Customer Reviews

Motown Box

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I was going to buy this, but I was reading the reviews and I would have been LIVID. I grew up with this music and in MY opinion, I like the MONO sound better than the stereo mixes because sometimes they can ruin the sound. Like for instance. On the Temptations "Get Ready" cd. Did you notice that "Say You" is in MONO but the rest of the stuff is in stereo. And who ever mixed "Fading Away" killed it. They brought the violins up way too high during the instrumental part. I will have to admit, the stereo of "This old heart of mines" (on the album by the Isley Bros" is a much crisper cleaner sound than the MONO version. Man, i was going to buy this but the more reviews I read, the more i did not want it. So I'll stick to Motown's Ultimate Collection. Thank you all for your realness and honesty about this

This box makes great listening on its own, but if you directly compare it to the Hitsville USA box of mono masters, the differences are quite dramatic. The stereo sound is softer, smoother and more colorful, but the mono tracks have a punch and intensity that the stereo tracks only occasionally match. I don't think anything has been botched here- the stereo mixes (where unaltered) are very similar to my LP box of stereo Motown hits- it's simply the best their equipment could do back then. Some of the remixes appear to have been done with a genuine effort to match the organic power of the mono tracks, and the results are fascinating. But I'd say the Hitsville USA has it where it matters- it swings harder, is more authentic, and costs less. Get over mono-phobia- Hitsville USA is the mandatory purchase.

I had high hopes that we would finally have great sounding true stereo remixes of many mono-only or poorly mixed stereo Motown singles. But despite wonderful artwork and good packaging this box set is a huge disappointment.

Tom Moulton has done a lot of outstanding work in the past (Jamie Records' Kit Kats compilation). But despite many tracks now having extended endings, vocal workouts and different elements that are fascinating to die-hard fans, these new remixes lack the punch, detail, "guts" and especially the vocal/instrumental balances of the original single versions. These new remixes never attempt to sonically duplicate the EQ, compression or the wide stereo separation of the original mixes. Many tracks are mixed bone dry as a modern recording - and many elements (background vocals, strings) have been smothered with digital delay when they should have been mixed hard left, center or hard right for a classic sounding 60's stereo mix.

What made the Motown sound great wasn't just the great performers, songwriters and the Funk Brothers - the original Hitsville USA studios had custom made tube tape recorders, control boards, compressors/limiters, Hi-level EQ and REAL reverb chambers (not the cheap sounding digital reverb/delay these remixes use) that made those records jump out of speakers. Remove this processing and you lose a lot of what made these records so special.

The remix of "Jimmy Mack" is so punchless compared to the mono single version (where's the handclaps?), it almost sounds like a re-recorded K-tel version. The long awaited single mix of "My Girl" still has the string section mixed far too low.

This box is proof some classic recordings should be left alone and not tampered with until the right technology comes along.

Another big gripe is the 4th disc - why have only 12 tracks, when there was plenty of room to add hard to find classics like the Andantes "(It's Like a) Nightmare" and Frank Wilson - "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)". These tracks still haven't been reissued in the USA, only overseas in the UK. Many American Motown fans have NEVER heard these great tracks before, and its a shame such a highly promoted box set via PBS doesn't have them.

If you are learning about the Motown Sound, I heartily recommend getting the still-in-print "Hitsville U.S.A." box sets instead of this one. These boxes contain the definitive single mixes that Berry Gordy and his company wanted you to hear, and you should hear them first over the stereo mixes most oldies stations play. Those two box sets do a better job anthologizing the true "Sound Of Young America" than this one.

Many of the songs on the 2 previous boxed sets were the single "mono" versions. I am very excited that we not only now have the "LP album" stereo versions (that sounded more transparent and 3 dimensional in contrast to the 45 rpm versions). The single versions of these songs also faded out abruptly in many cases and now we will have more of the song to enjoy. I praise Motown for coming out with this amazing boxed set and at such a terrific price with the stereo versions. This was long overdue. THIS is easily now the definitive set for Motown fans of the album versions!

I have despaired for years at the proliferation of mono Motown CD re-issues when these days even the humblest CD/radio player has two built-in speakers and a stereo jack. Therefore I am delighted to see that this 72-track collection is one hundred per cent stereo. Furthermore, thirty of the tracks are brand new stereo mixes, a labour of love for Tom Moulton, who has really brought out the best in these songs and the Funk Brothers' unparalleled playing while retaining the feel of the mono originals. I especially relished those in previously unheard full-length mixes. Several of the previously released titles are still relatively hard to find, though of course this still leaves the set more attractive to newcomers to Motown, as long-term fans are likely to have most of the other 42 titles, even if not in such good sound and in stereo like these.
For me the most revelatory moment came with the full-length mix of The Tracks Of My Tears. You just haven't heard the song properly until you've heard this 3:58 version. It is quite extraordinary that after the massive success of the single, Motown left the full, glorious version in the vaults for 40 years, when they could have put it on the Going To A Go Go album or subsequent compilations.
In some cases these are the first time the well-known single versions of songs have been mixed into stereo, as previously available album versions may have had different vocals, overdubs or edits. Jimmy Mack, for example, first appeared at the end of 1966 on the stereo album Watch Out!, two and a half years after it was recorded, but was given a complete makeover before it became a hit single in 1967. The single version now appears in stereo for the first time and with an extra climactic 20 seconds or so before it fades. Unusually, since it was recorded as early as August 1961, there was a stereo version of Please Mr Postman available, but it was a different take with some lyric changes that differ from the single (as famously covered by the Beatles). Again, this is the proper single, but allowed to run on for a further 35 seconds. That has to be a good thing. It was great also to hear My Girl sidling up to My Guy, both in new full-length versions, and, perhaps controversially, My Girl now has a distortion-free bass line at the start.
The first three discs are in a broadly chronological order and are generally programmed in a satisfying way. The set begins with Shop Around, recorded in 1960 and great to hear in stereo, and ends with the more experimental Reflections, completed in May 1967. I enjoyed hearing the two versions of Grapevine side by side on disc three, by which time I had consistently been surprised and thrilled to experience afresh and anew so many familiar tunes.
The fourth disc of "B-Sides And Rare Stuff" was a disappointment only because at 34 minutes it was far too short, and because Love's Gone Bad, a great favourite of mine, is neither a B-side or rare, and appears unchanged. Good to hear Flo Ballard singing lead on Let Me Go The Right Way, from Meet The Supremes (surely due for a CD release?), and a rare Gladys Knight B-side. As the set almost exclusively features the better known names, I was pleased to hear a track by the Andantes. They were mostly used as additional session singers and appear uncredited on kerzillions of Motown releases but are rarely heard under their own name.
Everyone will have their own choices of personal favourites that should have been included but few could argue with the worth of those that actually made the tracklist, and finally an enterprise such as this which helps revitalize a priceless catalogue can only be encouraged.

Being the Motown fanatic as I am...and being raised in Detroit..I was a bit leary to purchase the Motown Box set...but I had watched the 2 hour special PBS special on TV and realized that there would be a twist to the collection...it contained (in many cases) longer versions of the original classics. They included longer endings and sometimes additional fill-ins in the middle of some of the recordings. Disc 4 is a rarities collection. Very nice...but I wish they had included more than 13 of these on this fourth disc.

All in all, it is a fabulous set...very clear sound...a classy booklet and a catchy outer package that makes it easy to handle.. FIVE STARS!>

As others have stated, these are not the original mono single mixes. Those are available in a different box set. This collection features stereo versions (many newly mixed expressly for this set) of many familiar (maybe overly familiar) classics. Yes, some of them can be jarring, because we're so accustomed to hearing them in that flat, "AM radio" kind of sound. Keeping in mind that those final mono mixdowns were the reason for the creation of the multitracks used to also create these stereo versions, it should be easy to appreciate that there were a lot of limitations in creating great-sounding stereo from them. But Tom Moulton did it. Are these meant to replace the original singles? No. Are these great on their own merits? Yes. I have both. I play both. I'm glad that both exist. The packaging on this is also really good. It would have gotten five stars except for the skimpy content on disc four.