Stevie Wonder Ultimate

Berry Gordy was more than just a visionary label owner, he was also an astute businessman who studied and understood how the pop charts worked, and his stable of songwriters, arrangers, musicians, and singers all worked toward the same aim of refining R&B and soul music into a pop product that appealed across race, gender, and generational lines. And Gordy knew – although the radio play and sales period was extremely brief – that nothing endured more than a good Christmas record, which could regenerate sales each and every year when the holiday season rolled around again. It should come as no surprise, then, that Motown issued a sizable amount of seasonal material, and as this two-disc, 51-track collection shows, a lot of it was done at a high level of quality.

Collectables Records' various-artists compilation The Ultimate Christmas Album has been released both on its own and as a tie-in with a series of radio stations. There are identical editions of the album associated with KLUV, K-Earth 101 FM, and WCBS FM-101.1 in addition to this version, WJMK 104.3 Chicago. The word "ultimate" has been overused and misused in record releases to the point that it doesn't mean very much to see it on the cover of an album. Whether or not one considers this album to justify its title will have a lot to do with individual musical taste. If the potential consumer is a listener to one of the radio stations listed above, which are oldies stations devoted to playing pop/rock music of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, he or she may agree that the album is the ultimate in holiday music of that period.

Motown issued a sizable amount of seasonal material, and as this two-disc, 51-track collection shows, a lot of it was done at a high level of quality. There are simply some wonderful Christmas sides here, including the Jackson 5's buoyant "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," the Temptations' delightfully rendered "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," the Funk Brothers' surging and joyous instrumental take on "Winter Wonderland," Smokey Robinson's hopeful "Christmas Everyday," the Four Tops' lightly funky "Merry Christmas Baby," and a pair of odd but beautiful Marvin Gaye pieces, "Christmas in the City" and the achingly perfect "I Want to Come Home for Christmas."

This excellent 250-track anthology contains many tracks originally recorded in the Fifties and early Sixties that would be picked up on by bands all over the world and are still being performed today. The originals have a glamour all of their own, having been recorded in the country where rock and the blues had their birth.

This excellent 250-track anthology contains many tracks originally recorded in the Fifties and early Sixties that would be picked up on by bands all over the world and are still being performed today. The originals have a glamour all of their own, having been recorded in the country where rock and the blues had their birth.

The Ultimate Collection: Northern Soul brings together 5CDs containing 100 tracks that encapsulate the very best from the music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England in the late 1960s from the British mod scene.