When the subject of Motown Record Corp. comes up, what people think of are the hundreds of major hit records, and rightfully so. However, it was not “all hits all the time” (to borrow a radio station slogan).
There were plenty of failures too, records that did poorly on the charts (at least by comparison to the artists’ biggest hits) or missed the charts completely. That does not necessarily mean the records were substandard.
In some cases the records did fairly well, but for some reason got buried with the passage of time. For instance, four of my all-time favorite songs by the Miracles are “I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying,” “My Girl Has Gone,” “The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage” and “I’ll Try Something New,” but today they are seldom heard or even spoken of.
Following are some Motown singles that will likely be only vaguely familiar to you, or not familiar at all.
The Temptations: “It’s Summer,” “Take a Look Around,” “Hoops of Fire,” “Paradise,” “Struck By Lighting Twice.”
The Four Tops: “Don’t Let Him Take Your Love From Me,” “In These Changing Times,” “A Simple Game,” “I Can’t Quit Your Love,” “What Is a Man?”
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas: “I Gotta Let You Go,” “(We’ve Got) Honey Love,” “I Can’t Dance to That Music You’re Playin’,” “Taking My Love (And Leaving Me),” “Sweet Darlin’,” “I Promise to Wait My Love.”
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles: “Ain’t It Baby,” “A Love She Can Count On,” “Mighty Good Lovin’,” “Broken Hearted,” “Come On Do the Jerk.”
Marvin Gaye: “Gonna Give Her All the Love I’ve Got,” “What Good Am I Without You?” (with Kim Weston), “Don’t Knock My Love” (with Diana Ross), “How Can I Forget?”
Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Home Cookin’,” “Groove Thang,” “Holly Holy,” “Carry Your Own Load.”
Diana Ross: “I’m Still Waiting,” “One More Chance,” “You Got It,” “It’s My House,” “What You Gave Me,” “I Thought It Took a Little Time (But Today I Fell in Love), “Sleepin’.”
The Marvelettes: “My Daddy Knows Best,” “I’m Gonna Hold On As Long As I Can,” “That’s How Heartaches Are Made.”
Stevie Wonder: “Keep On Running,” “Travelin’ Man,” “Outside My Window,” “My Love” (with Julio Iglesias), “With Each Beat of My Heart,” “Keep Our Love Alive,” “Did I Hear You Say You Love Me?”
The Supremes: “Some Things You Never Get Used To,” “No Matter What Sign You Are,” “The Weight” (with the Temptations), “Bad Weather,” “You Gotta Have Love in Your Heart” (with the Four Tops), “The Composer.”
Smokey Robinson: “It’s Her Turn to Live,” “Vitamin U,” “Heavy On Pride (Light On Love), “Touch the Sky,” “Don’t Play Another Love Song.”
See what I mean?
MARY MARY remains one of the hottest gospel attractions of the last decade or so, and one of the biggest crossover successes.
The ladies (sisters Erica and Tina Campbell) have several projects in the works. One is a self-help book aimed at young females titled “Be You.” Two others are a new album and a line of bath and body products.
Meanwhile, their current release, “Mary Mary,” is still the No. 1 gospel album in the United States, featuring the red-hot “God in Me” which easily crossed over into R&B territory.
Mariah Carey’s “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” has been pushed back to Sept. 15. That is the second time the release of the album has been delayed. First it was Aug. 25, then Sept. 15. Wonder what up with that.
Kudos to Ricky Martin for his honesty. He said, “Latin music comes from Africa.” You can’t get any more clear than that.
“AMAZING GRACE” is not the kind song anyone would expect to hear Diana Ross sing, but she did a beautiful rendition of the classic on a concert stage in Budapest (Hungary). It can be viewed on YouTube.com. It will touch your heart.
Reader Rick Wade tells us that Rosetta Hines, who now lives on the West Coast, has an Internet radio station up and running. Hines, known to her many Detroit fans as “the Rose,” plays the same kind of music on the new station that she did all those years on WJZZ. If you would like to check it out, write this down: www.hinesitefive.com.
Had to smile when Jada Pinkett Smith said that she and her husband, Will Smith, “always make time for making love, and you wouldn’t believe some of the places!” A lot of us were hoping that she would name some of those places.
We all have problems, but R. Kelly made himself sound rather silly and overly self-important when he said this regarding his well-publicized problems: “All of a sudden you’re like the Osama bin Laden of America. He is the only one who knows exactly what I’m going through.” (Can you believe he said such a thing! Hopefully next time he’ll think before speaking.)
THE OTHER day I was listening again to what might rank as the most incisive song ever recorded about the horrors of drug addiction, “Home Is Where the Hatred Is.”
The hard-hitting song was written by spoken word artist, poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, and became a big hit for the great Esther Phillips, who had a long history of drug addiction. (Scott-Heron recorded the song as well.)
The lyrics included, “Stand as far away from me as you can and ask me why…Hang on to your rosary beads, close your eyes, watch me die…You keep sayin’ ‘kick it, quit it,’ but did you ever try, to turn your sick soul inside out, so that the world can watch you die.”
And then, “Home is where the needle marks try to heal my broken heart.”
It was ironic that Scott-Heron ended up receiving a three-year jail sentence for cocaine possession.
BETCHA DIDN’T KNOW…that Barrett Strong, famous for the many superhits he wrote for Motown, also co-wrote the Dells’ classic “Stay In My Corner.”
MEMORIES: “Superwoman” (Karyn White), “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (Aretha Franklin and George Michael), “Let’s Go Crazy” (Prince & the Revolution), “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” (Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams), “Let’s Dance” (David Bowie), “Out of Sight” (James Brown), “Oh Sheila” (Ready for the World), “When I Think of You” (Janet Jackson), “I Want to Know What Love Is” (Foreigner), “Let’s Do It Again” (the Staple Singers).
BLESSINGS to Reuben Yabuku, William Andrews Jr., Yvonne Gullick, Ted Talbert, Myron Wahls Jr., Rita Ross, Kimmie Horne, Stephen Singleton, Jim Campbell and Carol Prince.
WORDS OF THE WEEK, from Alan Cohen: “You create your own reality. You do not have to justify, explain, rationalize, apologize or compromise what makes you happy.”
Let the music play!
(Steve Holsey can be reached at Svh517@aol.com and P.O. Box 02843, Detroit, MI 48202.)