Via Hip-O-Select:

So how do you honor a national treasure? And how do you do so after 45 years 
of greatest-hits LPs, CD reissues, bio-pics, tell-all’s and TV specials? You 
tell the whole story, from the beginning, which is what’s set to happen 
around November 26, when Hip-O Select delivers the six-disc Vol. 1 of The 
Complete Motown Singles, a 12-volume series of box sets documenting the 
legendary label’s every release (both A- and B-sides), from 1959 through 
1972.

While the idea had "been around for many years," Harry Weinger, project 
director and VP, A&R, for Universal Music Enterprises, tells ICE, it leapt 
from fantasy to reality about a year ago, when Universal inaugurated its 
online catalog imprint. "Thane Tierney’s e-mail to me," Weinger recalls, 
was, ‘If this project isn’t what Hip-O Select was built for, I took the 
wrong job.’"

"Once we had all the music in front of us, we began to see how it breaks 
out," he continues. "We figured that the first box would take six discs, 
then it might take five to do Vol. 2 and so forth. The first volume is three 
complete years, 1959 to ’61, then each one after will be one full year, 
through 1972, so [the series] essentially covers Motown’s time in Detroit, 
even if they were recording in L.A."

Vol. 1 starts with Marv Johnson’s "Come to Me," Tamla 101, which Berry Gordy 
licensed to United Artists (where it became a Top 30 hit) and ends with 
"Congo (Parts 1 and 2)," Motown 1023, by the Twistin’ Kings, aka The Funk 
Brothers. In between are 152 tracks, including such culture-defining cuts as 
Barrett Strong’s "Money," the Miracles’ "Shop Around" and the Marvelettes’ 
"Please Mr. Postman."

"On this first box, there’s no ‘Motown sound’ yet," Weinger says. "What’s 
interesting is that you hear Berry Gordy trying all sorts of things out. 
There’s a blues single, then there’s a gospel single, then an attempt at a 
teen-pop ballad. But then you hear the debut of some group called the 
Supremes, and the Temptations and some guy called Marvin Gaye [singing "The 
Masquerade Is Over" b/w "Witchcraft"]."

Not surprisingly, The Complete Motown Singles is getting special treatment 
from the art and production departments. Each multi-disc box resembles a 
scaled-down 78-rpm record album, whose book-like covers hold their discs in 
individual cardboard sleeves. Vol. 1 comes with an introduction by Mabel 
John (the first female artist signed to Motown), an historical overview from 
Craig Werner, author of A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of 
America, plus track-by-track annotation from Bill Dahl, Keith Hughes and 
Weinger. And each box features its own (playable) copy of a 45-rpm Motown 
single from its respective era.

Vol. 2, Weinger expects, "will probably arrive in March or April, and 
hopefully two or three will come next year."



Jaimie Vernon,
President, Bullseye Records
"Not Suing Our Customers Since 1985!!"
http://www.bullseyecanada.com
Author, Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicPopEncycloPages