Anthology Best Of [Best of]

Inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame in 1989, they put 55 songs into the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts from 1964 to 1991, and had another three "Bubble Under" to go along with six on the Adult Contemporary charts - and scored no less than 87 times on the R&B charts.

This 46-selection, 2-CD set provides 36 of those 55 Hot 100 singles although, being a selfish completist collector of hit singles, I would have preferred to have seen tracks 8, 11, 14, 27 [each album cuts] - 3, 7, 10, 17 [each B-sides] - and 26 [previously unreleased] on Disc One, and track 15 [album cut] on Disc Two - replaced by omitted hits.

These could have included the following, some of which remain hard to find in CD format: Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World) - # 8 R&B/# 33 pop 1970]; Take A Look Around [# 10 R&B/# 30 pop 1972]; Mother Nature [# 27 R&B/# 92 pop 1972]; The Plastic Man [# 8 R&B/# 40 pop 1973]; Heavenly [# 8 R&B/# 43 pop 1974; Happy People [# 1 R&B/# 40 pop 1975]; Glasshouse [# 9 R&B/# 37 pop 1975]; Keep Holding On [# 3 R&B/# 54 pop 1976]; Aiming At Your Heart [# 36 R&B/# 67 pop 1981]; and Sail Away [# 13 R&B/# 54 pop 1984].

Even so, this does not take away from this superb set, part of a series which also includes Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and The Supremes, and dedicated to group member Melvin Franklin who passed away at age 52 on February 23, 1995.