“Road Runner” Jr. Walker & The All Stars On Motown’s Soul subsidiary label. (1966) A stone cooker from Jr. Walker — the kind of hard-driving soul that made his 60s Motown work a key link between the Detroit sound of the time, and R&B sounds of earlier years! Jr‘s soulful sax is right up in the mix on most numbers — and the overall sound is nicely freewheeling and almost spontaneous — almost a Motown studio jam at times, with vocals and instruments dancing together in joyous formation! Most tracks are instrumentals, but many also have some sort of vocal chorus — and titles include “Anyway You Wanta”, “Pucker Up Buttercup”, “Twist Lackawanna”, “San Ho Zay”, “Money”, “Last Call”, “Ame Cherie”, “Mutiny”, and “Road Runner”. – Dusty Grooves

(33 votes, average: 2.30 out of 5)

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A French picture sleeve for an early “Little” Stevie Wonder single.   It’s fun to see the great photographs that only made their way onto foreign covers.   This is Motown, of course, released in France by Barclay.   Circa 1966.

(38 votes, average: 3.76 out of 5)

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A nice French ep by The Miracles and The Contours two early Motown hitmakers.   Jerk it like you feel it.

(24 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

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The Marvelettes – A French Tamla Motown EP release.

(33 votes, average: 3.70 out of 5)

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“Way Out…Far”   The Lewis Sisters   Liberty Records. (1960)   Helen and Kaye went on to record as “the Singing School Teachers” and recorded and wrote for Motown Records!   Equally odd is this cover which is dark and creepy (in a peeping tom kinda way) on one hand and squeeky clean on the other.

(17 votes, average: 3.41 out of 5)

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Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson wrote some of the biggest Motown hits of the 60’s and 70’s including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “California Soul,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” “You’re All I Need to Get By” and “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand”.

(21 votes, average: 4.19 out of 5)

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A lesser known girl group, The Sherrys put out only this lp in 1962. It features their only hit single “Pop Pop Popeye” (sic above) which was a big dance hit that year (especially in New Orleans). Delthine and Dinell Cook originally formed the group with Tammi Montgomery (later to achieve fame as Tammi Terrell on Motown), but that combination soon fizzled when the sisters and Montgomery couldn’t get along very well so she’s not on this record.

Guyden Records out of Philadelphia put out lots of late fifties teen dance singles back in the days of record “hops” and dance fads like the “fly,” the “stomp,” the “slop” and the “mashed potato”. In the early sixties, the company merged with another Phili label, Jamie Records, and soon put out records under the Arctic imprint as well.

(14 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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The girl groups of the sixties had so much style and the Marvelettes, one of the great groups of Motown, not only made great soul records (“Here I Am Baby,” “Don’t Mess With Bill,”” Please Mr. Postman,” etc.) they always looked cool.   This best of compilation is from Holland.

(14 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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