Eddie boogies down! Former Temptation, now a no. 1 solo star, Kendricks keeps the fires burning with the rest of his classic albums – and much more – in The Thin Man: The Motown Solo Albums, Vol. 2. This 3-CD set captures EK shooting back to no. 1 with “Boogie Down,” hitting the dance floor with a pair of Philly soul spectaculars, then returning to collaborate with Leonard Caston on his final Motown recordings. That “much more”? An incredible bonus of an album’s worth of unreleased tracks.
Sweet Eddie had left the Temptations in 1971, in the wake of “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” his last hit with the group, reaching no. 1. He steadily built a career as a solo artist, culminating in the no. 1 smash, “Keep On Truckin’.” That phase is documented in The Motown Solo Albums, Vol. 1, which featured Eddie’s first three albums – All By Myself, People…Hold On and Eddie Kendricks – plus For You, which actually is EK’s fifth solo album. (It fit the set’s second disc time wise, while his fourth album, Boogie Down!, did not.)
The Motown Solo Albums, Vol. 2 kicks off with Boogie Down!, a no. 1 album that produced two more hits. “Son Of Sagittarius” and “Tell Her Love Has Felt The Need.” It’s paired up on disc 1 with 1975’s The Hit Man, highlighted by the Brian Holland-produced “Get The Cream Off The Top” and “Happy.” It would be the last album produced by Frank Wilson with Caston.
“The Harris Machine” – a.k.a. guitarist Norman Harris and key players from the awesome MFSB band, and his team of writers and arrangers – next produces the albums He’s A Friend and Goin’ Up In Smoke. Doubled up on this collection’s disc two, they are underrated classics with the title songs hitting the charts. In 1977, Eddie would reunite with Leonard Caston for Slick, another underrated gem featuring “Intimate Friends,” written by Garry Glenn, who would later write “Caught Up In The Rapture” for Detroit’s next soul star, Anita Baker.
That completes Eddie Kendricks’ Motown solo albums collection – almost. As an exceptional bonus to this set are eight “Lost & Found” tracks newly discovered in the Motown vault, a complement to the bonus “album” on The Great David Ruffin, Vol. 2. They’re several outtakes circa People…Hold On and one more, fully completed cuts (not demos) that went begging to be part of an album.
Clay McMurray did three sublime songs (tracks #10-12 on disc 3). Bobby Miller, who wrote and produced Eddie’s “Date With The Rain,” also cut “Johnny Faraway” and the original version of the funky “Go On With Your Bad Self” – Ruffin later used the same backing track (see The Great David Ruffin, Vol. 1). Gloria Jones and Pam Sawyer, who produced for Eddie “Where Do You Go (Baby)” (see Keep On Truckin’: The Motown Solo Albums, Vol. 1), also brought in tracks 15 & 16.
Finally, Brian Holland is at the helm for “I’ll Be Your Servant,” from the same session as “Get The Cream Off The Top.” It didn’t fit on The Hit Man (Holland re-cut it on G.C. Cameron) but Hip-OSelect.com is happy to find room for it on this special collection