The Complete Motown Singles Volume 4 - 1964

Hip-O Select presents the next volume in its acclaimed continuing series of every Motown single (A- and B- side) of the Detroit era. The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 4: 1964, with 163 songs on six compact discs, focuses on the year the company becomes an international phenomenon: “My Guy,” “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” “Dancing In The Street,” “Every Little Bit Hurts,” “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” scale the charts… the Supremes, the Temptations, Martha & The Vandellas, Brenda Holloway and Marvin Gaye are everywhere… the Holland-Dozier-Holland writing and production team define “The Motown Sound”… Jr. Walker & The All Stars debut on the new Soul label; the veteran Four Tops get a hit; Miss Wells turns 21, and leaves. The Funk Brothers band is given a single release, with bandleader Earl Van Dyke’s name on the label.

And yet… even as the Motown machine began to click founder Berry Gordy continued to hedge his bets: listen for odd novelties like the seasonal “Randy, The Newspaper Boy” by Ray Oddis, and “Set Me Free” by radio personality Lee Alan. Motown kept active its country label, Mel-O-Dy, from Gene Henslee’s weeper “Shambles” to Howard Crockett’s passable Johnny Cash impersonation on “My Lil’s Run Off.” There’s even Bruce Channel, hot from his smash pop hit, “Hey! Baby,” trying out a Snakepit groove on his R&B-country update of “Satisfied Mind.” Marvin Gaye is given a long leash to test his jazz sensibilities. Sammy Ward has a last shot at the blues.

Every detail is here, in a package keeping with the series that also boasts an expanded 132-page booklet. The Supremes’ first of three No. 1 hits that year, “Where Did Our Love Go” b/w “He Means The World To Me,” is the true vinyl single in the box set’s cover page. Inside, page after page features rare photographs. There are faithful reproductions of classic (and some not so classic) picture sleeves and record labels, some seen for the first time since they were first released.

Janie Bradford, a Motown songwriter who was the company’s front desk receptionist that year, wrote an introductory essay for The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 4. Her observations from behind that desk are poetic and often funny; she offers an insider’s look at Motown climbing on a rocketship. Dr. Todd Boyd, a Detroit native and today the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture at the USC School of Cinema-Television, is the author of this year’s overview; he places Motown and the music in a broiling historical context that includes Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali), the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Malcolm X, Freedom Summer, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thanks to associate producer Keith Hughes and author Bill Dahl, each track gets a story, with the usual songwriters and producers, now with recording dates where available, and extraordinary research that has uncovered long-lost – or never before revealed – insights about the music and the people who made it.

The Complete Motown Singles Volume 3 - 1963

By 1963, Berry Gordy and company were fine-tuning Motown’s sound. Jumping on the charts were Martha & The Vandellas, with “Come And Get These Memories” and “Heat Wave,” signaling the emergence of the writing/production team Holland-Dozier-Holland. “Little” Stevie Wonder was No.1 with the record-breaking “Fingertips (Part 2).” Mary Wells’ “You Lost The Sweetest Boy” and “What’s Easy For Two Is So Hard For One” turned out to be a double-sided hit. The Supremes (finally!) made their Top 40 chart debut.

All of these songs, and so many more, are included on this third volume of The Complete Motown Singles.

This five-CD set captures the hits and the misses during the label’s fifth year of existence. It features the A-side and B-side of every single released by Motown and its subsidiaries during the high-growth phase of Detroit’s entertainment juggernaut. Over the course of the set’s 119 tracks, you can hear The Chuck-A-Lucks and Jack Haney & “Nikiter” Armstrong with a couple of Cold War novelties, Martha & The Vandellas following one hit natural disaster (“Heat Wave”) with another (“Quicksand”), and an outstanding Holland-Dozier-Holland production (The Marvelettes’ “Locking Up My Heart”) that should have been a much bigger hit than it was. Leaving the fold were the Workshop Jazz, Divinity and Miracle labels; new to the company was the V.I.P. imprint.

The set is bound in a scaled-down 78-rpm-era “album,” with cardboard sleeves to hold each of the discs, and 92 pages of rare photos, detailed annotations and scholarly – as well as personal – liner notes. It also features a reproduction 45-rpm single from its era; in this case, it’s Martha & The Vandellas’ “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” b/w “A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knockin’ Every Day).” Martha Reeves contributes a personal essay to the set detailing the artist’s-eye-view of life in the label’s early years. Also included is an historical overview by author and scholar Craig Werner, and, as in previous volumes, copious track-by-track annotations painstakingly researched by noted authors and discographers Bill Dahl and Keith Hughes.

The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 2: 1962

By 1962, Motown wasn't yet the hit factory it would later become, but they had regular chart success, and were reaching across the ocean to influence the emerging British Invasion. Both Smokey Robinson's "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" (later covered by The Beatles) and The Contours' Berry Gordy-penned smash "Do You Love Me" (covered by The Dave Clark 5) make their debut on this second volume of The Complete Motown Singles.

The year marked the debut of four new imprints in the Motown empire: Divinity, Workshop, Mel-o-dy, and Gordy. It also saw "You Beat Me To The Punch" top the R&B charts, as well as cracking the Top 10 on the pop side.

This four-CD set offers a miraculous peek behind the curtains of what was rapidly becoming "The Sound Of Young America." It features the A-side and B-side of every single released by Motown and its subsidiaries during the label's fourth year of existence. Each track builds ever closer to reaching Gordy's goal of growing his music empire into an entertainment juggernaut. Over the course of the set's 112 tracks, you can hear The Temptations masquerading as The Pirates, the vocal version of the "Theme From Exodus," and the phone number that was on the lips of America: "Beechwood 4-5789," courtesy of the Marvelettes.

The opulent packaging resembles a scaled-down 78-rpm-era "album," with cardboard sleeves to hold each of the discs, and 88 pages of rare photos, detailed annotations and scholarly - as well as personal - liner notes. It also features a reproduction 45-rpm single from its era; in this case, it's Mary Wells' "You Beat Me To The Punch" b/w "Old Love (Let's Try It Again)." Claudette Robinson, a member of The Miracles and Smokey's ex-wife, contributed a personal essay to the set detailing the artist's-eye-view of life in the label's early years. Also included is an historical overview by author and scholar Gerald Early of Washington University in St. Louis, and track-by-track annotations, with not just song credits but stories behind each song, by noted authors and discographers Bill Dahl and Keith Hughes.

Edition limited to 8000 non-numbered limited edition copies.

The Complete Motown Singles - Vol. 1: 1959-1961

Say the word "Motown," and an immediate image forms in your head: maybe Smokey, or Diana, or Stevie, or the Temptations doing their famous steps. Or one of dozens of other classic Motown artists. But before the Motown sound had written itself into America's musical DNA, before there was even a Motown label, there was an idea in the head of Berry Gordy, Jr.

Gordy's empire began even before the house at 2648 W. Grand Blvd. became `Hitsville U.S.A.' The Complete Motown Singles, Part 1: 1959-1961 documents Motown's earliest days, from Marv Johnson's "Come To Me" on Tamla 101 through The Twistin' Kings' "Congo (Part 1)" on Motown 1023.

This six-CD set offers an amazing insight into the development of the Motown Sound. You can follow along, single by single, as Gordy pursues his dream, often to unexpected places. It features the A-side and B-side of every single released by Motown and its subsidiaries during the label's first three years of existence. Over the course of the set's 155 tracks, you can hear the recorded debuts of the Temptations, the Supremes, Mary Wells, and many others. You'll also hear Motown's first big hits: Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)," The Miracles' "Shop Around," and The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman."

The luxurious packaging resembles a scaled-down 78-rpm-era "album," with cardboard sleeves to hold each of the discs, and 92 pages of rare photos, detailed annotations and scholarly - as well as personal - liner notes. It also features a reproduction 45-rpm single from its era; in this case, it's Barrett Strong's "Money" b/w "Oh I Apologize." Berry Gordy, who co-wrote and co-produced nearly every track in this first set, contributes a brief, personally signed note in the booklet's opening page. It introduces an eyewitness account of the early days from singer Mable John, the first female solo act signed to Motown. Also included is a historical overview by author and scholar Craig Werner of the University of Wisconsin, and track-by-track annotations, with not just song credits but stories and context of each song, by noted authors and discographers Bill Dahl and Keith Hughes.

Edition limited to 5000 non-numbered limited edition copies.