Absolutely fine as far as pleasingly diverting B-sides go. It’s just the widespread admiration that baffles me. Would I jump up to turn it off? Of course not. Would I pick it out as some sort of highlight? Not in a million years. (5)
The Temptations cover themselves in glory here. This is the sound of a group absolutely on top of their game; the true follow-up to My Girl, and – unexpectedly – very nearly as good. (9)
Pretty much the very definition of Temptations album filler, a pleasant but largely pointless retouching of a song that didn’t have anything wrong with it in the first place. (5)
Too much of a glorious mess to have been a huge hit on original release, but it’s both insanely ambitious and impressively executed, and it adds up to yet another excellent side in this magnificent run. (8)
There’s no getting away from the fact it’s a relic, an artefact from an already distant past. Plus, nice though it is, who on earth was flipping this single over in the first place? (5)
If My Girl isn’t in your fifty top Motown tunes, I fear nothing can be done for you. (10)
The whole thing is just a chore to listen to, a massive comedown after the rush of the A-side. (2)
A big, brassy, bouncy irresistible rush of a pop song. Whisper it, it’s actually better than The Way You Do The Things You Do. (9)
Ultimately it isn’t as good a pop record as The Way You Do The Things You Do, and Whitfield and Holland weren’t quite finished with this concept yet – but it works a lot better than the topside, and would have made a stronger single. It’s certainly more of an indication of what lay ahead in the Tempts’ short-term future. (7)
Despite some rough edges, there’s plenty to like and enjoy here – it just doesn’t feel like the next step for this group, or indeed like any kind of step from The Way You Do The Things You Do at all. (6)
The phrase “hidden gem” is overused, not least by me, but it certainly applies here. (7)
A new start for everyone involved, a major step forward for the Motown Sound, and a damned fine pop record in its own right. Super. (8)
It’s not awful, but nor is it hugely impressive; this single marks a sort of watershed for the Temptations, who were about to leave this sort of stuff behind forever. 4
This record represents the end of the Temptations’ first phase, though they didn’t know it at the time. When America next heard from the Temptations, everything would have changed. (5)
A sneakily catchy number, which after a few listens actually gets its hooks much deeper into you than the A-side. (7)
As a song, it’s okay; danceable, likeable, but rather flat and ultimately uninteresting. As an arrangement, a vocal showcase, a calling card for future greatness, it’s nothing short of remarkable. (6)
Not for nothing would Smokey Robinson forge a reputation as the Temptations’ master craftsman: first time out, on a supposedly throwaway B-side, a frothy, fun little sketch that wasn’t going to pull up any trees, his ideas on how to best play to the group’s strengths were already years ahead of anyone else they had worked with up to this point. (7)
A number 122 pop hit, and a reasonably faithful, largely-unimpressive Four Seasons tribute record, which is to say a pretty much complete waste of the Temptations. (4)
This would have made a super Temptations single in its own right, and absolutely doesn’t deserve to lie forgotten as a B-side to a cash-in record under a novelty name. (8)
A decent single with a strong, driving groove, only denied a chart hit by the circumstances in which it came to be made. An important early record by one of Motown’s most important groups. (6)
A fun, frothy, meaningless doo-wop ditty, which coming from a group like the Temptations is both highly enjoyable and maddeningly limited. (6)
Possibly the best song Berry Gordy ever wrote, and therefore fitting that it should appear on the label bearing his name. But huge credit is also due to both the band and to the group; it is, after all, what’s in the grooves that count(s). (10)
An absolutely straight-down-the-line bit of late-period doo-wop. Well-sung and really rather pretty, but utterly predictable. (4)
A stop-start, multi-part multiple-metre R&B piece, probably the most musically-daring thing Motown had released in its three years of existence. (6)
If this unstructured, forgettable mess had been the A-side, it’s possible we’d never have heard of the Temptations again. One to miss, I’m afraid. (2)
If it’s not an obvious starting point for one of the great groups of all time, it’s a likeable (and danceable!) little record on its own merits. (6)
