If Marvelettes fans weren’t likely to be moved by this ill-judged and poorly-executed cover, it’s equally unlikely any hardened jazz cats were particularly impressed either. We can only hope Earl himself was having some fun doing this throwaway jam, splashing his instrumental karaoke all over a fine band track, because I’m not sure anyone else enjoyed the experience. (3)
It’s alright, but the organ is annoying, and it mainly serves as a reminder of Motown’s foolishness in not issuing one of the vocal versions instead. (5)
It serves no real purpose other than to let three prominent Brothers do their thing for posterity, it doesn’t really go anywhere, and it’s great fun as opposed to just great – but there are moments that set the pulse racing, and you don’t really want it to end. Not as quickly as it does, anyway.(7)
Probably not what Van Dyke or the other Funk Brothers had in mind when Motown said they were greenlighting a house band instrumental single, and it’s not really anything all that special – but it’s plenty of fun, it’s energetic, it’s good to dance to, and it sounds considerably better when you’re drunk, so it does everything it’s meant to. Still, if there’s an argument that there should be more of these, and less of (say) the Marvelettes, it’s not an argument anyone should really be making. (6)
If the technology and Motown’s budget had allowed for an EP or a 12″ 45 single, this might have been one of the great early Motown treasures; instead, hacked peremptorily in half and parcelled into chunks too small to sate the appetite, it ends up little more than an unsatisfactory promo for an album you can’t now physically buy. (6)
You can almost hear dancehall audiences groaning Awwwww! as the fade slashes in; we were just getting into that, they’d have grumbled. It’s just too short, and divorced from its proper context (and two-thirds of its length), it doesn’t have the chance to make an impression. (6)
The stupidly annoying bits mean this can’t really be considered as being on a par with Xmas Twist, but the band performance is nearly enough to outweigh them. (3)
Lots of fun, but repetitive in the extreme; the repeated vocals diminish the replay value of an otherwise rocking little instrumental. (4)
Really just a continuation of the extended Funk Brothers instrumental semi-jam which made up the A-side Snake Walk (Part 1), this is more of the same; again, it’s hard not to start bobbing around and dancing to this stuff, so you may not want to play this if it’s possible someone will walk in on you and (for argument’s sake) see you dancing like an uncoordinated idiot. For instance. (8)
This is for all intents and purposes a Funk Brothers single, albeit recorded under a silly name. It’s also entirely splendid. (8)
