50th Anniversary: The Singles Collection 1961-1971 [Box set]

First things first, the Temptations at Motown produced some of the finest Soul ever recorded and their string of singles, collected here, not only showcase their talents but those of their producers and musicians. It also tells a part of the story of the development of Black music and it's vocal group tradition.

Disc one demonstrates why the Temptations took a while to hit their stride, pretty unremarkable production and songwriting across their early output and the first 15 tracks here. The leads are shared around on these, as they would be on their mega hits, but the winning formula was obviously elusive. Stand out tracks are difficult to highlight, because most of the tracks sound so dated, but of significance, because of what followed, Eddie Kendricks is his ethereal self on "Paradise" and Paul Williams reminds us what we lost on "Love I Can See", my favourite of the early numbers featured here. Once Smokey took on the task of writing and producing for the group, everything goes up several notches as the talents of the group finally have a vehicle that showcases them.

So we hit a stream of single releases, which will be familiar to any fan of the group, starting with "The Way You Do The Things You Do", that wonderful Smokey composition, that may have prompted Bob Dylan to call him "America's greatest living poet" - if you haven;t heard it where have you been? If anything, the weakness of this set is that there are so many familiar songs, which means that this is probably for dedicated fans who will appreciate the lavish accompanying booklet and the chance to have all this in one set. They might also appreciate the inclusion of the duets with the Ross led Supremes - an unfortunate period for the group as Berry Gordy tried to push then towards the supperclub circuit.

You'll have your own favourites, mine are (I Know) I'm Losing You, I Wish It Would Rain and the sublime Just My Imagination, but the interesting thing about hearing all this in one place is the development of the Temptations sound. From those early singles, often produced by or with help from Berry Gordy, with their early R&B and doowop influences, through the Smokey era, with slick harmonies and achingly memorable love songs, succesfully avoiding Gordy's obsession both Diana Ross and showtunes to the final chapter of their Motown story where Norman Whitfield took the Tempts (and some might argue Motown in general) along the road to songs with a social conscience. Add in the painful changes to the lineup, the introduction then the loss of David Ruffin, Paul Williams sad demise and Eddie Kendricks departure because of the groups direction and this set is well worth the money for a committed fan.

As good as this is though, there is more to the story than is told here and even if there is a further volume to complete things, the group had left Motown (for the first time) in 1976- what about the missing 5 years? Why did they not go the whole hog and tell the full story of the rise and fall of the Temptations at Motown and include the peak of the Whitfield era with "Papa was a Rolling Stone" and the songs from aftermath of their falling out - at least then we would have had the full story, As it is and despite the magical music here, it's only 4 stars for the release as a result.

i have been quite happy with my 2cd temptations anthology for many years now this covered the period from the way you do the things you do to shakey ground in the early seventies.
this new box set is expensive for 3 cds with a few rare tracks but i desperately want the german version of my girl.
it only goes as far as 1971 so a lot of my absolute favourites including papa are missing.
very frustrating when other singles from the same album are included.
it should have been at least a 5 cd set to include every motown 7" and 12".
although none of those awful eighties remixes please!
so can we expect to see another box next year?
50th Anniversary: The Singles Collection 1961-1971

This is a strange release. The Temptations are one of the major groups of popular music and their run of singles from 1964s "The Way You Do The Things You Do" onwards would be hard to beat by anyone(inc The Beatles, Rolling Stones & The Beach Boys). So a collection of those singles should be a winner...or perhaps not?
So who is this aimed at? Any true fan of "The Temps" will have the "Emperors Of Soul" boxed set. This contains almost all of the early releases on Miracle and Gordy. The rest of their singles are all also adequately covered up to "Who Are You" in 1976 when they left Motown for Atlantic. So to get a few "B" sides and foreign language versions you are forking out over £30.
Now it may be that some people are desperate to get their hands on "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" but via an overpriced collection like this seems crazy. Ninety Five per cent of the music on this collection is flawless. Eighty per cent is easily obtained elsewhere. This would have been a Six star release at a reasonable cost but at this price its just a rip off. And,of course, we can expect Volume Two to also be released just to rub salt in a very expensive wound.