Soul Motion: The Complete Bang, Shout and RCA Recordings 1966-1969

Liner Note Author: Dennis Garvey.
Arrangers: Garry Sherman; George Patterson; Teacho Wiltshire; Larry Banks; Artie Butler.
Compilations of the Exciters have unsurprisingly focused on the recordings they made in the early-to-mid-1960s for United Artists, a period that contained their most popular work (including the hit "Tell Him" and the original version of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy"). It's not too well known that they continued to record fairly often for other labels throughout the 1960s. The 21-song compilation, SOUL MOTION: THE COMPLETE BANG, SHOUT AND RCA RECORDINGS 1966 - 1969, has much of that subsequent output, most of which hadn't appeared on CD prior to this anthology. In this era, the Exciters found themselves in the dilemma of many talented acts of their time that first struck early in the decade: there weren't any songs with the instant hit appeal of "Tell Him" or "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," and the girl group style they'd done so well on those hits was getting outmoded with the onset of soul. But approached with the knowledge that this isn't the group at their best (at least material-wise) or most definitive, this isn't a bad listen for serious girl group/'60s soul fans. Lead singer Brenda Reid's vocals are consistently powerful and stirring, and the twenty-page liner notes have what's likely to be the best history of the Exciters ever published.