This intuitive grasp of his own talent was never better illustrated than on 1965’s rip-roaring Shotgun. The latter is another staging post on Wonder’s political journey, a deceptively honeyed assault on the self-serving representatives of a white American status quo who “killed all our leaders” but will bring themselves down through their own iniquity. Now we serve up the main course with this expanded reissue of “The Artistry Of Brenda Holloway”, a compilation LP released exclusively in the UK in 1968. Motown: A Symphony Of Soul features some of Motown’s best known and loved singles now reimagined with new orchestration by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. From Head To Toe is one of those wickedly infectious Smokey confections, outwardly simple, but as new layers of harmony build excitement and the mood is lifted even higher when the horns suddenly drop out of the track only to rejoin the arrangement with even higher intensity.

When they came over to Motown while their last Ric Tic hit was scaling the charts, bigger things looked set to follow. But you can’t have one without the other, and for every sceptic of Talking Book’s Marmite opener, You Are The Sunshine Of My Life, there are a thousand suckers for its uninhibited whistleability and emotional boldness. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Before it, Do The Boomerang, the title track and Road Runner have all shuddered the foundations, while after it Shoot Your Shot barely takes time for breath. The bonus titles span Brenda’s Motown career, from 1964’s pop-sounding ‘Mr Lifeguard (Come And Rescue Me)’ to the soulful ‘It’s Love I Need’, completed just a few months before her departure from the company in 1968.marks the 60th year of Motown, widely regarded as the greatest, most successful and best-loved record label in music and to commemorate this landmark anniversary Motown are issuing this 'Greatest Hits' compilation, featuring 60 tracks from across their enormously influential and remarkable history. Both are loved by the masses of music fans for their fearless unselfconsciousness and sometimes maligned by the chin-strokers as vendors of cheese. Spearheaded by the certain power and wonderful expressiveness of the quartet’s lead singer, the great Levi Stubbs, and steered by the songs of Holland-Dozier-Holland, Reach Out was their fourth studio album, and is awash with hits – Reach Out I’ll Be There, 7 Rooms Of Gloom, I’ll Turn To Stone, Standing In The Shadows Of Love and Bernadette (all written and produced by H-D-H) plus their atmospheric cover of The Left Banke’s Walk Away Renee, and though they’re less at home with Monkees hand-me-downs Last Train To Clarksville and I’m A Believer (one can hear, if not condescension, then a certain lack of engagement with the lyrics) they’re much more comfortable with Tim Hardin’s If I Were A Carpenter. My Girl Has Gone, the fourth US hit single, follows with its dramatic crashes of orchestration on each chorus, contrastingly sharply with each gentler, more ruminative verse.

When “The Artistry Of Brenda Holloway” album was first released in the UK in 1968, I always wished that the rest of the world could have been able to enjoy it as well.Gaye ends with Just To Keep You Satisfied, in which the sweet loving is weighed against “the bitching” and Marvin ends up concluding that maybe he’ll see her “somewhere down the line”. Regardless of country of origin all tracks are sung in English, unless otherwise stated in our description. Behind the heavenly love and dreams of elopement we find Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) while Smiling Faces Sometimes pretend to be your friend. The Detroit quartet’s cancelled Motown album released at last – with 13 bonus tracks, many previously unissued.