Detroit Spinners - Essential Collection
Universal Spectrum - 544 434-2
Available in the UK July 2001

One of the great early groups at Motown and one that the UK mod movement took under their wing during the 64-67 period when the band delivered some of the best music to come out of the label. It is ironic that the groups greatest commercial success came about after their move to Atlantic records in 1973 where the clocked up an impressive array of chart hits both in the UK and America where they became almost resident.

This collection of goodies will be well known to most Motown fans and charts their career from 1964-1970. Opening with their huge hit of 1971 ‘It’s A Shame’ which I remember buying at the time and playing it to death to an ever eager audience who requested it on a nightly basis. Bearing in mind at this point the whole back beat of Motown had slowed down to a more relaxed mid-tempo sound allowing the artists in question to demonstrate their vocal dexterity to the maximum. That said, an excellent production was never sacrificed.

After the success of this single Motown followed quickly with the follow up ‘Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music’ in the same vein and on careful inspection you can see how they took their vocal delivery to Atlantic who took it to greater commercial heights.

‘Truly Yours’ has been recorded by a number of artists on the label over the years (most notably the Temps) but the Spinners version reigns supreme with a beautiful production and vocal delivery that the group must have been so proud of. Whilst the dancers favourite from the mod era is undoubtedly ‘I’ll Always Love You’ written by Mickey Stevenson and Ivy Jo Hunter, it didn’t appear to sell too well commercially in ‘65’ and was later re-issued as a flip side to ‘For All We Know’ two years later. By then the likes of the UK soul clubs already had it as a favourite and EMI quickly re-promoted it as an ‘A’ side to a much better response all round.

However, speak to any serious Motown fan/collector and they’ll tell you that ‘Sweet Thing’ was their finest moment. Issued in the US in ‘64’ (and re-issued as a UK double sided single in the late 70’s) this was Motown at its best, even though the song itself was not an easy one to dance too.

Click this link to sample an instrumental audio clip of this song which incidentally is NOT included on this CD and to my knowledge has never been issued anywhere in the world.

Of interest too, is the track ‘(She’s Gonna Love Me) At Sundown’ a song that featured on the ‘Greetings’ LP by the Monitors who themselves recorded for the same Motown label subsidary VIP. I’d be interested to know who recorded it first?

The rest of this CD is made up of album tracks from the bands two LP’s namely ‘The Original Spinners’ and ‘Second Time Around’ both of which are now highly collectable and worthy of seeking if you are a vinyl collector. If your happy with CD’s then investing in this excellent set will set you back no more than £6.99 in the UK - it’s a shame (excuse the pun) we didn’t see more recordings from them considering how long they were with the label.

I wonder what Motown have in vaults???