Barrett Strong - The Complete Motown Collection (2004) + Mini Booklet - Rare R&B/Soul (FLAC)

It said something about the status of Motown Records in America in 2004 that U.S. listeners had a 12-song compilation of Barrett Strong material, while in England Spectrum/Universal released this 22 song collection with ten of the tracks previously unreleased anywhere in any form covering his complete Motown history. This CD was the result of a thorough vault search, and those ten previously unreleased songs aren't second rate indeed, "Tell All Your Friends" and "Believe It or Not" (the latter an excellent guitar showcase, incidentally) may well strike some listeners as lost potential singles, and most of the rest are not far behind. The audio quality is excellent and the annotation thorough within the limits of what is actually known about these sides (and that isn't much as early Motown session records having vanished perhaps destroyed). Barrett Strong was there for the very early days of Berry Gordy's Motown empire, but his sound bears no resemblance to the later smooth soul stylings that dominated the label's output. He was a R&B rocker all the way. His most famous song is Gordy's first smash hit, "Money (That's What I Want)" from 1960 on the Anna label. The rest of the disc contains some solid R&B ballads like "Oh Yes I Apologize" and "Do the Very Best You Can" and Strong's powerful, raw rockers like "You Knows What to Do," "Yes No Maybe So," and "Let's Rock." The collection's highlights are a couple of songs, the bitter and tough lament "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" and the haunting Steve Mancha penned "Misery." From the sound of these two songs, Strong had what it took to be a fully fledged Soul Man. Sadly, however, his career behind the microphone stalled quickly and apart from "Money (That's What I Want)," he has been forgotten. It took until 2003 for a Strong compilation to be available in America. Too bad it is on the skimpy side, poorly packaged and liable to be overlooked by R&B and soul fans. Motown proper should have undertaken this project and made it a big deal. Barrett wouldnt record again till 1973 when he released a 45 on epic with 20 more 45,s to follow on and only recorded 4 more studio albums,2 on Capitol & one each on the Coup & Blarritt labels. A very gifted man who will be sadly missed...All his northern dancers are included........A Music Legend !

AMM

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