The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 11B - 1971

The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 11B: 1971 picks up where Vol. 11A left off, covering July through December 1971, detailing the company's transition from assembly-line hit singles to album projects and the new sounds of Los Angeles, California. It's in these six months that Motown, with the Jackson 5 landing a TV special and hitting the top again with "Sugar Daddy," spun off lead singer Michael Jackson as a solo artist. MJ's smash solo debut, "Got To Be There," is the spotlighted vinyl 45 fronting Vol. 11B. Eddie Kendricks gained ground as a solo act. Stevie Wonder showed his mettle as an emerging independent adult artist with his LP Where I'm Coming From and the hit single "If You Really Love Me." Diana Ross had two fine singles in a slight commercial slump. The set also includes Motown's continuing experiments with rock, MOR, singer-songwriters Bobby Darin and Valerie Simpson, and with different slices of soul, from new signings Virgil Henry, Thelma Houston and Popcorn Wylie, a returning veteran. The whole story is laid out in rich detail across five discs that feature not only the hits and their B-sides, but also rare mixes, pulled releases and more. And as is expected in this series, Vol. 11B is given a beautiful frame: "album" style packaging with a 124-page booklet featuring detailed recording and release dates, and similarly detailed track-by-track histories.