While Motown's golden girls, Martha, with her Vandellas and the Supremes (with and without La Ross) have been celebrated on countless CDs, the Velvelettes fared less well in the digital domain, surfacing only occasionally on compilations and low-quality bootlegs. In 2001, the hardcore of faithful (and amazingly patient) British fans were delighted to see the very best of their Motown repertoire finally available on a legitimate CD. (Previously, the only Velves compilation was a dubious Belgian bootleg, but the less said about that, the better.)
On The Best Of, you'll find all the girls' best-loved originals - classics like Needle In A Haystack, He Was Really Saying Something, These Things Will Keep Me Loving You and A Bird In The Hand... In addition, there are also rare cuts like Think Of The Times and Let Love Live. The bonus on this CD was the last four tracks - which had never been released anywhere before. (With rare honesty, the inlay notes acknowledge the fact that they were circulating 'unofficially' for several years!) The four unissued titles were: Stop Beating Around The Bush, Love Is Good, Save Me and The Boy From Crosstown.
The lovely ladies from Kalamazoo were finally granted a full 2CD Motown Anthology in 2004, but if that's too much of a good thing for you, you'll find all the essential tunes here on this single-disc collection.