The Supremes are one of the many influential Motown acts to come out of the Motor City

City Sounds goes to the Motor City this week to listen to some of it’s native sounds.

Detroit is known mainly for it’s automobile industry, but a close second would be Motown.  As the birthplace of Motown Records, Detroit provided the world with one of the most important musical genres of all time. An influence to almost every other musical genre following it’s dominance, Motown and it’s notoriety still stand as the ideal for popular music.

Artists like Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, and Stevie Wonder topped the charts with hit after hit after hit, and it set a new standard for pop.  Motown reigned supreme (some pun intended) through the ’60s and into part of the ’80s. Even though the hits have dwindled in quantity, the quality of music is still heard around the world.

Motown put Detroit on the map, but it wasn’t the only source of great music.  Detroit also had it’s moments during the garage rock revival in the early 2000s with bands like The White Stripes, The Von Bondies and Electric Six.  It also presented the world with arguably one of the most influential rappers of all time, Eminem.

There’s plenty of great music from Detroit that will all be covered on Monday, November 23, from 11pm-1am on WERW. Tune in and listen up!

– Kyle Kuchta

HELLOTHERE.

So been listening to a lot of heavy, dubby, grimey stuff recently, and still not bored yet. Most recently, I’ve realised how good DZ is at producing, whether its his own tracks or his remixes. They’ve been popping up everywhere. C’mon, he even managed to make Major Lazer’s worst track sound half-decent! Anyway, his style is a rumbly dubstep bass with clattering percussion and occasional waving synths, so what’s not to like? If you haven’t injected this stuff into your ears yet then watch out, you might eject something else…

I put the sickest mixes up, none of his own productions though, you can find them for yourself if you like him. Heads up though: look out for his track with Excision. That’s all I’m saying…

“Wu-Tang” (DZ Remix) – Wu-Tang Clan ft. U-God & Method Man (zshare)

“My Moon, My Man” (DZ Remix) – Feist & Boys Noize (zshare)

“Hold The Line” (DZ Remix) - Major Lazer (zshare)

“Businessman” (DZ Remix) - Crookers (zshare)

“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (DZ Remix) – The Supremes (zshare)

They wrote and produced 25 number one hits, most for Motown. Uploaded by ecx.images-amazon.com.

If you love what’s commonly called “Soul” music, the Motown Sound in particular, then you probably know who Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Edward Holland, Jr. are. They’re one of the most successful and influential songwriting teams of the twentieth century, that’s who they are.

Uploaded by i231.photobucket.com.

Dozier and the Holland brothers worked in-house for Motown Records from 1962 to 1967. After that they went out on their own, but still wrote and produced many of the label’s biggest hits. They wrote an amazing total of 25 number one hits. Great songs like “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” for Marvin Gaye, “Heat Wave” for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and a whopping ten number one songs for the Supremes.

The guys left Motown in a contract dispute which took years to resolve. They went on to start their own record label, Invictus, which obviously didn’t come close to the impact that Motown had. Then Holland split with the Dozier brothers in the seventies, and the team hasn’t worked together since.

But as a team, they accomplished great things. They’re in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Space doesn’t allow me to list all their hits, but here are the really big ones:

“Mickey’s Monkey” (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles)
“Where Did Our Love Go” (The Supremes)
“Baby Love” (The Supremes)
“Come See About Me” (The Supremes)
“Baby I Need Your Loving” (The Four Tops)
“You’re A Wonderful One” (Marvin Gaye)
“Stop In The Name Of Love” (The Supremes)
“Nowhere To Run” (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas)
“I Can’t Help Myself” (The Four Tops)
“Back In My Arms Again” (The Supremes)
“Nothing But Heartaches” (The Supremes)
“It’s The Same Old Song” (The Four Tops)
“I Hear a Symphony” (The Supremes)
“This Old Heart Of Mine” (The Isley Brothers)
“Reach Out, I’ll Be There” (The Four Tops)
“Standing In The Shadows Of Love” (The Four Tops)
“My World Is Empty Without You” (The Supremes)
“Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart” (The Supremes)
“You Keep Me Hanging On” (The Supremes)
“You Can’t Hurry Love” (The Supremes)
“Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone” (The Supremes)
“Jimmy Mack” (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas)
“Bernadette” (The Four Tops)
“The Happening” (The Supremes)
“Reflections” (The Supremes)
“In And Out Of Love” (The Supremes)
“Give Me Just A Little More Time” (Chairmen of the Board)
“Band of Gold” (Freda Payne)

This is a fascinating video as the three songwriters discuss their creative process:

It’s Saturday. While waiting for the Pacquiao-Cotto fight, I might as well as empty my “to blog” folder. Lots of music. I like Duffy’s voice. (In the US there is some criticism of the appropriation of soul music by white British singers, but I don’t subscribe to that argument. I think these singers respect the origins of the music and they also talented). This is Duffy performing her song “Mercy” live on the Jools Holland Show–an institution on British TV.

Four Tops’ Second Album was released on November 13, 1965 and immediately catapulted the quartet to the top of the pop and R&B charts. The album also moved The Four Tops (mid-50s high school classmates lead singer and baritone Levi Stubbs, bass Renaldo “Obie” Benson, and tenors Abdul “Duke” Fakir and Lawrence Payton) to the top of the heap at Motown Records, where they’d started two years earlier as back-up singers for The Supremes and others. But Second Album meant second singing no more. With three terrific jazz-soul-pop hits, the gritty “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” the upbeat “It’s The Same Old Song” and the soulful “Something About You,” the album launched The Four Tops on a four-plus decade run of great singles, albums and concerts, all without a personnel change until Payton’s death in 1997. While their top-selling singles and albums were mostly clustered in the eight years from November 1965, for good reason the group has proved uniquely durable and long-lived in the history of rock, pop and soul music.

Despite its three chart hits, Four Tops’ Second Album stalled at #19 on the Billboard pop chart but did make it to #9 on the “Black Albums” chart. It’s available as download tracks from iTunes (click here) and as a CD from Amazon (click here).

1965 – Velvet Underground made its performance debut at a high school dance in Summit, NJ.
1967 – The Supremes’ “In And Out Of Love” was released.
1970 – “Plastic Ono Band” was released by John Lennon. The same title was used for the album released by Yoko One on the same day.
1970 – Bob Dylan’s book “Tarantula” was published by Bantam Books.
1976 – KISS released the album “Rock and Roll Over.”

Cover to Girl Groups, Girl Culture (Routledge, 2007); image courtesy of routledgemusic.com

For financial reasons, I was only able to swing one day of Fun Fun Fun Fest so I’m blogging while many in this fair city are catching some good music in Waterloo Park. Although, admittedly, if you’re gonna do one day of the festival, I think yesterday was the way to go. I got to check several bands I’ve never seen before off my list: No Age (who I’ve missed by a marrow margin at least three times), Jesus Lizard, Pharcyde, Les Savy Fav, and Death.

But if you have the scratch, please make sure everyone sees one of Mika Miko’s last shows ever on the black stage at 2:55. I might try to get down there later just to hear it from the other side of the fence.

Mika Miko’s exceptional presence on this year’s bill seems as good a place as any to remember that, as Melissa at GRCA astutely pointed out in her recent post, this year boasts a very dudecentric line-up. So I’ll review Jacqueline Warwick’s book Girl Groups, Girl Culture: Popular Music and Identity in the 1960s book in the hopes that at least one historically significant girl group or all-female band will reunite for next year’s FFFF like Death did this year. And like the Shangri-Las did at CBGB’s in 1977.

As much as I hate comparing women’s work so as to pit them in opposition, Warwick’s book is a tremendous example of how effective it can be to narrow the scope of the cultural moment being covered, something I wish Charlotte Greig would have considered when penning her book on girl groups. While Greig truncates the history of the girl group era in order to broaden the definition of what a girl group is, Warwick focuses primarily on this brief but important moment in history (roughly between 1958 and 1965), considering its ongoing influence as an epilogue.

By taking this approach, Warwick considers the girl group era and its participants from several different, often surprising, areas of inquiry. As a result, she proves the cultural signficance of a popular form dismissed by many as superficial, polished, and phony who instead tend to favor rock music’s supposed transcendent raw authenticity, and argues strongly that this binary construction is inherently gendered. Duh, and amen.

Warwick posits that one of the most important things about the girl group era was its insistence on putting girls and young women in the spotlight, introducing a complex, celebratoryn and at times contradictory performance of what the author calls “girlness”. Often, these ladies were working class, and of African American or mixed racial and ethnic heritage. They had few options for financial mobility and minimal career prospects being marriage, motherhood, clerical jobs, and day labor. Forming vocal groups together and cutting records gave them access to other opportuntities toward professional advancement and personal growth, expanding the idea of girlhood as an identity across race and class lines. 

Sometimes these groupings resulted in the cultivation of considerable, devoted fan bases that, in The Supremes and The Ronnettes’ cases, were comparable to Beatlemania. Some of those fans were even other male-only rock bands, like The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and later, The Ramones. Take that, pop-rock, girl-boy binaries!

In other words, I’m telling you to read this book.

One thing I appreciate about Warwick’s book from the outset is the celebration of the female voice. As I’ve long believed and argued extensively in this blog, we cannot give short-shrift to singers. While they can assuredly be tokenized and objectified, but they can also be empowered, embodied, and forge their own agency. Heartenly, she finds much going on with the voice, a distinct instrument no matter how it may have been manipulated or homogenized by label owners like Motown’s Barry Gordy and producers like Phil Spector and his overwhelming wall of sound. She hears the genteel precision of Diana Ross’s soprano, the urgent purr of Ronnie Spector’s husky alto, the untrained wavering of Shirelle Shirley Owens’s pitch, the gutteral inflections on Supreme Florence Ballard’s tone, the put-on nasal affectations of Broadway-trained groups like The Angels, the racial dimensions of Dusty Springfield’s blue-eyed soul, and the teenaged monotone of Shangri-La Mary Weiss.

She also hears these girls singing to one another, often in their own forms of feminine dialect and for the purposes of providing support and advice. On record, acts like The Dixie Cups, The Crystals, Betty Everett, and The Velvelettes would pepper their songs with seemingly nonsensical words and phrases like “iko iko,” “da doo ron ron,” “shoop,” and “doo lang doo lang,” often provided by backing vocalists as a means of support for the lead vocalist, who might be intimating her feelings about burgeoning romance or her conflicted feelings in the aftermath of a break-up.

Often, these girls were providing one another moral support and providing advice as well. While Warwick notes that advice songs tended to be the domain of girl groups with African American members like The Velvelettes, The Shirelles, The Chiffons, and The Marvelettes, they often imparted wisdom to their audiences that they learned from their mothers or their sisters, as well as sharing what they’ve learned from their own experiences. In doing so, these songs provided a counterargument to the assertion that girl groups only sang about boys and also expanded female discourse in popular music by including the words and experiences of generations of women into then present-day pop songs by girls.  

It cannot be ignored that while many girl group songs were written by men, not all of them were. As mentioned elsewhere, Brill Building stalwarts like Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich, and Carole King were of paramount importance to the era. Many of these women, like Greenwich, wrote about seemingly teenage issues like young love and treated it as legitimate, at times giving it life-and-death importance, as she did on The Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack.” 

King is a particularly interesting case as well. Before striking out on her own as a solo artist, she wrote many important songs for girl groups. Some songs, like The Crystals’ “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)” address the troubling and dangerous aspects of patriarchy and oppression, and have been covered to harrowing effect by bands like Hole and Grizzly Bear.

Other songs King penned gesture toward the era’s prescience regarding shifting cultural attitudes toward feminism, female agency, and sexual autonomy, as on The Shirelles’ anthemic “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” 

Girl groups were also clearly singing with one another, as girl groups often were comprised of siblings and relatives who wore matching outfits and performed intricate choreography to suggest that these girls were a unit, despite at times having clearly defined lead singers and stars who (especially in Diana Ross’s case) were thin and had a more conventional look and sound.

It was this image coordination that made The Ronnettes able to ingratiate night clubs when they were underaged, gave them the confidence to perform at those night clubs, and provided them with a sense of belonging that made them tough enough to brave any New York City street. It also makes this sense of actual or engineered sisterhood and camderadie seem especially fragile when success encroaches on it, as the tragic dimensions of Estelle Bennett and Florence Ballard’s post-girl group lives remind. 

Warwick shies from making any explicitly queer connections to girl groups beyond passing references to Springfield and Lesley Gore’s orientations and their relationships with the closet. I would have liked a bit more discussion of the queer dynamics of the groups’ homosocial bonding both on- and off-record. A brief appraisal of queer fandom (seemingly most pronounced among certain circles of gay men, though not exclusively) would also have been appreciated.

That said, I do appreciate Warwick reminding her readers of girl groups’ continual impact. As this is the section of the book that gets less focus, it would be worthwhile to read Warwick’s and Greig’s books together to get a larger sense of how punk, hip hop, and contemporary pop music were influenced by girl groups.

I would hasten to add country music to the list of genres that were shaped by this era. Given last night’s Saturday Night Live, which featured crossover star Taylor Swift as both host and musical guest (a rare opportunity for most pop stars, unless they are Justin or Britney). Watching her play a brace-faced teenager in a skit about parents who are worse drivers than their kids and her performance of “You Belong To Me” complete with careful, song-appropriate gestures, it was clear to me that the girl group era continues. As Mika Miko performs one of their last shows later today, I’ll wonder where it’ll permeate next.

People rave about how good the Temptations were. They wax poetically on how great their sound was & how they innovated that ’60’s Motown sound. The truth, however, is that The Four Tops while not as widely recognized are in fact just as good if not better than the Temptations. This, though, is not a comparison piece, it is merely a testament to the effect of the Four Tops in the evolution of soul music.

The Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs had the voice of a gravely angel as he raspily sang songs such as: “Standing in the Shadows of Love”, “Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch” & my favorite “Bernadette”. The problem the Four Tops face is that their music doesn’t necessarily translate to today’s society as their most popular song the aforementioned “Sugar Pie, Honey bunch” is filled with slang & colloquialisms of that time. This does not take away from the affection of the song, just makes it less palatable to this generation.

Soul music today, has been bastardized to the point of nearly no return. It has formed a partnership with Rap/Hip-Hop which is fine in that music must constantly evolve  but in some instances, this being one of them, a genre can lose it’s value to the point that it’s completely worthless. This is the case with modern Soul/R&B with a few exceptions, John Legend, Amos Lee, James Hunter & perhaps Jill Scott being those exceptions. They are far & few between, though. The Four Tops exemplified that harmonious street corner sound of 60’s soul.

Where Sam Cooke took gospel to new heights, the Four Tops took that soul sound & created a genre that the Temptations followed. it was the Four Tops, though, that from their inception in 1953 to their end in 1997 that not once had a personnel change. It was the sound of the Four Tops that created Motown. The Four Tops begot the Temptations & the Supremes who begot Marvin Gaye & Tammy Terrel. It was from this quartet that Soul escaped the Blues/Jazz/Gospel sound of the ’50’s & for better or worse became a marketable entity for white America in the ’60’s.

The ’50’s sound of gospel was very close to Blues & the Negro spiritual anthems that were the forebearers to R&B/Soul that Berry Gordy, in collaboration with The Four Tops among others, perfected. My contention  is merely that the Four Tops are simply not given the credit for which they so rightly deserve. The emotion that Stubbs sings with in the beautiful “Bernadette” about his longing for the girl that he adores & how he fears losing her to the “other men”, is palpable.

The Temptations are certainly more polished than the Four Tops. They go down easier. The Temptations are great in their own right, don’t get me wrong, but they are simply not as good as the Four Tops. Whereas the Four Tops are coffee black, the Temptations are 2 creams & a little sugar (nothing to do with race, sycophants).

The difference is & we’ll use the example of “Bernadette” once again, is the crescendo in the music as Stubbs goes right along with it. The music hits it’s peak just as Stubbs hits his, it’s brilliance is all consuming as you can sense the feelings in his voice getting more desperate as the song goes along. He pleads with “Bernadette” to “tell the world” of their love. Begging her to not leave him for the “other men” by expressing all the feelings of adoration he feels for her. All he wants is her to keep on loving him & then the best part when you think the song is going to end & Stubbs screams out her name without any accompaniment as one last plea for her to feel the pain he would feel if he were to lose her again to the “other men”.

It is music like this that should be recognized as the epoch of R&B brilliance, but instead they are a footnote to the easily digestible Temptations. It is my goal as a lover of the purity of all forms of music that they should be as widely recognized as the Temptations or the Supremes or even Marvin Gaye. The Four Tops live in the hearts & minds of those that have experienced their enduring legacy & learned from their example of stability & brilliance.

THE FOUR TOPS

Bernadette

Don’t Walk Away Renee

It’s the Same Old Song

If you have read this blog before you will therefore know that love musicals a lot. So as you can imagine I went to the cinema to see this in the previews back when it came out, and have therefore seen it lots of times. I have to admit that I was not its biggest fan when I first saw it, I liked it quite a bit but didnt totally fall for it on the first viewing. However, each time I watch it I like it more and more. Especially watching Jennifer Hudson who totally deserved her Oscar for Best supporting Actress in her first movie role.

The story is about three girls who you see growing up while becoming famous singers. It looks at the cross over to the pop charts and the birth of a record company. How they deal with love, loss and relationships. Deena Jones (Beyonce), Effie White (Jennifer Hudson) and Anika Noni Rose (Lorrell Robinson) are three girls trying to get a break and this comes along when they become backing singers for James “Thunder” Early (Eddie Murphy). They represented by Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx) and songs written by C. C. White (Keith Robinson) who is Effie’s brother. They try to change the type of music and style of songs which are so popular in order to sell more records. Thus setting up their own record company Rainbow records, which they have to involve paying radio’s to play the records. Effie was always the lead singer, she has the most powerful and unique voice out of all the girls and is dating Curtis, as you can imagine when they decide to change things round and have Deena as lead singer, Effie does not like this at all. Which really starts her downfall of leaving the group and Curtis who is having an affair with Deena.

If you are not into musicals I can imagine that this film would be difficult viewing as it has a lot of talk-singing as well as full-out musical turns, which are half performances on a stage and others when the lights are off. Be aware of this if you have not seen the film, and are not into musicals as it might be a bit too much to take. But the main reason people should see this film in my opinion is Jennifer Hudson.

Jennifer Hudson as Effie White has what I like to call the “show stopping” number in “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” it’s not just a song, it’s the acting and emotion she puts into this part of the film. She is begging Curtis not to leave her and kick her out of the group. She does not want to leave and does not want to lose him. If you want to see the exact moment that Jennifer won her Oscar then watch this song. Her voice is incredible and it is so moving knowing how upset she is, and if you have ever had to leave someone or something when you really do not want to you can totally relate to this moment. That she cannot live without him, and “your gonna love me” it really is just totally heartbreaking, especially seeing Curtis reaction and physically trying to stop him from leaving.

I really do think this was the moment which really won her the Oscar, but she was pretty fantastic throughout the film as well. Playing up and arguing because she knows her voice is stronger than Deena’s voice. I do not think you will find a better first film performance than this.

The other performances in this movie are also very strong, or it just would not have worked out that well. I thought the whole cast worked together well and supported each other so much, bouncing off each other to create a very strong film. Beyonce, as Deena Jones had to do more singing than speak actual lines but as we all know Beyonce does have a great voice, which I think she toned it down a bit in this film. Jamie Foxx was brilliant as Curtis Taylor Jr. who shows how money can corrupt people and it can become all they think about and start to put it before their friends and family. I think Eddie Murphy really deserved his Oscar nomination for Actor in a Supporting Role for this film as he showed a different side to his acting and type of performance that he can do.

So many similarities can be made to artists in the Motown era in this film and I am sure it has been widely noted that the Dreams are very similar to the Supremes with Deena being Diana Ross. But not totally the same but based on maybe?

Overall, I really do think this is a musical which was well put together with some fantastic songs and performances. But as I said at the start of this review I was not the biggest fan to begin with and it has taken quite a lot of viewings for me to really like this film. I cannot really explain why that is, but it has really grown on me.

Stevie Wonder – “For Once in my Life,” Pop # 2, R&B # 2

By Joel Francis

“For Once in my Life” was less than two years old, but already practically a staple by the time Stevie Wonder’s cover was finally released in October, 1968.

Jean DuShon recorded the original version for the Chess Records subsidiary Cadet in 1966. Although the label failed to promote the single, it still managed to reach the ears of Berry Gordy. He was not pleased to learn that Motown composer Ron Miller had written the number for a performer outside of the Hitsville stable. Gordy demanded Miller let a Motown artist record the number and he promptly gave it to Barbara McNair for her 1966 album “Here I Am.” Best known as an actress who appeared on “Mission: Impossible,” “Hogan’s Heroes” and “Dr. Kildare,” McNair’s version sank without a trace.

Gordy wasn’t done with the song, though. In 1967 he gave it to the Temptations as a showcase for baritone Paul Williams. Their downbeat interpretation was one of the highlights of a 1968 television special with the Supremes.

Tony Bennett released his version of “For Once in My Life” the same time the Temptations were staking claim to the tune. Bennett’s reading was a crossover hit, lodging in the Top 10 of the Easy Listening chart and peaking at 91 on the pop chart. The title song of his 1967 album, it became one of the crooner’s signature numbers.

So the public was more than familiar with “For Once in My Life” by the time Wonder’s version hit the streets. Arriving a year after Bennett’s version peaked, Wonder’s interpretation became the most successful and definitive reading of the song. Like many great songs, however, this one almost didn’t get released.

Wonder recorded his vision of “For Once in My Life” the same summer the Temptations cut the song. Wonder’s upbeat arrangement stood in sharp contrast to the Temptations’ soulful balladry, and Gordy preferred the Tempts’ reading. After a year of pleading and cajoling, the head of Motown’s Quality Control department finally talked Gordy into allowing Wonder’s version to be released as a single. The result, of course, was a No. 2 single (held out of the top spot by Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”) that became the title track of Wonder’s tenth album.

Sonically, it’s hard to believe this song hails from 1968. The production and arrangement sounds like a throwback from the Holland-Dozier-Holland heydays of 1966. The big strings and Wonder’s vocals are front and center in the mix with the drums pushing the entire arrangement. The strings and horn tiptoe just shy of being bombastic, and a great piano line snakes along the bottom of the mix. Wonder’s harmonica makes the most of its verse-long solo, nimbly improvising on the melody like a jazz horn. The backing vocals are a little corny, but they are redeemed by Wonder’s best vocal performance to date. Wonder wasn’t yet 18 when he recorded this song, but there is a confidence in his delivery and phrasing that shows how much he’d grow since “Uptight” was released the summer before.

Wonder had far from the final word on the song. Gordy’s old boss Jackie Wilson released a cover that tried to split the difference between the Bennett and Wonder arrangements as a single to compete with Wonder. His version stalled at No. 70 on the cart. Ella Fitzgerald performed the song in concert throughout the summer of 1968 with an arrangement based on Bennett’s version. The following year, Frank Sinatra included his reading on the “My Way” album. In the twilight of his career, Sinatra revisited the song with Gladys Knight and Wonder for the 1994 “Duets II” album. Wonder returned to the song a dozen years later, sharing vocal duties with Bennett for Bennett’s “Duets: An American Classic” recording.

An enduring classic, “For Once in My Life” was covered by rocksteady singer Slim Smith in1969, recorded by James Brown in 1970 and translated into German by Stefan Gwildis in 2005. The song has also popped up on “Oprah,” “American Idol” and countless other television shows and films.

- Collaborating on a new CD with UK artist Matti Roots. www.mattiroots.com. “I’m very excited about this project”, says Susaye.



- She is very involved in the music soundtrack of her friend James Bartling’s indie film Nostalgia, which comes out early next year. “The music is all vocals, no instruments and is attracting a lot of attention because of its’ unique treatment. I’ve been commissioned to paint the poster for the film too”



- Photographer Kim Carlsberg ( www.kimcarlsberg.com ) has invited Greene to be a part of her new book.



- She is recording a new CD for release in 2010.





“I’m the most excited woman I know!…” ~ Susaye Greene



It is an honor to have with us ColoredPeople.net’s talented member Susaye Greene on November 5, 2009 at 7pm Pacific/9pm Central/10pm Eastern at BlogTalkRadio.com/ColoredPeople



Join your host Tania-Maria Xavier as she talks to this beautiful sister about her life and current projects.



Sponsored by: DaughterNature.com

The Supremes “Where did our love go” (1964)

-N.

Diana Ross and the Supremes – “Love Child,” Pop # 1, R&B # 2

By Joel Francis

The departure of Holland-Dozier-Holland reverberated throughout Hitsville, but no one felt it as acutely as the Supremes. Between 1964’s “Where Did Our Love Go” and 1967’s “Reflections,” the powerhouse songwriting and production triumvirate landed 10 songs at No. 1 and a three more in the Top 10.

Berry Gordy spared little expense in turning the Supremes into the biggest group on his label, and he was loathe to see them slink back to their pre-HDH obscurity. Before the two trios met, the best the Supremes could muster was No. 23. Those numbers were no longer acceptable.

Desperate, Gordy sequestered a half dozen of his best writers in a Detroit hotel and demanded they come up with a new hit for Diana Ross and the Supremes. Credited anonymously to “The Clan,” the result was another No. 1 hit for Gordy’s favorite group. The Clan model worked so well, Gordy revived it the following year, this time as “The Corporation,” to write hits for the Jackson 5. Gordy gave both these teams generic names to prevent writers and producers from superseding the fame of the performer or the label.

It would have been fascinating to be a fly on the wall as the writers pitched this song to Gordy. Love songs were the Supremes bread and butter, but it’s doubtful Gordy envisioned his siren singing about abstinence. In “Love Child,” a woman, scarred by being born out of wedlock, the singer tries to convince her man to “hold on just a little bit longer” and understand that “no child of mine will be bearing/The name of shame I’ve been wearing.” “Love Child” wasn’t the first song to touch on unwanted pregnancy – Gordy himself and Smokey Robinson wrote the song  “Bad Girl” in the early days of the Miracles  – but it became the definitive song on the subject until “Billie Jean.”

Diana Ross is the only Supreme to appear on “Love Child,” and for once her voice does a song justice. This might be because the background of the woman in the song mirrors Ross’s childhood in the Brewster-Douglass housing project in Detroit. Unlike the song’s subject, Ross was born to married parents. The painfully shy Ross could no doubt to the lyrics like “So afraid that others knew I had no name” and “I started school/And a worn, torn dress that somebody threw out. Too poor to afford the stylish clothes she coveted, the aspiring fashion designer made her own clothes cobbled from scraps and hand-me-downs.

“Love Child” opens with a few bars of funk guitar before the sweep of strings relegate the guitar to the back of the mix. The arrangement – particularly the strings and backing vocals – foreshadows the disco trend that would serve Ross so well in the decade to come. For such a hard-driving song, the percussion is surprisingly soft. During Hitsville’s production-line heyday, the song would have been driven by snare and tambourine. Nearly a minute of “Love Child” passes before the snare a full drum kit completely engage. Instead, the propulsion rests with what sounds like ride cymbal, maracas and a glockenspiel.

Although they aren’t on the record, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong performed the song with Ross on the Ed Sullivan Show in September, 1968. Despite the show’s conservative stance against the Rolling Stones “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” and the Doors “Light My Fire,” they lyrics to “Love Child” were performed as-is with no discussion. It was one of the group’s final performances on the popular Sunday night TV staple.

Despite its success, few performers have covered “Love Child.” It is unlikely the Supremes number will be confused with Deep Purple’s 1975 song of the same name.

T 54038 (B) – B-side of I Want A Guy

March 1961

Written by Berry Gordy

If the story of the Supremes’ signing to Motown as told on the I Want A Guy page is really true – that Berry Gordy wasn’t interested in the group to start with – then he was certainly won over fast, writing and producing this splendid B-side less than a month later.

Because splendid it is. Not as ambitious as I Want A Guy, it’s less experimental within its structure, a more straightforward slow-tempo 4/4 doo-wop – but it’s still really good. For a start, the band sounds better than ever; they’d had a lot of practice doing straightforward doo-wops, and they had it down pat by now, with beautiful guitar, Benny Benjamin on brushes and James Jamerson on autopilot. It sounds great.

Diana Ross again takes the lead vocal, and just as she did on I Want A Guy she takes it high and strong. The melismatic opening from the A-side is reprised, a sweet, cooing “ooooh” this time, and again I’m won over straight away.

When I say “won over”, I mean it. I didn’t want to like these two songs. A quick browse around the Internet reveals that nobody else seems to like these two sides. Critics seem to universally describe I Want A Guy as simplistic, ruined by the keyboard part and Ross’ lead vocal. The same critics dismiss Never Again with a contemptuous wave of the hand as a forgettable bit of straight-down-the-line Fifties doo-wop. This is exactly what I wanted to think about these two records before I actually listened to them. As it turns out, these people are so wrong that they deserve medals for their epic levels of wrongness.

Consider: I find Diana Ross a supremely (ha!) unlikeable character. I remain firmly of the opinion that she wasn’t the “best” singer in the Supremes, and while I don’t wholly subscribe to the oft-expressed view that the group were nothing special by themselves, just vehicles for Holland-Dozier-Holland’s best songs, handed their stardom on a plate, empty vessels etc etc, I do often wonder whether given the same material, attention and marketing push, any number of other groups not featuring a Diana Ross front and centre might by and large have achieved comparable results; I tend towards “no”, but I don’t think there’s necessarily anything that admirable in being so determined and bloody-minded and fixated on stardom that you claw your way to the top. And yet because of the frankly astonishing records they made, and the world-conquering success of those records, the Supremes must be considered as one of the greatest groups of all time, regardless of the ingredients for that success. Contradictions, contradictions.

I really, really wanted to hate this record, especially seeing as how negative reviews always single Ross’ voice out for criticism – high, reedy, piping, thin, screechy, you name it. Only the first of those labels actually applies here; I find her lead vocal perfectly-judged and utterly charming, oddly confident (possibly that’s just bravado, trying to impress the crucial judges and secure more leads in the future) and I think it’s unique, possessed of an unschooled, untrained character which brings life to a song that in more polished, more experienced hands might otherwise have just disappeared into the background.

Supposedly, the three other Supremes at the time thought Ross’ lead vocals on these sides were rubbish. They really aren’t, but oddly, when she got a bit more training and experience, her lead vocals in 1962 and 1963 by and large were rubbish – it’s as though this first Supremes single captures something of the group’s “early” sound, before Artist Development and assiduous grooming flattened them out into a tabula rasa for HDH to sculpt back up into a great pop group again.

Consider: The great thing about these sides, the thing that everyone seems to miss, is that they’re young songs, filled with the brio of youth, side A featuring a girl wishing for a boyfriend and kissing her posters at night, side B the same girl trying to cope with being dumped by some callous prick she’d pinned her hopes on (and quite possibly even slept with). The two faces of pining, solipsistic teenage love, you can play them in either order – she gets dumped, she wishes for a better guy, or she wishes for her dream guy so much she shacks up with someone who turns out to fall far short of the mark – but the key thing is that they’re both believable, and they’re believeable because of Diana Ross.

Consider:

I did everything you wanted me to / ‘Cos I thought your love was true / But I was blind, and I couldn’t see / Why did you do this to me?! / But I still love you, and I always will / I still thrill to your kiss / But I’ll never come back to you, when I get over this / Never again will I fall in love…

Someone else could have sung that “better”, as in technically better, but they wouldn’t have been a heartbroken sixteen-year-old girl, and they wouldn’t have been able to fake it, so the song wouldn’t work properly. It would be professional and smooth and you’d think “this is nice”, and then you’d forget it and never listen to it again. Whereas this is totally – totally – on the raw edge. You feel it. And when all is said and done, what else do you want from a pop record?

Anyway. The single stiffed, and the Supremes had their crucial self-confidence, so evident and infectious on these sides, knocked right out of them. They’d spend the next two years being shuffled around writer/producer teams, pumping out nervous-sounding, thoroughly mediocre records without ever getting close to having a hit record, enduring jibes and hostility from their labelmates, taking solace only in the long contract which kept them in work during those two long, lean years but which ended up costing them most of the royalties they’d earn when their ship came in. Not coincidentally, their breakthrough came when – at HDH’s urging – Ross made a return to the “girlish coquette” act which would end up making her a superstar; but the beginnings of that are very evident here, and all the more fascinating because in this case it’s actually for real.

I really, really like this record. Does it show?

The Supremes “I Want A Guy”	The Gospel Stars “He Lifted Me”

(So I’m starting to import music pieces over from my Livejournal account that fit this blog. This one from 2008 commemorates the 20th Anniversary of The Supremes entering into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame)

So it was 20 years ago this year,

The Supremes were inducted in the R&R hall of fame…

It just struck me as the soaring chorus of “He’s All I Got” came blaring on.

That righteous shameless plea….Hidden on a B-side, of a Top Ten single from Spring 1966….That last track on their “I Hear A Symphony” LP…

A favorite on Englands Northern Soul scene some 40 years later

“Please go to him, tell him, before he finds someone new. ‘Cause if I ever lose him I dunno what I’d do” (insert Florence Ballard “tell it sistah “oooh”).

And part of me wonders, in the great pop lexicon of music, will they ever get respect beyond the glitter?

The candied coated colors
painted on their lips…
Their hips….

Repackaged,
again,
and again to fill the coffers of someone’s royalty check. Something to sell on the latest TimeLife infomercial of them on some variety show long gone…

There’s so many layers of criticism levied at them, granted, in 20/20 hindsight, a lot of it, with a grain of salt, is understandable

They didn’t write their own songs,
Or
Diana Ross was Evil,
And
Berry Gordy used them (for multiple purposes),
Remember?
They were superficially glittery,
and therefore fake,
they adhered to white standards of beauty and success….

And the criticism goes on and on….

But I kinda get defensive, and say, at the end of the day, nearly 50 years after they recorded their first single, the music, their artistry is still entertaining, and intriguing. And dare I say, even good enough to give repeated listens

Weirdly hard to imitate too. I got in an argument with a 60 year old lesbian about this. Her statement that the Beatles musical was some big whoop, where all the songs were strung together as some storyline.

I’m sure its entertaining, but my argument is that The Supremes first 5 #1 records (unintentionally) played out life a Dramedy, even to 1964-65 ears, from “Where Did Our Love Go” to “Back in My Arms Again” played out like a television season, in music, from the nonchalant grief of a breakup, to the triumphant touchdown of making up, when all hope seemed lost…

Not planned that way of course, because Berry Gordy just wanted to bankroll his operations, since his biggest cash cow, Mary Wells, jumped labels..

Despite what I know from education and Pop Music lore, how calculated a multitude of efforts of theirs were, I’m always suprised how enjoyable their efforts were…

How unvarnished, and sincere the results can seem to a human heart…

Then I defend myself and say its primarily their early efforts (1961 thru the Summer of 1967) that are the moments. Not Diana Ross’s solo career, not the excess baggage of the Dreamgirls pastiche…

….not the glitsy gowns, or wigs, the jetsetting they got to do, the fabulous houses they got to own, them brand new Cadillacs they rarely got to drive, the endless hours of work, the 50 weeks a year of touring, recording and promoting they did…

Hell, as girl groups go they aren’t even my favorite. But maybe because its such a long story, there’s so much to know, thousands of songs to sing along to….gossip that’s turning into faded memories…

The Supremes,

a Supremely complicated piece of art. A psychological drama, a fashion statement, a commentary on race, feminism, and identity politics, a mighty fine 4/4 groove…

And people wonder why I hold them more important than the Beatles…

On October 22:

1734 Daniel Boone, American pioneer and hunter, was born.

1797 André-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump 1,000 meters (3,200 feet) above Paris.

1811 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist and composer was born.

1836 Sam Houston wss inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1877 The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland killed 207 miners.

1883 The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opened with a performance of Gounod’s Faust.

1919 – Doris Lessing, British writer, Nobel Prize laureate, was born.

Doris Lessing at lit.cologne 2006

1924 Toastmasters International was founded.

1946 Deepak Chopra, Indian-American physician and writer was born.

1953 Laos gained its independence from France.

1960 Mali  gained its indepndence from France.

1964 Jean-Paul Sartre  was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turned down the honor.

1966 The Supremes became the first all-female music group to have a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A’ Go-Go).

The Supremes: Diana Ross (left), Mary Wilson (center), Florence Ballard (right) circa 1965

1972 James K. Baxter died.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Pure Motown at it’s Best. Diana had such a High vocal Range & tremendous Feel for the Beat.

Fhaid, This is for you

Diana Ross & The Supremes – You Keep Me Hangin’ On

T 54038 (A) – b/w Never Again

March 1961

Written by Berry Gordy, Brian Holland and Freddie Gorman

Unquestionably the quintessential Motown group, the group that would become synonymous with Motown, the group that would take the world by storm, the group that would score Motown no less than twelve Number One pop singles, among them some of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s greatest, most wonderful records. The Supremes: the Motown group. But it started so far from the spotlight that the odds on any of those things ever happening wouldn’t even have been worth mentioning back in 1959.

Some history. As every Motown nerd knows, the Supremes didn’t start out at the top of the Hitsville pecking order; in fact, for the first four years of their involvement with the company, they were closer to the bottom. Like the Beatles before them, they were grudgingly carried along by their more successful peers, scorned for both their lack of commercial success and their awkward, ugly first steps, earning themselves the ubiquitous nickname “the No-Hit Supremes”. The group weren’t daunted, and refused to be broken (as if a character like Diana Ross would let a few jibes and cold stares get in her way). Instead, they served their long, hitless apprenticeship, doing shows from the bottom of the bill and then watching and learning in the wings, before putting together everything they’d learned, taking off almost without warning and eclipsing their erstwhile betters on a previously unimaginable scale.

The Supremes started as a quartet (depending on your level of Motown nerdiness, you may already be shouting “Barbara Martin!” at the screen. In which case, sit down.) Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Betty McGlown formed the Primettes in 1959. Like Smokey Robinson, all four girls were residents of the grim, gargantuan Brewster-Douglass high-rise council estate that towered over Detroit’s East Side, home to over ten thousand people.

The Primettes were formed as a female counterpart to the Primes, a popular male vocal group on the Detroit live circuit who would eventually merge with another group to form the Temptations; the Primes’ Paul Williams was going out with Betty McGlown, who was friends with Ballard, who was friends with Wilson, who was friends with Ross. At some stage they also recruited guitarist Marv Tarplin, who ended up being poached by Smokey for the Miracles. All aged between 14 and 16, and earning a strong reputation, the young quartet used their relationship with Smokey to land an audition for Motown at the start of 1960. The audition didn’t go well, but the girls were undaunted and cut a fun, frothy Primettes single, Tears of Sorrow / Pretty Baby, for the Lu Pine label a couple of months later. This was the last showbiz sighting of Betty McGlown; she left the group to get married, replaced by schoolfriend Barbara Martin.

The Primettes’ youth and their artless lack of finesse didn’t do much to endear them to Berry Gordy, but with Motown’s star in the ascendant the young group started hanging around the Hitsville USA reception before and after school, doing impromptu office junior work, occasionally being drafted into studio sessions (as almost anyone who happened to be hanging around the increasingly crowded building would be) as handclappers and footstompers, and pestering passing songwriters and producers to give them a shot. Gordy himself told them to get lost on at least one occasion; luckily for him, they would still uniformly turn up the next day regardless.

Which is pretty much where our story picks them up. The four Primettes, as usual, were mooching around the office in January 1961 and buttonholed “singing mailman” Freddie Gorman, who happened to be Mary Wilson’s postman. It was their lucky day; Gorman had just been writing a song with his new writing partner, one Brian Holland, who promptly came out and asked the girls to pop into the studio to try out some harmonies for the song. The result worked so well that the two budding songwriters had the girls try out a few more things. After this had gone on for a few minutes, Berry Gordy emerged to find out what the commotion was, and again told the Primettes to sling their collective hook. (The quote given in The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 1 is “I don’t want another girl group”, which is incongruous at best, since at that time Gordy didn’t have any other girl groups on the books – the Marvelettes hadn’t been signed yet, and wouldn’t release their first Motown single for another six months).

Instead, Holland and Gorman stood their ground and excitedly asked Gordy to listen to what they were doing. Gordy was hooked after a couple of minutes and started writing some new lyrics for the song. The song, if you hadn’t worked it out by now, was this song, and it became the first single for the hastily-renamed Supremes, the first female vocal group to sign with Motown.

It’s a real oddity, this; it bears the same relation to the Supremes’ mid-Sixties hits as Love Me Do does for the Beatles, but it’s also totally out of step with the rest of the Supremes’ pre-1964 output. The rest of the Supremes’ early singles are cut from the same cloth as their Primettes single – light, graceless, upbeat, charming Fifties girl group pop with a massive dollop of doo-wop and all the bite of a milkshake. This, though, is completely different.

For a start, the structure is just from another planet. The song seems to have started out as a doo-wop ballad in the mould of a thousand other early Motown slowies; instead, it’s mutated to a point where those origins are barely recognisable. Opening with a hesitant, echoey Ondioline organ riff, frosty and alone, setting the song’s yearning tone straight from the off, there’s the merest hint of a gliss before we’re treated to a couple of organ-backed bars of brushed drums and intricate bass and guitar work, before all the music stops nine seconds in and the world is introduced to sixteen-year-old lead vocalist Diana Ross, who’s left to carry a complicated tune all on her own – “I – i – i – i – I / Want a guy” – before the band and the organ come back in, and the other Supremes start singing backup, completely flat and yet somehow fitting the melody with lethal accuracy, and then out of nowhere, over the top of everything, comes a prominent flourish of jazz flute courtesy of Beans Bowles… It just keeps coming, and it’s as though the general aura of “oh, what the hell, let’s sign them” has permeated the entire session, and everyone is trying new ideas, all at once.

I’m making it sound as though it should be a disaster, an unlistenable hotch-potch of crazy ideas, but in fact it’s so good it’s almost gallingly perfect. There’s nothing about this song that isn’t riveting. I’m no fan of Diana Ross, at all, and I give advance warning right now that she’s going to come in for a fair bit of criticism over the course of this blog, but she totally nails this one. It’s the song of a yearning, lonely young girl, and it’s an astonishing match of vocalist and material that Ross wouldn’t manage again until being forced to sing below her usual range on Where Did Our Love Go three and a half years later. When she sings “I’ll never be lonely again”, to a melody Brian Holland would have killed to hit on again during H-D-H’s mid-Sixties heyday, her performance is so spot-on you know she believes every word of it. The bridge – where the nascent Funk Brothers highlight what is easily their best band performance to date, strumming and then jabbing guitars in perfect unison – “As long as he holds me tight / As long as he treats me right” – is more Brian Wilson than Brian Holland, and it’s just incredible. I could go on. I won’t.

I really wanted to dislike this, before I’d ever actually heard it. I had it in my mind that the Supremes were nothing special until H-D-H took them over; certainly the virtual crateful of mediocre singles that come between this one and When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes nearly three years later do nothing to dispel that theory. But this is immensely likeable, genuinely beautiful, and above all pants-wettingly good. Even if it sounds nothing like the Supremes everyone knows, it’s as good a début single as anyone, anywhere, has ever recorded. Ever.

The Contours “Come On And Be Mine”	The Supremes “Never Again”

Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard e Betty McGlow formaram o grupo The Primettes em 1959. No ano seguinte, Betty McGlow abandonou o grupo e foi substituída por Barbara Martin. Em 1961, assinaram um contrato com a Motown Records, que pediu para que o nome fosse trocado. Escolheram “The Supremes“. Em 1962, Barbara Martin abandona o grupo, que se estabelece como um trio.

The Supremes foi o principal grupo feminino de Soul da década de 1960, alcançando doze vezes o 1º lugar. Até hoje, recorde da gravadora Motown. Em seguida vem Stevie Wonder, que alcançou o 1º lugar por dez vezes.

Em 1967, o grupo passou a se chamar Diana Ross & The Supremes, por causa da popularidade de Diana. Porém, em 1970, Diana Ross decide seguir em carreira solo, é substituída por Jean Terrell e o grupo volta a se chamar The Supremes. Após inúmeras mudanças na formação, o grupo acaba de vez em 1977.

A música “Baby Love” é da formação mais consagrada do grupo (Diana Ross, Mary Wilson e Florence Ballard) e foi lançada em 1964. Foi indicada ao Grammy Awards de 1965 e alcançou o 1º lugar nos EUA e no Reino Unido.

I just got put onto this new cat, Meyer Hawthorne, and I absolutely love his music.

He comes out of AnnArbor, Michigan, near Detroit, as a hip hop DJ.  He played around on the side making silly tracks (or so he thought) that mimic the Motown sounds of Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Temptations and The Supremes.  These tracks got into the hands of Peanut Butter Wolf, founder and phenom DJ of Stones Throw Records.  PB Wolf asked from where Hawthorne got his melodies–unbeknownst to him, all of the tunes were created by Hawthorne.  He plays pretty much all of the instruments, provides the vocals and writes the lyrics for these sweet-lovin’ tracks.   Interestingly enough, Hawthorne had no formal vocal training.  PBW loved what he heard and asked Hawthorne to make an album, which is out now on Stones Throw Records: http://www.stonesthrow.com/store/album/mayerhawthorne/a-strange-arrangement

These songs are reminiscent of smooth 60s soul.  His tracks are lathered up with sweet harmonies (all his own voice).  Along with the poignant Motown melodies, you hear dropped beats hinged on sounds similar to the late J Dilla.  On an Artist of the Week feature, Hawthorne states, “I’m not trying to be labeled as throwback music or retro.  This is new.  It’s something that I really feel we’re missing right now.  Hopefully I can bring back all the incredible harmonies and the soul back to this new generation…Soul music used to be the music that everybody went to the club to dance to.  And I’m trying to see that happen again.”   Me too, Amen brotha!

Hot tracks of the week:

Meyer Hawthorne’s “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBKx8PyE5qQ

Meyer Hawthorne’s “Maybe So Maybe No”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpfcydeSGeo&feature=channel

It’s ME!!!

Welcome, welcome,welcome… I hope you’re ready to reminisce, sing-a-long, maybe even slap your knee from the exciting trip we’re about to take together. I’ve compiled some of the best groups and their songs in our musical lifetime!

Always visit again, as I’m am updating this blog regularly with some of your favorite artists, and forthcoming music from myself with “The Anticipation Of R&B” ! I appreciate your support. Enjoy the ride baby!

Rho (Miss R&B)

The Jackson 5

Jackson 5 in their famous performance for Motown 25!

The Jackson 5 announcing at the 1973 Grammy’s…

The Supremes

The Supremes performing “Stop! In the name of love”

The Supremes singing “Reflections”…

The Tempations

The Temptations singing “Papa was a rollin’ stone” live

The Temptations gettin’ down with “I wish it would rain”

The Four Tops

The Four Tops from the early days in raw footage singing “I Can’t Help Myself”(sugar pie honey bunch)…

The Four Tops live performance of their 70’s hit “Ain’t No Woman Like The One I Got”

Earth, Wind and Fire

Earth, Wind and Fire video ” Let’s Groove”

Earth, Wind and Fire with “Reasons” performed by Phillip Bailey

The Emotions

The Emotions singing one of their hits “Best of My Love”

The Emotions singing “Don’t Ask My Neighbor”

The O’Jays

The O’Jays performing an oldie AND goodie! “For The Love Of Money” (what a jam session!)

Tower Of Power

Tower Of Power “So Very Hard To Go”

Commodores

Commodores “Sail On”

Commodores “Zoom”

Go Go’s

Go Go’s “We Got The Beat” (live)

The Beatles

The Beatles “Come Together”

The Beatles “Let It Be”

The Eagles

The Eagles “Hotel California”

Chicago

Chicago ” Hard to Say I’m Sorry”

Bee Gee’s

Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive”

Bee Gees “Night Fever”

Shalamar

Shalamar “The Lover In You”

Shalamar “Night To Remember”

The Isley Brothers

The Isley Brothers… “For The Love Of You”

The Isley Brothers … “Between The Sheets” (how many babies were conceived to this song?)

Cool In The Gang

Cool In The Gang “Ladies Night”

Cool In The Gang “Celebration”

SOS Band

SOS Band gettin’ funky with “Take Your Time (Do It Right)”

SOS Band with their hit “Just Be Good To Me”…

Parliament Funkadelic

Parliament Funkadelic … how about funkin’ our way to “One Nation Under A Groove”

Parliament Funkadelic … who didn’t funk to the dog catcher’s funk “Atomic Dog” ?

The Gap Band

The Gap Band ” Party Train”!

The Gap Band and their classic hit ” Yearning For Your Love”

Cameo

Cameo “I Just Want To Be” (funkalicious baby)

DeBarge

DeBarge with a classic favorite in “All This Love”

DeBarge performing their huge hit “Rhythm Of The Night”

The Jets

The Jets “Crush On You”

The Jets “You Got It All”

New Kids On The Block

New Kids On The Block “Please Don’t Go Girl” (pioneer pop boy band )

The Backstreet Boys

The Backstreet Boys “I Want It That Way”

N’sync

N’sync “Gone”

Guy

Guy “Let’s Chill” (another baby makin’ classic)

Guy “Fantasy” (back when people weren’t afraid to really dance at parties)

Boys To Men

Boys To Men “Motown Philly”

Boys To Men “Water Runs Dry”

SWV

SWV … “Weak”

SWV with one of our favorite remix remakes “Right Here”

New Edition

New Edition “Mr. Telephone Man” in their younger years

New Edition “If It Isn’t Love” Live… ( doin’ their thing!)

Mint Condition

Mint Condition “Pretty Brown Eyes”

TLC

TLC “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”

TLC “Waterfalls”

Jodeci

Jodeci “Forever My Lady” (the song that started it all)

Jodeci “Stay” (whoo!)

Destiny’s Child

Destiny’s Child “Cater To You”

Destiny’s Child “Soldier”(Show performance-hot!)

Manhattan Transfer

Manhattan Transfer “Java Jive” ( blended live performances)

Manhattan Transfer”How High The Moon” (with the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald singing live for the Grammy’s )

Take 6

Take 6 “Wade In The Water”

Take 6 “I L-O-V-E U”

The Winans

The Winans “Question Is”

The Clark Sisters

The Clark Sisters “You Brought The Sunshine”

Run DMC

Run DMC “You Talk Too Much” (hip hop heroes)

Run DMC “It’s Like That”

NWA

NWA “Straight Outta Compton” (pioneers of gangsta rap)

I thought I’d complete the journey with my former group, the legendary…

En Vogue

En Vogue “Hold On” (those black dresses… )

En Vogue “Don’t Go” (Terry singing her face off and the ladies impeccably backing her up)

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” Pop # 8, R&B # 1

By Joel Francis

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s first album together, “United,” was a smash that spawned three Top 5 R&B hits and turned Gaye into a soul superstar. A follow-up was inevitable. In March, 1968, less than three months after the release of their previous single, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” announced the fruits of the duo’s new collaborations.

“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” is more of a Brill Building pop song than a soul number. Each singer gets two brief verses, but the heavy emphasis is on the chorus, which is usually repeated. There is a touch of Carol King’s phrasing in Terrell’s verses and the piano line – particularly the bit that introduces the first verse owes to King’s style. Although the structure is deceptively simple, the song works because the hook allows the complementary voices to dance. The clever bridge also surprises up the verse-chorus structure.

The song is definitely outside of the Motown paradigm, but Gaye’s voice , especially the soulful moans that appear after the drums and bass introduce the song, let the listener know we’re still deep in Motown territory.

Sadly, “Real Thing” was the next-to-last “real thing” Gaye and Terrell worked on together. In October, 14, 1967, following the completion of the No. 1 R&B hit “You’re All I Need To Get By,” Terrell collapsed in Gaye’s arms while performing at college homecoming in Virginia. Doctors diagnosed Terrell with a brain tumor and her days as a singer and performer were over.

Gaye completed the pair’s second album, “You’re All I Need,” by overdubbing his voice to Terrell solo recordings, a trick reprised on the duo’s third and final album, “Easy.” Largely present in name only, “Easy,” found Valerie Simpson standing in for Terrell on all but two albums. “Easy” spawned three Top 20 R&B hits, but nothing as influential or wonderful as “Real Thing.”

When Terrell died at age 24 on March 16, 1970, Motown released her final “duet” with Gaye in tribute.

“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” has been a go-to duet for 40 years. Diana Ross and the Supremes were the first to capitalize, recording a version with the Temptations in 1969. The following year the Ross-relieved Supremes cut another version with the Four Tops. The Jackson 5 included their cover on their 1972 album “Lookin’ Out the Windows.” Aretha Franklin recorded a rare solo version of the song in 1974.

Other performers to record “Real Thing” include Donny and Marie Osmond, Gladys Knight and Vince Gill, Elton John and Marcella Detroit, and Beyonce and Justin Timberlake. Michael McDonald and Boyz II Men also included interpretations of the number on their Motown tribute albums.