British Motown Chartbusters 2
ALBUM ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE GOLDEN ERA
In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Supremes and Stevie reigned. Diana, too, after setting out on her own.
Welcome to the second episode of WGB’s excursion into the U.K. charts, as this month they celebrate their 70th anniversary. Two weeks ago was an accounting of Motown’s achievements on the singles front. This week, it’s the turn of the albums.
There is a small, technical difference: the first British listing of best-selling LPs was published four years after the singles charts. So it’s not exactly the same anniversary, but close – and the results are still illuminating. Well, imho.
The period under scrutiny here runs from 1964, when a Motown LP first reached the top 20 of the U.K. charts, to mid-1988, when Berry Gordy sold his record business.
And so to the Supremes, who scored that first Motown album chart entry, and who also enjoyed the company’s longest-running Number One. The former was Meet The Supremes, released on EMI Records’ Stateside label in December 1964, a few months before the Tamla Motown imprint was introduced in Britain. It spent six weeks in the U.K. Top 20, peaking at No. 13.
(The album was also notable because EMI decided to capitalise on the trio’s single success with “Where Did Our Love Go,” adding the track to the British pressing of the original Meet The Supremes, and completely skipping a U.K. release for America’s Where Did Our Love Go LP.)
Ten Supremes albums spent a total of 112 weeks in the Top 20 from 1964-77, with seven of them making the Top 10 and two climbing to the peak. Their 20 Golden Greats stayed at the top for seven weeks, longer than any of the eight other Motown LPs which reached Number One. The group also had the second-longest chart-topping title, Diana Ross & The Supremes Join The Temptations, which reigned for four weeks.
Even so, Stevie Wonder out-charted the Supremes, with 11 of his albums reaching the Top 20, across a total of 121 weeks. Those ranged from 1969’s My Cherie Amour to 1985’s In Square Circle, and included two which stopped only one slot shy of the summit: Songs In The Key of Life and Hotter Than July.
Diana Ross also had 11 albums occupy the Top 20, spending 106 weeks there in total. Those hits included her 1973 duet set with Marvin Gaye (which significantly outperformed its U.S. chart ranking) and her own 20 Golden Greats, which climbed to No. 2 at the end of ’79.
FOUR TOPS FIRST, LIONEL LAST
Including those hit packages by the Supremes, Wonder and Ross, there were 72 albums of Motown repertoire which occupied the British Top 20 during the survey period. The first Number One was the Four Tops’ Greatest Hits in 1966, the last was Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down in 1983. The latter not only spent three weeks at the top, but also another 60 weeks in the Top 20 – more than any other Motown title.
Still, a number of Hitsville U.S.A. acts couldn’t garner a Top 20 album in the U.K. at any time, including Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Jr. Walker & the All Stars and the Miracles (Smokey Robinson managed one brief, solo chart appearance, with Being With You). Marvin Gaye’s only major chart accomplishment on his own was with a British-compiled hits collection in 1984, after he had quit Motown (his Columbia debut, Midnight Love, did reach the Top 10, just.)
Perhaps the company’s most cohesive album activity of the period was with the Motown Chartbusters series. Nine – yes, nine – consecutive volumes of these 16-track LPs occupied the Top 20 over seven years, and only one fell short of the Top 10. Three went to Number One during 1970-71, contributing to the 1.75 million Motown albums sold in Britain during those 24 months. (A fuller account of the series’ success was included in this previous WGB edition.)
The Motown Chartbusters concept obviously owed much to the firm’s multi-volume American LP brand, A Collection Of 16 Original Big Hits. The latter was a popular line, but the releases rated nowhere near as high on the Billboard charts as their equivalents on the other side of the Atlantic.
Another example of U.K. success occurred during the 1980s, when Motown licensed its repertoire to independent marketing companies such as K-tel and Telstar. These albums were heavily advertised on TV, burning brightly and selling fast. Among the acts deployed in this fashion were Ross, Wonder, Gaye, the Jackson 5 and the Commodores; those who charted in the Top 20 are included in the listing below, marked by two asterisks.
And so to the tabulation, sourced from the Official Charts Company data. As with the singles two weeks ago, it’s organised chronologically by year, with each album’s U.K. chart peak first, followed by title, date of chart peak, name of artist and U.S. chart peak on Billboard’s Top 200 albums. An asterisk denotes an album without a direct Motown U.S. equivalent. In those cases where the contents of comparable U.K. and U.S. editions varied only slightly (British releases sometimes had more tracks), the U.S. chart peak is shown. The envelope, please.
1964
#13 Meet The Supremes (December 12) THE SUPREMES (US –)
1965
#16 A Collection Of 16 Tamla Motown Big Hits (April 10) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
1966
#9 Four Tops On Top (December 17) THE FOUR TOPS (US #32)
1967
#15 Supremes A’ Go-Go (January 14) THE SUPREMES (US #1)
#4 Four Tops Live! (April 8) THE FOUR TOPS (US #17)
#15 The Supremes Sing Motown (July 8) THE SUPREMES (US #6)***
#11 A Collection Of 16 Original Big Hits Volume 5 (July 29) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
#20 Temptations Live! (August 12) THE TEMPTATIONS (US #10)
#2 British Motown Chartbusters (December 9) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
#19 With A Lot O’ Soul (December 16) THE TEMPTATIONS (US #7)
1968
#4 Four Tops Reach Out (January 27) THE FOUR TOPS (US #11)
#1 Greatest Hits (February 10) THE FOUR TOPS (US #4)
#1 Greatest Hits (February 17) DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES (US #1)
#17 Greatest Hits (March 16) THE TEMPTATIONS (US #5)
#6 Live At London’s Talk Of The Town (May 11) DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES (US #57)
1969
#8 British Motown Chartbusters Vol. 2 (February 1) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
#13 Love Child (February 22) DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES (US #14)
#1 Diana Ross & The Supremes Join The Temptations (February 15) DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES WITH THE TEMPTATIONS (US #2)
#11 TCB (July 12) DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES WITH THE TEMPTATIONS (US #1)
#17 My Cherie Amour (December 20) STEVIE WONDER (US #34)
1970
#1 Motown Chartbusters Vol. 3 (February 14) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
#20 Puzzle People (February 21) THE TEMPTATIONS (US #5)
#16 Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 (April 4) THE JACKSON 5 (US #5)
#1 Motown Chartbusters Vol. 4 (October 31) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
#14 Diana Ross (October 31) DIANA ROSS (US #19)
1971
#1 Motown Chartbusters Vol. 5 (April 17) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
#6 The Magnificent 7 (July 10) THE SUPREMES & THE FOUR TOPS (US #113)
#10 I’m Still Waiting (October 9) DIANA ROSS (US #56)
#2 Motown Chartbusters Vol. 6 (October 23) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
1972
#16 Lookin’ Through The Windows (November 25) THE JACKSON 5 (US #7)
#9 Motown Chartbusters Vol. 7 (December 9) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
1973
#17 Ben (January 13) MICHAEL JACKSON (US #5)
#19 All Directions (February 3) THE TEMPTATIONS (US #2)
#16 Talking Book (February 17) STEVIE WONDER (US #3)
#7 Touch Me In The Morning (September 8) DIANA ROSS (US #5)
#9 Motown Chartbusters Vol. 8 (November 3) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
1974
#6 Diana & Marvin (April 6) DIANA ROSS & MARVIN GAYE (US #26)
#8 Innervisions (April 27) STEVIE WONDER (US #4)
#5 Fulfillingness’ First Finale (August 17) STEVIE WONDER (US #1)
#14 Motown Chartbusters Vol. 9 (November 23) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
1976
#8 Motown Gold (February 7) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
#4 Diana Ross (April 3) DIANA ROSS (US #5)
#2 Greatest Hits/2 (September 11) DIANA ROSS (US #13)
#2 Songs In The Key of Life (October 30) STEVIE WONDER (US #1)
1977
#1 20 Golden Greats (September 17) DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES*
1978
#8 Natural High (September 2) THE COMMODORES (US #3)
1979
#19 Greatest Hits (January 20) THE COMMODORES (US #23)
#15 Midnight Magic (October 6) THE COMMODORES (US #3)
#8 Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants (November 17) STEVIE WONDER (US #4)
#2 20 Golden Greats (November 24) DIANA ROSS*
1980
#12 Diana (August 16) DIANA ROSS (US #2)
#2 Hotter Than July (November 8) STEVIE WONDER (US #3)
1981
#17 Being With You (June 27) SMOKEY ROBINSON (US #10)
#11 The Best Of Michael Jackson (August 1) MICHAEL JACKSON (US #156)
1982
#13 The Best Of The Four Tops (March 27) THE FOUR TOPS**
#8 Stevie Wonder’s Original Musiquarium I (June 12) STEVIE WONDER (US #4)
#5 Love Songs (August 28) THE COMMODORES**
#5 Love Songs (December 25) DIANA ROSS**
1983
#9 Lionel Richie (March 5) LIONEL RICHIE (US #3)
#1 18 Greatest Hits (August 20) MICHAEL JACKSON/THE JACKSON 5**
#1 Can’t Slow Down (November 12) LIONEL RICHIE (US #1)
1984
#8 Portrait (January 14) DIANA ROSS**
#13 Greatest Hits (April 14) MARVIN GAYE**
#9 Farewell My Summer Love (June 23) MICHAEL JACKSON (US #46)
#2 The Woman In Red/Soundtrack (September 22) STEVIE WONDER/DIONNE WARWICK (US #4)
#20 Love Songs (December 8) STEVIE WONDER**
1985
#13 Nightshift (March 16) THE COMMODORES (US #12)
#5 In Square Circle (September 28) STEVIE WONDER (US #5)
1986
#2 Dancing On The Ceiling (August 30) LIONEL RICHIE (US #1)
1987
#4 The Return Of Bruno (July 11) BRUCE WILLIS (US #14)
1988
#12 Love Songs (January 2) MICHAEL JACKSON/DIANA ROSS**
#3 Motown Dance Party (June 4) VARIOUS ARTISTS*
* not released as US album
** third-party UK compilations, e.g. K-tel, Telstar
*** released as The Supremes Sing Holland/Dozier/Holland in the U.S.