I just called to say I love TAMLA MOTOWN SINGLES POLL - VOTING ENDS 1st JULY 2013

Send your ballots to samuelpooley (at) gmail.com

I decided to do it a bit differently. #1 votes will receive 6 more points. Then vote for your top 25 (points system is #1 vote = 30, #2 = 25, #3 = 24 etc.). Your next 25 votes, #26-50 will all receive 1 point each. I figure I am covering a huge amount of ground in this poll, including splits over artists, decades and genre boundries, so having an amount you can just chuck in without the guilt of trying to figure out whether they deserve to come 32nd or 47th on yr list might make it less bothersome and get funner results.

So 50 votes. Please just email them as:

1. Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
2. The Supremes - Baby Love

etc. to make it easier, i'll sort out everything else.

Sub polls:

Favourite singles artist/band. 5 votes.
Favourite cover version. 5 votes.
Worst Motown single. 2 votes.

Poll ends 1st July 2013 at midnight GMT.

Enjoy.

---

http://www.seabear.se/Front.php
http://open.spotify.com/user/maglio/playlist/5Mc4qbY0ExrOwObV2HroTX
Motown Poll Discussion Thread

Maybe keep youtubes to the other thread?

Feel free to ask about other labels, re-releases, b-sides etc. but I'm gonna be p liberal as to what is included. For the countdown I think I'm gonna try and present it as A and B sides together if possible.

Favourite cover version. 5 votes.

Is this for Motown artists covering Motown/non-Motown tracks or non-Motown artists covering Motown tracks?

My guess is non-Motown covering Motown. We're okay to post non-embedded YouTubes, right? Forgot to recommend Frank Wilson's "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" on the other thread. He died a year or so ago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwvpeYiQwss

Oh man, just took a first stab at putting a ballot together. The only other poll that could possibly approach this in terms of daunting impossibility would be a Duke Ellington poll.

Calling it now: You Sure Love to Ball is going to win this thing.

I was able to list 30 right away, then made a couple of substitutions. I'll probably leave it at that.

Lobbying for a couple of Who Motown covers:
http://youtu.be/6DfQ5N1TyTw
http://youtu.be/HYGYbFwmHzQ

the 26-50 being unranked thing is making this easier. I can think of 4 epochal Motown covers. the number 5 slot will go to a random Stones cover or the goddamn Afghan Whigs.

The Who cover I considered was Heat Wave

Yeah, I thought about that too, but it doesn't hold a candle to the others.

What about "Closely allied" labels?

"The Night" by Frankie Valli and the 4 seasons is one of my fav singles oat, it's on MoWest

I'm gonna do what I do for other polls, only more so: list the first thirty songs I can think of.

iirc sublabels are included: MoWest, VIP, Rare Earth etc.

Ra.

Ra? This stupid spelling corrector on the touchpad.. Then again, it fixes more of my typos than the other way around.

ta..

Mariah Carey's "I'll Be There," Bananarama's "He Was Really Saying Something," and the Beatles' "You've Really Got a Hold of Me" are the first covers that come to mind for me. I don't think there are many I like...Please don't hate me: Blood, Sweat & Tears' "You've Made Me So Very Happy" is one of them, even though Brenda Holloway's is better.

the epochal 4 I mentioned are Gaynor's "Never Can Say Goodbye", Aretha's "Until You Come Back To Me", The Beatles' "Money" (epochal to me and Greil Marcus at least) and Green's "I Can't Get Next To You".

"The Night" by Frankie Valli and the 4 seasons is one of my fav singles oat, it's on MoWest

― Mark G

The only thing I'm sure of when compiling my list is that The Night will be my number one. No idea how I will handle the rest of my list yet.

"Until You Come Back to Me" is an odd situation: it doesn't appear on a Stevie Wonder album (the Looking Back anthology) until three years after Aretha's version. The cover predates the original.

well Steve did record it in 1967 so I think it could be eligible. it's up to a hoy

I wasn't trying to raise a red flag, just pointing out the oddity--now that you've reminded me, I'll vote for it too.

but its not a single

No, as a cover--they don't have to be singles, do they?

the Aretha version is a single (a successful one at that) but it shouldn't really matter for covers, yeah

xp campaigning really works. the Motown discussion thread introduced me to both "The Night" and "Girl You Need A Change Of Mind". my ballot will be profoundly affected by these discoveries.

oic, read the sub-poll list , whoa-k..

i'll accept the aretha. its only a sub poll.

side labels are cool too.

very excited about this poll! btw we were discussing on Thread for coordinating the order and timing of ILM ballot polls that since the Motown one will be going all month, it might be good to do a single artist poll in the meantime in June, and my Jay-Z poll is up next in the queue. so a hoy hoy, just wanted to get your blessing to run that over the next couple weeks if you don't feel it'd be stepping on your toes?

Is there a nominations list for this poll?

Everything under http://www.seabear.se/Detroit1.htm is eligible.

Actually scratch "everything", I don't think distribution-only labels are counted (a hoy hoy?).

they are.

basically im fine with this being a clusterfuck, pendants be damned.

Ah ok, "distribution-only" only covers about 10 singles anyway iirc.

Campaigning for Martha and the Vandellas' "I'm Ready for Love":

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/2013/06/martha-reeves-and-vandellas-im-ready.html

That's my favourite Martha & The Vandellas single, it will be very high on my list.

Don't forget the Bruce Willis singles obv.

Curious what other Martha and the Vandellas songs people are voting for. I am thinking "Quicksand" and "Honey Chile." Not sure what else.

I will lol for eternity if Bruno makes it in. xp

I might vote for him to help that happen.

"Heat Wave" is undeniable imo.

Yeah Heat Wave is all time. I'd like to make room for In My Lonely Room too.

trying to think about this makes my brain hurt. where to start??

Curious what other Martha and the Vandellas songs people are voting for. I am thinking "Quicksand" and "Honey Chile." Not sure what else.

'Come and Get These Memories' is a favourite of mine, hoping to be able to give some points to 'Jimmy Mack' and 'Nowhere to Run' as well.

Heat Wave might be my No. 1

Jimmy Mack!

"Nowhere To Run" will probably be in my top 10. Snow chains as percussion!

What? Is that what that is? Oh wow, that makes the song even better for me.

anyone else voting for The Isley's "My Love is Your Love (Forever)"?
http://youtu.be/CrGT15ernWA
Discovered it on St. Etienne's The Trip, which also has The Supremes "It's Time to Break Down"
http://youtu.be/SmEHxCDPS10

first vote has come in :)

"Back in My Arms Again" might be my top Supremes pick! You don't always hear that bite in Diana's voice, but man, she had it.

"I lost him once to FRIENDS' ADVICE"

"All advice ever GO-OT me..."

Temptations - Fan the Flame

From I Wish It Would Rain, the last album with David Ruffin.

I voted!

Crazy that people have already voted. I'm still building UP my list in my head before I have to tear it DOWN to 50 for a ballot.

don't know about "people". had to vote now cause I can't afford thinking about this ballot during the whole month. exams an shit...

bump. have 2 votes now.

I'll vote soon enough or else I'll go mad. Currently thinking about the worst albums ballot - is "You Sure Love To Ball" worse than "I've Never Been To Me"?

I mean "worst tracks" obv

It's interesting to see which blockbusters are the ones that are really knocking me out. "My Guy" is a bigtime knockout.

Are those french horns at the beginning?

I'll vote soon enough or else I'll go mad. Currently thinking about the worst albums ballot - is "You Sure Love To Ball" worse than "I've Never Been To Me"?

― seanda.ly (seandalai)

You hate You Sure Love to Ball? No idea what I'll vote for in worst tracks, that's the least of my worries concerning this poll right now. I even thought about not voting at all yesterday, then I just realised I need to get a grip. As long as I submit a list that has The Night at number one I'll be happy, that song so deserves to do well in this poll.

It's not that YSLB is completely awful (like "I've Never Been To Me" is) but it's a low point for 70s Marvin, a bizarre single choice, and reading "Divided Soul" kind of soured me on his sex-mad woman shtick.

Smokey's 'The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage' has to be a contender

otm

"The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" is on the album "Make It Happen". everyone needs to hear that one

"Just like a desert shows a thirsty man, a green oasis where there's only sand, sweetness was only heartache, camouflaged, the love i saw in you was just a mirage."
Some of the most beautiful lyrics ever written, the hook and the arrangement are just perfect.
I agree with g simmel about the album too. It includes More Love, Tears of a Clown, but is genius from start to finish

Was listening to it last night and marveling at that very line

I got fed up of hunting down what was a single release and what wasn't, so I made a list that I think has everything eligible for the poll. Everything up to 1988, anyway - it's based on the pages under http://www.seabear.se/Detroit1.htm so it stops when Berry Gordy sold off the label. 3,353 tracks in total.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x72vnjjlj1ra5am/allMotownByArtist.txt

Really like "If You Can Want" from just after that Make It Happen album. Not one you hear much anymore, but it was almost a top ten hit at the time.

The Miracles song I most recommend seeking out is "A Fork in the Road," the B-side to "Tracks of My Tears." As B-sides go, I think it's pretty famous--Vince Aletti made mention of it in his Rolling Stone review of The Motown Story in '71, Christgau too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx2XjXCZRJ0

Here's another great song. I love the way it just builds, and the humour in the lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRZ_7lt7C6U

Marvelettes' "Forever" is classic doo wop (even with "redundant piano triplets," as Frank Zappa called them). I told the story once before on here, but I live in Art Laboe territory in Southern California. I was listening to his show one night and someone calls up and asks if he can play "Forever." He asks her if she means the Marvelettes and she says yeah. Only in the Art Laboe demographic do you call a radio show and ask for "Forever" without identifying who the heck you're talking about and it's understood.

"The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" is on the album "Make It Happen". everyone needs to hear that one

― g simmel, Sunday, June 9, 2013 12:45 PM

Special Occasion is a great album too. Make it Happen has my all time favourite Smokey & The Miracles track The Soulful Shack, for some strange reason that wasn't a single. I'd like to draw attention to one of the later singles that will be high on my list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2BKS3cbLww

Helpful video there! The "Now if there's some reason why I shouldn't love you" is so incredible.

Okay I've always loved The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage but once when I was listening to it I noticed the drums are bit too distracting. Every time I play it now the drums kind of get on my nerves, they just sound a bit too loud or something.

vote!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3JPPiLvF2o

jump to 7:11 in this clip and watch and then try to not vote for el debarge 'real love'.

Recorded for Motown subsidiary Soul, albeit pulled from release at the last minute. Will be in my Top 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TXI2ssVN2M

Yeah that's in my top five, it's perfect.

this has to win

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OfUkjk3KcM

Hands up if you think the greatest Motown single is "I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel for You" by Rita Wright!

another great one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2yKWzmC9QQ

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_45gwZ7vXAg

also see smokey's "just my soul responding"!

this is the hardest ILM poll ever

i mean i could easily name 25-50 smokey robinson records alone...

oh and don't forget r. dean taylor - indiana wants me

Making progress; my draft ballot is down to 78 tracks...(listens to "I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel for You")...ok, 79 tracks.

on looking through that singles list... am shocked that motown didn't release any singles from the supremes/jimmy webb album! that's a great LP!

my draft is at 200 tracks.

not singles but tell me these aren't fucking great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHlk11EGay0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6x01cgbr6I

don't forget about michael jackson solo tracks

my favorite is "wanna be where you are" -- that will probably be in my top 5

also see jackson 5 "maybe tomorrow"

"I Wanna Be Where You Are" is def top 5.

Despite tuomas's poll looming, my ballot is undoubtedly going to weigh heavily on disco picks.

Or disco-era picks, rather.

to me this is the quintessential motown track

holland-dozier-holland greatness... as good as any of the best supremes tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG6yPqcZXCY

some other tracks not to sleep on:

four tops covers e.g. walk away renee / if i were a carpenter

eddie kendricks - girl you need a change of mind

miracles - come round here i'm the one you need (this is a stormer)

eddie holland - jamie (real early motown stuff)

GOING TO A MOTHERFUCKING GO-GO

I've been stanning for a bunch of tracks on the other thread, but "Girl You Need..." and "Heaven Must Have Sent You" will be high on my ballot.

Might start a thread for favourite Motown non-singles.

what other thread?

Motown Poll Discussion Thread

I don't think I'll have room for that Rita Wright song but I'm going to fit as much Syreeta on my list as I can. I'm Goin' Left, Spinnin' & Spinnin' and To Know You is to Love You should be on everybody's list. Her first two albums are perfection.

also see jackson 5 "maybe tomorrow"

Yes! Came here to post that.

I love the desperate ones: Bernadette, My World Is Empty Without You, etc

More:

The Marvelettes – The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game
Thelma Houston – Don’t Leave Me This Way
Carl Bean – I Was Born This Way
The Undisputed Truth – Smiling Faces Sometimes
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – You’re All I Need to Get By

And more. Thank god for the 50-vote ballot:

Gladys Knight & the Pips – Help Me Make It Through the Night
Rare Earth – Get Ready
R Dean Taylor – There’s a Ghost in My House
The Supremes – Automatically Sunshine
The Isley Brothers – This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak For You)
Smokey Robinson – Just My Soul Responding
Eddie Kendricks – My People… Hold On
Martha & the Vandellas – I Can’t Dance to That Music You’re Playing
The Spinners – Message From a Black Man

this is going to need to be a 100-vote ballot

Stevie Wonder is problematic here because we've already had a poll devoted to him. I could easily fill half my ballot with his songs but I feel like I want to see as many artists as possible in the final countdown, including ones who had just one or two moments of genius, rather than canonised giants.

i have to say (really w/o trying to be challopsy) that i think stevie wonder is kind of 2nd-rank motown but also 2nd-rank singer-songwriter....

this here's the real shit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8LxarIbLtE

also top ten for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtX8pzj0IJY

also i hope people aren't forgetting teena marie

I think I'll end up without any Stevie songs - he'll do fine without my help and he's not really a favourite of mine.

Eddie Kendricks – My People… Hold On

Not a single afaik

Stevie Wonder is problematic here because we've already had a poll devoted to him. I could easily fill half my ballot with his songs but I feel like I want to see as many artists as possible in the final countdown, including ones who had just one or two moments of genius, rather than canonised giants.

When I checked the discography I was surprised at some of the great '70s Stevie songs that weren't singles, so this was slightly easier than I expected.

Oh yeah, I should check which songs were actually singles. So many sound like they should have been.

Yeah - I couldn't believe that Talking Book only had two, for example.

I think I've got my 50 more or less sorted, have left my ballot alone for a few days so I need to have one last check.

Just my Soul Responding will make my list and after listening to Quiet Storm again last night I'll try and vote for any singles from that. Has Cruisin' been mentioned yet? That deserves some love too. Smokey's 70's albums are really underrated.

Agree that a lot of Stevie's best songs were not singles. Think he might might only have three or four in my final list. If we were doing albums he'd have that many in the top ten.

"I Want You Back" in the grocery store at 6:30 in the morning today. There was me and maybe seven other people milling about, plus the cashier--only time I ever wanted to take part in a flash mini-mob.

i have to say (really w/o trying to be challopsy) that i think stevie wonder is kind of 2nd-rank motown but also 2nd-rank singer-songwriter

I can not believe how badly you suck, am.

how sweet of you!

about the only stevie singles i love unreservedly are "yester-me" and "uptight"

Loving the former would certainly justify thinking of him as 2nd-rank Motown.

He'll have at least 10 to 20 percent of the slots on my ballot locked up.

"Tears of a Clown" not being among them.

nobody should be able to resist Superstition (or have "reservations" about it)

Motown, Syreeta, Larry Levan, all in one dose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0oS0ZfQW94

Finding it hard to narrow down the shortlist of Temptations songs. To me they're the quintessential Motown band, having hits in all styles. My Girl to Ball of Confusion is quite a progression.

There is just too much of this. I'm going to go mad.

Voted! Now I can listen to something that isn't Motown for a change...

how many ballots?

Mine's coming this week (or weekend). One night I'm going to strap myself to this chair and finish it.

thanks for the big list of eligible tracks seandalai. (Can never remember which were the singles from The Return of Bruno.)

If I wanted to read a book about Motown, what's good? Quick scan suggests either the Nelson George Where did our love go?, or Gerald Posner's Motown: Music Money, Sex and Power. One obviously better than the other?

love this squelchy late period Gaye track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxASPCW0PwM

^^^amazing. that campy rap at the beginning! oh man.

Jaws! CB Radio! Meathead!

The backing track is amazing.

I still don't think Gaye gets enough credit for understanding synthesizers and programmed beats.

agreed. after all my favorite MG track is "Got to Give It Up"

The long lead-out at the end of "Ego Trippin Out" is amazing.

The rhythm section alone!

I still don't think Gaye gets enough credit for understanding synthesizers and programmed beats.

― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 18, 2013 5:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's a bit in Pete Townshend's autobiography where he and Marvin are hanging out in a studio in London in the 80s. Marvin's playing a synthesizer and doing amazing things that Townshend marvels at, but Marvin's basically, "Yeah, whatever, I'm just messing around."

plz more votes

Gotta get past current work deadlines, but I will get a ballot in.

How votes many so far?

oops ykwim

just 4 so far. come on now people, vote for yr pick of the pops!

I'm sure the votes will come but I have to say this is by far the hardest poll so far. There are just too many amazing songs to pick from.

Here's my plan: in my house, this weekend is Moweekend. We're going to work through the whole 932-song playlist, ruthlessly discarding for any flaw. This will leave precisely fifty tracks. Instant ballot!

I think Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers just jumped onto my ballot, holy dang.
"Does Your Mama Know About Me" b/w "Fading Away," 1968, fantastic!!

Normally I'd be all "4 ballots! C'mon people!!!" but I can actually sympathize with everyone's situation. This is harder than the 20th Century poll, even.

C'mon people, all it takes is 3 weeks of all-day listening!

I've given up on the notion that my ballot's not going to be 90% above-ground hits.

I keep having this issue about the placement of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" on my ballot - guess there must be something subtle about the way it hits me. Every time I've gone back to it, though, it gets bumped up (and...it's pretty high up on my ballot).

I did my best to dig deep but it's not like it's possible to deny the hits; I count eight songs on my ballot that also appear on the Motown 50 comp, and that's just one version of "the hits". My ballot was split fairly evenly between 60s and 70s, with just three or four 80s songs.

That 932 track playlist on Spotify turns into a frustration when you look at each of the "Complete Motown Singles" volumes individually and see how many songs aren't on the big list because they're not available in the US. 54 tracks from Vol. 9 alone are grayed out. I wanted to hear that Soupy Sales single, damn it!

In the UK volumes 8 and 11B are entirely missing (apart from the songs that are available on other releases) :(

Narrowed it down to fifty. Phew!

Now to rank.

Almost 20% of my ballot is either Temptations or David Ruffin or Eddie Kendricks.

I'm attempting to generate a Spotify playlist from seandalai's master list using Ivy.

Aha I didn't know about Ivy before, curious to see how well it does. A lot of the late 70s/80s material is missing ime - not entirely Spotify's fault, most of it has never been rereleased.

Motowning it up on plug.dj atm if anyone is keen btw.

Turning the spaces into tabs, going from text to table, deleting the unneeded columns, then going back to text was the time consuming part. It's still gnawing on the list of 3353 songs right now -- it's up to 1600 or so.

It didn't get everything, for whatever reason. I think in some cases it didn't recognize artist names that weren't exact matches, like "Diana Ross & The Supremes & The Temptations," for those '68/'69 collaborations. And of course it didn't include songs not available in the US. But it did process 1980 songs, in case the 932 track playlist wasn't enough Motown. A quick way to access some of the 70s/80s singles, anyway.

http://open.spotify.com/user/wmcrump/playlist/1ppe6vk9N4lJsbnifdTfx7

xp 4 Temptations tracks on my ballot

I would say that for a while Ruffin was the greatest singer in the business, but the two big solo hits I heard don't move me at all. the falsetto on Walk Away from Love is just wrong

I sometimes think he was too, but I might also think it about others when I'm hearing one of the records. The amount of competition he had from other male singers on the label was incredible and it was the same thing with the ladies. It might be the most obvious point to make about Motown, but the amount of talent they had on an absolutely iconic level was just one of the great musical stories of the 20th century. You can put it down to just a confluence of people and events, but my brother was reminding me that it's also down to people like Berry Gordy who was just able to recognize talent and figure out what to do with it.

Man, look how young Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier look in this picture:

http://www.rdeantaylor.com/rdeantaylor/Motown.html

okay, I'm in. I thought I didn't have time and that I'd wait for an artist poll...but I'm going through some heavy shit atm, and seriously...is there a better prescription for the heavy-shit-blues than motown?

Voted, finally

whoa I had never heard the Isley Bros version of 'I Hear a Symphony'

<3 <3

Voted. Almost all golden era stuff for me, but a few later records that I like, too.

Oh shit that deadline is getting a little too close! I need to get this sorted.

Okay I'm almost there, just listening through my playlist to make sure I'm happy with the order.

Only person I haven't found room for that I'd like to is David Ruffin. Which songs are people voting for by him? Walk Away From Love and My Whole World Ended were on my long list but just got cut out.

Since mentioning what I did vote for is poor form, I'll just say I didn't NOT vote for My Whole World Ended and I Can't Stop the Rain.

Interesting. Still not sure if I can find room for him though.

Just looking at Stevie Wonder's discography I originally thought he wouldn't do that well as a lot of my favourite songs of his were not singles but most of the ones from Songs in The Key Of Life alone are going to take up a lot of spaces. I didn't realise Another Star was a single!

got a couple more votes :D

Are you sending out acknowledgement emails? Just had a "wonder if he got my ballot" moment of doubt. Would be a tragedy if the GB Express didn't get the point I allocated it.

I thought I had my list ready but then I decided to listen to my Jackson 5 Ultimate Collection and I'm already regretting only having one song by them on my list, think I need to make a few last minute changes.

Also I realised that one of my favourite Motown songs ever was a single. Wine, Women & Song by Smokey Robinson which is one of the most beautiful songs ever made. Sadly there is only a terrible quality version of it on Youtube but it's on Spotify if anyone's interested. It's a really heartbreaking duet sung with his wife at the time.

imo everyone who posts on this board should vote in this poll, but I'd also understand if we only got, like, 15 ballots. this motherfucker is hard work.

ive only sent acknowledgements to people ive processed so far, my bad. im gonna try and get a bunch of them done today though.

I think I was the third voter or something

First regret: voted for "The Love You Save" and "I Want You Back" because I figured they were my favorite J5 singles and then "ABC" comes on the radio this morning.

I think Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers just jumped onto my ballot, holy dang.
"Does Your Mama Know About Me" b/w "Fading Away," 1968, fantastic!!

― WilliamC, Friday, June 21, 2013 10:53 AM (1 week ago)

omg, Tommy Chong was one of the Vancouvers! And the group was briefly called Four N****rs and a Ch*nk!

Working on my ballot now -- I'm a little bummed that the voting period was during one of my heaviest workloads of the year, because I found some amazing stuff in the B's and wish I had time to get through the rest of the alphabet.

so, is this happening in time? are there enough ballots? I agree with Johnny Fever, everyone should vote in this one.

I'm really struggling I'm afraid. I'll get you a ballot but it'll be monster hits only most likely. Though I'm worried about drowning all these lovely deep cuts.

Sent!

Even voted in all of the sub polls!

Almost done. After doing some ranking and then some culling so I wouldn't have a huge number of songs by any one artist, I have three spots left to re-fill.

it will likely be tomorrow but I do intend to vote

I think I might extend it a week. Massive work troubles that means I might get fired for someone elses imcompetence, so that anxiety/going through old training records might take precedence this week, sorry.

Hey, keep your job! We'll be alright.

Jeez, good luck!

yay more time

i need it, totally cool

Came across a tent at Glastonbury at 2am that played nothing but Motown hits and, shit, I've never heard these songs anywhere near this loud before. There's stuff going on in the basslines that I was noticing for the first time. I was also quite stoned so I was having epiphanies all over the shop. After the reaction that you Can't Hurry Love got I couldn't believe I hadn't voted for it (see also: every other song I heard).

Did you get my ballot, a hoy hoy?

thanks for more listening time and good luck with work crap, hoy!

Yeah, I ended up with "You Can't Hurry Love" as my top Supremes pick. So much to love about it.

four tops 'baby I need your lovin' sprung up in my motown playlist and oh man it sent me to places

I mean, I know it's mega obv choice but daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn that song rules hard

also how great is Devil In a Blue Dress? like some late sexy Lieber and Stoller ish goin on there, I love it

ive got everyones ballots.

Cheers. Good luck at work.

Wait, you don't have mine yet!

Just sent it.

i guess it's too late for me to send in a ballot...oh well at least i still have the opportunity to make snide remarks in the results thread about how if I had voted [insert deserving underrated song] would have done so much better

but if there's still time i'll put one together and send tomorrow.

It's not too late! Maybe a hoy hoy should get the thread title changed.

please please wait I'm sending mine tonight fffffuuuuuuuuuu

I voted!

yeah can a mod change the date to idk the 9th?

I'm just about to vote. I'm just trying to decide which song I should cut out of my list as I have 51 songs at this point.

Please could someone just tell me which deserves a place more, As by Stevie Wonder or Brick House by The Commodores? I'm tired and it's hard to even judge any of these songs anymore. I need someone to do it for me.

One of the things I learned about myself during this poll is that I hold the Commodores in slightly higher esteem than I would have thought I did, and Stevie Wonder in lower esteem than I've typically been willing to admit.

As I mentioned in one of these threads Stevie Wonder might well be my favourite Motown artist but he's ended up not doing that well on my list as most of my favourite songs were not singles. Creepin, Love's In Need of Love, All Day Sucker, Don't Blame it on the Sun and Visions would probably make up my top five Stevie songs, none of which were singles.

I feel Commodores are one of the most underrated Motown bands. A lot of people will remember them for their big ballads which were their biggest hits but the first five albums are just all so solid. I really wanted to represent them well in my list but have only ended up with a couple of songs in there (maybe three if I keep Brick House) I'd like to give one last shout out to The Zoo (Human Zoo) from their first album which is still one of the strangest and best singles Motown ever put out.

the more songs I realise I forgot to vote for, the more my ballot seems ridiculous:/

Giving us only fifty spaces on our ballots is what's ridiculous, we should have demanded more!

Voted!

Now I can get back to a normal life again...

until the disco poll comes along.

voting in 2 secs. whew.

god, seriously, never do 50 again tho. painfull.

Just done first pass, hope to be able to whittle down to 50 by tomorrow.

Is it legit to combine one song released as singles on Motown by two different artists in a single ballot slot? Alternatively, if I put them on my ballot separately would the points be combined anyway for the roll-out?

^aka the "Ball of Confusion" dilemma

I voted on the assumption that different artists' versions of the same song count separately.

voted.

I intend to vote by the end of the day, if only to punch up Stevie's numbers.

I voted (hopefully?). I already have regrets. But, wow, looking at that list...Holland/Dozier/Holland.
what a catalog.

Oh no...just saw that the complete Motown singles 12A (first half of 1972) is now on UK Spotify...I thought I'd heard everything, then POW.

the moment when I realized I forgot to vote for Marvin & Tammi's 'Precious Love'
D:
D:

I covered it. No worries.

:D

I figured ILX would pull through for me

Voted

I Sent In My Top Fifty (Eight of the Songs Had Parenthetical Titles)

*handclaps* *handclaps* ((((strings))))

I got a bunch of ballots. Cheers everyone. Monday-Wednesday is essentially when I have to save my job (I have a new manager starting) so I think after that is when the roll-out will start.

hope everything works out fine. hang in there!

D'oh! What are the odds I can slip my ballot in after the buzzer? I crashed last night before doing this!

go for it.

I can too?!

sure. like i said, next thursday is the (unlikely) first date the actual poll could happen

Yeah you should just take your time and not sweat it, Clash results will prob rollout first anyway.

I've sent you a runt half-ballot too

To add to my job worries our landlord has found a buyer for the place we rent, we are to be given notice soon and will have 2 months to find a new home. I just don't have time to do this poll right now guys, sorry. If anyone would like to take over i'll happily pass on ballots. Lyfe sucks sometimes.

I'm working away at something else right now, so a little reluctant, but I'll volunteer for one part: I'm pretty fast with a spreadsheet, so I'd be okay with totaling up the ballots and passing the ranked results onto someone else for artwork and posting.

Just now saw ahh's update. I might be able to roll this out with clemenza's help on the tabulation end.

Great. E-mail me the ballots, hoy hoy--my address is near the top of my homepage, which you can get to by clicking on my display name. I'll quickly tabulate votes, pass the results on to JF, and he can take it from there.

clem/jf wanna webmail me there email address? i presume everyone who voted is cool with me passing this on? sorry about all of this.

lol ok. will send them in a bit.

Separate e-mails for each ballot are fine; if you can cut-and-paste all ballots onto an attached Word document (with voters' names, in case I have to clarify something), that would be even better.

clemenza/a hoy hoy, my email for ilx stuff is johnnyilxfever at gmail dot com.

Thanks for stepping up, you guys! Looking forward to this.

Sure, this will be fun. My only regret is that a hoy hoy has to turn over his baby to other people. :(

lol, reminds me of those "work from home" radio ads. "Are you sick of other people RAISING YOUR CHILDREN!?!"

ilx to the rescue - HITSVILLE HAS BEEN SAVED

Still waiting for hoy hoy--hint, hint--but if anyone who didn't vote wants to send me a ballot before Monday (follow my display name), please do. You'll never absorb the full catalogue--don't even try. Just write down 5 or 10 or however many songs you already know and love.

Yeah, would've been great to get the poll stuff before the weekend so I could be making images right now, but I dunno what's up. a hoy hoy, are you out there?

I've got the ballots (thanks, HH) and there are 22. I'm not tabulating results until tomorrow morning, so anyone who wants to send a list before then, please do.

Looks like we'll be able to start this rollout later in the week. Get ready, cos here it comes!

wooooooooooo

we end up doing a lot of these kinds of polls after the artist passes away, but i never thought we'd be doing the Motown poll after Detroit died

wish I had button here to like last comment

Is 22 a low number of ballots, generally?

Definitely on the low side, but it's such an intimidating poll.

yeah i think there's kind of a law of inverse proportions with these things... the bigger the pool of possible music to vote for, the more intimidated people get by the prospect of voting. when it's some band with less 5 or 6 albums that every fan knows by heart, throwing together a ballot in an hour is nothing.

Just sent a top 25 to clemenza's webmail. Hopefully that'll work

In the circumstances, you might wanna post a roll call (by usual display name) of whose ballots you have, just in case any fell off the back of the e-lorry in transit. Might save on wailing and gnashing of teeth after the rollout.

just realised i drunkenly mailed ahoyhoy my ballot with no display name attached. should i resend it to clemenza?

No need to, as long as I have the list. Just e-mailed the results to JF (after the usual glitch of messing up one ballot and having to retabulate).

Got 'em. Just took a look, and I think this is gonna be a fun rollout.

I'll probably do 60-41 tomorrow, and then 40-21 on Thursday, and finish with 20-1 on Friday. Cool with everybody?

more than cool

can i get the list clem? :D ty forever guys for this.

my flatmates are at a viewing they like so much they are putting down a holding fee for us right now btw, with a viewing arranged for me on thursday. life could turn out alright in the end :D

Chess poll for you next week then

ha. i still need to get a new job contract by the 1st august so mebbe not.

yay I'm so excited