VA - Soul Satisfaction 2 - The Motown Connection (2001)

Soul Satisfaction: The Motown Connection is a compilation tailor-made for people who love the Motown sound but can't stand hearing the same old songs over and over. There are no hits or even familiar tunes, just 24 floor-filling Northern Soul stompers. There are plenty of big names like Tammi Terrell, Junior Walker, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Edwin Starr as well as some less familiar like the Monitors, Carolyn Crawford, and the Fantastic Four. Some of the highlights are Carolyn Crawford's dramatic "Forget About Me," the Fantastic Four's finger-poppin' "Can't Stop Looking for My Baby," Edwin Starr's urgent "Running Back and Forth," and Gladys Knight's show-stopping version of Bill Withers' "Who Is She (And What Is She to You?)." Although they all sound like they should have been hits, most of the tracks compiled here were first issued as B-sides or tucked away as album tracks until Northern Soul fanatics plucked them from obscurity. Two tracks that are of special note to devotes of the unusual are Stevie Wonder's string-filled and jaunty take on the Doors' "Light My Fire" (why so many artists chose to cover this mostly tuneless and pretentious tune is a bit of a mystery) and bop pioneer Billy Eckstine's foray into the Motown sound, " (I Wonder Why) Nobody Loves Me," which is a surprisingly non-embarrassing venture. This disc plays like an alternative greatest hits of Motown. Anyone who loves that instantly recognizable sound will find this disc a joy from beginning to end.