Although the cover of the promises performances by the Miracles, The Supremes, Mary Wells, and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, it doesn't say at what point in their careers these videos were made. So there is no Smoky Robinson leading these Miracles, Diana Ross isn't with these Supremes, Mary Wells is past her prime, and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas are just going through the motions. If that's not bad enough, the majority of the material on these discs are from performers who seem to have been the second or third tier at Motown, and should have been allowed to fade into graceful obscurity instead of having their careers revived so they could lip synch to material that wasn't very good the first time round.

On the plus side, if anyone needs any reminders of how awful disco really was this collection has that going for it. Not since K-Tell records have there been so many examples of really atrocious disco music accumulated in one place. It's the type of music that immediately calls drag queens to mind, as you can't think of anybody actually taking this stuff seriously as music, and the only possible entertainment value it can possess is high camp.

Yet no matter how awful some of those tracks are, I think the worst parts of this collection are the tracks where you see people's talent shining through in spite of the material they are having to perform, and the style they are being forced to conform to. Bettye Lavette and Liz Landis in particular impressed me as having what are obviously great voices going to waste either on schmaltzy love songs or soulless disco tunes. I don't know about anybody else but I can't think of anything worse than seeing really good talent being wasted on bad material.

Over the years of Motown's existence the company released some classic pop music that was fun to listen to and enjoyable to dance to. Don't Forget The Motor City bears little or no relation to any of that music and is not the way anyone is going to want to honour Motown's musical legacy. You'd be far better off finding a copy of the 1983 25th anniversary celebrations that were held at the Apollo Theatre than allowing this collection to serve as a reminder of what Motown produced.