Customer Reviews

Spellbound

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4 star:		(2)
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I cannot say enough about Hip O Select, the on line cd retail outfit that is putting out goo gobs of Motown and other music of the past. This little collection of never before released material by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas is a prime example of the care and fortitude that a first rate music compilation production should posess. Excellent 24 bit stereo remastering complete with somewhat detailed liner notes to go along with the outstanding musical performances. Too bad that they only press about 5000 at a time. I guess they are assuming that the public would never buy a million of these anyway. I am sure that real soul afficionados and Motown fans will appreciate these recordings. Go Hip O!

This 2-CD package is defintely for the true Martha Reeves and The Vandellas fans!!! It is packed with a lot of lost tunes, many of which were covered by other artists or were not given the "o.k." for Martha and The Vandellas to record by the Gordy hit team at Motown.

Martha sings her heart out and the harmony is strong and convincing. I always thought this group was superior to The Supremes (not taking anything away from Diana), but simply stated, Martha had a stronger and much more credible voice than Diana!

Some of the fun songs include: "I Can't Take It," "Coney Island", "Spellbound," "It's Your Wedding Day," "Back To School Promo," "CandyMan," "Operation Teamwork." Not a bad song on the album!
I have seen Martha and the Vandellas several times in New York City and had the pleasure of meeting her on several occasions. She is warm, friendly and really appreciates her fans.

Take a trip down memory lane and rediscover some of the hidden gems.This is a must have for any fan of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas!

Motown in no short supply of "Diva's" in the great musical sixties yet a number of them haven't received deserved acclaim and top of the heap Martha Reeves possesses a most extraordinary voice fulled with passion, pathos & fiery intensity making this magnificent "Lost & Found" collection more like "Essential Unsung Collection: Martha Reeves and the Vandellas" or "Anthology: Martha Reeves & the Vandellas" as we have no filler here...opening songs have early Motown Doo Wap charm but in no time Martha unleashes that great passion filled voice in "Coney Island" and up, up and away from then on...the lady can sing anything & background singers nicely frame her stunning & spellbinding vocals!~
"Spellbound" hook filled sound is classic Motown and amazing material this great took forty years to release making one wonder who dropped the ball keeping Martha Reeves & the Vandellas from a much deserved career of wider scope with all additional hit singles that would have happened...soulful passion abounds with "Too Far Gone To Save Myself" sounding like another Top Ten Hit and this pattern continues thoughout Disc One closing with a stellar performance of "For Once In My Life"...another title for this tremendous collection could be "Hitbound: Martha Reeves & the Vandellas" and what were they thinking keeping all these great sessions in the can?
"Looking In The Mirror" contains a passion filled great Martha Reeves performance opening Disc Two in grand soulful fashion & this gorgeous gem has that Martha Reeves & the Vandellas hit sound as does the engrossing "A Little Bit Of Heaven (On A Little Patch Of Earth)". Imagine writers and producers of these remarkable sessions must have been spaced out and disappointed with their great accomplishments left in the can for decades...more hit sounds with "Candy Man" a wildly soulful gem sounding Top Ten without a doubt as does the stirring "I'm Glad You Belong To Me". Martha Reeves does "It Must Be Him" rivalling hit version with her passionate vocal and memorable performance and not surprising this amazing singer went on to great solo lp's in the seventies like "Martha Reeves" an extraordinary masterwork produced by Richard Perry still sounding great to this day and the magnificent "For The Rest Of My Life" another "Lost & Found" classic gem filled with incredible performances in need of remastered released on Compact Disc.
"I Can't Erase The Way I Feel" another steamroller Motown Classic filled with unique tempo changes and stunning Reeves performance would have be another chart-topping Motown Classic. One great breathtaking song after another as songs like "I've Got To See You" & a stirring Aretha cooking cover "Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)" take it over the top. High energy make the exhuberant "Operation Teamwork" a winner while "Take It Off" is a soulful anthem with that classic opening bass line & "Full Speed Ahead" a wildly riveting high-octane cooker...soulful & magnificent Motown Classic gems sounding like blockbuster #1 hits!
"(If Love Invites Me)I'll Take A Raincheck" is a Motown Masterpiece sounding like another huge hit...arrangement and superb vocal have all elements of classic Motown at its finest...by now listening to all these extraordinary spellbinding songs reality & fantasy are blurred and this sublime collection is a must have for any lover of great singers and classic Motown from a Golden Era that sadly will never happen again.
Sophisicated "In A World Of My Own" has a unique pop sound while a fine definitive "Standing Ovation" intoxicating prompting use of repeat mode...hold on for a great musical ride as "Earthquake" shakes and quakes and would have raced to the top of the charts...sounding like a late sixties chart-topper, "Build Your Love On A Strong Foundation" has that urgent sound which translated in to a big hit as does the engrossing "Where Was I (When Love Came By)" featuring a soul-deep fabulous Martha vocal filled with yearning for love but regret for loss that few can convey in some three minutes. "There's Love In This World" is mesmerizing with a gospel-edged performance from Ms. Reeves that can give one chills and make the hair on your arm stand on edge...
"Let Me Fall In Love With You" & "Talking 'Bout Love" are Stevie Wonder gems sounding like sure-fire hits yet remained unreleased to now...shocking and Stevie was surely disappointed as these great tracks have "hit sound" written all over them!
Closing with a delicious funky jam that will make anyone jump up and dance, "Ain't My Stuff Good Enough" could be a huge hit today if released as a single...nothing on the radio today comes close!
Bravo to all of the amazing composers, incredibly talented musicians who clearly give their all, magnificent & legendary arrangers, wondrous background singers and the Legendary Martha Reeves who possesses one of the greatest voices from her generation and beyond...all involved can be very proud of this magical musical masterwork full of classic gems translates in to a peerless collection of spectacular performances to be savored and enjoyed over and over!

Here is a 2 CD set where almost all the selections are winners....and never released!! What was Berry Gordy trying to prove by shelving these priceless gems? In my opinion, at least two thirds of these song would have been top 20 hits if not top 10, especially "Spellbound', "Earthquake" and "I Can't Erase The Way I Feel". If you are a Martha Reeves fan, this 2CD set is an absolute MUST for your Motown collection.

This compilation is for everyone who wished that Martha and the Vandellas had recorded more albums. And as this disc show, they did record lots more material(The songs on this disc could have been released as four albums by the standards of the day), it just wasn't released. Happily we have it now.Everything is there: Martha's gritty voice, the great back-ups of the various Vandellas and above all that sixties Motown sound. Lots of songs may sound like something else, but that was the fashion of the day: record a hit and keep recording various imitations of it. These "imitations" pay homage to the Vandellas great sound and so many could have become hits on their own. There are so many winners on this disc I can't begin to single out one or two. If you loved the sounds of Martha and the Vandellas, this disc is for you. A great addition to any Motown collection.

I enjoyed this cd! It is a must have for all Vandellas fan! Martha really shows off her skills! I recommend this to anyone who is a motwn fan!

Motown's valuable Lost And Found series has been handed over to Hip-O-Select, who have expanded the format to double-CD sets, in this case featuring the ten-year tenure with the Gordy label of the fabulous Martha and the Vandellas (latterly Martha Reeves and the Vandellas). An unfortunate side-effect of this for UK customers is that the releases are somewhat harder to find, especially since Hip-O-Select seem not to export directly to here, and often pricey. They are, however, well worth tracking down.

The Motown vaults have been heavily plundered in recent years and it is now too well known that the quality of the hitherto unreleased material is unbelievably high to warrant expounding yet again. I would like to think there is another world at the edge of infinity where some of the material was released instead of Heatwave, Dancing In The Street or Jimmy Mack and enjoyed the same success. The standard is incredibly high on this set, with only the odd incomplete master (lacking overdubs) or trial run-through of a chestnut like Hold On I'm Coming or Since You've Been Gone sounding anything like throwaways. Recording dates are fully notated, the sleeve notes are helpful, and the timeline of albums for which titles may have been intended is helpful. Most of the tracks are mastered from mono mixes but there are eight stereo mixes across the two discs, including Earthquake, which had previously been released in the UK.

Time Changes Things kicks things off in high style, using the same backing track as the well known Supremes version, and is the earliest here, dating from 1962, followed by the Marvelettes' Someday, Someway. The early years pass by all too quickly with third album Dance Party having been finished with by track six, though seven tracks recorded or completed in 1965 appear not to have been intended for any album and include highlights such as Spellbound, I Got It Bad and I Can't Understand It. The Watch Out! sessions are represented by four songs, including Keep Stepping (Never Look Back)(a song which Carolyn Crawford also tried out and was finally heard on A Cellarful Of Motown Vol. 2) and You've Been On My Mind (a Shorty Long co-write which King Floyd later recorded), both excellent.

Most often the songs as well as the recordings were written off by the boffins at Quality Control, but there are exceptions. That's How Bad has Smokey Robinson returning to a song he'd first produced for Marv Johnson, whilst he later reworked You Neglect Me for the Miracles' Time Out album. Ivy Joe Hunter's song I Can't Help It (I Love You) featured on another Lost And Found in a version by Marvin Gaye, and was also recorded by the Isley Brothers, and there are several examples of a crossover of material between the Vandellas and the Four Tops.

There are no less than twelve recordings from the Ridin' High period sessions (which mark the name change to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas), and these straddle CD1 and CD2. They include their versions of For Once In My Life and Vikki Carr's 1967 hit It Must Be Him, both of which enter Shirley Bassey territory. Martha rises brilliantly to the vocal challenges, though I can't say either appeals to me, though plenty of the others rival those chosen for the album, and in the case of Sugar N' Spice frequently outshine them. Is There A Place In His Heart For Me? was later recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips and by the Supremes, but Martha's seems to be the original and its omission from the album seems bizarre.

The songs from the Natural Resources period include one called Standing Ovation. Could this have been the "missing" title song of Gladys Knight's album of that name? Earthquake still sounds like a hit to me and follows in the tradition of Martha's natural disaster titles. A couple of the tracks on Black Magic were produced by Stevie Wonder and a harmonica that sounds familiar also appears on some of the earlier tracks. I had regarded the Vandellas' seventies output as somewhat patchier than in their heyday, but hearing the selections on this second disc I now think they were ill served by the record label's track selection process. They were good at updating their sound, too, and the most recent recording, which closes the album, Ain't My Stuff Good Enough, is a good example of this, and ends the set on a high. The title seems apposite, as Martha and the Vandellas were left behind when Motown relocated to Los Angeles, and Martha Reeves embarked on a solo career with another label, but on the evidence presented here, her stuff was plenty good enough.