Signed, Sealed & Delivered/The Temptations Greatest Hits II
To celebrate the 50th anniversary release of two lps from two of Motown’s biggest acts, The Rewind will feature a Motown Weekend, and On The Turntable will feature … Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed Seal and Delivered’ starting the program … and we’ll finish with ‘The Temptations Greatest Hits Two’ …
Signed, Sealed & Deliveredd
Signed Sealed & Delivered is a studio lp from Stevie Wonder, released this very weekend in 1970. Along with the hit title track, the album also featured the hits “Heaven Help Us All” , “Never Had A Dream Come True”, and Wonder’s cover of The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out”. The album hit #25 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart as well as #7 on the R&B Albums chart.
Stevie Wonder was beginning to separate himself from the Motown Hit Factory mentality in the 70’s and began to address social issues with his music …. There was much evidence of this move on Signed Sealed & Delivered with Never Had A Dream Come True, Heaven Help Us All and even the extraordinary cover of the Beatles song “We Can Work It Out” …. Signed, Sealed & Delivered was the first album where Stevie received producer credits …. Best ever Albums Dot Com considers the album the 211th best of 1970.
The Temptations Greatest Hits II
It is a rare occasion that a greatest hits complication makes it to our On The Turntable program … however … I could not resist The Temptations Greatest Hits II. The album was released in September 1970 and included songs from the late 60’s, also including the final collections of David Ruffin-led singles and the first of the Dennis Edwards-led psychedelic infused hits… I was a junior in high school when this was released … I have worn out the grooves on at least four copies of this lp.
There is not a bad song on this lp … however I have always been curious why and disappointed that “All I Need” from their ‘With A Lot O Soul’ lp and their duets single with The Supremes were left off this collection … I found, ironically, those were the only songs that were not produced by Norman Whitfield during this period … Best Ever Albums Dot Com considers the album to be the 99th best of 1970 and the 645th of the 1970’s … All and all, this collection includes, what I believe to be Motown’s two best vocalists … David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards.