Motown Chartbusters: Volume 10

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The Commodores - Three Times A Lady 1978

Feel like a ballad to kicks things off with? You bet. Make it a good one then. Oh yes - one of the best romantic songs of all time and one that doesn’t really need an introduction. Three Times A Lady is just wonderful, although I have to say that I was brought up on the original “single version” so I find that the extended one on its album actually sounds a bit disjointed. Normally I prefer the longer versions, but here I will plump for the bite-sized one that we get here. Oh, and I just love how Richie enunciates “twiiiccce”. 

Diana Ross - Love Hangover 1976

Now it's time to get on down. Diana has gone disco. This sort of set the foundations for many disco/soul grooves in the same period and beyond. The way it builds up through a few minutes of slow-burning smooth soul before it breaks out at 2.45 into that instantly recognisable disco riff is one of the song's main strengths. It powers along on the one main riff, like Chic's disco material did. This would be the sound of disco from 1976-1979. 

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - The Night 1972

Northern Soul aficionados need no introduction to The Night. From its rumbling, infectious bass intro, via its funky brass breaks and its groovy drums to its killer chorus it is simply wonderful. Although it dated from 1972, it was a UK top ten hit in 1975. I have loved it since then.

Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up 1977

Get out on that disco floor now, y'all! This is one of the greatest pieces of disco/funk ever laid down, for me. If I'm not wrong it was Gaye's last big Motown hit and what a great one it was. Recorded over a background of party noises, its addictive rhythms kick serious funkin' ass from the first notes. Get a load of those huge fatback drums, funky bass and Gaye's instinctive groovy vocals Great stuff indeed. 

Tata Vega - Get It Up For Love 1979

Hottt disco vibes continued here on another killer piece of Motown disco. Tata gives a great, gruff vocal performance, full of funk. Like Marvin Gaye's Got To Get It Up, the song boils over with cookin' clavinet-driven rhythm. Don't let anyone say that Motown couldn't do disco or funk. They sure as hell could. Take a listen to this. It grooves, man. Love it. 

Diana Ross - The Boss 1979

Why, even Diana could do disco, as Love Hangover had proved. While that track was more about the groove, this was a serving of catchy disco pop. Hell, these last three tracks have been killers, as far as my disco taste is concerned. Check out Diana's ad lib high voice parts too and the drums behind her. Dig that brass too. A little gem of a (comparative) Ross rarity.

Smokey Robinson - Theme From The Big Time 1977

Think old honey voice couldn't do disco? Think again, as even Smokey Robinson got the funk. Why, they'd all been bitten by that funky fly. As with the previous numbers, this gets your ass moving. It gets into its groove and stays there, its vocals are almost superfluous, something that is almost sacrilegious to say, considering it's Smokey Robinson, but it's true. I would also recommend the nine and a half-minute extended version.  

Syreeta - Your Kiss Is Sweet 1975

A collaboration with Syreeta's then husband Stevie Wonder, Your Kiss Is Sweet is blatant, strident, singalong pop, nothing more, nothing less. Yes Stevie could do serious music as 1973's Innervisions album showed, but he couldn't half pen a catchy pop song too.

Diana Ross - Theme From Mahogany 1975

Classic Ross balladry of the kind she did effortlessly in the early/mid seventies. No-one really remembered the film, did they? They sure as hell remembered this beautiful, immaculately-sung theme tune, though. This dated from 1975 when ballads were the staple fare of many Motown acts. The disco ball that we are experiencing/enjoying on much of this album had not yet started spinning. For that reason, it sounds just a little anachronistic, despite its obvious, peerless class. Anyway, I love it. It takes me right back to those days.

The Commodores - Easy 1977

Easy is now an iconic number, getting continued play on radio and used in TV trailers and advertisements. It is a truly great song and takes me instantly back to the summer of 1977. Yes, I still sing along with Lionel Richie's "oooh" bit just before playing my air guitar solo. I love everything about the song - it’s perfection, one of my favourite songs of all time.

Teena Marie - I'm A Sucker For Your Love 1979

More fine, unbridled disco fare here as Teena Marie joins her lover Rick James and tells him that she's just a sucker for his love. I bet she is. Anyway, quality disco  groovin' it certainly is - sexy and sassy as well as infectious. 

The Miracles - Love Machine 1975

The Miracles - without Smokey - go all Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes with this absolutely copper-bottomed, irresistible piece of upbeat soul/disco. Disco hadn't quite taken over at the time of this single's release, in 1975, but this sure filled floors at the time. I love that "uurrr-aghhhhh" vocal bit. You will know it when you hear it! The song is totally addictive.

Yvonne Fair - It Should Have Been Me 1976

It was Gladys Knight & The Pips who first recorded this song back in 1967-68 I believe. While their version was as soulful as you would expect Gladys to be there was something about this home-made sounding number that has given it lasting appeal - check out the early rhythm box, programmed backing. Yvonne's vocal is so goddamn powerful and you really believe you are right there in that church as she bellows out her affronted protest. Somebody call the po-lice! Lordy.

Rick James - You And I 1978

The funk workout of You And I has a huge punchy kick to its brass-drum-funky guitar attack, enhanced by energetic female backing vocals. It also featured a Parliament-Funkadelic-style "everybody dance on the funk" vocal refrain, plus some sizzling saxophone breaks. Tracks like this influenced a myriad of funk/pop groups over the next few years, including blatantly pop ones like Wham!.

Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way 1977

I remember back in early 1977, the song Don't Leave Me This Way was out as a single by the original recorders of it, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (with Teddy Pendergrass on deep lead vocals) but also by Thelma Houston, a little-known singer who had been knocking around, unsuccessfully, on Motown for a few years. It was Houston's livelier, more jumpily disco version that I preferred to the more soulful Harold Melvin one, funnily enough. Hers was a kick ass version, full of vitality, what with Thelma's soaring vocal and that killer clavinet backing too.

The Commodores - Sail On 1979

Despite the preponderance of disco/funk cuts on here, we end on one of Motown's best ballads from Lionel Richie and his mates, who were laying down a marker that said they were the best in the business for this sort of thing at the time. Motown in the mid/late-seventies was two things - big ballads and gigantic grooves. 

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