Dance Flick

The Complete Motown Singles has been a dream project of Motown and soul fanatics for many years, ever since the first decade of Stax/Volt singles was compiled in an impressive nine-disc box set in 1991. Prior to that, no soul label had its output as thoroughly documented as that set – there had been the Atlantic R&B box, which collected highlights, but it never attempted to capture the label's entire run – and while The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968 missed a B-side or two, it was an exceptional piece of music history, and pretty damn entertaining to boot.

Lou Gramm had been recording with Rochester, New York based band, Black Sheep, since the early 1970s. Releasing two LPs for Capitol, Lou Gramm met his future bandmate and songwriting partner Mick Jones in 1975 when Black Sheep opened for Spooky Tooth in Rochester. Mick Jones was looking for a singer for his new band in 1976, and Black Sheep having split at the end of 1975, Lou was free to audition for Mick’s new group, Foreigner. Releasing their self-titled album on Atlantic Records in 1977, and featuring solid gold rock classics as ‘Cold As Ice’ and ‘Feels Like The First Time’, Foreigner were an instant worldwide smash. Going from strength to strength, the band hit a commercial peak in 1984 with the “Agent Provocateur” album and the chart topping power ballad, ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’.