The productivity of Motown Records endures as a highpoint in 20th Century music, an achievement that endures right up to the present. Long playing records are a superb point of entry into this bountiful garden of aural delights, and beginning this month Elemental Music kicks off the Motown Sound Collection, a thoughtfully assembled series that will reissue over two dozen Motown albums monthly throughout 2024 and into next year from a wide range of celebrated acts. The first two LPs, The Supremes’ We Remember Sam Cooke and The Temptations’ Wish It Would Rain and are available now.
There would seem to be little argument that Motown Records’ crucial format was the 45rpm single. For over two decades, Barry Gordy’s organization was an unstoppable hit machine (indeed, Hitsville, USA), and singles delivered a steady stream of material to the radio stations where the hitmaking process was extended, inspiring listeners young and old to bring those songs into their homes for repeat play.
If the hit single was Motown’s bread and butter, full length albums were a further validation of success. It’s to Gordy’s credit that he didn’t simply choose to dump hit singles and their flipsides onto LPs as an afterthought. Taking a considered and occasionally thematic approach to album assemblage secured Motown as a prestige enterprise in an era where youth music was still undervalued as largely disposable. The label’s LPs were regularly crossover hits themselves.
Recorded and released in 1965, We Remember Sam Cooke is the fifth album by The Supremes and the third in a trio of themed albums, following The Supremes Sing Country, Western and Pop, and A Bit of Liverpool. Those prior entries have their moments (and a reissue of the Brit Invasion set is on the horizon from Elemental), but the Cooke tribute connects as the most natural fit for the vocal group’s talents.
This is obviously down to their shared R&B-Soul foundation and complementary musical dispositions, as Cooke’s engaging soulfulness translates well to the Supremes’ deeply sophisto approach to pop R&B. With no hesitation in covering Cooke’s big hits, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard tap into the essence of the source material and adapt it to their own mode of expression with the help of producers Harvey Fuqua, Hal Davis, and Marc Gordon.
From the opening seconds of “You Send Me” there’s really no mistaking who’s doing the tune, with this instantaneous familiarity extending throughout the LP, in no small part due to the recognizability of Ross’ voice. It would be silly to claim any of these 11 tracks better the originals, but if not earth shattering the record is consistently pleasurable, and it gets an extra boost with a version of “Shake” that’s boldness brings Ellie Greenwich to mind. Ballard taking the lead in the gospel infused finale “(Ain’t That) Good News” is also a treat.
There is no dominant artist or group in the Motown story, but The Temptations are crucial to the tale. By 1967, they were approaching a crossroads, as their Classic Five-era, namely David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin, and Otis Williams, was coming to an end, with Ruffin soon to leave the group. His departure also ushered in a change in stylistic direction as producer Norman Whitfield guided them into the psychedelic soul era, but Wish It Would Rain has its flag planted firmly in the fertile soil of the classic Motown male vocal group sound.
Sequencing a dozen gems (nary a week track in the bunch) where the verve and precision of the singing suggests a group that’s firing on full creative cylinders instead of afflicted by dysfunction and turmoil, the sturdy thrust and symphonic instrumental backing by the Funk Brothers helps to elevate the album to masterpiece level.
Although Ruffin’s leads do dominate side one, the backing vocal interplay is sublime, and right away in “I Can Never Love Another (After Loving You).” Placed third on side one, the title track is the record’s standout, and yet there’s no subsequent letdown, essentially because all the lead singers bring the goods (ranging from falsetto to baritone) and the songs are top notch. And knowing that Wish It Would Rain is the end of an era gives those tunes an even sweeter edge.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
The Supremes, We Remember Sam Cooke
B+
The Temptations, Wish It Would Rain
A
