William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He became prominent for his series of albums in the late 1970s, and songs "Lido Shuffle" and "Lowdown" from Silk Degrees (1976), which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Scaggs continues to write, record music, and tour.

Edwin Starr's second album is an embarrassment of riches, soaring lyricism mated to a pounding, emphatic beat that won't let the listener go. Released in April 1969, 25 Miles was actually comprised, in part, of single sides, some going back as far as 1967, but was a more unified body of music than the preceding Soul Master LP. It embraced many of the changes that started to overtake Motown Records for the better as the 1960s came to a close, and it got a lot of what it did just right. The topical ballad "I'm Still a Struggling Man," though it didn't do that well as a single, featured one of Starr's most moving vocal performances, and in its lyric was the distant precursor to the musical/social vision that would burst forward full-force on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On -- it's still a love song, but is laced with bitter images and a social awareness that makes it all the more poignant. Aside from jewels like that, and the killer Starr original "24 Hours (To Find My Baby)," the album is also one of Starr's most rewarding vocal showcases, from the rough-hewn passion of "Backyard Lovin' Man," across the tender vulnerability of "If My Heart Could Tell the Story," to the soaring falsetto he generates on "He Who Picks a Rose"; the latter should have made great singles, as could the soaring, lushly produced "Soul City (Open Your Arms to Me)." Indeed, a good three-quarters of this LP could have been perfectly acceptable for AM airplay, so consider the album a gift in terms of accessibility and pop craftsmanship in a soul setting, as much now as then -- even the updating of "You Beat Me to the Punch," which gives it a whole new sound. Surprisingly, Norman Whitfield only produced a pair of cuts on this album, and the more startling of them is the gospel-flavored Whitfield/Barrett Strong number "Gonna Keep on Tryin' Till I Win Your Love," which is a delightful throwback to the sound of Sam Cooke; it makes a good pairing with "Pretty Little Angel," a Clarence Paul/Stevie Wonder/Mike Valvano copyright (and another lost potential single), and they flow right into "If My Heart Could Tell the Story." The whole record is a keeper, and one of the finer under-regarded albums in the late-'60s Motown library. 25 Miles was reissued in 2002 by Motown's British division in a beautifully remastered version, paired with its predecessor, Soul Master, and a trio of unanthologized singles from the mid-1960s, all on one CD.

With productions and songs from Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell, Hell Up in Harlem is the scathing and soulful soundtrack of the motion picture starring Fred Williamson. This was Edwin Starr's last album for Motown which probably accounts for the woeful lack of promotion. Two singles were released, Hell Up in Harlem, the first, should have remained an album cut, as its appeal was limited, despite a dogmatic vocal by Edwin. However, the follow up, "Big Papa," should have been a monster. Written by Freddie Perren, it has the same power, forcefulness and drive of numbers that Norman Whitfield had produced on Rare Earth and the Temptations. The flips of both singles, "Don't It Feel Good to Be Free" and "Like We Used to Do," are mellower than the push sides. The bone picker, however, is "Easin' In," a great mid-tempo number with cool backing vocals, and a great reading from Starr, it has chart buster written all over it, yet Motown never released it as a single. Mind boggling, since Starr's final single for Berry's empire, "Who's Right Or Wrong," backed with "Lonely Rainy Days in San Diego," dropped six months after "Papa," but doesn't rate with "Easin'." Even more puzzling is why Phillips, which owns the Motown masters, hasn't reissued this winner on CD.

Frequently compared to Aretha Franklin, singer Margie Joseph earned neither the fame nor the critical success lavished upon the Queen of Soul, but a series of excellent records for Atlantic during the 1970s nevertheless won her a spot in the pantheon of soul cult favorites. Margaret Marie Joseph was born in Pascagoula, MS, in 1950 -- she got her start in the church choir, and began pursuing a professional singing career while a student at New Orleans' Dillard University. In 1967, Joseph made her first demo recordings at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, soon after signing to the Okeh label -- her debut, "Why Does a Man Have to Lie?," had the misfortune of seeing release around the same time parent label Columbia decided to close Okeh's doors, and promptly sank without a trace. Two years later Joseph signed with the Stax subsidiary Volt, and with New Orleans soul legend Willie Tee assuming production duties, she released the underground favorite "One More Chance."
Producer Freddy Briggs took the helm for Joseph's next effort, "Your Sweet Loving"; released in the summer of 1970, the single proved a minor R&B chart hit. The following year, she cracked the R&B Top 40 with a cover of the Supremes' classic "Stop! In the Name of Love," boosting sales of her fine debut LP, Margie Joseph Makes a New Impression, in the process. Another Supremes cover, "My World Is Empty Without You," formed the centerpiece of her 1972 follow-up, Phase II, but neither the single nor the album attracted much attention, and she soon signed to Atlantic to begin work with famed producer Arif Mardin, perhaps best-known for his earlier work with Aretha; indeed, Joseph's self-titled Atlantic debut was often criticized for its similarities to Franklin's classic work, although her sweetly plaintive vocals and more supple delivery were actually far more distinctive than detractors gave credit for. Joseph nevertheless scored an R&B hit in the spring of 1973 with her reading of the Al Green classic "Let's Stay Together," reaching her commercial zenith later that year when her second Atlantic album, Sweet Surrender, launched two more hit covers: "Come Lay Some Lovin' on Me" (more successful for Joseph than for the song's author, Paul Kelly) and "My Love" (a reading of the Paul McCartney & Wings smash that became her lone Top Ten R&B hit and pop Top 75 entry).
The 1975 album Margie is generally regarded by fans as the creative peak of Joseph's recording career -- the singles "Words (Are Impossible)" and "I Can't Move No Mountains" are both superb, and with the lovely hit "Stay Still," she earned a rare co-writing credit. A March 1976 live date in Jamaica introduced Joseph to the vocal group Blue Magic, and they agreed to record a duet -- included on the 13 Blue Magic Lane album, "What's Come Over Me" would prove her second-biggest R&B chart hit. She moved to the Atlantic subsidiary Cotillion for 1976's Hear the Words, Feel the Feeling, produced by Motown legend Lamont Dozier -- the title cut reached the R&B Top 20, and the sessions also yielded the wonderful disco-era seasonal cut "Christmas Gift," included on the Funky Christmas compilation. Joseph returned to the Atlantic mothership for the Johnny Bristol-produced Feeling My Way, but when the singles "Come on Back to Me, Lover" and "I Feel His Love Getting Stronger" failed to generate much airplay, the label released her from her contract.
Joseph landed at the Philadelphia-based WMOT Records, recording an entire LP under the auspices of producer Dexter Wansel that was shelved after the company went belly-up; at this point, a frustrated Joseph quit the music business, turning to a teaching career. She returned to performing in 1982, cutting "Knockout" for the tiny HCRC label; the single was a surprise R&B hit, but HCRC went out of business as well, although the setback did allow Joseph to re-sign with Cotillion, where Narada Michael Walden agreed to produce her 1984 comeback album, Ready for the Night; the title cut was a minor hit, but again the label terminated her contract. Four years later, she signed with Ichiban to release Stay, her last new material to date, although much of her vintage Stax and Atlantic work has since been reissued on CD.

This is Margie Joseph's most successful and aesthetically pleasing album. It was written and produced by Fred Briggs (a.k.a. Coldwater Stone) and Daryl Carter and is a mixture of Stax and city slick R&B sounds; "Punish Me," "Sweeter Tomorrow," and "Temptation's About to Take Your Love" are prime examples. A remake lifts this LP above the average mark; Briggs and Carter transform the Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love" into an awesome deep soul classic. Beginning with a monologue titled "Women Talk," Joseph talks to her soon-to-be-gone man about his carousing before preceding into a lengthy Isaac Hayes-type arrangement that composers Holland, Dozier & Holland probably never envisioned. Margie's version is compelling and gripping. This album's #67 chart position suggests it must have caught on with quite a few record buyers.

With everything the Temptations released pretty much guaranteed to turn to gold, not to mention platinum for that matter, even their tripped-out forays into sweet '60s psychedelic experimentation were sure to fire a string of hits. 1970's Norman Whitfield-produced Psychedelic Shack -- while perhaps a system shock to those fans who grooved to the band's lame-suited, Motown dance-routined R&B classics -- was a magnificent stretch into an epic and ultimately emerged as another in a long line of enduring sets. Deviating from form across the first songs, it was with the whimsical and willful title track (and a big thanks to the band from Georgia retro-ists the B-52's, who took their own homage, "Love Shack," to the top of the charts in 1989) that the Temptations broke their own mold with the acid-drenched party chant: "Psychedelic shack/That's where it's at." Opening that door and venturing outside the nonstop celebration, the band retains that vibe while returning to a slightly more staid stance on "Hum Along and Dance," leaving both the oddly paced "You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here on Earth" and the totally tripped-out "Take a Stroll Thru Your Mind" out on their own plane entirely. With such a strong collection of songs, it couldn't get much better than that. But, of course, it does, as the Temptations blister through the groovers "It's Summer" and "Friendship Train." And that, of course, just leaves the Whitfield-penned classic "War" to round out the mix. While fellow Motown-er Edwin Starr has etched what is now considered to be the definitive version of the song into the history tablets, the Temptations certainly took their own inspiration and added a unique spin as well. Not much else can be said, except that this is an absolutely outstanding album -- one which has stood the test of time, sounding as fresh as it did upon initial release. And for those who still suffer the scratchy vinyl, a 2002 CD reissue of the album on Dutch Motown finds Psychedelic Shack cunningly paired with the similarly superlative All Directions in a neat two-disc package.

Japanese only pressing. The Spinners' 2nd Time Around (1970) was actually their debut long-player for the short-lived V.I.P. subsidiary of Motown Records. The Second Time referred to in the title indicates the quintet's new direction, which was considerably funkier than the group's former R&B persona. The album likewise marked the final contributions of G.C. Cameron, who himself was the latest in a line of replacements that began when George W. Dixon made way for Edgar Chico Edwards in 1961. Universal. 1995.

Forever, Michael is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. The album, which was released in 1975, was the fourth and last studio album by him to be released by Motown Records. Forever, Michael was generally well received by contemporary music critics. Unlike Jackson's previous studio albums released within the 1970s, the album was not commercially successful worldwide. Except for the peak position of number 101 on the Billboard 200 and number 10 on a Billboard component chart in the United States, the album did not chart on any music charts. The album has reportedly sold over one million copies worldwide since its release.
The album, with the length of over 30 minutes, is credited as having material with R&B, pop, soul and pop rock material. Edward Holland, Jr., Brian Holland, Hal Davis, Freddie Perren, Sam Brown III served as producers to Forever, Michael. As part of promotion for the album, three singles were released from Forever, Michael, all of which were moderate commercial successes on the Billboard Hot 100 and other music charts worldwide. Songs from the album were reissued in 2009 after Jackson's death in June of the same year as part of the 3-disc compilation album entitled, Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection.
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by William Ruhlmann
Michael Jackson's fourth and final new studio album for Motown came nearly two years after its predecessor, Music and Me. It was a more mature effort for the 16-year-old singer but lacked the contemporary dance style that had given Jackson and his brothers a career rebirth with "Dancing Machine" the year before. The album did spawn two minor chart singles, "We're Almost There" and "Just a Little Bit of You" (both produced by Brian Holland of the Holland-Dozier-Holland production team), and a third track, "One Day in Your Life," would chart as a reissue six years later. But though Jackson sang appealingly, the arrangements were noticeably similar to many older Motown charts, and there was little here to hint that, four years hence, on his next solo album, Off the Wall, Jackson would emerge as a major star.

A Quiet Storm is a 1975 album by Motown legend Smokey Robinson. It is one of the most highly acclaimed Soul albums of the 1970s. A longtime innovator at Motown, Robinson responded to the revolution in black music (Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Al Green) with the stylish and mature album A Quiet Storm.
Smokey Robinson用标题曲为一种新的骚灵风格命了名

Edward James Kendrick, best known by the stage name Eddie Kendricks, was an American singer and songwriter. Noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style, Kendricks co-founded the Motown singing group The Temptations, and was one of their lead singers from 1960 until 1971.

Certainly Edwin's most enduring album for Motown, and the one that had him shifting from groovy Agent OO Soul into the heavier soul artist who cut the classic War (What Is It Good For)! The album's also got a killer version of "California Soul", one of the best Motown-penned tracks from the time, plus the tracks Time, I Just Wanted To Cry, and She Should Have Been Home.