The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 1 (1959-1961)

I am child of vinyl era so my concentration usually wonders off if album goes more than 30-45 minutes. When I was growing up, double vinyl LPs were actually more that I wished for, now with CD format it goes on forever and it looks like music is selling by its weight. When it comes to CD boxes, I am usually slightly worried to approach one, because though I can't resist them (and I have several) I know deep inside that this is far more than I actually want to listen.

This introduction to "Complete Motown Singles" with its six CDs is however something I can hardly resist - its not for casual listeners wanting only biggest hits, since it goes deep into vaults and unearths odds & ends, absolutely every single recording this than-young recording company (along with its subsidiaries) had released in its search for a hit, many experiments in various genres (not necessarily what we later learnt to associate with Motown sound), occasional jump onto band waggon, copy of than-current hits and even cannibalism of their own recorded material, answer songs, you name it.

Of course, this was all brainchild of one man - Barry Gordy - just imagine, there would be no Motown, no music, no hits, no soundtrack of several generations, no Temptations and countless others, had it not been for this one man who masterminded it all. As we know, Gordy had a records shop first where he tried to sell Jazz and it didn't work out - from there, he moved into commercial market, listening what is popular and successful on the charts and this first volume of Motown's collected singles gives some idea what the pop music was like back than - at first we got all sorts of music genres, from 1950s style rock, doo wop, surf, gospel and even country and even novelties, but than Smokey Robinson comes along and something magic started to happen. From the very first note of "Bad girl" when that angelic voice soars, Gordy must have said to himself "oh-oh wait a minute", it really started it all.

)

Long awaited and welcomed with euphoria, these "complete singles collection" of Motown might surprise casual fans looking for more hidden gems - variety of music styles, experiments and shots in the dark are equally dazzling, staggering and initially confusing for those wanting more of Holland-Dozier-Holland stuff: each CD with roughly 26-27 songs brings only one hit single nested along with lesser tracks by artists who never really made it. What this collection does very effectively is to show what a celebration was when gold was struck - when halfway trough CD1 we finally hear Barrett Strong, its like an earthquake, his "Money (That's What I Want)" thunders like a locomotive and each of now-familiar Motown hits have the same effect when heard in the company of close relatives. Personally I find this collection slightly exhausting but very thrilling and exciting because of its variety.

)