Motown: The Classic Years [Original recording remastered]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 29, 2000)
• Original Release Date: August 29, 2000
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Utv Records
• ASIN: B00004WJHT
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,663 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #87 in Music > Pop > Oldies > Girl Groups

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Money (That's What I Want)

2. Shop Around

3. Please Mr. Postman

4. Do You Love Me

5. You Beat Me to the Punch

6. Fingertips, Pt. 2 [Live]

7. (Love Is Like A) Heat Wave

8. My Guy

9. Where Did Our Love Go

10. Dancing in the Street

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. You Can't Hurry Love

2. Reach Out (I'll Be There)

3. Jimmy Mack

4. Your Precious Love

5. I Heard It Through the Grapevine

6. I Heard It Through the Grapevine

7. My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)

8. I Can't Get Next to You

9. I Want You Back

10. Someday We'll Be Together

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Motor City Soul Bonanza, October 18, 2000

By 

Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Motown: The Classic Years (Audio CD)

Berry Gordy Jr. and Motown changed the face of the pop music landscape. And over the course of the 40 tracks on this two-disc set (1960-73) you can hear for yourself the impact his stable of artists had. It's worth noting that the Beatles' Capitol debut contained no fewer than three Motown songs, two of which ("Money" and "Please Mr. Postman") are included here.

The only problem with a Motown anthology is that for every great song you include, there are a dozen that had to be left off. Essentially what this set amounts to is a condensed version of 1992's Hitsville USA box set. Only nine of these songs did not appear on the Hitsville Box: "Where Did Our Love Go," "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "Someday We'll Be Together" by the Supremes, "I Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops, "Going to a Go-Go" by the Miracles, "Your Precious Love" by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, "I Heard Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye, "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" by the Temptations and "Neither One of Us" by Gladys Knight & The Pips. [The last two were on Hitsville, vol. 2.]

This is a terrific collection of songs and if you don't already have these in your music library, this is a great way to add these classic Motown tracks to your collection. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Classic Years" Sound of Young America for New Millenium, February 7, 2001

By 

Anthony G Pizza "trivialtony" (FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Motown: The Classic Years (Audio CD)

After the plethora of box sets, one and 2CD artist anthologies, movie soundtracks and TV compilations (not to mention the original artist albums and "16 Greatest Hits" compilations from the 1960s), you had to wonder if any other (let alone correct) way existed to compile Motown's fundamental song/textbook of popular music.

The 2CD set "The Classic Years," from the Universal Music TV department that provided a series of bestselling "Pure" CD reissues ("Pure Ella," "Pure 80s," "Pure Tenors") , represents the most successful attempt yet to capture priceless Motown magic in an affordable bottle. Of course too many songs are missing; even the casual music fan will miss seminal tracks like "Love Child," "Get Ready," "I Second That Emotion," and dozens of others. Meanwhile, "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" and "Someday We'll Be Together, " (the Temptations and Supremes last #1 hits, respectively) are weightier productions than actual songs, best left off the next anthology.

Credit goes to Harry Wenger's liner notes, which do not yet again attempt to chart the road in and out of "Hitsville USA" or contemporize it (a fault of Nelson George's essay in 1998's "Motown 40 Forever" ). Instead, you get interesting background stories and ironic commentary within songs. For example, the notes on Gladys Knight and Marvin Gaye's respective versions of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" bridge their drastically different, magnificent renditions. The annotation on David Ruffin's still-powerful solo hit "My Whole World Ended" (a rarity on compilations like this) point out that the song originally was for his former group, the Temptations.

But these 40 songs, covering 1962-71 (considered the "classic years," when the label was headquartered in Detroit), form as good (and good-sounding, thanks to Suha Gur's exceptional remastering) a time capsule of a music and era as we may get in the still-new millenium. No Motown collection (or pop music collection) is complete without "My Girl," "I Can't Help Myself," "I Want You Back," "Do You Love Me," and almost all the other songs here. This is a value-added, intelligent way to acquire them, and "The Classic Years" delightfully introduces "The Sound of Young America" to yet another generation.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Low Quality, April 25, 2003

By 

Pat Longen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Motown: The Classic Years (Audio CD)

This is a great list of songs that is destroyed by the sound quality of reproduction. I had to turn the treble all the way down to be to listen to it. It sounds like they recorded it from a little transitor radio from the 50's.