Your favorite Motown songs?

[Agua]

mine are:

four tops - baby i need your loving
marvin gaye - flyin high in the friendly sky
marvin gaye - i heard it through the grapevine
smokey robinson - tears of a clown

Yours?

[Agua]

i really hope peeps on this board are not just listening to hiphop and rap...

[Kaidy]

hard to choose, theres so many good songs from that era, but off top:

Still Water & Same Old Song - Four Tops
Just My Imagination & My Girl - Temptations
This Old Heart Of Mine - Isley Bros
Jimmy Mack - Martha & the Vandellas
Tracks Of My Tears - Smokey & the Miracles

[Agua]

hard to choose, theres so many good songs from that era, but off top:

Still Water & Same Old Song - Four Tops
Just My Imagination & My Girl - Temptations
This Old Heart Of Mine - Isley Bros
Jimmy Mack - Martha & the Vandellas
Tracks Of My Tears - Smokey & the Miracles

damn kaidy .... i expected you to post in this thread

p/s still water... i love that one

[abstruse]

Al Green - Lets Stay Together
Bill Withers - Lean On Me
Billy Paul - Me and Mrs. Jones
Bloodstone - Natural High
The God (James Brown) - Try Me
Temptations - Just My Imagination & My Girl
Four Tops - Duke Of Earl
The Drifters - In The Still Of The Night
Barbara Mason - You'll Lose A Good Thing
Luther Vandross - If This World Were Mine
Rick James - Mary Jane
Billy Stewart - Sitting In The Park
Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman

[Suga Foot]

By "Motown" do you mean the Label or just songs from that time period?

And y'all are forgetting about the Jackson 5!

[Agua]

By "Motown" do you mean the Label or just songs from that time period?

And y'all are forgetting about the Jackson 5!

I'm referrin to the label. As for the Jackson 5, I do not really like them. IMO Mike's first solo album is better than their entire catalogue.

[Shallow]

Just about any song from the best "artist" on that label. Stevie Wonder.

[willie_d]

The Supremes - "Reflections".
The Jacksons - "I Want You Back".
Rick James - "Mary Jane".
Marvin Gaye - "What's Going On?".

[Trauma-san]

Diana Ross - Ain't no mountain high enough
The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go
The Supremes - I Hear A Symphony
The Supremes - Back in My Arms Again
The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go
The Supremes & The Temptations - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me
The Supremes - Someday We'll Be Together
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't Nothin' Like The Real Thing
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't No mountain High enough (a different song)
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Your Precious Love
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - You're All I Need (to get by)
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - If I Could Build My Whole World Around You
Marvin Gaye - What's Goin' On
Marvin Gaye - Can I Get A Witness
Marvin Gaye - Ain't That Peculiar
The Jackson 5 - The Love You Save
The Jackson 5 - Never Can Say Goodbye
The Jackson 5 - Dancin' Machine
The Jackson 5 - Who's Loving You?
The Temptations - Just My Imagination
The Temptations - It's Growing
The Temptations - Old Man River
The Temptations - My Girl
The Temptations - I Wish It Would Rain
The Four Tops - I'll Be There (Reach Out)
The Four Tops - Standing In The Shadows Of Love
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - You've Really Got A Hold On Me
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Ooh Baby Baby
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Tears Of A Clown
Smokey Robinson - Just To See Her
Smokey Robinson - One Heartbeat
Gladys Knight & The Pipps - Midnight Train To Georgia
The Marvelletes - Beachwood 4-5789
Stevie Wonder - For Once In My Life
Stevie Wonder - My Cherie Amour
Stevie Wonder - Signed Sealed Delivered, I'm Yours
Stevie Wonder - A Place In The Sun
Mary Wells - You Beat Me To The Punch
Martha & The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run
Martha & The Vandellas - Jimmy Mack


I consider all these songs (and maybe more if I thought about it) to be almost perfect... Motown made the best music of all time, nothing will ever top stuff like "Your Precious Love" by Marvin & Tammi... a bunch of these songs are like that.  There's nothing like Motown music to me, it's sad to me, though, for a number of reasons... mainly, in all the songs, the motown signature was that everybody sounded so alive and vibrant, you feel like you're right inside their soul.. but unfortunately, almost all of the great motown artists are dead.  Tammi Terrell died of a brain anyeurism when she was only 27, and it halfway ruined Marvin's career (he was having an affair with him at the time)... he didn't record or perform for 3 years after that.  The lead singer of the Temptations, David Ruffin who recorded "my girl", which in my mind is one of the greatest vocals ever.. it just sounds so pure and perfect;... anyways, he died a crackhead in the 80's.  Of course we also lost Marvin to a gunshot from his own father... Michael Jackson will never have the energy he had when he was a kid, Mary Wells died of throat cancer in her 40's.  Diana Ross is a pale imitation of what she once was, list goes on and on and on.  Everytime I hear a great motown song, I can't help but think of people like marvin being dead though, it breaks my heart.  

[Trauma-san]

Oh... and how about, Smokey Robinson wrote almost EVERY SINGLE ONE of those songs? That guys a friekin' genius.  WAYYYYY underrated.  With the exception (MAYBE) of Paul McCartney, he's probably the greatest songwriter on the face of the earth right now.