Sunday, November 09, 2008

NEW RELEASES FROM MOTOWN (50th ANNIVERSARY), DIANA ROSS (SURRENDER - EXPANDED), WAR (COLLECTOR’S EDITION), AND MORE…

Celebrating Motown's forthcoming 50th anniversary early in 2009, MOTOWN: THE COMPLETE NO. 1'S (Motown/UMe), to be released December 9, 2008, brings together every Motown No. 1 hit from every U.S. and international chart and every genre - a staggering 192 tracks, plus 10 bonus tracks whose cover versions were also No. 1. Housed in a jaw-dropping package – a replica of the original Motown headquarters, "Hitsville U.S.A." -- are five digipaks, each containing two CDs, and a mini-photo book including rare and classic images, track annotations and an essay by Motown's first No. 1 hit-maker, the legendary Smokey Robinson. Every No. 1 Motown recording from the Supremes, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Marvelettes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, Mary Wells, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Jackson 5, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, the Commodores, Rick James, Lionel Richie, Johnny Gill, Boyz II Men, Erykah Badu and more is contained here.

Hip-O Select and Motown have scheduled the release of an expanded edition of the album Surrender, the 1971 album by Diana Ross. In addition to the original eleven tracks, this set is expanded with nine bonus tracks. Included are alternate vocals and mixes of several songs found on the album, as well as the unreleased Surrender sessions tune, “Baby, I’ll Come.” One of the tunes in the bonus disc is a demo with vocal track by songwriter Valerie Simpson (Ashford & Simpson, both of whom were major song contributors to the album) of “Remember Me.” The booklet contains a new essay, photos, and a song-by-song commentary. This re-mastered album is planned for December 9.

Fania Records is set to release a 4-CD/58 track Various Artists collection of Salsa favorites entitled Salsa: A Musical History. This collection will be made available on December 9.

GRP and Verve Records have scheduled a batch of Jazz releases for February 10. The GRP titles are Satchmo at Pasadena (Louis Armstrong), and Chapter One: Latin America (Gato Barbieri). The Verve titles are Ubiquity (Roy Ayers), On My Way and Shoutin’ Again (Count Basie), Dynasty (Stan Getz), You’ve Got It Bad Girl (Quincy Jones), Oscar Peterson & Nelson Riddle (Peterson/Riddle), Blues in the Closet (Bud Powell), Let It Be Me (Nina Simone), and Feels So Good (Grover Washington, Jr).

On November 25 you can find an 8-CD superset coming for War called Collector’s Edition: The Eight Original Gold and Platinum Studio Albums.

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