Chris ClarkThe Motown CollectionReview

A six-foot tall, platinum-blonde white woman, Chris Clark didn't fit the standard profile of a Motown artist. This, combined with the fact that she never had a top 100 pop hit, meant that she never became a household name.

Which makes this double-CD both welcome and intriguing. Comprising everything she released for the label and its affiliates, plus 25 previously unreleased tracks, it is simply a revelation. How could a voice of this delicacy and control have remained so obscure for so long?

Soul Sounds(1968), her debut album, is a sophisticated take on vintage Motown -alternately breezy and bluesy -with little to suggest that the recordings spanned three years back to her 1965 single "Do Right, Baby, Do Right".It exudes confidence and should have established her as a major star. The sequel, CCRides Again (1969),is disappointing, featuring only two new songs, the remainder being tame covers of the likes of "Spinning Wheel", "Good Morning Starshine" and "Get Back". Unnecessary orchestral introductions taken from Richard Strauss and Rossini add little of value.

But the real treasure is on the second CD of hitherto unheard material, where the depth and range of Clark's talent becomes apparent. Coming from a jazz tradition, rather than the more conventional gospel background, the precision of her style and the orchestrations on, for example, "I Just Can't Forget Him" or "Do Like I Do" resemble the cool sounds of her British namesake Petula, or perhaps Dusty Springfield, rather than the US soul divas of the period. Despite her lowly sales status, she could clearly still command the highest production values (possibly helped by Berry Gordy's close personal interest), and these are highly polished pieces: even an old chestnut like "Crying in the Chapel" has new life injected into it.

The final half-dozen tracks get decidedly more funky, and culminate in an eight-minute disco song ,"What You Doing", of uncertain provenance. Following the recent Brenda Hollowaycompilation, this is another joyous reclamation of a peripheral figure from the Motown stable.