This is Motown Junkies, a track-by-track review of every US and UK Motown single, including all subsidiaries. Not ambitious, then.
“I wasn’t always a Motown junkie. In fact, I wasn’t always interested in pop music at all. Thirteen-year-old me was into Kraftwerk, T.Rex, the Electric Light Orchestra, and knew nothing of Motown beyond a handful of overplayed oldies on the radio. (I also knew nothing of the Beatles, Stones, Commodores, Coltrane, Cole, Beethoven or Bix Beiderbecke, for that matter. I knew nothing full stop, really.) I was unprotected and unprepared, and I made easy prey for pop music’s most insidious pushers of hooks and tunes. I spent my teens listening to all sorts of random stuff, in search of the ultimate hit (in every sense), eventually rummaging around in the equivalent of the music industry’s scrap bins – samplers from Finnish indie labels, unsigned Louisiana hip hop collectives, anything – to try and get another taste of something that ran through the veins of all my favourite records, something I couldn’t quite grasp or understand but always recognised as soon as I felt it. I didn’t know, of course, that what I was looking for was staring me right in the face the entire time. So when – thanks to a bunch of compilation CDs at a local shop’s closing-down sale – I eventually fell for Motown, I fell hard and I fell deep.”
- (from my review of Dancing in the Street)
Ten years ago, this sort of undertaking would have been totally impossible; it’s only with the release of the superb Hip-O Select Complete Motown Singles box sets, and the scholarship of the compilers and researchers who put those sets together and provided the copious liner notes, that a buffoon like me is able to sit here and do a blog like this.
Research by many dedicated, knowledgeable soul fans across the Internet has unearthed a great many more facts, corrections and other bits of trivia, serving as a kind of gloss on those box sets. As recently as twenty years ago, the information that’s now freely available through a couple of clicks and a few well-worded Google searches would have marked you out as an expert, a Motown nerd of the highest caliber. Nowadays this vast slew of other people’s hard work provides an instant reference for anyone wanting to know anything about what came out on any Motown label, who wrote it, who recorded it, when it was released, how it fared on release, and what happened afterwards. Provided you’re willing to put in a minuscule amount of time searching for it, that information is out there.
And yet, there’s seemingly very little information on the net about what some of these records are actually like, or which ones people like, and which ones they think are rubbish. And if there’s one thing I like to do, it’s talk about records. At length. That, and swearing a lot. (Sorry.) So I pounced, almost catlike, on the opportunity to talk about these records. All of them.
So, here we are. I’m Nixon, and I’m British. I love music in almost all its forms, and I love Motown. The title, for the uninitiated, is a Manic Street Preachers joke. (I note James Dean Bradfield has long since stopped singing the opening bars of Baby Love when introducing Motown Junk; good for him.)
Here’s how this will work. I’m going to do a separate post for every released (or planned) A- and B-side, and these will then be compiled both on the pages for each label, and also in the Master Index, which is just a great big list of everything that’s been posted to date. Unless otherwise noted, for the stuff between 1959 and 1972, I’ve treated the liner notes in the Complete Motown Singles box sets as the Word of God, and will only be dissenting from the officially-sanctioned “party line” where I think it’s important to do so (and noting the conflict). I’ll also provide external links to any information out there which I’ve taken note of, or which might provide useful further reading.
Each song will have its own post, and that post will note (in the header) what label it was on, the catalogue number, the month of release (or scheduled release) – not the date of recording – and the writers. At the bottom of each post, there’s also now an entirely subjective mark out of ten, mainly for my own amusement and to provoke debate. There, you’ll also find links back to the previous Motown release and forward to the next one. (Obviously, I’ll add those last ones retrospectively.) Yeah, I can tell you’re excited.
Comments are enabled, so should you disagree with what’s been said or spot a glaring error, you can have your say too.
Well, that’s enough preamble. Now, time for a bit of prehistory. Enjoy the blog.
Hi Nix, I’ve just answered your query about information on Morris/Luvel Broadnax on Soulful Detroit’s Motown Forum.
Here it is: Morris Ervin Broadnax was his given name. Luvel must have been a nickname, and his credits changed to “Luvel” Broadnax about 1/2 way through his career. He was born in 1931.
He started with Motown in 1961, signed an exclusive contract as a songwriter. He had been sent to Motown by his friends, The Four Tops, to try out for a singing contract. They liked his songs a lot better than his singing. On You-Tube there is an interview with him. As the “new writer”, Berry Gordy assigned him to work with Little Stevie Wonder, as the others didn’t want to work with him. He teamed up with Clarence Paul (Wonder’s producer). He was the one who first encouraged Stevie to write songs, and helped him start out. He later worked also with Hank Cosby and Sylvia Moy. He wrote songs for most of the more known Motown acts, including The Miracles, Temptations, Mary Wells, Four Tops, Gladys Knight and The Pips, etc. With The Clarence Paul crew, it was Broadnax’s job to overdub the lead and background vocals. He wrote “Just A little Misunderstanding” -the Contours, “I Miss You, Baby”-Marv Johnson, many songs for Stevie Wonder and The Four Tops.
On Google you can find some links to info about him. He worked with Motown from 1961-1969, when he started working as an independent songwriter, working with Aretha Franklin (whose family he had known for many years). He had written “Till You Come Back To Me” (along with Stevie Wonder and Clarence Paul) for Stevie, but offered it to Aretha (for whom it became a big hit).
Broadnax was the one most instrumental in trying to start a Motown Alumni Association, in 1989. It didn’t start until 1995. He died in 2009.
Hi Nix, I’ve just answered your query about information on Morris/Luvel Broadnax on Soulful Detroit’s Motown Forum.
Here’s a link to an interview with Mr. Broadnax by his nephew. It was made not so long before he died.
Thanks Robb, it’s very much appreciated! I was just looking for confirmation that Morris and Luvel were definitely the same person, which would explain the seeming lack of biographical information on the latter.
What a brilliant site! Found it by chance when googling The Satintones. Going to give this a mention on my facebook page onj a regular basis. KTF
and I followed Stewart here – cheers Stew
any chance once this hefty tome is completed we might see it in printed form … like a book? so much more personal and interesting than the notes in “the complete motown singles – still unfinished(!) ” multi-volumned cd set. i would sure use it as a constant companion. then you could start your companion piece, “choice tracts and unreleased masters”!
At the rate I’m currently going, “once this hefty tome is completed” is so far in the future that books may have ceased to exist by then.
Let’s hope not. Books should be kept around. They don’t have to be recharged or rebooted and won’t short out if you spill your soda on them.
True, though precious few books will withstand the soda treatment either!
Sorry for the delay in getting the new entry up, everyone. The Marvelettes will be on deck very shortly.
After reading your review of Tommy Good’s ‘Baby I Miss You’, I found this interesting information about Tommy Good on the web:
http://static.record-eagle.com/2006/may/11tommy.htm
Great site, by the way!
All best wishes, Chris
MOTOWN IS RICH WITH GREAT SONGS, TONS OF DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF SONGS THAT WERE HITS BY ALL OR MOST OF THE ARTISTS AND GROUPS AT
MOTOWN IN THE VAULT AND OUT IN THE MARKET. MOTOWN HAS MORE SONGS AND DISCOVERIES OF ARTISTS IN THE CAN. I LOVE MOTOWN AND YES, I AM TRULY A MOTOWN JUNKIE!!!
THANKS BERRY, SMOKEY, THE FUNK BROTHERS AND TO THE ALL OF THE GROUPS, WRITERS, AND THE ADANTES WHO PLAYED DOUBLE FOR THE MAJOR GIRL GROUPS AND ALL OF THE BACKGROUND SINGERS WHO HANDCLAPPED OR ADDED EFFECTS TO THE MAGIC OF MOTOWN FOR THE
WONDERFUL MUSIC AND APOLLOS SHOWS…THAT BROUGHT THE WORLD TOGETHER AND SHARED MANY GREAT MEMORIES
AND THANKS TO THE DETROIT GOLDEN PERIOD AND THE LOS ANGELES PERIOD. 1959-1985
What a terrrific site!!! I don’t know how I stumbled here, but it’s an amazing site. One of the best on the WWW.
Thanks WB. I appreciate the kind words.
I just did the same! was about half hour ago and i cant remember the reason for the connection lol…however I am very pleased I did. how cool is this! nice one : )
Thanks Debs! Sorry for the late reply. Glad you’re enjoying!
Knowledgeable, but entertaining, as are many of your pages. I read through the archives over the past week or two, and I must say I think I’m found a new bookmark.
Thanks Aida, I appreciate it. I hope you’re enjoying the site
Mr. Nix, have you heard about this?
Motown’s Unsung Female Trio Finally Gets Acclaim
Forgive me if the href tag gets messed up…the Yahoo article is about the Andantes getting a spot in a Motown Museum exhibit.