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I'm not sure I agree with all the picks in this 2019 Variety article, but there's so many great songs to choose from, it would be hard to go wrong with any of them.
The 60 Greatest Motown Songs of All Time
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What?!?! No Aretha?!?!
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It's easy to wonder how The Queen of Soul could be left out. But the answer is simple. That was a list of the best of Motown artists. Aretha was signed for most of her career to Atlantic Records. So she wouldn't make the ranking.
Last edited by aflem (February 17, 2021 7:26 am)
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aflem wrote:
It's easy to wonder how The Queen of Soul could be left out. But the answer is simple. That was a list of the best of Motown artists. Aretha was signed for most of her career to Atlantic Records. So she wouldn't make the ranking.
Oops. My bad. Thanks.
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aflem wrote:
I'm not sure I agree with all the picks in this 2019 Variety article, but there's so many great songs to choose from, it would be hard to go wrong with any of them.
The 60 Greatest Motown Songs of All Time
I have to object that there is no Canuck representation on the list. Specifically, R. Dean Taylor's Indiana Wants Me and Gotta See Jane should have cracked the Top 60. One of Toronto's finest also had a hand in writing The Supremes' Love Child and Living in Shame. Beauty, eh?
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Roman wrote:
I have to object that there is no Canuck representation on the list. Specifically, R. Dean Taylor's Indiana Wants Me and Gotta See Jane should have cracked the Top 60. One of Toronto's finest also had a hand in writing The Supremes' Love Child and Living in Shame. Beauty, eh?
It was definitely an achievement for a young unknown songwriter and singer from Toronto to become successful in both respects at Motown. But I think the fact that he was such an anomaly may also contribute to him being forgotten as a Motown artist. I know that he was on the Rare Earth label and the group did make the list, but they were a Detroit group, they had more American hits (although Gotta See Jane went to #1 here, it only got to #67 on Billboard), and I'd suggest that Rare Earth's sound, while different from other Motown acts, fit in better with the nature of the label. Personally I would still say that he'd have been more worthy of inclusion than Charlene, but I guess managing to somehow make a hit out of "soap opera set to music" is significant in its own right.
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Well, if it's any consolation, Indiana wanted him!