The Marvelettes' Are 'Forever'!

The Marvelettes were Motown's first out-of-the-box-hit stars, but they seemed to never be able to recapture their mega-star status after their initial blush of fame, but they held-on lasting through-out the Sixties. They were Motown's first to have a straight #1 record (and to add insult to the star-making factory the girls wrote the song all-by-themselves). They were one of Motown's most enduring and definite crowd pleasers; the maintained a sort of half-life as a mid-selling group, who crafted musical perfection for the true believers who held-on. They more than any other artist at Motown created anthems that proved the soundtrack to people's lives.

Anyone who doesn't like the Marvelettes is not cool with me. Are you kidding me? Are these people not fans of good music, I mean, are their other senses heightened? Have they ever heard "Please Mr. Postman", "Forever", "Beachwood 4-5789", "Strange I Know", "Locking Up My Heart", "I'm Too Strong To Be Strung Along", "Too Many Fish In The Sea", "My Baby Must Be A Magician", "I Need Someone", "A Need For Love", "Playboy", "Destination: Anywhere", "Someday, Someway", and "I'll Keep Holding On". These haters just straight-up have NO SOUL. The Marvelettes platters were not just fan favorites. These records were Motown miracles and top productions by top soul men and even a few musical geniuses that shockingly never seemed to get the entire support of the Motown machine in promotion. Finally for the lucky 5000 who still buy physical copies of audio artifacts will for a limited time be able to buy the first volume in a series to return to the throne these members of soul royalty with Forever: The Complete Motown Albums, Vol. 1 (3xCD/87 songs) from hip-oselect.com, and for those who don't want to own records anymore; you will be able to buy them on itunes.com.

Don't let music industry silence, current pop-taste, and contemporary pop audience disinterest fool you: these women are SUPERSTARS. The are only one of four majorly important Motown recordings stars to never be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame (the other three being Mary Wells, Brenda Holloway, and Junior Walker & The All-Stars, sadly, members of the RRHF wouldn't even tease about Kim Weston's possible entrance, but she would also be on the top of my list)...ugh! White People! Let's hope this will re-ignite interest in those Marvelous Marvelettes.

The Marvelettes
Forever: The Complete Motown Albums, Vol. 1
Hip-O Select Price: $39.98
Site Pre-Sale Date: 4/17/2009
Ship Date:5/8/2009

Here's what the experts at Hip-O Select say:

“They had a lot to work with,” notes producer Brian Holland in the package’s liner notes. “They had two lead singers [the sassy, pop-friendly Gladys Horton and the smoky, sophisticated Wanda Young] and were very musical when they all sang together. You could be confident they would be able to do something special with whatever you gave them.”

This collection brings together the group’s first four studio albums Please Mr. Postman, Smash Hits Of 1962, Playboy and The Marvelous Marvelettes plus, their only live album, the stereo Greatest Hits set, and every stray single, B-side and rare cut from the early era that have been issued on various compilations through the years. Every track has been newly remastered from the original LP and single masters in the Motown vault. Among the hits: “Please Mr. Postman,” “Playboy,” “Beechwood 4-5789,” “Forever,” “Someday, Someway,” “Too Many Fish in the Sea,” “Don’t Mess With Bill” and all the rest, covering the girls’ output 1961 through mid-1966.

Among the rarities: the Marvelettes’ short-lived stint as “The Darnells,” a Phil Spector-production soundalike; the non-album B-sides “Tie A String Around Your Finger,” “No Time For Tears,” “A Little Bit Of Sympathy, A Little Bit Of Love,” and others; the vault tracks “Knock On My Door,” Berry Gordy’s “Because I Love Him,” “I Should Have Known Better,” and more; the unedited live version of “Strange I Know,” taken from the original December 1962 Apollo Theater recording that produced segments of the Motortown Revue LP, Live At The Apollo Vol. 1.

Their body of work is presented in a beautiful 36-page booklet that lovingly recreates the original LP artwork, alongside classic and rare images from the Motown photo archives. There’s an essay by Gary Graff, an award-winning music journalist based in Detroit who has written extensively about Motown, and detailed track annotations release dates, recording info and producer credits missing from the original releases.