The Smiley Smile Message Board

Yesterday I was listening to some Supremes circa 1965 and this just blew me away:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcylDkRw7dg

The rhythm section hits a groove in 1965-67 that is unsurpassed in any music I know. Such as this Four Tops number:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wYoLQc-x5g

Jimmy Ruffin on the subsidiary Soul Label (original 1966, reissued 1975):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vf3ZE7CLg0

Not a popular opinion, but to me, Motown was never better than its 1961-1963 output. So many fantastic sounds by The Miracles, Mary Wells, Eddie Holland, Marvin Gaye (before he went into heavier R&B, he tried his hand at standards and soul-pop with great results), The Marvelettes, and the early efforts of the "no-hit" Supremes.

Sheesh, that's a tough one. Up until 1971 the label was just ON FIRE. I'd say the 1959-71 era was the best.

1966. But there are essential records, all the way through 1982. I wouldn't trade any Motown period for another, up till then.

It doesn't thin out after 1971? I know you have Stevie flying the flag but what else of that standard?

61-65

Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, The Miracles, The Temptations, Rick James, Teena Marie, Mary Jane Girls, Willie Hutch, Thelma Houston, Syreeta, Eddie Kendricks, Undisputed Truth, Gladys Knight & The Pips and many others.

OK, those, but what else?

(that was a joke)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8428/7635350104_e38d8c036b_b.jpg)

Isn't that 1983 (and so ineligible)?

I rest my case. Your witness, Spaceman.

Can't Slow Down's cover is greatly misunderstood. Most folks think the choice of white pants, white carpet and a nearly empty white room as being symptomatic of Lionel's music being the most pasteurized version of R&B music that could possibly be imagined. Actually, he is taking a visual cue from Yoko Ono and commenting on the essentially austere, goal-focused ethos of the decade the album was made in. At times, he notes the threat of cocaine-fueled excess to the 80's wholesome surface, particularly in the subtle parenthetical insistence in the title "All Night Long (All Night)". The idea of the visually afflicted having a greater sense of "sight" than "normal" people, which is expressed in the moving video for "Hello", finds great resonance with the early work of Pete Townshend.
I'll think of more later. I gotta go return some videos.

 :lol

And my dad had that album.

But did he have the limited edition replica of the Lionel bust from the "Hello" video? They gave away 5 of them, you'd win the head if you opened the album jacket and found a gold ticket inside.

(http://www.stereogum.com/img/lionel11.jpg)

He's going to be so mad when he finds that he missed out.

Just My Imagination, 1971. Doesn't get any better than this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Z9-QCmZyw

Yeah, that song is pure astral projection.

1961-1972, and inside of that, 1963-1967. Absolutely amazing music was being cranked out left and right, and Holland-Dozier-Holland were amazing songwriters and the Funk Brothers? Nothing else needs to be said. I couldn't live without it.

been obsessed with that song lately, that harmony blend...wow

I think those 7 or 8 harp notes near the beginning have to be the most effective 7 or 8 harp notes in the world.

(http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/user_photos/1186041/tumblr_lhi1iphgHM1qzw0myo1_500_rectangle_fullsize.jpeg)

Thanks for starting this thread, harrisonjon. It prompted me to get out my Motown. Just for the heck of it, my Top 10, today :-D:

1. Love Child - The Supremes
2. You're All I Need To Get By - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
3. My Cherie Amour - Stevie Wonder
4. Get Ready - The Temptations
5. It's The Same Old Song - The Four Tops
6. Goin' To A Go-Go - The Miracles
7. Maybe Tomorrow - The Jackson 5
8. Jimmy Mack - Martha & The Vandellas
9. Papa Was A Rolling Stone - The Temptations
10. Mercy Mercy Me - Marvin  Gaye

Does this count as Motown? It was actually on Epic Records. Takes about 2 seconds for this song to make me break down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE0pwJ5PMDg

And the way the guitar line in this song interacts with the rest of the song has always had me spellbound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lihbaHfnDhk

Another borderline Motown song I suppose.

You've answered your own question. It can't be Motown if it was released on Epic. Great record though!

Best has gotta be 1964-67. The best Four Tops, Temps, Miracles and Supremes records came out mostly during those years. "Reach Out I'll Be There" has gotta be in my top 10 of all time.

I think that most of Motown's 15 or so years of existence were pretty much perfect. Personally, I love their "psychedelic soul" period, from roughly 1967 to 1973. Pretty much anything that Norman Whitfield touched turned to gold in that era.

 ;D

Motown existed for far longer than 15 years. I mean, why would someone think that?

Something to do with the move to LA? It's been a while since I watched Standing In The Shadows... but I thought it would have been final by that point.

Plus, everyone here except us seems to hate disco so they might be ignoring it on that basis  ;D

Well, more for us. Me, I'll put Don't Leave Me This Way and Love Hangover up there with anyone's You Can't Hurry Love.
Motown wasn't sold to MCA until 1988, so that takes it to about 30 years. And one could argue that the company's history still continued after that, even though it was not independent any more.

I just simply forgot to put in the word "first", that's all. I meant to say their first 15 years.

Ahh, I see.

Specifically, up until the original office moved. I believe that was around 1973?

1972. But the period after that, all the way up through Rick James' Street Songs, is as underrated as folks here feel the post-hit years Beach Boys are.

My liking of R&B music kind of ends around the mid 1970's, except for The Temptations. As a result I don't know much about Motown and it's artists from about the mid 1970's and onward.

Same for me. By the late 70's, everybody known as a soul or r&b artist was expected to do disco - don't get me wrong, some of the early records classified as disco were very good (George McCrae's Rock Your Baby, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' The Love I Lost), but as time went on, it got very predictable and bland sounding. Although even that stuff sounds better to my ears than most of the stuff that's come out since then called 'dance music'. Somewhere along the way, they stopped using real drummers, bass players, guitars, etc, and did it all with machines. Just no comparison there between the machines playing it and the Funk Brothers, or the Stax band.

Motown's disco records are no more formulaic and factory-generated than the mid-60's stuff. I mean, Holland-Dozier-Holland created a record entitled It's The Same Old Song.
The problem was not in disco, it was in the R&B field, when everything became too smooth and slow. Admittedly, Lionel Richie was a big part of this, when he wrote Three Times A Lady (ironically, to that point, the Commodores were a heavy, sexy funk band, Motown's Ohio Players). But Motown also produced the vital counterbalance to this trend, Rick James, who should get a lot of the credit that Prince receives.

I would agree with the view that 1965 up to the time they left Detroit for LA in 1972. Honestly, you can't beat those Funk Brothers numbers can you...especially on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album.

Yeah I guess I'd agree with that.  Their sound was really good when they were doing the straight forward stuff in the early days.  When they first developed that 'groove'.

I always think of Motown at their absolute peak around 1966, but heard an AT0 year end countdown from 1970 recently, and they were still very dominant. I think they had 4 of the top 10 records of the year.

I think from 1960-80 you will find the best stuff. If we are talking singles I would say from 1965-72 is hard to beat.

R&B in general, not just Motown, pretty much started to show its first signs of suckitude during the disco era, and took a nosedive into complete crapdom during the 80s, and left us with awful adult contemporary posing as R&B and shitty R&B-Hip Hop hybrids in the 90s and 00s. Motown moving to LA and changing to following trends instead of setting (with a few notable exceptions) them didn't really help much.

I don't think disco should be mentioned as having any negative effect upon R&B. It had a parallel history. Soul acts dipped into it, but so did pop acts.
As hard as it may be to fault the Philly soul movement in any way, the smoothness of that genre is actually a major influence upon R&B/soul going down the route of slow blandness, once it was mixed with an even lighter pop sound. And Motown actually was a major determining force in that move, with Lionel Richie's early Commodores ballads, as opposed to just "following trends", as stated before.
Motown set trends all the way through Boys II Men. But if we are talking about Motown losing its status as the major trendsetter in the R&B field, that happened well before the move to LA. Even Cloud Nine was an attempt to follow the harder soul-rock sound of Sly and the Family Stone.

Boyz II Men were (talented) bland MOR adult contemporay posing as R&B. Possibly victims of their era. The Funk Brothers or Booker T and the MGs would have improved their songs 100 fold.

Lionel Ritchie should have been banished from the music business when he decided to switch from funk songs to cheesy balladry.  :angry :angry :angry :angry :angry

I agree. They still set a trend, unfortunately, and had many imitators. They are the biggest selling act in Motown history. One thing I will say for them is that they at least had some element of reference to Motown's history, naming their album Cooleyhighharmony and making a hit out of GC Cameron's lost classic It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday (the theme from Cooley High, a great film released by AIP-Motown's association with the film is one of the hippest moments in their history, along with releasing the soundtracks to Foxy Brown, The Mack and Hell Up In Harlem).

Are they really? I'd have thought Stevie, Smokey, the Temps, Jackson 5, Supremes, Marvin Gaye, or Four Tops would lay claim to that title.

But didn't they technically record for Universal, with Motown simply as the imprint/subsidiary?  I wouldn't count anything from after Berry Gordy sold the label.

My Motown tastes are kind of eccentric and my choice of best - or rather, favorite - era varies with the artist.

Marvin Gaye: 1964-66 (apart from the later duets with Tammi and What's Going On)

Supremes: After H-D-H (and even then I like some of the post-Diana sides better than the ones with her)

Stevie Wonder: Music Of My Mind and Talking Book, then Secret Life Of Plants

Four Tops: 1967-68

Smokey & Miracles: mostly 1963-65

No, they were on the Motown label full stop, tho after it was sold to MCA. You can choose to not count them if you wish, but technically, they count.

Yeah, I'm thinking singles; the early Motown albums, like a lot from that era, were usually just a couple of hit singles surrounded by filler. Marvin, of course, changed that with What's Going On? and Stevie with those great 70's albums.

I was about to be like 'you call this filler?!' then checked and they released it as a single anyway. But I'll post it anyway because it is AMAZING.

Baby Don't You Do It, by Marvin Gaye.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bf3S6VpCZE

Oh my lord. Not true at all. At all.

  Motown's 1966-67 peak is exemplified by H-D-H's "gothic soul classical period" of 1966-67. Best examples are mini-trilogies from the Four Tops ("Reach Out I'll Be There", "Standing in the Shadows of Love", "Bernadette") and the Supremes ("You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone", "Reflections"*)

 * I deliberately omitted "The Happening". Not sure what was going on with that 45.

The Happening might be my favorite Diana-era Supremes 45.

I hate to do it... but I just got to make the point that even some of the Motown stuff from the 80's was pretty decent. 

Debarge - All This Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMyuP5S87_k

Probably didn't have anything to do with the Motown Machine by that time, but still it was Motown. 

I think there were some very good Motown albums before 1972. The late sixties Temptations and many of the Jackson 5's early albums were very tight.

Going To A Go-Go is one of the greatest albums of the 60's. There are many other examples. Marvin Gaye's When I'm Alone I Cry, The Temptations Sing Smokey, Chris Clark's Soul Sounds, Junior Walker's Soul Session, The Supremes' Where Did Our Love Go, the first two Four Tops albums, Martha & The Vandellas' Watchout!, etc.

I think"Make it Happen" from 67 is even better. Not a dud track to found. Lots of very solid Miiracles albums right from 61.

Very true.

64-67, before the label began trying for "relevance".

Speaking objectively, I have to say Norman Whitfield did some great work writing and producing, but his style is just not to my taste.

.

.

Damn right.

I think you mean NOT high to not enjoy his work. Dude made great weedmusik

Case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB3hYQ8AFyA

Norman Whitfield was a genius, plain and simple. I would put him right up there with Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, and George Martin. Papa Was A Rolling Stone is a masterpiece of song production and construction. I reccomend everybody here to  sit down and really take a careful listen to it. At any one point in the song, you'll hear vocals, handclaps, guitars, bass, and drums all playing a totally different melody and tempo similtaniously. There are so many different things going on in that song, and no two instruments are playing the same thing at the same time. But it works!  ;D

His period with The Temptations was amazing to me.

Early Motown is probably the best in terms of how they focused on making great records using basic recording techniques, the attention to detail in terms of sound quality (they played songs in car stereos etc. to make sure they sounded great & recording songs until they were perfect), the Funk Brothers, H-D-H, The Corporation, the departments where they taught acts how to perform, how to act during interviews etc. Very professional run that way. When Motown moved out West & Berry Gordy wanted to get into movies it kind of took away the 'magic' from the music although during the 70's you got 'Whats Going On', Stevie's best solo albums etc.  Although you got DeBarge et al and later Boyz II Men after Motown's heyday although at that point Motown was just a label name, compared to what it was before when it was like more of a umbrella encompasses lots of different elements with the music/production/attention to detail/A&R etc.

Early Motown, 45s only, to summer 1966 ("Beauty Is Only Skin Deep", "Reach Out I'll Be There"). 

This is a great Motown song from 1965 that I heard for the first time today. Why it wasn't a huge hit is a complete mystery...

The Dalton Boys----"Take My Hand" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kVrC4Ddi7I)

Two years ago someone mentioned that Boys II Men were possibly victims of their time, and that Booker T & The MG's would have really helped them 100 fold.

I never read that till today, man what a mind-f*** that is!  That would have been superb to hear.

Can you imagine if we got back to the day when the band behind the singers was actually able to improvise and change the feel of the song?  Booker T & the MG's backing up your favorite musicians???

I guess the closest thing we have to that today is the Roots. 

Motown was really, REALLY collectively good...in fact GREAT from about 63/64 to 68.  Then it began to be good to great in fewer places and with fewer artists.  From just after Stevie Wonder's Fingertips to around the time when Diane Ross became too big to just be a Supremes member it was top shelf.  But Diane helped to spoil the magic.  Mary and Flo deserved better.  Mary, by the way, calls Diane Diane.  If it's good enough for her...as she shared it with me...it's good enough for me.

Stevie and Marvin continued to flourish into the 70s.  Marvin...'til we lost him...Stevie 'til at least Master Blaster.  Their albums were sensational. :afro  They still sound outstanding. :hat

This is the most comprehensive Motown topic, so I shall post all future tracks here.

"Do The Boomerang" from 1965 is easily my favourite track by Jr. Walker & the All Stars. An absolute classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGfeh06t35w

Another great Motown favourite of mine is The Miracles' 1965 hit "Going To A Go-Go":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Tfm70dL5s



 

Double post, so let's make the most of it, lol.

The Miracles could sing ballads too (and how!) and this must be the most heart-breaking of them all.

From earlier in that same year of 1965, this is "Ooh Baby Baby":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2UIu57-CRQ

Not the best-known '60s Motown track but a real scorcher sung by Kim Weston, later Marvin Gaye's first musical partner.

If anyone were ever to ask me to play them just one typical Motown track, it would be "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)".

The instrumental break uses minimal means to maximum effect----simply stunning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVkXrimUidA

Oh yes, Smoky Robinson and the Miracles are superb!
Great songs you posted. Other faves for me are "I Second that Emotion" and "The Tears of a Clown."

For Jr. Walker and The All Stars, another favorite is "Shake and Fingerpop." I love the lyric "Put on your wig, woman, we're going out to shake and fingerpop" LOL. And that wailing sax. Fun stuff.

Thanks, E. I bought "Shake And Fingerpop" at the time. What a groove! Bought "Going To A Go Go" as well and played it to death all that first evening! I think those were my only Motown singles...

As for albums, I had three Hitsville USA comps, Jr. Walker's debut with all the good stuff and a stonking instrumental album of Motown covers by Earl Van Dyke that included this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly7WKsh3x-Q

Tried to post this earlier in a more elaborate form but lost it while juggling with multiple windows!

This forgotten gem from 1964 by (in those days) Little Stevie Wonder was produced by Jack Nitzsche. It just failed to scrape the top 50 in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTgVe_onF8U 

Man, Motown was awesome! Motown's best period, that's a tough question.

I think the Tempts were at their best from 1967-1975. I love the early records and David Ruffin, and With A Lot O Soul is a fantastic album, but Cloud Nine and All Directions are two of their other masterpieces and came in the late 60's to early 70's. Norman Whitfield, as mention earlier, is a total genius and I could listen to his work for hours and hours. He wrote some of Motown's most iconic songs and was a true visionary: I'd argue he saved Motown with his consistently excellent work in the late 60's and early 70's. Barrett Strong was also a great lyricist.

The Four Tops were at their best from 1967-1973. Reach Out is great, as are H-D-H, but I LOVE their Frank Wilson produced work: Still Waters Run Deep and Changing Times in particular. Such a unique sound, and fascinating lyrics and production. Main Street People, their second post-Motown album, should be mentioned also even though it's not Motown. It's no surprise that he was a Whitfield protégé.

The Supremes were pretty consistent throughout, as were Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, but they too seemed to hit a stride in 1966/67. Plus, I love Edwin Starr's music from this period as well. His album '25 Miles' is quite good. My favorite songs of his are Soul City, Love Is My Destination and Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On. Time is another good one.

So I'd say 1967 is when Motown probably peaked in terms of artistic AND commercial success, but a lot of their artists went on to do great (arguably their best) work in from '67 onwards and into the mid-70's. And of course I haven't even mentioned Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and the Jacksons, who obviously were incredibly successful in the 70's. David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks also had some success as solo artists, especially Kendricks, or Jimmy Ruffin, who was big around the same time. So I'd say 1967-1975 is my favorite Motown period, and their best.

My top Motown songs (in no particular order, just ones I love), if I had to make a list, would be:

Mother Nature (Tempts)
I Can't Be Hurt Anymore (David Ruffin)
In These Changing Times (Four Tops)
Reflections (Supremes version or Tops version, either one)
The Agony and the Ecstasy (Smokey)
Runaway Child, Running Wild (Tempts)
Love Is My Destination (Edwin Starr)
Living for the City (Stevie Wonder)
The Onion Song (Gaye and Tami Terrell)
Love Woke Me Up This Morning (Tempts version)

Honorable mentions would be Right Before My Eyes by the Four Tops, Mercy, Mercy Me by Marvin, Tuesday Heartbreak by Wonder, Quiet Storm by Smokey. Wow, now I feel like I should've put those as my absolute favorites, and I could keep going. And this post is a lot longer than I'd thought it'd be.  :lol

Great post there, JL. We're clearly of different generations as for me Motown peaked in '66. ;=)

Lol thanks. Yeah, I've always loved Motown, the Temptations are probably my favorite group aside from The Beatles and The Beach Boys.

You really can't go wrong with any era of Motown. 1966 was a great year for the label too. Admittedly I'm not as big a fan of the late 70's-80's Motown, but there's some amazing stuff there too.

While I love early Motown, the later (1967 through 1975 or so) appeals to me more. There's more variety with the songs, topics wise.
For hard hitting songs, in my opinion, recordings by Stevie Wonder (Livin for the City, among many others), Edwin Starr (War), Temptations (Papa was a Rolling Stone), Supremes (Love Child), Marvin Gaye (What's Goin On and others) hold up very well even now.
Love Motown.

Good post! I agree with you, even your favorite time period of '67-75. Motown wasn't the consistent hit machine it once was in the later years, but every artist flying off in different directions made for some great music.

I dislike Motown. Listened to famous names - boring. Is obscure artist who fans who read this thread could advise to hear?

To each their own, as they say!

If you dislike the main stars of Motown, there's certainly plenty of more obscure artists that maybe had a couple of hits before fading away.

As mentioned, Edwin Starr is good, but I forgot to mention that even some of his 70's disco hits like H-A-P-P-Y Radio and Contact are solid. His version of My Sweet Lord is also good.

The Undisputed Truth had the one hit Smiling Faces Sometimes, but did other songs too (including the ORIGINAL Papa Was a Rolling Stone).

Jimmy Ruffin has some nice music too.

Also dig deep into the catalogs of The Four Tops and Temptations, they're not obscure, but some of their later music is. They had some big flops that never scraped the Top 40 and you never hear talked about, but are still fantastic.

And of course there's a smattering of other Motown groups that had very brief periods of mild success (The Velvelettes, The Monitors, Shorty Long) that are worth hearing, if you want REALLY obscure.

Love The Velvelettes, particularly "Needle In A Haystack": 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh7Vpr4V6HM

Shorty Long's "Function At The Junction" is another corker. And The Elgins did some great stuff too...

Question to JL: which song everybody likes you don't? Which 'town artist many regard great you just like casually?

Thanks to the list. After 60s psych music shall check Edwin Starr et al.

You're welcome!

To be honest with you, outside of Marvin Gaye's big hits in the 60's and his What's Going On album, I feel like he's pretty overrated as an artist. I haven't listened to all of his work yet, but 'Let's Get It On' is considered a masterpiece album by many: I found it decent but dull and monotonous. I feel similarly for 'Here, My Dear': supposedly one of the greatest albums ever made to many. I DO find it sloppy and at times incoherent, but on the plus side it is more interesting than LGIO. And for better or worse, it's a real, painfully honest look into the mind of Marvin Gaye at that point in time (much like say, 'Love You' was for Brian Wilson). I actually like his last album, "Midnight Love" more than the other two 'classics'. Marvin is still a legend for What's Going On alone, and his singing voice, but I think that Curtis Mayfield had him beat as a songwriter/producer and David Ruffin as a vocalist.

I like Smokey Robinson a LOT: but mostly his more mature solo work. I feel some of his cutesy early lyrics were effective but already outdated by the mid-to late sixties. Listen to what his next single for the Temptations was going to be before Norman Whitfield took over as their producer (Little Miss Sweetness) and compare it to what Whitfield wrote (Ain't Too Proud To Beg), and you'll see how other songwriters were already beginning to equal or surpass him, or at least keep up with the times better (which Smokey eventually did as well in the 70's). Whitfield/Barrett Strong and Holland-Dozier-Holland were both better, more consistent composers/lyricists overall.

I'd say those two are the biggest examples. Again, I 'do' like them, but there's other Motown artists that I not only like more personally, but even from a more unbiased perspective, I feel like they're not quite as great as some claim them to be. Which isn't to say they aren't great at all, or unimportant in history: just overrated, sometimes at the expense of better artists.

The only pop songwriter I might put alongside Brian's 3-5 years of genius is Stevie Wonder's early 70's genius.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS2yMn3JbQk
^
Every bloody note in that song is complete perfection. Ditto this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wZ_b_uUAdQ

Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.

Like heck I will. ;D

I'm more a fan of Stevie's early to mid '60s stuff. This one, which I heard in the restaurant at lunchtime today, is my all-time SW favourite (and his first) since dropping the "Little" from his name. (My favourite when he was Little Stevie Wonder? The Jack Nitzsche produced "Castles In The Sand".)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDbyOLzEyfk

Single favorite 'town artist: Jackson 5. Sure, everybody makes big deal about this record company but to me it's just one of many. If I don't hear any songs by the other 'town artists again, it wouldn't be end of the world.
Anyhoo, Jackie Wilson beats the whole 'town! :D :3d

I disagree, RR, but I do agree that Jackie did some great songs! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvLMbSDFV1I

Disagree away. It matters that Berry Gordy, 'town founder :3d, stated the same about Jackie Wilson in his autobio dubbing him the greatest singer he'd ever heard. :3d Means a lot, roight?

What's in the link? I said many times before that youtube's very slow, at least people with fast video traffic should try to help by jotting down what's in it. Ta in advance.

It's "I Get The Sweetest Feeling", probably my favourite JW song.

I love Lonely Teardrops !

Back to Motown (after almost a year). There was (and maybe still is) a great active Motown topic across the road--here I'm on my own (win some, lose some). The Temptations almost deserve a topic of their own, although this can probably be said of a dozen other Motown acts. Masses of sad songs on that label--the Temps certainly had a few under their belt and perhaps none sadder than this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-es4Q8AJaU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wish_It_Would_Rain

The Elgins are fairly low-profile as Motown acts go but they recorded some true classics, including the sumptuous "Put Yourself In My Place", which has been on my mind all morning. Love the little vocal twist at the second "try it baby"!

Eeek! In my infinite ignorance, I'd always assumed the lead singer was a man like the backing vocalists. I only found out this minute that it's not. My sincere apologies to Saundra Mallett Edwards. :smokin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIkwuUodBUM

Here's a heart-breaking Motown ballad I used to play on the piano in the 1960s. The solo in Brenda Holloway's "Every Little Bit Hurts" is every pianist's dream:  ::)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMsIPnX-lzA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Holloway