"The legacy of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland is filled with some of the most popular songs ever written: “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” “Baby, I Need Your Loving,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” among them. All of those songs, and so many other indelible hit records, were written under the aegis of Hitsville, USA, a.k.a. Berry Gordy’s Motown empire. But by 1967, the relationship between the label chief and his star writers was starting to feel strained. Within two years, the H-D-H team had struck out on their own, forming Invictus Records, distributed by Capitol, and Hot Wax Records, distributed by Buddah. H-D-H’s new wrinkle on the Sound of Young America eventually encompassed the Music Merchant label as well, and gave Motown a run for its money with hits from The Chairmen of the Board, Freda Payne and The Honey Cone. Now, Demon Music Group’s Harmless Records is putting together the most comprehensive survey of the Invictus-Hot Wax-Music Merchant catalogue yet with Holland-Dozier-Holland: The Complete 45s Collection: Invictus/Hot Wax/Music Merchant 1969-1977.


By the numbers, this 14-CD box set, due on May 26 in the U.K. and the following week in the U.S., celebrates the 45th anniversary of H-D-H’s independence with a staggering array of newly remastered 45 RPM singles:

96 x Invictus 45s
44 x Hot Wax 45s
17 x Music Merchant 45s
for a total of 157 singles and 269 original recordings.

To that, Harmless is adding previously unreleased recordings by The Chairmen of the Board, Eloise Laws, Honey Cone, the Barrino Brothers, the Jones Girls and 100 Proof Aged In Soul. The package is rounded out by three previously unissued Tom Moulton mixes (The Chairmen of the Board’s “Give Me Just A Little More Time” and “You’ve Got Me Dangling on a String” and Freda Payne’s “Unhooked Generation”) and three more exclusive instrumental mixes of those songs by Moulton, available only on the box set’s enclosed download card." - The Second Disc