The Temptations Hum Along And Dance

This 18-track compilation contains Temptations B-sides, non-hit cuts and obscure sides recorded from 1963-1974. It includes such sumptuous ballads as "What Love Has Joined Together" and "Gonna Keep On Trying Till I Win Your Love," plus uptempo wailers and an occasional dud ("Stop The War Now"). The early tracks show the group evolving from its doo-wop roots into soul's premier group. While the cuts on this disc aren't the ones that made The Temptations popular music institutions, they're still a vital part of their legacy.

The Temptations were the greatest of the Motown groups, and for a label that also had the Four Tops and the Supremes, that’s really saying something. Blessed with a succession of great singers like Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, and Dennis Edwards, any of whom could have easily fronted their own group, the Temptations racked up countless hits between 1961 and 1971, helped immeasurably by Motown's astounding songwriting stable. Songs like “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Since I Lost My Baby,” “Get Ready,” “Ain’t Too Pround to Beg,” “(I Know) I’m Losing You,” “I Wish It Would Rain,” “Cloud Nine,” “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “Psychedelic Shack,” and “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)” are enduring classics that still sound fresh and vital all these years later.

Psychedelic Soul is a 2CD compilation released in 2003 by Motown legends The Temptations. It represents the era of their music they made between 1968 to 1970 and while they weren't specifically psychedelic, it showed the edginess of the music they made that was different from when they became known for "My Girl" and "The Way You Do The Things You Do". This was released by Motown Chronicles.

Part of the new wave of British two-LPs-on-one-CD Motown releases, these two albums, issued almost exactly two and a half years apart, bookend the early-'70s successes of the Temptations.

With everything the Temptations released pretty much guaranteed to turn to gold, not to mention platinum, even their tripped-out forays into sweet '60s psychedelic experimentation were sure to fire a string of hits. 1970's Norman Whitfield-produced Psychedelic Shack while perhaps a system shock to those fans who grooved to the band's lame-suited, Motown dance-routined R&B classics was a magnificent stretch into an epic that ultimately emerged as another in a long line of enduring sets.

"Ma" is Rare Earth's most satisfying LP, a great effort capped off by Norman Whitfield writing and producing all five songs. "Ma," the title track, had been done by the Temptations and the Undisputed Truth, but nobody rocked like Rare Earth; they jam for 17:17 on the funkiest mama song ever. "Hum Along and Dance" first appeared on the Temptations' Psychedelic Shack; Rare Earth gives the groover an update, with a rolling organ to set it off. A haunting arrangement of "Smiling Faces Sometimes" will make you shiver, and things don't get much more sensual than the soft and lush "Come with Me."

For the first time ever, on the occasion of the group's 50th anniversary of their first hit, every single from Martha Reeves & the Vandellas is now in one package-the 3-CD box set 50th Anniversary: The Singles Collection 1962-1972, featuring all A- and B- sides, and much, much more. Featured among the set's 82 tracks are the group's 10 top ten Pop and R&B hits, including the everlasting "Come And Get These Memories," "Dancing In The Street," "Heat Wave" and "Nowhere To Run"; also included are the Vandellas' Spanish language versions of "I'm Ready For Love" and "Jimmy Mack." Martha Reeves first arrived at Motown to audition; she ended up becoming the company's first A&R secretary, and then a star, when she filled in to sing at a session and brought her background singers along. Along with the Miracles and the Marvelettes, she and the Vandellas were Motown trailblazers, who helped develop what was to soon become the world-famous "Motown Sound."