Monitors - Say You - An Anthology

actually tony might just want to tell us about it as IT IS scheduled for release via kent!

Actually "Say You! The Motown Anthology 1963-68" is out on Kent at the end of this month, not next month.

Jointly compiled by yours truly and fount-of-all-Motown-knowledge Keith Hughes, it's a single CD - the group not having recorded enough material to fill a double. As with all of Kent's Motown projects it's officially sanctioned by Universal, owners of the Motown catalogue. It's not a Hip-O or Spectrum or any other Universal label project, though, so I don't know where Dave B got that intel from...

The set contians the whole of the 'Greetings, We're The Monitors' album in stereo - released legally on CD for the fist time anywhere, and mastered from the same tape that was used to manufacture the old UK Tamla Motown album 42 years ago! - plus the B sides of 'Say You' and 'Since I Lost You Girl', which were not on that album and are only otherwise available on 'The Complete Motown Singles' anthologies.

Great as alll this already is, what will really have Motown collectors salivating is the prospect of the 12 unissued tracks, which span the whole of the group's tenure with Motown. Two of these songs have been heard before by the group, but the versions of 'Cry' and 'Crying In The Night' on this CD are not the same as those that have been previously issued. The other 10 will be new to the general public, and there are many 100% certified gems among them - my own personal favourite is 'My Love Grows Stonger' which is part written by J.J. Barnes and Richard Morris and which puts me in mind of a slightly slower version of Melvin Davis' 'I Must Love You' ...

Other previously unissued highlights include the group's takes on the Johnny Rivers song 'Poor Side Of Town' and 'Too Busy Thinking About My Baby', which uses the same backing track that Norman Whitfield later recycled for the Temptations' 'Smooth Sailing (From Now On)' . Although the release of this CD means that every unissued track bar one on the group has now been issued at some point, there are no 'barrel scrapers' here, believe me. (To find out what the one still unissued track is - and to probably be able to guess why we didn't include it - you'll have to buy the CD...)

'Say You!' is out on the Tuesday after the next bank holiday Monday. What with this and the Patrice Holloway/Candi Staton sets, it's a fantastic month for all fans of classic soul on Kent.

There are more Motown anthologies in Kent's imminent future but if I told you what they were I'd have to kill you...

Hot on the heels of well-received projects by the Contours and Marv Johnson, Kent is delighted to bring you the altogether-splendid results of a further dip into the 1960s Motown archives, with the first ever CD by collector favourites the Monitors. * Although they consistently failed to achieve the promotion and success that was afforded to some of their more famed labelmates, the Monitors were among the finest groups to record for Berry Gordy's company during its golden era.

* Led by the soulful tenor of future Temptations member Richard Street, the three-boy, one-girl quartet was never among Motown's big chart hitters, but the comparatively few recordings the Monitors made in almost seven years with the company were and remain of the highest quality - and each of their five released singles deserved considerably more chart action than they got.

* "Say You!" - named for the group's V.I.P 45 - rounds up the...

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...really glad I spent 20 minutes answering Agentsmith's question about the contents of this CD in 'Box' this morning now...

...really glad I spent 20 minutes answering Agentsmith's question about the contents of this CD in 'Box' this morning now...

Didn't see it Tone but I'll merge the topics for you. Just think of the extra exposure the CD has had

Actually "Say You! The Motown Anthology 1963-68" is out on Kent at the end of this month, not next month.

Jointly compiled by yours truly and fount-of-all-Motown-knowledge Keith Hughes, it's a single CD - the group not having recorded enough material to fill a double. As with all of Kent's Motown projects it's officially sanctioned by Universal, owners of the Motown catalogue. It's not a Hip-O or Spectrum or any other Universal label project, though, so I don't know where Dave B got that intel from...

The set contians the whole of the 'Greetings, We're The Monitors' album in stereo - released legally on CD for the fist time anywhere, and mastered from the same tape that was used to manufacture the old UK Tamla Motown album 42 years ago! - plus the B sides of 'Say You' and 'Since I Lost You Girl', which were not on that album and are only otherwise available on 'The Complete Motown Singles' anthologies.

Great as alll this already is, what will really have Motown collectors salivating is the prospect of the 12 unissued tracks, which span the whole of the group's tenure with Motown. Two of these songs have been heard before by the group, but the versions of 'Cry' and 'Crying In The Night' on this CD are not the same as those that have been previously issued. The other 10 will be new to the general public, and there are many 100% certified gems among them - my own personal favourite is 'My Love Grows Stonger' which is part written by J.J. Barnes and Richard Morris and which puts me in mind of a slightly slower version of Melvin Davis' 'I Must Love You' ...

Other previously unissued highlights include the group's takes on the Johnny Rivers song 'Poor Side Of Town' and 'Too Busy Thinking About My Baby', which uses the same backing track that Norman Whitfield later recycled for the Temptations' 'Smooth Sailing (From Now On)' . Although the release of this CD means that every unissued track bar one on the group has now been issued at some point, there are no 'barrel scrapers' here, believe me. (To find out what the one still unissued track is - and to probably be able to guess why we didn't include it - you'll have to buy the CD...)

'Say You!' is out on the Tuesday after the next bank holiday Monday. What with this and the Patrice Holloway/Candi Staton sets, it's a fantastic month for all fans of classic soul on Kent.

There are more Motown anthologies in Kent's imminent future but if I told you what they were I'd have to kill you...

och, yer killin' me greavsie

Really looking forward to this cd also meeting up with Richard street again in a few weeks ..Richard arrives in the uk in june .

Is there a reason for Richard coming to the UK. It would be wonderful if it were to promote the CD.

Is there a reason for Richard coming to the UK. It would be wonderful if it were to promote the CD.

Richard is here with his temptations group they here from 8th june till 12th .. . Ive been begging Richard to let me put him back on stage one night do to a Monitors live show . .. but nothing yet agreed .

was a glitch with match up of comments to the article , now resolved

...really glad I spent 20 minutes answering Agentsmith's question about the contents of this CD in 'Box' this morning now...

Picked this up same time as Candi Staton and got to say big thumbs up to Tony and Keith for a great compilation Had the Lp for years and couple of the unissued tracks for sometime as well but it is great to see everything on one CD. It's had 3 or 4 plays this week. Why tracks like "It Only Happens When Love Is Gone" and Show Me You Can Dance" were canned is beyond me, both as good as many tracks that did see the light of day! These two tracks highlights why Northern venues should have a cd player They deserve to be heard