Customer Reviews

Ultimate Motown Collection

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Here's what this great, unearthed treasure includes:
Two complete albums/the released masters, HERE I AM (1966) and THE REAL BARBARA McNAIR (1969). A third "album" BARBARA SINGS SMOKEY (titled only for this collection) and another dozen plus songs/"album" MORE FROM THE VAULT (more like a description than a title).

Signed on to Motown as an MOR artist*, Ms. McNair sings with a lovely, clear voice and gives the material a wonderful mature approach. On the standards ("What Now My Love", "The Shadow of Your Smile"), contemporary songs ("You've Lost that Loving Feeling," "Message to Michael') and the Motown covers ("You Beat Me to The Punch," "More Love," "My World is Empty Without You"), Barbara McNair's versatility as a songstress is well showcased.

Most of the Motown covers are recorded with new arrangements and background vocals. They may be the same songs, but Barbara McNair does not sing them the same way. Although the "Motown Sound" is absent from some of the selections, high quality production can be heard from the first enjoyable track to the last.

*The liner notes are filled with interesting tidbits about Ms. McNair and Motown.
On the SMOKEY set, Mr. Robinson did the song writing on all tracks and the producing on only one. Frank Wilson and Richard Morris did the terrific producing on the rest of the numbers. In fact, the producers on these discs are the 'Who's Who' of Motown producing; Holland-Dozier-Holland, Ivy Jo Hunter, Hal Davis and Marc Gordon, William "Mickey" Stevenson, Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol.

Domestic Motown has sinfully neglected its own heritage in favor of issuing "Baby Love" yet one more time. Meanwhile, over the ocean, we get this incredible two-C.D. set revealing all sorts of hidden gems by Barbara McNair, including what appears to be music intended for a set of Smokey Robinson music. These are finished recordings, totally intriguing and some knockouts. Plus you get all her released Motown music, including the gorgeous "Steal Away Tonight.." Marvelous!

The music's great, the package lovingly put together. That's the good news!! The bad news is that the mastering so so dreadful and the sound quality so poor that it really detracts from the pleasure of hearing a set that clearly won't make Universal in the UK very rich. They deserve kudos for putting it out, but there are so many technical mistakes in the PQing alone, that a halfway decent plant would have caught these errors before going to press. I note that it was pressed at Disctronics in the UK; a more professional outfit like Vivendi's own plant or a Sonopress or Cinram would have sent this back just on technical reasons alone!!

In my hunt for rare and unreleased Motown, I was surprised to find they had recorded Barbara McNair. I was familiar with her movie and TV work in the 60's and early 70's and aware that she was also a nightclub performer. Considering that getting their main artists into the supper club arena was a key part of Motown's strategy, it was interesting to find out about the effort to do the reverse, bringing a mainline supper club artist like McNair into their arena. Though very interesting the end result is a mixed one.

Out of the 2 CDs, CD 1 works the best. The two albums that make up the bulk of this CD combines classic MOR songs such as "Message to Michael" and "Shadow of Your Smile" with songs from the Motown catalog that were chosen to fit her style. "Here I Am Baby", "Steal Away Tonight" and "You're Gonna Love My Baby" were my favorites. The second CD doesn't work as well. Smokey Robinson covers such as "Don't Mess With Bill", "More Love" and "I Second That Emotion" just didn't seem to fit her style. She couldn't seem to put the vocal in the pocket like an R&B performer would have. For the most part, the ballads on CD 2 work.

I understand why this didn't succeed in the context of the Motown system, but for any serious music collector, this is a worthwhile collection from a beautiful, sexy and talented lady.