Phil Collins: Motown Album

PHIL COLLINS IS GOING BACK: NEW ALBUM RECREATES MOTOWN & SOUL GEMS;
8-TIME GRAMMY WINNER TO LAUNCH PROJECT WITH 4 SHOWS AT NEW YORK’S ROSELAND BALLROOM;
19-PIECE BAND TO FEATURE LEGENDARY FUNK BROTHERS

Phil Collins

Atlantic recording artist Phil Collins has announced the forthcoming release of Going Back, a deeply personal labor of love that finds the eight-time Grammy winner faithfully recreating the Motown and soul music that played such an influential role in his creative life. Due in September, Going Back marks the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s first new studio album in eight years.

To celebrate Going Back, Collins will play a string of very special live concerts at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom from June 22-25. The shows, billed as “Up Close & Personal: Phil Collins Plays 60’s Motown & Soul,” will be presented as an “old school” style, standing-room-only dance concert. Presented by Live Nation, tickets for all four Roseland shows will be available to Citibank cardholders through a special pre-sale at livenation.com beginning at 10a.m. ET on Monday, April 19, and will go on sale to the general public at 10a.m. ET on Saturday, April 24 at www.livenation.com and charge by phone.

Supporting Collins will be an extraordinary 18-piece ensemble of musicians and vocalists. Anchoring the group will be three of Motown’s legendary session players, aka The Funk Brothers – bassist Bob Babbitt and guitarists Eddie Willis and Ray Monette – who are also featured on the Going Back album. The live band will also include long-time Collins cohorts Chester Thompson (drums), Daryl Stuermer (guitar), and Brad Cole (keyboards), plus Leslie Smith (percussion). Rounding out the ensemble will be a five-member horn section and six backing vocalists.

The songs slated for inclusion on Going Back range from the album opener, The Temptations‘ Holland-Dozier-Holland-penned “Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)” to the moving album-closing title track, a Collins-arranged version of the Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune “Going Back,” made famous by Dusty Springfield. In between, the collection captures multiple songs by Stevie Wonder – “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” “Blame It On The Sun,” “Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer”; Martha And The Vandellas – “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave,” “In My Lonely Room,” “Jimmy Mack”; and the Four Tops – “Standing In The Shadows Of Love,” “Something About You,” “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever.”

The Temptations get another shout-out with “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” while the Goffin-King team is again represented by a second Dusty Springfield track, “Some Of Your Loving.” Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions are captured on “Talking About My Baby,” while Phil hails The Ronettes with “Do I Love You?” The Motown-fest continues with Smokey Robinson & The Miracles‘ “Going To A Go-Go,” The Supremes‘ “Love Is Here,” and Kim Weston‘s “Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While).”

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