Motown THE DVDMotown THE DVD
18 FULL-LENGTH PERFORMANCES
Universal Music/Historic Music
UK Release Date: 30th November 2009

Released at the end of what must surely be Motown's greatest year of releases celebrating Motown50. This sizzling new DVD is just what the doctor ordered prior to Christmas and is set to be the most eagerly awaited piece of nostalgia in years. The music of Motown has been widely available on CD for years now but video footage of your favourite artists have been a lot less easy to come by and whilst much of what is featured here is freely available on the internet on the likes of YouTube, the reality is, most of it is very limited in sound and picture quality, and the usual restoration job is superb bringing these priceless clips to life in both the original sound format, and the digitally overdubbed sound making them almost like new videos in themselves.

OK so there have been DVD's released from the Ed Sullivan shows of the 1960's and they have been great. This new release takes the theme one step further. The aforementioned Sullivan shows used the same backdrop in each edition and invariably used live vocals from the artists. This new DVD has songs taken from different sources and is a mixture of live and lip synched performances giving the viewer the best of both worlds. Some of the clips on this new DVD have been featured on this website's video gallery for a number of years now so will be well known. That said nevertheless some of these clips are unbelievable and and worth their weight in gold to own. For example, take the opening video 'Please Mr Postman' an early recording from the Marvelettes as well as 'My Girl' from the legendary Temptations are well aired clips that have appeared on the internet over the years and its sad that no amount of doctoring can remove those annoying vertical lines from the original tape - but don't let that put you off as the clip is a fantastic insight into what was to come over the following years. Same too of their 'Don't Mess With Bill' which suffers from an apparent brightness issue during the first half of the song but corrects itself thereon.

If you want some real action flick onto a wonderful colour clip of the Contours performing their 1962 hit 'Do You Love Me' featuring some razor sharp dance moves that the Temptations and The Pips would have been proud of. The delightful Brenda Holloway whose following here in the UK is second to none appeared on the US TV show Shivaree and her 1964 release 'Every Little Bit Hurts' is a real pleasure to watch as this future Motown diva shows off her immense talent via this lip synched sultry performance. What a shame she didn't become a bigger star than she did. The Ed Sullivan show is featured here with label favourites Martha & the Vandellas performing a live vocal performance in full colour of their 1964 hit 'Dancing In The Street' after being featured in a humerous TV interview on another programme. Then its back to a lip synch with 'Nowhere To Run' that well seen clip from the Detroit Ford factory. Incidentally sound quality is superb.

Next up, the 4 Tops with a live performance of their greatest hit 'I Can't Help Myself' and whilst nothing can be done to improve sound you can experience just how these guys take the audience apart with this electrifying performance  - the German's will never be the same again - just listen to that crowd!! As with Brenda Holloway, we have the delightful Kim Weston whose rocking northern soul anthem is worth the price of this DVD alone appears on Swingin' Time singing 'Take Me In Your Arms' (rock me a little while) and whilst not being the best quality clip on this compilation is certainly one of the best songs. Now for the jewel in the crown. How about the fantastic Marvin Gaye singing live in colour 'Ain't That Peculiar' using the original Motown backing track making this the most potent track of them all. Talk about the best of both worlds! A young Stevie Wonder can be found performing 'Uptight' from 1965 courtesy of Swingin' Time. It goes without saying that this era of Motown is captured perfectly with these legendary song clips.

If there's one artist who very rarely gets seen on the TV then it has to be the excellent Jimmy Ruffin whose contribution to the sound of Motown was second to none. His 1965 anthem 'What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted' gets on this playlist with a nostalgic B/W clip from The Beat Club and is lip synched so captures the songs magic in full. Next up two tracks from the TV show Upbeat featuring ex Temptations front man David Ruffin performing his debut solo single since breaking from the group 'My Whole World Ended' and the rest they say is history as this man went on to perform some of the most potent and musical memories of Motown during the 1970's. From the same show we have an extremely rare clip of the late Edwin Starr performing 'War' in full colour. Edwin's music needs no introduction on this web site and the only other clip I've ever seen from this era was '25 Miles' from 1968 which can be viewed from our video gallery. Last up is the Andy Williams TV show special presenting 'Tears Of A Clown' from Smokey Robinson & the Miracles using a live vocal from Smokey yet no microphones for the Miracles?

As a bonus on this DVD there are interviews from the likes of the Tops, Gladys Knight, and Berry Gordy plus footage of that famous Motown picnic in full colour with some familiar faces of the day such as Frank Wilson, Michael Jackson and some other notable names from the Motown family.

You can bet your bottom dollar that there are dozens and dozens of similar clips sitting in TV archives around the world just begging to get released and remastered like this DVD.

The best I've seen for a long time.
Rating 10/10

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Special Features


Other Motown clips from this website.