The Early Motown EPs Volume 2

Volume 1 boxed The Miracles and Little Stevie Wonder EPs with five various artist four-trackers. By spring 1965 the fast-rising company was confident

enough to feature seven ‘promising’ acts on its new UK label, Tamla Motown, after distributing via Oriole and Fontana. Here, the EPs range from the musically 24 karat – The Temptations’ has My Girl, I’ll Be In Trouble, Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue) and The Girl’s Alright With Me – to the collectable – two typically excited dance A-sides by The Contours nuzzled by a Smokey-like That Day When She Needed Me and Drifters’ notes in I’ll Stand By You. Mary Wells (she’d just left the label to slide into obscurity) and early Supremes EPs hold no surprises, but there’s muddled thinking about Wonder’s appeal (no longer ‘Little’, he’s a jazz man), The Marvelettes’ failure to break out in the UK remains baffling, while a just-emerging Kim Weston veers from a sub-Wells role to convincing ballad singing (Go Ahead And Laugh) on a desirable second set of EPs. GB