At 84, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - I’ll Never Stop Loving You Baby (1968)
This song comes from the album You’re All I Need. With Marvin Gaye,Tammi Terrell scored seven Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need to Get By”. Terrell’s career was interrupted when she collapsed into Gaye’s arms as the two performed at a concert at Hampden–Sydney College on October 14, 1967, with Terrell later being diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had eight unsuccessful surgeries before succumbing to the illness on March 16, 1970 at the age of 24.
Mable John - Actions Speak Louder Than Words (1960)
Mable John (born November 3, 1930) is an American blues vocalist and was the first female signed by Berry Gordy to Motown’s Tamla label. In order for Tamla to appeal to a younger audience, Gordy soon thinned out his roster of early blues artists. While John continued to be used as a background singer, Gordy dissolved her contract in 1962.
At 81, The Velvelettes - Needle In a Haystack (1964)
I just love a good “doo-lang, doo-lang” …
The Velvelettes recorded at the Hitsville USA studio and “There He Goes” and “That’s The Reason Why” were released as a single. The recordings included a young Stevie Wonder playing harmonica. While the group awaited their chance at stardom, they recorded for many producers, some of which were re-recorded by other artists including fellow labelmates Martha and the Vandellas and The Supremes.
The Velvelettes got their break chartwise in the spring of 1964 thanks to young producer Norman Whitfield, who produced “Needle In A Haystack” as a single for the group, on Motown’s VIP Records imprint. “Needle In A Haystack” peaked at number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 in mid 1964. The group recorded its follow-up, “He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’”, with Whitfield again producing.
Success eluded the Velvelettes but I really rate their limited output … :cool2:
“It’s a Shame” is a song co-written by Stevie Wonder, Syreeta Wright and Lee Garrett and produced by Wonder as a single for The Spinners on Motown’s V.I.P. Records label. The single became the Detroit-reared group’s biggest single on the Motown Records company since they had signed with the company in 1964 and also their biggest hit in a decade.
At 77, Gladys Knight & The Pips - Friendship Train (1969)
This song, from the assured power base of producer Norman Whitfield and his frequent collaborator (and former Motown artist) Barrett Strong, matched a typically socially aware lyric to a busy, funky, brass-fuelled beat and an arrangement by Jerry Long, with the group on top form and Knight exuding her customary vocal luminosity.
At 76, The Undisputed Truth – Smiling Faces Some Times
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“Smiling Faces Sometimes” is a soul song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong and originally recorded by the Temptations in 1971. Producer Norman Whitfield had the song re-recorded by the Undisputed Truth the same year, resulting in the only Top 40 single released by the group.
“Twenty-Five Miles” is a song written by Johnny Bristol, Harvey Fuqua and Edwin Starr - it was Starr’s first success following his move from Ric-Tic Records to Motown (as Motown bought out Ric-Tic and all its artists). The song was a huge hit in the US and also a hit in the UK. “Twenty-Five Miles” proved to be Starr’s biggest US hit after his signature song (and #1 smash) “War”.
From Innervisions, the 16th studio album by American musician Stevie Wonder, released August 3, 1973, on the Tamla label for Motown Records. The nine tracks of Innervisions encompass a wide range of themes and issues: from drug abuse in “Too High”, through inequality and systemic racism in “Living for the City”, to love in the ballads “All in Love Is Fair” and “Golden Lady”. The album’s closer, “He’s Misstra Know-It-All”, is a scathing attack on then-US President Richard Nixon, similar to Wonder’s song a year later, “You Haven’t Done Nothin’”.
As with many of Stevie Wonder’s albums, the lyrics, composition and production are almost entirely his own work, with the ARP synthesizer used prominently throughout the album. The instrument was a common motif among musicians of the time because of its ability to construct a complete sound environment. Wonder was the first black artist to experiment with this technology on a mass scale, and Innervisions was hugely influential on the subsequent future of commercial black music. He also played all or virtually all instruments on six of the album’s nine tracks, making most of Innervisions a representative one-man band.
Trouble Man is a soundtrack album by soul singer Marvin Gaye, released December 8, 1972 on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. As the soundtrack to the 1972 blaxploitation film of the same name, the Trouble Man soundtrack was a more contemporary move for Gaye, following his landmark politically charged album What’s Going On.
Relating this song to the travails of the movie’s leading character, named “Mister T”, and also relating to issues in his private life, Marvin called it one of the most honest recordings he ever made. Gaye played drums and piano on the record as well as performing all the vocals himself, in which he sings most of the song in falsetto while reaching a gospel-styled growl during the bridges of the song.
At 72, The Temptations – Take A Look Around - 1972
“Take a Look Around” was a Top 30 hit which showcased new member Harris’ Kendricksesque falsetto voice alongside the leads of the other new member Richard Street, Dennis Edwards, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin. “Take a Look Around” and several of the “Solid Rock” album tracks, including “What It Is?” and “Stop the War Now”, were more of Norman Whitfield’s psychedelic soul recordings. By 1972, such songs were being seen by critics and the public as outdated or heavy-handed, and the Temptations themselves became uninterested in the psychedelic songs (Which is why Eddie Kendricks had already left the group). Whitfield began adding stronger soul and funk influences to future message tracks, reducing the psychedelic influences present in these and earlier such songs.
At 71, The Velvelettes – He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’ (1964)
"He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’ was written by Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield, William “Mickey” Stevenson, and Edward Holland, Jr. in 1964. The Velvelettes’ version was produced by Norman Whitfield and released on Motown’s V.I.P. label on December 27, 1964, becoming a minor hit for the group in early 1965. The Velvelettes never released a full-length album and were eventually eclipsed by The Supremes.
At 70, Stevie Wonder – You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (1973)
In 1970, Stevie Wonder came up with a chord progression on the electric piano that appealed to him. It was a peculiar riff that revolved around the A flat/B flat scales. Shaping it into the classic ballad “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” the singer/songwriter/producer saved it until he began recording tracks that would become his Talking Book LP. It’s unusual in that the first vocals heard are not those of Wonder, but those of singers Jim Gilstrap (“Swing Your Daddy”) and Gloria Barley. The song became Wonder’s third number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his first number-one on the Easy Listening chart.
At 68, The Marvelettes - Too Many Fish In The Sea (1964 )
“Too Many Fish in the Sea” was one of the first hit singles written by Norman Whitfield, co-written with Eddie Holland. It was also Whitfield’s first produced single.
At 67, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles - Tears Of A Clown (1967)
Stevie Wonder (who was discovered by Miracles member Ronnie White) and his producer Hank Cosby wrote the music for the song, and Cosby produced the instrumental track recording. Wonder brought the instrumental track to the 1966 Motown Christmas party because he could not come up with a lyric to fit the instrumental. Wonder wanted to see what Robinson could come up with for the track.
Robinson, who remarked that the song’s distinctive calliope motif “sounded like a circus,” provided lyrics that reflected his vision and sang lead vocal. In the song, his character, sad because a woman has left him, compares himself to the characters in the opera Pagliacci, comedians/clowns who hide their hurt and anger behind empty smiles. He had used this comparison before: the line “just like Pagliacci did/I’ll try to keep my sadness hid” appears in the song “My Smile Is Just A Frown (Turned Upside Down)”, which he had written in 1964 for Motown artist Carolyn Crawford.
“The Tears of a Clown” first appeared on the 1967 album Make It Happen. It was re-released in the United Kingdom as a single in July 1970, and it became a #1 hit on the UK Singles Chart for the week ending 12 September 1970. Subsequently, Motown released “The Tears of a Clown” as a single in the United States as well, where it quickly became a #1 hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B Singles charts.
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