Acapella

[Soulsmith]

Heard any good acapella versions lately?

 

I'll start the ball rolling...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87FjkqtK67o#at=53

 

 

Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine

I've never been overly fond of the record, but this is a bit special

[Mike Lofthouse]

Heard any good acapella versions lately?

 

I'll start the ball rolling...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87FjkqtK67o#at=53

 

 

Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine

I've never been overly fond of the record, but this is a bit special

I don't think he is singing accapella - it is just the isolated vocal track - I think he is lip syncing to the original track - then the isolated vocal is overdubbed. Originally he would of been singing to a musical backing. 

[Mike Lofthouse]

here you go....music and all!

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyQwBA02I0Q

[Simsy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xreFV__jFiQ

[Missing Link]

The wonderful Four Tops - Ask The Lonely.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGqBWjMmVps

[Roburt]

You can't beat these guys ....... they did a lot of Motown covers too (on their 70's albums) .... The Persuasions doing CM ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j1S3l3FgLQ

[Mike Lofthouse]

Those Motown things are not Acapella!! There are simply isolated vocal tracks - as much as I love Marvin and Levi - they could not sing that good and in time without backing.

 

The Persuasions, however, are the real deal. 

[Chalky]

Those Motown things are not Acapella!! There are simply isolated vocal tracks - as much as I love Marvin and Levi - they could not sing that good and in time without backing. The Persuasions, however, are the real deal.

There's a whole bunch of these supposedly acapella tracks on the Internet and as you say Mike they are the artists in the studio laying down their vocals. On many you can just hear the backing track they are listening/singing along to. It wasn't long, 64?, that Motown laid the vocals down after the backing was done so the vocalist were never in the studio at the same time as the musicians. Edited July 22, 2013 by chalky

[Mike Lofthouse]

There's a whole bunch of these supposedly acapella tracks on the Internet and as you say Mike they are the artists in the studio laying down their vocals. On many you can just hear the backing track they are listening/singing along to. It wasn't long, 64?, that Motown laid the vocals down after the backing was done so the vocalist were never in the studio at the same time as the musicians.

They are of course interesting in their own right - it is lovely to hear all the nuances and timbre of Levi's voice in particular

[Chalky]

They are of course interesting in their own right - it is lovely to hear all the nuances and timbre of Levi's voice in particular

Has definitely interesting. The Little Ann singing "What Shall I Do" is amazing as is some of the Shrine stuff. Mind I will have to check the Shrine, that might be actually acapella.

[Guest Paul]

Everyone calls them acapellas but to be accurate they're solo vocal mixdowns - with everything on the multi-track apart from lead and / or background vocals muted out (or the other way around with just the vocal tracks solo'd).

 

I've got a lot of Motown solo vox tracks, and also instrumental mixes of most of them, but I'm not sure where they all originated from...

 

...apart from the 48 solo vocal and 48 instrumental mixes (96 tracks total) which were briefly issued about ten years ago on a limited edition 6-CD box set called 'Original Artists Karaoke' which was licensed by Motown / Universal.

 

But the story was that it was quickly withdrawn from sale and copies were snapped up fast as the price increased. I got a copy in 2003 and we probably discussed this here many years ago so there might be a track listing somewhere.

 

I also remember comparing a list of these and other solo vocal / instrumental Motown tracks, I think it was with Pete Smith, to see if either of us were missing any tracks, and I'm sure the total was over 100 at the time.

Paul