. Most date from 1964-1965 but Sugar's Never Been As Sweet As You is a William Weatherspoon/Jimmy Dean production from 1969, around the time of the In Full Bloom sessons.

Five of the other tracks come from out of print albums which are welcome since Motown has not yet favoured the Marvelettes with any re-releases in their excellent 2 Classic Albums 1 CD series. All the other rarities make a fascinating listen. Your Cheating Ways was tucked away on the B-side of Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead, while The Boy From Crosstown is another song that sounds like a classic hit, but seems to have been buried on a Motown compilation from 1966. Norman Whitfield had also produced the same song the year before with the Velvelettes but it was never released in their lifetime. Similarly, Finders Keepers Losers Weepers is a lost Holland-Dozier-Holland classic from 1964, which may not have been released at the time, though it did come out over here on the other side of a Kim Weston single as an anniversary edition in 1980.

Perhaps most interestingly of all another Holland-Dozier-Holland song, Too Hurt To Cry, Too Much In Love To Say Goodbye came out as a single under the pseudonym of the Darnells on the Gordy label in 1963. It is very much a pastiche of the Spector sound of the time, the arrangement sounding exactly like a copy of the Crystals.

The Marvelettes deserve to be as well remembered as Martha and the Vandellas and the Four Tops.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelettes reign Supreme, August 12, 2002

By 

"funnstuf" (Wheat Ridge, co USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marvelettes: The Essential Collection [Karussell] (Audio CD)

Purchased this CD while vacationing in Paris in April 2002. (Was excited to grab such a "rare" find...) Very suprised to see the amount of unreleased material included in this collection.
Enjoyed the entire album, with my two faves being "I Just Can't Let Him Down" (unreleased...featuring Gladys Horton on lead.) and "Our Lips Just Seem To Rhyme Everytime" (previously released....featuring Wanda Rogers on lead.) Great cross-section of music from their early years up to the end of the group. Buy it...you'll like it!!!!!!!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT MARVELETTES TRACKS UNRELEASED ON THIS CD, January 20, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Marvelettes: The Essential Collection [Karussell] (Audio CD)

I AM A HUGE MOTOWN FAN. I MUST SAY THE MARVELETTES ARE MY
FAVORITE AND THEY ARE MOTOWN'S MOST UNDRRATED GROUP. THE
SUPREMES WERE GREAT AND SO WERE ALL THE OTHER GROUPS. IN MY
OPINION THE MARVELETTES WERE THE GIRL GROUP OF ALL GIRL
GROUPS. THEIR SONGS WERE ABOUT INNOCENT RELATIONSHIPS. THIS
CD IS FULL OF GREAT UNRELEASED TRACKS. THE TWO LEAD SINGERS
GLADYS HORTON AND WANDA YOUNG EACH SING LEAD ON THE 18 TRACKS.
SOME OF THEIR HITS ARE ON THE CD BUT THE UNRELEASED SONGS
ARE A DREAM COME TRUE FOR ANY MARVELETTES FAN. THE SOUND QUALITY
IS EXCELLENT. IF YOU LIKE THE MARVELETTES YOU NEED TO BUY THIS
CD. IT IS FANTASTIC