I have always thought this track could have fitted straight into the motown stable !

what other tracks do you know of that could easily have graced the great label

Sorry i missed the "BE" out of the title !

Edited February 21, 201213 yr by mike

Loads of them, but here's a few to get the ball rolling:

Bobby Sheen - Doctor Love

Apollas - Mr Creator

Alice Clark - You hit me (right where it hurt me)

Bobby Sheen - Something new to do

Dave

Mary Love - You turned my bitter into sweet.

Actually thought it was a Motown track first time I heard it.

Rescue me - Fontella Bass - very motownesque

Lillie Bryant-meet me halfway, i allways thought sounded very motown

I'll throw in "S.O.S" Edwin Starr

"Selfish One" - Jackie Ross

"Try A Little Harder- Fi- Dels

"Heartaches Away My Boy" - Christine Cooper- best song Supremes never made!

"Open The Door To Your Heart" - Darrel Banks

Lillie Bryant-meet me halfway, i allways thought sounded very motown

Yes sounds just like This Old Heart Of Mine and was supposedly withdrawn because of this..

Jackie Ross - Selfish One - Chess

Swifty

definately want to add this one - I've even been asked which Supremes Lp its off

LOVEABLES on TOOT Just beyond my fingertips

Andy

I'll throw in "S.O.S" Edwin Starr

"Selfish One" - Jackie Ross

"Try A Little Harder- Fi- Dels

"Heartaches Away My Boy" - Christine Cooper- best song Supremes never made!

"Open The Door To Your Heart" - Darrel Banks

sos,edwin starr did come out on motown

Yes sounds just like This Old Heart Of Mine and was supposedly withdrawn because of this..

Cheers Pete, never knew that

Bobby Sheen - Something new to do

Sorry, but to me this sounds nothing like a Motown record, its pure Muscle Shoals all the way...

Sorry, but to me this sounds nothing like a Motown record, its pure Muscle Shoals all the way...

I don't think it sounds like a Motown record either.

But neither do half the records quoted so far

Edited February 20, 201213 yr by Pete S

There are loads that are Jobete songs on non-Motown labels that would fit the bill

Cheers

Richard

Edited February 20, 201213 yr by Premium Stuff

RHETTA HUGHES - 'Giving Up My Heartaches'

Pure Motown in style and sound because it was recorded with Motown staff musicians at Terra Shirma in Detroit.

It was issued on the flip side of 'Cry Myself To Sleep' last year. It's the fastest seller on Shotgun so far but it probably still isn't known to a lot of northern soul fans.

Paul

Detroit Sound - we're gonna party (Slow Fizz) ..... complete San Remo Strings 'Festival Time' backing track lifted straight off the record!! An actual Motown record from the vaults?????

everybody is going to a love in, sounds like motown to me

RHETTA HUGHES - 'Giving Up My Heartaches'

Pure Motown in style and sound because it was recorded with Motown staff musicians at Terra Shirma in Detroit.

It was issued on the flip side of 'Cry Myself To Sleep' last year. It's the fastest seller on Shotgun so far but it probably still isn't known to a lot of northern soul fans.

Paul

No I didn't know it but it's great!

Martha Star - No Part Time Love For Me (Thelma)

Always thought of this as in the same bag as Motown classics such as Barbara Randolph - I Got A Feeling and Kim Weston - Helpless

Cheers

Richard

Edited February 20, 201213 yr by Premium Stuff

Detroit Sound - we're gonna party (Slow Fizz) ..... complete San Remo Strings 'Festival Time' backing track lifted straight off the record!! An actual Motown record from the vaults?????

Vocal more than likely done in the UK in someone's shed.

No I didn't know it but it's great!

I thought you'd like it, Pete.

Most people bought it for the A side, 'Cry Myself To Sleep', and are amazed when they hear 'Giving Up My Heartaches' - usually for the first time.

I actually considered making 'Giving Up My Heartaches' the official A side. I'll probably do that if I need to issue it again one day.

Paul

RHETTA HUGHES - 'Giving Up My Heartaches'

Pure Motown in style and sound because it was recorded with Motown staff musicians at Terra Shirma in Detroit.

It was issued on the flip side of 'Cry Myself To Sleep' last year. It's the fastest seller on Shotgun so far but it probably still isn't known to a lot of northern soul fans.

Paul

Agreed Paul.

Top drawer LP track for years and now a killer 45!

Sean

Always loved this 'Early Marvelettes Soundalike'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scWHIX5m6XE

'This Old Heart Of Mine' Inspired!

:0)

Sean

Could have imagined Mary Wells giving this a run for its money!

Sean

everybody is going to a love in, sounds like motown to me

Thats because rumour has it thats it's actually Smoky Robinson on vocals.

Motown sounding songs : Sandy Winns "A Touch Of Venus"

Tamala (Tamla!!) Lewis "You Won't Say Nothing"

Thats because rumour has it thats it's actually Smoky Robinson on vocals.

Motown sounding songs : Sandy Winns "A Touch Of Venus"

Tamala (Tamla!!) Lewis "You Won't Say Nothing"

strange I was just about to mention tamala lewis

Sweethearts-No More Tears-Kent

everybody is going to a love in, sounds like motown to me

that was my take too, beat me to it

It has Smokey Robinson written all over it ... WIN

Mentioning the Impressions one of their later ones was held back following complaints from Motown. I know which one it was but it is stored in a difficult part of my brain to access, and I cannot be bothered to try and retrieve it at the moment.....

My nomination: Dennis Edwards "I didn't have to but I did"

Edited February 20, 201213 yr by Steve G

Oliver Norman - Drowning In My Own Despair - Decca

Des Parker

Mentioning the Impressions one of their later ones was held back following complaints from Motown. I know which one it was but it is stored in a difficult part of my brain to access, and I cannot be bothered to try and retrieve it at the moment.....

My nomination: Dennis Edwards "I didn't have to but I did"

"Can't Satisfy"

sos,edwin starr did come out on motown

Yes it did- but when it was first released on Ric Tic, I don't think they were making it because they knew a few

years later Motown would buy out the label.

Another one for the list- "Higher and Higher" Jackie WIlson.

Bobby Callender - my baby changes like the weather - I thought this was Smokey Robinson when I first heard it - later I found that Smokey & the Miracles had done it as well, but that Callender guy does the best impression ever.

Mentioning the Impressions one of their later ones was held back following complaints from Motown. I know which one it was but it is stored in a difficult part of my brain to access, and I cannot be bothered to try and retrieve it at the moment.....

My nomination: Dennis Edwards "I didn't have to but I did"

Can't Satisfy Steve?

Cheers

Richard

OOps - sorry just seen Daz already got this

Edited February 20, 201213 yr by Premium Stuff

THE SENSATIONS-GOTTA FIND MYSELF ANOTHER GIRL-WAY OUT

Mary Love - You turned my bitter into sweet.

Actually thought it was a Motown track first time I heard it.

There's a reason for that. It was produced by LA Motown's producers (Hal Davis and Marc Gordon) and written by LA Jobete Music's writers (Marc Gordon and Frank Wilson), and arranged by LA Motown's regular arranger, and the session players were LA Motown's regular 1963-66 players on sessions for recordings that appeared on Motown released records.

To me, none of the other non-Motown cuts listed above sound really like Motown. The session players were not from Detroit, the arrangers were different from the Motown style. Many of them sound like NY or Philly cuts. To me, only Motown's LA Jobete recordings, and Detroit Soul recordings using Motown session players, arrangers and writers, sound really like Motown. Some examples:

"Lucky To Be Loved By You"-Emanuel Lasky

"That Was My Girl"-Parliaments

"You turned My Bitter Into Sweet"-Mary Love

"Let Me Know"-Mary Love

"Run One Flight Of Stairs"-Gloria Jones

"This Heart of Mine"-Artistics

"Happiness Is Here"-Tobi Lark

"My World is on Fire"-Jimmy Mack

"Me Without You"-Mary Wells

"Don't Lead Me On Baby"-Emanuel Laskey

"No Part Time Love For Me"-Martha Starr

"Poor Unfortunate Me"-J.J. Barnes

"My Mama Told Me"-Barbara Lewis

"Open The Door To Your Heart"/"Somebody Somewhere Needs You"-Darrell Banks

"The Touch of Venus"-Sandy Wynns

Don Davis recreated The Motown Sound at his Groovesviile/Groove City Records, at Golden World/Ric Tic, Solid Hit Productions, Thelma and Stax/Volt Records

Joe Hunter did so at Mickay's/Ring, Golden World/Ric Tic and Pied Piper Prod.

Mike Terry did, everywhere he went

Bob Bateman did at Correc-Tone, and on his indie Detroit and NY Productions

Mike Hanks did to some extent, as did Dave Hamilton and Ollie McGloughlin, Sonny Sanders in Detroit and Chicago (all used sometime Motown producers, arrangers and session players), Ed Cobb in LA

Edited February 20, 201213 yr by RobbK

Duplicate.

Edited February 20, 201213 yr by RobbK

everybody is going to a love in, sounds like motown to me

Thats because rumour has it thats it's actually Smoky Robinson on vocals.

that was my take too, beat me to it

It has Smokey Robinson written all over it ... WIN

He is a dead a ringer on all the 45s but I don't remember a rumour that they were the same person.

You're not getting mixed up with "More, More, More of Your Love" are you? That one was originally recorded by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on an album and covered by the Baltimore based blue eyed soul band, Bob Brady and the Con-Chords who released it as a single.

definately want to add this one - I've even been asked which Supremes Lp its off

LOVEABLES on TOOT Just beyond my fingertips

Andy

WoW ! you learn something new every day !that is just Soooooooooooooooooo motowny !

Love it

Yep i'll give you that one ! great sound never heard it before !

Always loved this 'Early Marvelettes Soundalike'.

This sounds a LOT more like an East Coast (Philly) cut than a Detroit/Motown sound. I can't hear The marvelettes doing this (at least not produced by a Motown producer).

A lot of tracks, such as 'You Hit Me' by Alice Clark, were pure Motown in style but they didn't quite get the identical sound - not enough to fool you.

One that got the sound and the style 100% was 'Touch Of Venus' by Patrice Holloway. More Motown than Motown, for obvious reasons.

I think of most Ric-Tic and Golden World tracks as Motown anyway, and many other Detroit labels got the Motown sound because they used Motown staff musicians, writers and arrangers etc. I've already mentioned the Rhetta Hughes track (and not just to give it a shameless plug) but even in the early 1970s some of those Carol Anderson tracks were very Motown - with songs written by John Glover and James Dean etc. You can imagine many of those songs would have been been pitched to Motown anyway.

Outside of Detroit, apart from the west coast team already mentioned, it's obvious that many of the Mirwood tracks were heavily influenced by Motown but they ended up with their very own sound (probably by accident).

The same applies to Harthon / Dynodynamics and others from Philadelphia. They were influenced by Motown so they often had very similar styles but they developed their own sound.

Anyway, most good examples have already been mentioned but one of my favourite Motown-flavoured tracks is 'I Can't Break Away (From Your Love)' by Barbara Lewis. If it had been issued on a 45 I'm sure it would have been a northern soul classic. There are several versions of this great song but only Barabara's had that obvious Motown sound.

Paul

Could have imagined Mary Wells giving this a run for its money!

Sean

The words and tempo (and GENERAL) arrangement sound very like a Mary Wells Motown song. But the instrumentation sounds like Nashville. And it doesn't have a Motown bridge, which would have featured a sax solo. I could see how to convert this nicely-written song into a nice 1963-64 Motown Mary Wells (w/Love-Tones) cut. Maybe someday I'll get the software to cut and splice up a version!

WoW ! you learn something new every day !that is just Soooooooooooooooooo motowny !

Love it

The instrumentation just doesn't sound Detroit at all. It sounds like one of the weaker L.A. ( Jobete) Motown cuts (without the flute). It just sounds like a Motown copy. No way I'd mistake this for a Detroit Motown track.

The instrumentation just doesn't sound Detroit at all. It sounds like one of the weaker L.A. ( Jobete) Motown cuts (without the flute). It just sounds like a Motown copy. No way I'd mistake this for a Detroit Motown track.

It's not serious it's just a bit of fun ! Motown copies is what i'm looking for

other companies attempts at trying to Emulate / cash in on motown !

Edited February 20, 201213 yr by allnightandy

Off the top of my head one of the best Nashville recordings to have the Motown style (but not quite the sound) was 'Singing A New Song' by Freddie Waters.

I just thought of a nice example from New Orleans: 'All That Matters' by Tony Owens. Again, still very Motown in style for 1974 but not in sound.

A less obvious example, from New York in 1973... Don Downing's 'Dream World' was a song with a strong Motown flavour. The sound had changed but the song itself could easily have been written for the Four Tops a few years earlier.

I'm sure a lof of writers and producers came up with new songs and structures after listening to 'The Four Tops Greatests Hits'.

Get down to Life line this saturday and hear Butch's Ruby Andrews c/u as close as it gets imo

Ok, I know she had just left Motown, but when I first heard

Mary Wells - Ever Lovin Boy, I thought it must be a Motown release.

Cheers, Heath.

Has to be...

https://youtu.be/Gr-N3lztcyQ