Quality Motown Recordings

Rare Earth "Ecology"

Dug out some of my mother-in-law's records.  Just listened to the Temptations - Cloud Nine original 1969 Motown Label.   Very nice.  I have a couple of Supreme records I'll be checking out soon.  Your right, vinyl is better.  

Rhino reissue of Aretha -I've Never Loved a Man... and Curtis Mayfield - Curtis sound very good and are great performances. Move on up! Cheers,
Spencer 

Great suggestions.  Thanks!

COlumbia put out a half speed master of Midnight Love.
Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye changed the Motown Sound and the way it was recorded. Stevie brought in musicians from outside of the Motown family,musicians he befriended and liked rather than use the house band. Jeff Beck was brought in for Talking Book.

Most of the classic Motown stuff was intended for AM radio and really isn’t audiophile quality. In the mid-70s, Motown released a series of anthologies of all its major artists (on LP, obviously) in two- and three-record sets. Those generally sound about as good as any of the Motown pressings, imo.

There were some individual LPs that were standouts, including some of the latter Stevie Wonder (Innervisions, Talking Book), Temptations (Masterpiece) and Gaye’s What’s Going On.

Well, content, i.e. the great words, the great vocals, great memories of performances with matching fashion and dance moves, those are different than great music writing and musician performance combined with great engineering,

soooo the answer is a definite 'maybe' regarding the content, rather than the format. 

A CD of a combo of great words, music, vocals, musicianship and engineering ought to be quite involving. Yes an LP would probably be my preference, however, how many times will I play these oldies? 

Now, for a treat: here's the story of the musicians behind the great sounding tracks

https://vimeo.com/306924495

I think I'll watch it again soon.

There's a similar one about Muscle Shoals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rW_KbniNqs

Dang right, coltrane1. They butchered those CD transfers. Hope the OP can find at least one original pressing. The difference will amaze you.

There are plenty of great soul records on other labels too. Some reissues from Otis Redding, Aretha, Curtis Mayfield are among the most beloved if you don't want to wait to find originals in great condition. Cheers,
Spencer

YES, totally worth searching.


There is an ocean of amazing LPs’
i hit the local and town over used shops, in the cheapo,bins, you will be surprised at the great music for inexpensive prices in those,bins, many I find look unused, jackets may have some wear, the vinyls’,...many look unplayed. !

I hit goodwill 2X/month min for used LP’s and CDs. Some terrific finds!
But,...lots of garbage also.

I did find the partridge family box, which sells for quite a lot of money there, records all NM, jackets all,ok, outer box is a,mess, but still offered a lot for it. Picked up mine for 7$ years back, I freaked at Discogs, at the prices for this box set.
Not a fan of their music, but the value of it shocked me.

Found 4 Elvis lp’s , new and sealed, they remain sealed to this day.
CD player for 5$, speaker pair for 30$- oldmAdvent paor,mstill,sound great!

Hit goodwill if close, many good finds to be had!

enjoy the hunt!

Etta James "At Last" That one was re-issued on CD many times, but original stereo record on Argo will be in high 3-digit buck for clean copy.
2014 Japanese CD re-issue is also very high buck now.
80's re-issues on Chess and MCA are okay, but still worth purchasing due to the music quality.

Abbey Roads Records put out a half Speed recording of  What's Goin On by Marvin Gaye that sounds damn good. 

Remember the main format that Motown was recorded on was vinyl. Check your used record store for Motown vinyl and invest into a solid record cleaner like the VPI 16.5 to clean up those records. Motown on vinyl will reveal all the dynamics you’re seeking. Enjoy!