Retro Roundup’s 10 favourite Motown songs

By Joel Goldenberg, October 12th, 2012

With enough great songs to fill 12 box sets (which have already been released), the ‘60s output from the Motown label was pretty much unequalled in terms of sheer quality. Not only were there great hits from the likes of Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, but there were also great near one-shots and songs recorded in the 1960s that didn’t even get released until a few years ago.
Here are Retro Roundup’s 10 favourites, in no particular order:
• Temptations- Ball of Confusion: This 1970s single, which should only be heard in its mono single mix, is perhaps the most ferocious sounding of all Tempts songs. Starting with a really low but intense countoff, the song spells out a whole lot of society’s ills and cultural references (including the Beatles). But the most intense part is reserved for what I consider to be the greatest lyric couplet in music history:
“Great googa-mooga/Can’t you hear me talkin’ to ya?”
• Stevie Wonder — We Can Work It Out: Stevie’s own compositions are wonderful, but this  is maybe the best Beatles cover of all. It completely revamps the song in Stevie’s funky style. But what really makes this 1971 hit stand out is, again, the mono single mix. The bass part in between the instrumental intro and Stevie’s vocal is one of the deepest and most thrilling I’ve ever heard.
• Thelma Houston — Don’t Leave Me This Way: Yes, this is not a 1960s hit, and it’s not even a Motown original (that was by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes on the Philadelphia International label, featuring Teddy Pendergrass). But as with We Can Work It Out above, this 1976 version is a complete revamping of the song, making it super-propulsive and among my top-five greatest disco hits of all time.
• The Four Tops: Walk Away Renee: Again, not a Motown original. I’ve expounded on the merits of this track before. The Left Banke original was the big hit, but that vocal is a little too reedy for my taste. The Tops version contains Levi Stubbs’ most ferocious vocal and a classic Motown backing track. Here’s another case where only the mono single mix should be heard. The stereo mix robs the song of much of its impact. A furiously strumming guitar is missing on the stereo mix, but the stereo also includes a piano part that changes the song for the worse.
• Barbara McNair — Baby A Go-Go: Motown was at a kind of peak in 1966. All of its house writers were present and creating some of their best work, all or most of the key musicians were alive and well, and the classic line-ups of the various groups were still intact. In fact, times were so good that some wonderful tracks were kept in the can for 35 years, such as this one by an artist better known as a TV star in the 1960s. This might have been considered a little too angry in tone — the lyrics are about the singer’s reaction to her boyfriend’s all-night carousing without her. Available on A Cellarful of Motown.
• Tammi Terrell — All I Do: This was recorded before Terrell hooked up (in the artistic sense) with Marvin Gaye and became one of the greatest duet singers of all time. Tammi’s relative obscurity circa 1966 may have been why this classic Stevie Wonder-written track with perhaps Tammi’s sweetest vocal  and wonderful drumming was not released until A Cellarful of Motown in the 2000s.
• Temptations — You’re My Everything: Everything clicks vocally and soulfully in this classic line-up (with David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks) hit.
• Jimmy Ruffin — What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: The closest Motown got to the deep soul genre, with the exception of some of Levi Stubbs’ singing for the Four Tops.
• The Supremes — You Keep Me Hanging On: The most intense hit from a trio whose forte was pretty much light but propulsive pop.
•Marvin Gaye — Pretty Little Baby: Gaye was such a talent of immense proportions, it’s difficult to choose one song as his best, but I’ll choose this 1965 hit anyway. It’s Gaye at his most tender.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s at least 50 more Motown songs of almost equal quality. But these are the ones that hit home most for me.