Standing in the Shadows of Motown

1	(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave / Joan Osborne
2	You've Really Got a Hold on Me / Meshell Ndegeocello
3	Do You Love Me / Bootsy Collins
4	Bernadette / Funk Brothers Instrumental
5	Reach Out I'll Be There / Gerald Levert
6	Ain't Too Proud to Beg / Ben Harper
7	Shotgun / Tom Scott
8	What Becomes of the Brokenhearted / Joan Osborne
9	I Heard It Through the Grapevine / Ben Harper
10	You Keep Me Hanging On / Funk Brothers Instrumental
11	Cool Jerk / Bootsy Collins
12	Cloud Nine / Meshell Ndegeocello
13	What's Going On / Chaka Khan
14	Band Introduction/Ain't No Mountain High Enough / Chaka Khan
15	The Flick / Earl VanDyke

Barnes & Noble

Between 1959 and 1973, Motown's house musicians, the Funk Brothers, provided the musical blueprint for every song released by the label. By the end of this phenomenal era they'd played on more No. 1 hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Elvis Presley combined. Standing in the Shadows of Motown is the soundtrack to the same-named documentary and book, which recount the remarkable journey of phenomenal unknown greats like drummer Benny Benjamin. The songs here were recorded at a live concert by the surviving Funk Brothers -- including bandleader John Hunter, guitarist Joe Messina, and drummer Uriel Jones -- who reunited for the first time in almost three decades to play a set of Motown classics sung by current singers. Notable performances include Joan Osborne digging into "(Love Is like a) Heat Wave" and "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," P-Funk's Bootsy Collins bouncing through "Cool Jerk" and "Do You Love Me," and Gerald Levert getting gritty with saxophonist Tom Scott on a ripping rendition of "Shotgun." Elsewhere, Meshell Ndegeocello caresses "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and delivers a tasty slice of psychedelia on "Cloud Nine," while Chaka Khan slips into a stellar "What's Going On" before playing Tammy Terrell to Montell Jordan's Marvin Gaye on a killer "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." The Funk Brothers showcase their formidable chops on instrumental versions of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "Bernadette" as well as "The Flick," their theme song, which bubbles over with chugging rhythms, snappy guitar riffs, and ebullient organ runs. With Standing in the Shadows of Motown, the Funk Brothers finally get their props, penning an important, previously unwritten chapter of musical history. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

During Paul Justman's film documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, based on Al Slutsky's book of the same name about the session musicians who played on Motown recordings in Detroit from the late '50s to the early '70s, one of the interviewees is heard to comment that once those musicians, who dubbed themselves the Funk Brothers, finished cutting a backing track, it almost didn't matter who sang over it. It is no criticism of the singers who appear on this soundtrack album, which consists mainly of the new performances of Motown hits that punctuate the film, to say that the music heard here bears that observation out. The singers have been well chosen for the songs. Me'Shell NdegéOcello, for example, offers a contemporary gloss on Smokey Robinson's "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and channels Eddie Kendricks on the Temptations' "Cloud Nine," while Gerald Levert makes like Levi Stubbs on the Four Tops' "Reach out I'll Be There," Joan Osborne lives up to Martha Reeves on the Vandellas' "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave," and Bootsy Collins brings humor and outrageousness to the Contours' "Do You Love Me" and the Capitols' "Cool Jerk." But the legend on the back of the disc, "Starring the Funk Brothers on all tracks" is well put. This is a cohesive group, not just some studio professionals. The band is mixed louder and much more clearly than they were in the 1960s, when their sound was compressed, toned down behind the vocalists, and presented (at least on the AM radios on which it was most frequently heard) in mono. While the Motown sound was the product of its singers, songwriters, arrangers, and producers as well as the musicians who played the instruments, their contribution has been undervalued, and this recording demonstrates that amply. William Ruhlmann