Motown Box [Box set, Original recording remastered]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 2, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 4
• Format: Box set, Original recording remastered
• 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: Motown
• ASIN: B000A0GPOK
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,057 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #98 in Music > R&B > Soul > Northern

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. The Miracles SHOP AROUND (hit version stereo mix)*

2. The Marvelettes- PLEASE MR. POSTMAN (extended stereo mix)*

3. The Contours- DO YOU LOVE ME (hit version stereo mix)*

4. Mary Wells- TWO LOVERS

5. The Miracles- YOU’VE REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME (extended stereo mix)

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Martha & The Vandellas- DANCING IN THE STREET

2. The Temptations- GET READY

3. Kim Weston- TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS (ROCK ME A LITTLE WHILE)

4. The Supremes- BACK IN MY ARMS AGAIN (extended stereo mix)*

5. The Miracles- GOING TO A GO-GO (extended stereo mix)*

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Martha & The Vandellas- NOWHERE TO RUN

2. The Temptations- SINCE I LOST MY BABY (first-time stereo mix)*

3. The Temptations- YOU’RE MY EVERYTHING

4. The Miracles- (COME ’ROUND HERE) I’M THE ONE YOU NEED

5. The Supremes- MY WORLD IS EMPTY WITHOUT YOU (extended stereo mix)

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. The Miracles- I’VE BEEN GOOD TO YOU (extended stereo mix)*

2. Stevie Wonder- PURPLE RAINDROPS (first-time stereo mix)*

3. Marvin Gaye- PRETTY LITTLE BABY (first-time stereo mix)*

4. The Supremes- LET ME GO THE RIGHT WAY

5. The Temptations- YOU’LL LOSE A PRECIOUS LOVE (extended stereo mix)*

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On one hand..amazing..on the other hand, frustrating, August 11, 2005

By 

B. Margolis (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Motown Box (Audio CD)

I had been eagerly awaiting this reissue, since I'm a stereo freak, and unlike some of the Top 40 purists, I love extra verses and elements that were recorded but not included at the time. But now that I've sampled the set, I have to admit that some of the remixes are mighty disappointing.

Sorry to say that Tom Moulton, the fellow who remixed many of the extended versions, buried the lead vocals on many of the remixes, and upset some of the most essential balances that the original recording demanded.

For example:
To my ears, both "Shop Around" and "Do You Love Me" sound like a DES remix. The vocals sound like they were dropped in the middle over the backing track mixdown. So the vocals don't sound like they belong to the same recording.

"Please Mr. Postman"'s drums are buried....not the crisp powerful drums on the original version. On "Shotgun", the vocals are also really buried down deep.

The Temptations' "Since I Lost My Baby" is a better example...it's first-time stereo mix sounds great to me.

Part of Martha & The Vandellas' "Jimmy Mack"'s original charm was how flat the recording was. The remixing introduced some echo and/or ambience that was never there.

It's great include added material edited out at the time (missing strings or added verses and longer endings), but the body of the songs have more echo than found on the original. (For example, Bob Irwin at Sundazed - another noted remix producer - certainly understands this and his remixes are much closer to the original sound than is found here.)

I'm disappointed that it was not possible to correct the distorted electric piano on Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", or the horrible disorted bass intro on The Marvelettes' "Don't Mess With Bill".

On the final disc, the two things that annoy me the most is that on The Temptations' amazing "You'll Lose A Previous Love", they mixed down Melvin Franklin's bass voice so far down that it's almost missing. That was one of the coolest things about the original stereo mix. (Let's not forget that the backing vocals on The Isley Bros' "This Old Heart Of Mine" is also nearly hidden...it too was my favorite part of that song.)

Finally, one of my all-time favorite Motown tracks, Brenda Holloway's "Just Look What You've Done" is really a mess. Both the drums, bass and lead vocals are in the middle and buried so far down that it's hard to believe that it got included. This is one of the prime Motown singles with the true shotgun beat, and by burying it, it makes this remix virtually unlistenable.

The majority of the boxset is fine, but I have to say that when remixing classics like these Motown hits, the remix producer has to be sooooooo very careful not to rewrite history and take some of the elements that makes these records great out of these remixes.

I would've headphoned each of these remixes before approving them and made the above corrections.

I am well aware that the original stereo mixes were tinny, sloppy and often faded short, but making some of these sound like a Bruce Springteen backing track is not the answer, either. (I'm not a fan of the current spread across the channel/live style of remixing....)

I'm happy to have this set, and highly recommend it too, but am also disappointed that many of these do not resemble how these tracks should've sounded after being remixed.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars questionable choices and a 34 minute rip-off, March 30, 2006

By 

Peter D. hirschl "choose wisely" (a distant star) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Motown Box (Audio CD)

with so many hits to choose from there is bound to be debate about what should be included in this set. there are some great works here, not my 1st choices, but as a 50 year old human i find myself reliving part of my childhood with each listening. the problem is with cd #4 which clocks in at 34 minutes which blows my mind. there are literally 1000s of hours of motown available and to fill a cd to less than 1/2 of it's capacity is a total rip-off. shame on you.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Set your control to "Stereo", November 24, 2005

By 

T. A. Shepherd "tas50l" (Lancaster, Ca. 93536) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Motown Box (Audio CD)

Ever since I heard the stereo version of The Supremes' "Nothing But Heartaches" in the Summer of Love from their Greatest Hits album (I had purchased "More Hits By The Supremes" in mono in the summer of '65) I wondered if their were any more stereo surprises because usually the stereo LP versions were so much shorter than the 45s. When they finally started mastering the single versions on countless of anthologies, I felt vindicated.

While collecting some of the individual artists albums (most recently The Millennium Collection by Kim Weston), I was greatly impressed with some of the full-length stereo versions, especially the duets with Marvin Gaye and "Helpless". Then, the latest anthologies by The Temptations and The Miracles with their many extended stereo mixes more than made my decade!

This latest collection of Motown re-mixes is remarkable because it shows our old favorites in a new setting. I understand the first reviewer's frustration in that some of the vocals or instrumentation is hard to hear (for instance, Joe Swift's "what key, what key?" question during the latter part of "Fingertips"). One has to come to grips with the fact that if the piano track is brought up, the reeds may not be so audible. The purpose of this set is not to bring the original product as we heard it on AM radio, but to present it in a different light. The constant cluck cluck cluck of the guitar in "Dancing In The Street", the banjo-like rhythm guitar in "Helpless" (heard on "The Best Of Kim Weston" and not here, unfortunately) and even things we've never heard like the alternate vocal of "I Hear A Symphony". The only waste of time on this set was "This Old Heart Of Mine", which was not an extended mix at all. The full length stereo version has always existed on the title album and on Rhino's "Isley Brothers' Story, Vol. 1. What is not credited as being an extended stereo mix is "Heaven Must Have Sent You" by The fabulous Elgins. I've never heard this version. The real surprises are "Reach Out, I'll Be There" and "The Tracks Of My Tears" which both flesh out to four minutes!

So, will these new stereo mixes ever take the place of the originals? Well, no, but they do justice to already great sounding records and it is nice to have multiple mixes of them.