Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Motown Collection

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While Domestic Motown issues its umpteenth Supremes collection, over the ocean we get two C.D.s of Jimmy Ruffin, including a motherload of previously released music which is outstanding. This guy is listenable over the whole two C.D., a real natural and a talent who should have loomed much larger on the Motown horizon. You will love it.

Jimmy Ruffin was one of the greatest talents that motown had during the 60's. He could sing anything and make it musical. To be brief, many of the recordings in this collection have been out of print for years and cd collectors will charge you a fortune for any of these recordings as singles. The remastering is very good and most of the tracks are in stereo as they should be. One will hear some of the Funk Brothers finest performances backing Jimmy here. This collection is a bargain and the music is outstanding.

There's not much to say about the song selection that others haven't already covered. Simply put, it's excellent. One thing that made this essential for me, however, was the song "East Side West Side" which Ruffin recorded in 1966 as his intended follow-up to "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted" but due to an argument with Berry Gordy, only ended up released in Australia until this was put together. My grandpa, Ron Welser, wrote the song with Terry Johnson, later of Flamingos fame. Further arrangements called for a third songwriting credit in the liner notes, but it's still all of my grandpa's lyrics there. I recommend listening to the entire collection, but why not that one first?

I love all of the cds issued in this series.
This is the 10th package that I have purchased.
What I like about this series is that they give
you much more than the usual fillers that we
get with motown anthologhies. The Jimmy Rufin
collection gives you his hits, plus a chuck of
great surprises from the vaults.
Michael Payne