Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Earl Van Dyke - All Day All Night
2. Eddie Holland - Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)
3. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Every Day I'll Love You More Than Yesterday
4. J.J. Barnes - Every Time I See You, I Go Wild!
5. The Elgins - My Two Arms - You = Tears
6. Carolyn Crawford - Keep Stepping (Never Look Back)
7. Dalton Boys - Take My Hand
8. The Marvelettes - The Boy From Crosstown
9. The Monitors - I Can't Get Along Without You
10. Stevie Wonder - I Gave Up Quality For Quantity
11. Martha & The Vandellas - Start With Joy In The Morning
12. The Detroit Spinners - What Am I Gonna Do Without You
13. Kim Weston - After Teh Rain
14. Marv Johnson - Let's Talk It Over
15. Little Lisa - Choo Choo Train
16. Tommy Good - I've Gotta Get Away
17. The Vows - Show Girl
18. Creations - In The Dark
19. Hattie Littles - Love Trouble Heartache & Misery
20. The Temptations - Positively Absolutely Right
21. Shorty Long - A Woman Just Won't Do Right

Disc 2:

1. Diana Ross & The Supremes - Honey Bee (Keep On Stinging Me)
2. J.J. Barnes - Everybody Needs Somebody (I Need You)
3. The Miracles - Hoping The Pause Is Helping The Cause
4. Debbie Dean - Baby Baby I'm In Love Again
5. The Isley Brothers - I Can't Go On Sharing Your Love
6. The Lewis Sisters - Breakaway
7. Four Tops - It's A Lonely World Without Your Love
8. Connie Haines - Midnight Johnny
9. The Contours - Take Him Back If It Makes You Happy
10. Chris Clark - Sweet Loving
11. Terry Johnson - My Spring Time
12. Martha & The Vandellas - Lone, Lonely Town
13. The Originals - Nothing In This World Like My Baby
14. The Monitors - Words
15. The Supremes - You've Got To Pay The Price
16. Rita Wright - Where Is The Love
17. Blinky - Rescue Me
18. Patrice Holloway - Those DJ Shows
19. Tammi Terrell - My Heart
20. The Marvelettes - I Hope You Have Better Luck Than I Did
21. Brenda Holloway - Crying Time

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13699 in Music
• Released on: 2005-07-04
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .28 pounds
• Running time: 121 minutes

Customer Reviews

Must be a big cellar
When A Cellarful Of Motown appeared in 2002 the general consensus was that it was astonishing that so many tracks of such amazing quality could have remained languishing unheard in an archive, lost and undocumented for so many years. Even the compilers registered their surprise and doubted there would be enough fresh discoveries to warrant a sequel of previously unreleased material.

Motown was on a phenomenal roll throughout the sixties, with the Hitsville studio in Detroit augmented by a second studio in the Davison area, and further recording and talent spotting operations setting up in New York, Chicago and especially in Los Angeles, where the company eventually relocated. Hitsville seemed to operate around the clock, like a factory, with songs being tried out with various groups and singers in a highly competitive and creative ferment, and an extremely discard rate.

A few tracks into Volume 2, three years later, having heard new classic cuts by Earl Van Dyke, Eddie Holland and Gladys Knight, any fears that quality control may have been lowered to fill another double-CD collection were blown away. How could any of these have been deemed unworthy of release at the time?

Sometimes a recording remained in the can because the song was released by another artist (often using the same backing track), but often both song and recording were consigned to oblivion.
Here, for example is The Boy From Crosstown in its original 1965 version by the Marvelettes, featuring Gladys Horton. A re-recording appeared the following year on an obscure compilation called Year By Year, and the song turned up on Gladys Knight and the Pips' 1968 album Feelin' Bluesy, but was never the single it deserved to be despite two other attempts featuring the Velvelettes, also unreleased at the time. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' Hoping The Pause Is Helping The Cause could only have improved the Special Occasion album had it been included, and there are six other masterful Smokey songs, five of which have not been heard before, one co-written with his wife Claudette, her only known Jobete composer credit.

Chris Clark recently benefitted from a 2CD Anthology with a whole second disc of previously unheard recordings, yet another choice gem not included there, Sweet Lovin', surfaces on this collection. The same could be said of After The Rain by Kim Weston, and the closer Crying Time by Brenda Holloway.

There are new finds by artists legendary for not getting released as they deserved at the time - Carolyn Crawford, Patrice Holloway, Hattie Littles and Debbie Dean are just a few who appear once each here and just whet the appetite for more.

Some go beyond obscure - the Beatle-influenced Dalton Boys song is a B-side that was replaced by a different track at the last moment, and so was unreleased, but here is an alternative version to that. There are too many highlights to cite individually, but it was intriguing to hear a Monitors recording (Words) with a female lead, presumably Sandra Fagin. There are some towering vocals from Martha Reeves and the Vandellas from 1967 and 1969, and a fresh version by Blinky of Rescue Me produced by Raynard Miner, who co-wrote and produced the Fontella Bass smash original, in stereo, as are seven others including a great Marvelettes track that was almost the follow-up to The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game.

I now have every confidence that Volume 3 will contain further revelations.

A Cellar Full of Gold!
This second volume of Motown rarities is a wonderful companion to the initial one; in fact, it is arguably more interesting because a greater variety of artists are represented. Although there are no duds at all, standouts include Eddie Holland's "Take Me in Your Arms" (same backing track as Kim Weston's hit), Hattie Littles' "Love Trouble Heartache and Misery" (a really "tough" sound), Supremes' (Jean Terrell) "You've Got to Pay the Price" (what a voice!) and Blinky's rockin' take on Fontella Bass' "Rescue Me" (same producer as the original hit). With two hidden, bonus tracks and talk of Volume 3 in the liner notes, there's nothing else to say except "Get it"!

Throwing mud at the wall
Amazing how much stuff the TM labels recorded and then dumped in the vaults! Were they doing it for a bet?.
Fortunately the CD Age came about and there was no reason to keep so much stuff hidden.
But their logics are more difficult to comprehend.They sign up a 9 year old girl Lisa Lewis whose mother was one of the Lewis Sisters.I mean great to revive the idea of the Hot Boppin' Girl but why not run with it?
TM were into signing up ex band singers like Billy Eckstine and Connie Haines.They signed up Sammy Davis Jr and they even signed up Pat Boone who cut 2 albums for their Melody sub.
Obviously aimed at collectors but so much here is better than some of what became the hits to my mind