Motown Complete Singles Vol 9 (1969)

Regular readers will know how much I love this series. This time out I'm going to have to not exactly give this an awful review - no sense in that; but warn you to proceed with caution. If you are a completest and already have the rest of this set, then by all means, don't even bother to read the rest of this - you need this to complete the 60's on Motown.

If you do not have the rest of the series yet, I urge you to start with an earlier year. When you've collected the other years, this one will mean more. There are still hits - plenty. There are at least 15 songs here that are on constant, regular rotation on oldies stations. You can find those in many Motown collections. What makes this series great are all the songs that weren't hits that should have been. 1969 is rare in that the ones that weren't hits are usually for good reason. I'm not going to run down all the mistakes made by the company that year, but just try to imagine Soupy Sales on Motown and you'll know in your heart what happened.

The last anthology had some of my favorite Motown song titles. This one has my favorite Motown group name: Captain Zap & The Motortown Cut-Ups. Whatd'ya want? This is the year we landed on the moon. Six disks, over 70 45's released in 1969. The great stuff is still great (Friendship Train, Psychedelic Shack, etc), and this is the first appearance of the Jackson 5 for history buffs. It was also their first hit, so nothing rare here from them. Three completely different versions of Green Grow The Lilacs make me wonder what 'folk' catalog they bought into in 1969. None of the three is a successful recording (Soupy Sales, Joe Harnell and The Originals all gave it a shot on Motown).

I prefer pointing out the strengths in my reviews. The strength of this collection is that it completes a fantastic decade for Motown. Recommended for those who have the other 8 sets. Start with any one of the other 8 sets & fill in year by year. Then add this one last.

Motown Complete Singles Vol 9 (1969)

Previous sets:
Motown Complete Singles Vol 1
Motown Complete Singles Vol 2
Motown Complete Singles Vol 3
Motown Complete Singles Vol 4
Motown Complete Singles Vol 5
Motown Complete Singles Vol 6
Motown Complete Singles Vol 7
Motown Complete Singles Vol 8
Motown Complete Singles Vol 9