Motown Covers

In its prime, Motown wasn't merely a label; it was Tin Pan Alley West, as the hit factory's songwriting staff churned out more smashes than even their artists could possibly record. No wonder that, from funk to punk and pop to rock, just about everybody's dipped into the Motor City Songbook for inspiration. The Red Hot Chili Peppers extract the funk from Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" and set it on fire, with fuzz-bomb guitars blazing and a chassis-rattling bottom-end blast. And former Doobie Brothers vocalist Michael McDonald jump-started his solo comeback with a pair of albums devoted to Motown covers, including a synth-laden, blue-eyed soul take on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". Not only did he look to the label for inspiration, but he also signed with them. In Next Steps, we hear the group that took Bob Dylan electric, the Strokes, and more.

Look closely, and you'll find songs in our Next Steps that didn't just have their arrangements reworked — they even got new titles. While handclaps and horns drive Marvin Gaye into a pleading frenzy in his "Baby Don't You Do It", the Band drops it down a gear, and Levon Helm's misery-wracked lead on "Don't Do It" is the last, desperate gasp of a man whose heart — and future — is already on the debt collector's hook. The Strokes may have kept the original title for "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)", but that was about it, as they noised-up Marvin's bittersweet reflection into an in-your-face accusation. Luther Vandross, meanwhile, s-l-o-w-s down the tempo and burrows his nectar-sweet tenor into the broken heart of the Temptations' "Since I Lost My Baby", dragging it from the street into the confessional. In Deep Cuts, Motown classics prove themselves adaptable to firebrand blues and punked-up reggae.

Stevie (Ray Vaughan) salutes Stevie (Wonder) here, with a power-house cover of "Superstition" that makes up in raw bluesy energy what it loses in finessed funk — as it turns out, the two artists formed something of a mutual admiration society, with Wonder going on to pen "Stevie Ray Blues" in the legendary blues-rocker's honour. In 1986, Marvin Gaye's classic of introspective soul searching, "What's Going On", was restyled with synths and bells by Cyndi Lauper, who throws no end of passion into the tune's core plea for the triumph of love over war; Lulu dusts the Four Tops' 1964 million-selling hit "Baby I Need Your Loving" with Glaswegian soul; and avant-garde punk outfit, the Slits, cranks up "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" to ska speed, laying down an undertone of simmering anger and spiteful menace.

Hitsville, U.S.A. didn't just mass produce hit singles; it manufactured hit songs. Besides having a lock on the creative output from writers you know — think Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, and others — it also had a pen-toting bullpen of writers you probably don't, like Holland/Dozier/Holland, Henry Cosby, Norman Whitfield, and many more. No matter where you look in the pop world — from classic rockers like Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones to R&B superstars like Aretha Franklin and Al Green; punk bands like the Clash and the Slits to pop legends like Tony Bennett and the Carpenters — your favourite artists didn't just play Motown's greatest hits and hidden gems on the stereo; they also played them in the studio. We couldn't possibly fit all of the classic covers in a single playlist, but we've cherry-picked the best of the best, and put them right at your fingertips.