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BeBe Winans Solo CD, Supremes Box Set Coming Tuesday

Love and Freedom features guest appearances by Stevie Wonder, Brian McKnight, Joe; first 25,000 copies of The Supremes includes bonus live disc.

A solo album from BeBe Winans and a box set from the Supremes top this week's new releases.

Winans (born Benjamin Winans) releases his second solo effort, Love and Freedom, which features guest appearances by Stevie Wonder, Brian McKnight and Joe. The album's first single will be "Coming Back Home," which includes McKnight and Joe on vocals.

Winans, Wonder and Marvin Winans, BeBe's older brother, remade Wonder's "Jesus Children of America," which first appeared on Wonder's 1973 album, Innervisions. The three are set to perform the song at a taping of the "Oprah" show Tuesday, for broadcast Thursday. Stephanie Mills lends a vocal hand on "Everyday."

Winans, who released his eponymous solo debut in 1997, first made a name for himself via his duets with his sister CeCe Winans, who joins him here for the song "Tonight, Tonight." The duo found gospel and crossover success in the late 1980s and early '90s with songs such as "Addictive Love," "I'll Take You There" and "It's O.K."

Diana Ross found out this summer that a version of the Supremes without Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong couldn't fill arenas, but Motown is hoping interest in the group's music hasn't waned. The label is releasing The Supremes, a four-disc set that includes virtually everything the group ever recorded.

The trio's heyday came between 1964 — when a lineup featuring Ross, Wilson and Florence Ballard scored hits including "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Come See About Me" — and 1968, when Ross, Wilson and Birdsong released "Love Child."

Ross left the group in 1970, after recording "Someday We'll Be Together" (RealAudio excerpt) without the other two members of the Supremes. The group continued to appear with various lineups since the early '70s, including a Ross-headlined tour this summer that featured Lynda Lawrence and Scherrie Payne.

The tour was cut short by promoters due to poor ticket sales, but the first 25,000 people who buy the box set will also receive In Person — an Evening With the Supremes. That bonus disc's version of "Someday We'll Be Together" comes from the last performance Ross gave with Birdsong and Wilson, on Jan. 14, 1970, at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.

Also on tap this week is The Ultimate Brook Benton — the Millennium Collection. Benton had a number of solo hits in the early '60s, including "It's Just a Matter of Time," and duet successes with the legendary Dinah Washington, including "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)." His best-known song, however, might be 1970's "A Rainy Night in Georgia" (RealAudio excerpt).

(Correspondent Rhonda Baraka contributed to this report.)

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