MARV JOHNSON
I'LL PICK A ROSE FOR MY ROSE - THE COMPLETE MOTOWN RECORDINGS 1964-1971

Marv Johnson was there at the birth of Berry Gordy's fabled Detroit empire with his Tamla single 'Come To Me' in 1959, which Gordy placed with the established United Artists label for national release, using the proceeds of the deal to finance recording sessions. Marv remained with UA until 1964, when he returned to the Motown fold. There he released three knockout singles on the Gordy logo, but found further hits hard to come by, at least in the USA. It was a different story here in the Motown-hungry UK, where 'I'll Pick A Rose For My Rose' reached the Top 10 early in 1969. To satisfy demand, Motown dug into their vaults for tracks to create a similarly titled LP for the British market. The album was never issued in the USA. The first 11 tracks on this CD represent that LP in its entirety, mastered from the original stereo tapes used by the British Tamla Motown label in 1969. The next nine tracks are presented in recording date order. They include the four numbers that have surfaced on multi-artist CD collections in recent years, plus five exclusive previously unissued masters, some of which have been circulating on underground bootlegs for a while, but here are superbly mastered from the precious original Motown tapes. US Motown took particular care with their singles mixes, and for the many aficionados who prefer them, the final six tracks consist of the original punchy mono mixes of Marv's three Gordy 45s. In other words, our CD comprises Marv Johnson's complete Motown recordings 1964-1971.