The Originals - Game Called Love & California Sunset (1974/1975/2011)

As far as male R&B vocal groups from Detroit go, the Originals were never considered heavyweights. They weren't in a class with the Temptations, the Dramatics, or the Four Tops, but they were a decent group and had their moments. Released in 1974, Game Called Love is a competent if unremarkable effort that falls into two categories: the funky "Supernatural Voodoo Woman," and the romantic ballads and slow jams that comprise the rest of the LP. Fans of 1970s blaxploitation flicks will know "Supernatural Voodoo Woman" as the theme from Sugar Hill, a bloodfest that starred Marki Bey as a woman who hires zombies to avenge the death of her murdered lover. Like 1972's Blacula, Sugar Hill is a cult classic that merged the horror and blaxploitation genres with campy but highly entertaining results. The infectious "Supernatural Voodoo Woman" should have been a hit single, but it wasn't, and none of the romantic items became hits either. Motown, it seemed, didn't really get behind this album -- it didn't make "Supernatural Voodoo Woman" the hit it deserved to be, and it didn't get behind romantic cuts like "Be My Love," "Ooh You (Put a Crush on Me)," and the Originals' cover of Charlie Rich's pop-country smash "Behind Closed Doors." So commercially, Game Called Love was a disappointment, and by the late '70s, it was out of print.

Some people might have had high expectations for the Originals' final album for Motown, as it was produced by Lamont Dozier, one of the label's key figures in the 1960s. Perhaps more interestingly, Dozier also wrote all of the songs, though he was here working without the two other guys he'd partnered with in the creation of numerous earlier Motown classics, Brian Holland and Eddie Holland. However, the result was just an average, of-its-time, mid-'70s smooth soul record. Other than some hints of funk and disco, there weren't musical or lyrical reflections of advancements that had shaped '70s soul, the songs being rather ordinary catalogs of romantic ups and downs. Soul fans were relatively unimpressed, with both the album and the song used for a single, "Good Lovin' Is Just a Dime Away," stopping just shy of the Top 50 of the R&B charts. The most notable track is the title cut, which at least lyrically tries to reflect some of the changes undergone by both the group and Motown after their relocation to California. [The 2011 CD reissue adds historical liner notes and one bonus track, the single version of "Good Lovin' Is Just a Dime Away."]