| Just We Two | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Blinky and Edwin Starr | ||||
| Released | September 16, 1969 | |||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Soul music | |||
| Length | 31:13 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Gordy | |||
| Producer | Frank Wilson | |||
| Blinky chronology | ||||
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| Edwin Starr chronology | ||||
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Just We Two is a 1969 album pairing soul music singers Blinky and Edwin Star, released on Gordy Records.
Edwin Star had achieved a modest success with "Twenty-Five Miles" earlier in 1969 and Motown rushed to pair him with Blinky, a vocalist who had only released the 1968 single "(I Wouldn't Change) The Man He Is", [1] which had received positive critical success, but limited sales. [2] The label sought to replicate the success of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's duets, as well as compete with Stax Records' singles, [3] but once this album was released, "Oh How Happy"/"Ooo Baby Baby" did not live up to the hype it received in Billboard , [4] entering the Hot 100 at 99 [5] and peaking at 96 the next week [6] before disappearing from the charts. The album received little support from Motown and its commercial failure led to three further Blinky albums being canceled. [2] Starr returned to being a solo act, scoring his biggest hit with "War" the following year. Blinky became a backing vocalist and would not receive another album until the 2019 compilation Heart Full of Soul: The Motown Anthology.
The album was re-released by Hip-O Select in 2004 on compact disc. [7]
Editors of AllMusic Guide rated this album 3.5 out of five stars, with critic Lindsay Planer noting that the pairing of Bliny and Starr is not as strong as Marvin Gaye's many vocal duets but pointed out several tracks as highlights. [7]
Additional personnel
Hip-O re-release
William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. He was the founder and frontman of the pioneering Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter and producer. He led the group from its 1955 origins, when they were called The Five Chimes, until 1972, when he retired from the group to focus on his role as Motown Records vice president. Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year. He left Motown in 1999.
Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was originally headquartered.
Charles Edwin Hatcher , known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. He is best remembered for his Norman Whitfield-produced Motown singles of the 1970s, most notably the number-one hit "War".
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
Mary Christine Brockert, known professionally as Teena Marie, was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. She was known by her childhood nickname Tina before taking the stage name Teena Marie and later acquired the nickname Lady T, given to her by her collaborator and friend Rick James.
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966. The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips and released as a single in September 1967. It went to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and number two on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and shortly became the biggest selling Motown single up to that time.
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is a song written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson in 1966 for the Tamla label, a division of Motown. The composition was first successful as a 1967 hit single recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and became a hit again in 1970 when recorded by former Supremes frontwoman Diana Ross. The song became Ross's first solo number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
The Originals, often called "Motown's best-kept secret", were a successful Motown R&B and soul group during the late 1960s and the 1970s, most notable for the hits "Baby I'm for Real", "The Bells", and the disco classic "Down to Love Town." Formed in 1966, the group originally consisted of baritone singer Freddie Gorman, tenor/falsetto Walter Gaines, and tenors C. P. Spencer and Hank Dixon. Ty Hunter replaced Spencer when he left to go solo in the early 1970s. They had all previously sung in other Detroit groups, Spencer having been an original member of the (Detroit) Spinners and Hunter having sung with the Supremes member Scherrie Payne in the group Glass House. Spencer, Gaines, Hunter, and Dixon were also members of the Voice Masters. As a member of the Holland–Dozier–Gorman writing-production team, Gorman was one of the co-writers of Motown's first number 1 pop hit "Please Mr. Postman", recorded by the Marvelettes. In 1964 the Beatles released their version and in 1975 the Carpenters took it to number 1 again. This was the second time in pop history that a song had reached number 1 twice as "The Twist" by Chubby Checker, reached number 1 in both 1960 and 1961. In 2006, "Please Mr. Postman" was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Diana & Marvin is a duets album by American soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, released October 26, 1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place between 1971 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Gaye and Ross were widely recognized at the time as two of the top pop music performers.
"Ooo Baby Baby" is a song written by Smokey Robinson and Pete Moore. It is a classic 1965 hit single by The Miracles for the Tamla (Motown) label. The song has inspired numerous other cover versions by other artists over the years, including covers by Ella Fitzgerald, Todd Rundgren, The Escorts, The Five Stairsteps, Linda Ronstadt, and many others. The Miracles' original version of "Ooo Baby Baby" is listed as number 266 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
"Baby, I'm for Real" is a soul ballad written by Marvin Gaye and Anna Gordy Gaye, produced by Marvin and recorded and released by American Motown vocal group The Originals for the Soul label issued in 1969.
"California Soul" is a funk-soul tune written by Ashford & Simpson, issued originally as the B-side of the Messengers' single "Window Shopping" in 1967 under the Motown group of labels.
"You've Made Me So Very Happy" is a song written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Berry Gordy, and was released first as a single in 1967 by Brenda Holloway on the Tamla label. The song was later a huge hit for jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1969, and became a Gold record.
"Way Over There" is a 1960 Motown soul song and single, written by William "Smokey" Robinson, produced by Berry Gordy, and first performed by The Miracles for the Tamla (Motown) label. It was one of The Miracles' earliest charting singles, reaching #94 on the Billboard Pop chart. Motown president Berry Gordy, Jr. had The Miracles record the song several times during its chart run. The first version had minimal orchestration. The second version added strings, and this is the version played by most oldies stations today. Claudette Robinson had several lead parts on this song, answering Smokey's leads with chants of "Come to me, Baby". The song's B-side, "(You Can) Depend on Me", while not charting nationally, did become a popular regional hit in many areas of the country, and Smokey still sings it in his live shows today. "Way Over There" has inspired cover versions by Edwin Starr, The Temptations, The Marvelettes, The Royal Counts, The Spitballs, and Eddie Adams Jr, while "(You Can) Depend on Me" has inspired cover versions by The Temptations, The Supremes, Mary Wells, and Brenda Holloway. The song was also used for the title of Hip-O Select's 2009 compilation: The Miracles – Depend on Me: The Early Albums, which collects the first five LP releases by the group.
What Love Has...Joined Together is a 1970 album by R&B group Smokey Robinson & The Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla label. A concept album consisting solely of six short love songs, it charted at number 97 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart, and reached the Top 10 of Billboard's R&B album chart, peaking at number 9. It was the first Miracles album to have no new songs; the recordings are all cover versions of songs written by noted composers, such as Stevie Wonder, Berry Gordy, Frank Wilson, Brenda Holloway and her sister Patrice Holloway, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Marvin Gaye, The Beatles' John Lennon & Paul McCartney,, and Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers.
Marcus Melvin "Marc" Gordon was an American Grammy-winning record producer, songwriter and music executive, best known for his work with Hal Davis at Motown, and for his later involvement with The 5th Dimension.
Oh How Happy is a song written by Edwin Starr. It was a hit for the group The Shades of Blue. In the early 1980s, it was a minor hit for New Zealand based New York City soul singer Herb McQuay. Many artists have covered the song. It has been covered by numerous artists.
On Broadway is a 1967 studio album by American soul vocal group Four Tops, mostly covering Broadway show tunes and musical numbers.
Back Where I Belong is a studio album by American soul music vocal group Four Tops, released on October 6, 1983 by Motown.
Here Comes the Judge is the 1968 debut studio album by American rhythm and blues singer Shorty Long, released on Motown subsidiaries Soul Records and Tamla Motown. After recording several singles for Motown, Long had an unexpected hit with the title track to this release and the label rushed out a full album, compiling several songs already released as singles as well as new recordings. That year, Long toured with a stable of Motown acts including The Contours, The Marvelettes, and The Spinners to promote the album, which was the only one released in Long's lifetime.
