25 #1 Hits From 25 Years by Various Artists (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

• Album name: 25 #1 Hits From 25 Years
• Artist name: Various artists, including The Supremes, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross
• Year: 1983
• Number of discs: two
• Label: Motown
• Collection: Selman
• Buy it on Amazon: $55.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m a fan of Motown and I think my Motown playlist comes from a collection somewhat like this one. I’ve also previously reviewed Motown Mania and the five-disc Come And Get These Memories: The Motown Story.

What I expected

About an hour and a half of Motown.

What it was actually like

Motown is a musical style as well as a record label, and I’m reminded of that fact whenever I listen to one of these compilations, as I think the musical style is great, but the record label also produced and marketed a lot of crap.

In this case, the first side of four was outstanding, with only one song that I don’t like: I Want You Back by the Jackson 5. The Supremes’ You Can’t Hurry Love in particular is one of my all time favorites, and here were all the songs in order of excellence:

1. You Can’t Hurry Love by The Supremes
2. I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) by The Four Tops
3. Baby Love by The Supremes
4. Please Mr. Postman by The Marvelettes (particularly important to me as I write and send paper mail every day)
5. My Girl by The Temptations
6. Reach Out I’ll Be There by The Four Tops
7. I Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye
8. I Want You Back by The Jackson 5

The other three sides, however, were not good. Here are my least favorite songs from each other side:

• Side 2: You Are The Sunshine of My Life by Stevie Wonder
• Side 3: Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) by The Temptations
• Side 4: Three Times A Lady by The Commodores

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing (but the first side was 5/5)