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Tamla T 101 (A), January 1959
b/w Whisper
(Written by Marv Johnson and Berry Gordy)
London American HLT 8856 (A), May 1959
b/w Whisper
(Released in the UK under license through London Records)
Here we are, then, right at the (official) beginning. Little-known local singer Marv Johnson had the honour of being Motown’s foundation stone, in more ways than one, even if the significance of the moment wasn’t realised at the time.
Johnson had just turned twenty and was a keen songwriter with one local single release already under his belt (some accounts, including the liner notes for The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 1, credit Berry Gordy Jr. as having been the producer of that single, My-Baby-O on Kudo Records).
Whatever the story, Marv certainly caught Gordy’s attention, so much that he was chosen to cut the very first single for Gordy’s new label venture. The song selected was one of Johnson’s original numbers, which Gordy polished up and revised to get it ready for release.
Berry Gordy’s judgement turned out, as it often did, to have been sound – Come To Me was a local hit, in turn catching the attention of United Artists. Gordy didn’t have the money to fulfil the massive orders that would come with a hit record, never mind the marketing power and muscle to effectively promote such a hit, and Tamla’s local distribution deal was ineffectual at best. Therefore, he was receptive to UA’s approaches; UA bought out Johnson’s contract (along with that of fellow Tamla artiste Eddie Holland, of whom more later) and re-released Come To Me nationally, whereupon it became a Top 30 pop hit (and went Top 10 R&B, an impressive first-time-out bullseye on Gordy’s part).
The financial reward from this shrewd bit of business kept Motown afloat in the shaky early days, thus providing the bedrock upon which all future Motown releases were built. Not bad for a record whose lack of distributor “oomph” supposedly had Gordy and Smokey Robinson driving around the Detroit area in the middle of winter, hand-delivering copies to stores.
It’s notable not just for the historical quirk of it being The First Motown Record, but also because it features a number of key future Motown players, who were there right from the start: Brian Holland, later producing and songwriting superstar, on backup vocals as one of the Rayber Voices; several future key Funk Brothers in James Jamerson, Benny Benjamin, Eddie Willis, Joe Messina and Thomas “Beans” Bowles (who had himself been the bandleader for Johnson’s previous single on Kudo); two of the Satintones, Motown’s first group signing, including future early Motown songwriter/producer Robert Bateman; and Gordy’s wife Raynoma Liles, a.k.a. “Miss Ray”. Quite a supporting cast. (Marv himself went on to have a string of hits throughout the early Sixties on UA, several of them produced by Gordy, before returning to the Motown fold in 1965.)
Yes, yes, fine, all very well, you say, but you can read that stuff anywhere. What about the record itself?
Well, after I box your ears for impertinence, I’d say it’s pretty good, but not particularly outstanding; it’s an upbeat, fairly generic R&B number with shades of doo-wop, energetically played and sung well enough by Johnson, but lacking any real hook. Its most memorable features are Marv’s striking falsetto “weeeeeell-oh-o-baby” intro, and a busting flute solo by Beans Bowles which crops up without warning about halfway through; but it doesn’t really stick in the mind. It’s fun enough while it’s playing, but there isn’t really a chorus to speak of, and despite having heard it forty or fifty times, I’m still not sure I could sing it back to you right now if you asked me. I mean, I probably could, but I wouldn’t want to put money on it, you know? Anyway.
Certainly anyone looking for the birth of the “Motown sound” will come away disappointed – that wouldn’t really develop for another three or four years, when Jamerson and Benjamin really got their pop/soul/R&B groove on, and the writers, producers and performers had all matured and developed. This is just a Fifties R&B record, no more and no less.
Still, it’s not actually *bad*, not by any means – it’s a “grower”, if anything – but Come To Me is an Important Record rather than a classic single. People will always want to seek it out, but the reason for that is because of its historic value, rather than its musical merits. A decent enough start, but there was considerably better to come, even in that shaky, uncertain first year.
MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)
COVERWATCH
Motown Junkies has reviewed other Motown versions of this song:
- Mary Wells (October 1961)
You’re reading Motown Junkies, an attempt to review every Motown A- and B-side ever released. Click on the “previous” and “next” buttons below to go back and forth through the catalogue, or visit the Master Index for a full list of reviews so far.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in Marv Johnson? Click for more.)
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| Wade Jones “Insane” |
Marv Johnson “Whisper” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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Motown Junkies 
Thanks for shedding some light on this key track. I often wondered if we’d be talking about Motown at all today if not for the financial windfall of this first “Motown” track. Personally, I love the song and rate it a bit higher than you have.
Key for me is the way the group is locked in to the leading edge of the groove–at least by the time we get to the chorus. It gives each pulse a little push that makes me want to move my feet. The clear counterpoint between Johnson’s lead, the bari/bass line and the backup voices is engaging. Personally, I’ve always found the the flute solo a bit flat, both in pitch and inspiration.
I do think that the track carries a hint of the proverbial “Motown Sound” — not so much in the musicians used, but in the “live music” aesthetic that Gordy captures as a producer. As described in his autobiography, Gordy wanted every mic to be hot and have the same presence as he had heard standing within the group rehearsing them. The tambourine is hot and the bass gets his own mic. Johnson’s voice is on top of that. In fact, the tambourine is so loud that you’d really only hear it with that presence if you were standing in the group just like Gordy. So, what makes the Motown sound so compelling for me is that Gordy puts the listener not just at the live event, but actually in the band. Who could resist hanging out with the magic of Benjamin and Bowles?
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Thanks Mark. I do like it (it’s definitely a “grower”, as I said when I wrote this last year), and I too often wonder what might have happened to the history of popular music if this single had stiffed, but I’ve never been able to see it as much of a foundation stone (in musical rather than financial terms) for the Motown of the Sixties.
I do like your analysis though, some interesting things I’d not really considered before. Can’t believe I didn’t talk about the tambourine part.
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Is it bad that I actually prefer Mary Wells singing this?
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I am late to this wonderful site, where people actually talk about the MUSIC. I intend to follow each release with TCMS as back-up, companion…whatever.
So before I comment too much on this first disc, I will say that as Nixon has posted, I can never ‘hear’ the actual tune in my head…I couldn’t sing it to myself after SO many plays. However I’ve always been aware of the tambourine ‘up front’, so I’ve taken it as forerunner of late gems.
Thank You Nixon for this marvelous site.
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Let me share a witness perspective. I think if someone was “there, in person” it lends perspective. As a young 14 year old scooping up records like mad, COME TO ME was a great R&B song, as were Marv’s follow-ups (I believe written by Gordy as well, even though under UA contract). Berry Gordy. through his vocalist and his musicians, brought excellence, which we would all witness in later years. Perhaps his “ear” was his greatest asset.
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Wholeheartedly agreed; the difference between Motown and any number of other tiny black-owned indie labels at the time was Berry Gordy’s creative genius, which is usually skipped over in general accounts. As a songwriter and producer, he had few equals, and the considerable body of work he did at UA for both Marv Johnson and Eddie Holland shows that (a) major labels were more than happy with his work, and (b) he could have become a well-paid staff writer/producer at a major if he’d not had the ruthless entrepreneurial streak that led him to strike out on his own. The gradual removal of Gordy from the “coal face” of day-to-day writing and producing duties at Motown as the Sixties progressed is a theme I’ve been very interested in developing throughout the course of the blog; I’ve often wondered how he felt about that, as his own public statements on the matter – most recently to Tavis Smiley on PBS – have him jokingly brushing it off as him being outmatched by his younger protegés, Smokey, Mickey, HDH and the like.
Always happy to have “witness perspective” – hope you enjoy the rest of the blog!
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Nixon, that was a great summary analysis of Gordy.
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First recorded in-house Motown record to hit the charts. YEA!!
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I liked “Come To Me” a lot in 1959, and I still love it.
Berry had known Marv long before his work with him on the Kudo recording session. Marv had been a boxing buddy of Berry’s in the early/mid ’60s, and his partner in their ill-fated 3D Record Mart.
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I’ve seen him described as Gordy’s “partner” at the 3D Record Mart, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense – Marv was born in 1938, he was only 20 when this was recorded, and so he’d have had to be Gordy’s business partner at the age of 15. More realistic are the accounts that call him a “part time sales clerk” – his interview in 1992, http://www.bluesandsoul.com/feature/394/ for instance – but even then, given that he didn’t graduate high school until 1957, 2 years after the Record Mart is meant to have closed, it’s still a bit confusing.
Boxing-wise, I never knew Marv Johnson was a boxer. He doesn’t exist on Boxrec (a frighteningly complete record of every pro fight that’s ever taken place); the closest is this ‘Marvin Johnson’ who lost three fights in Florida in 1953. By contrast, Berry Gordy‘s (entirely respectable!) pro record is there for all to see. Perhaps Marv was someone Berry knew via the local amateur circuit, like Jackie Wilson?
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Yes, I agree with you about Marv Johnson’s young age, with regards to his relationship to Berry Gordy. I had read in several sources that Marv was his partner in The # D Record Mart. As you say, that would have been impossible. I now know that Berry’s Brother George was his partner. No doubt Marv was a teenage “helper” in the store. I doubt that he even worked the cash register. He probably just helped carry the records and stock the shelves, and ran errands. Reading that Berry met him in the boxing arena, I can believe that he discovered Marv as a young, amateur boxer, due to his continued interest in amateur boxing. Then, he hired him as a helper in his store, to give the kid a chance to earn some pocket cash.
Kudo Records was one of Robert West’s labels. In late 1958, Berry Gordy produced a few records on Kudo on artists for whom he wrote songs (Brian(t) Holland’s band (with Eddie Holland singing lead) and Nancy Peters. Marv Johnson’s Kudo record had no Berry Gordy song on either side. According to Beans Bowles, Sonny Woods ran the session, and Berry Gordy was just watching (as an interested party). He had run Brian Holland’s session, and Nancy Peters’ session, because he wrote their songs. The “official” producer was listed as Robert West (as “Executive Producer”) (although no label credit was given to any producer). West normally took producer credit as Executive Producer, but, usually (other than with his own groups, the Falcons and The Playboys (Fabulous Playboys), he had the “de facto” producers run his sessions (Berry Gordy on Brian Holland and Nancy Peters) and Sonny Woods on Marv Johnson’s Kudo session. I believe that Berry Gordy was there only because he was Marv’s friend, and West’s junior colleague.
He was still friendly enough with West to have the latter’s record distributing company distribute his Wade Jones RayBer record release several months later. When West’s distribution did nothing to get Jones’ record sold, Gordy learned to send a crew of his own workers to hawk his Tamla Records to Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Akron, Toledo and Dayton distributors, record shops and DJs, themselves. But, Ironically, it may have been on West’s recommendation to United Artists, that Gordy got his UA distribution deal for his early Tamla records, as during 1959-60, West had label/pressing/distribution deals with UA for several of his artists (Falcons, Don Revels, etc.).
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I totally agree with your verdict. I had completely forgotten the song after I finished listening to it, Still not bad for newcomers.
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An amazing start to the Motown story, other than I’ll Pick A Rose for My Rose this is my fave Marv Johnson record. His voice was something I never heard before (so pretty) and the song was catchy from the get go.
I’d give this a 6/10. Good song.
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And introducing… COVERWATCH!
Hopefully, this is a helpful new addition to the site, listing (and linking to) all the other Motown versions of the same song. Do let me know what you think.
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Steve D. WOW!!!!!! what a great new feature!!! I use to Do something similar to this on one of my radio shows in the early to mid 1970’s it was very successful and got a lot of listener response!!! often they were suprized or wound up amazed of the first or original version done by the original artist!!! I remember playing the 4 or 5 long versions of ” Smiling Faces” I would do this from time to time on two of my radio shows “THE Motor Town Files ” and ” Normans Grooves” (which featured songs written or produced by Norman Whitfield!!) I got a lot of positive and great response from my listeners!! Love the new feature…I can’t wait for more!
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It grew on me after listening to it several times. I like Marv’s vocal with the Raybers backing, especially Robert Bateman’s bass line. I love the track’s intro also. The break with the flute out front is a bit much. But overall, compared to other R&B releases in 1959, it’s decent and better than average for the time. Rating 6/10.
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Marv Johnson returned to Motown in late 1964. He recorded three songs for Motown in 1964, and several more near the beginning of 1965 before his first Gordy Records release in spring 1965. It was Marv’s continued work with United Artists that helped fund early Motown, rather than just the proceeds from “Come To Me” and sale of his contract to UA. Berry Gordy and other Motown writers wrote his songs, Motown’s Jobete Music published his songs, and Motown charged UA for recording Johnson and his backing tracks in their “Snakepit” studio, and also charged for using their band musicians. Motown also shared proceeds from sales of Johnson’s UA records. Hits like “I Love The Way You Love”, You’ve Got What It Takes” , “Ain’t Gonna Be That Way” and “Move Two Mountains”, from 1959-1961, all sold well, and brought in a lot of money.
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Following on from your comment on the UA relationship with Motown at this time, there is one “what if” that has always interested me, which I think you would know the answer to Robb (although anyone else welcome to add their view).
I’ve always wondered did Motown actually ‘own’ the rights to the Johnson UA releases, so that, if, say ‘why do you want to let me go’ had been a big hit when Johnson returned to Motown in 1964, and Motown had wanted to cash in by releasing a quick album, would they have had the rights to release the UA tracks on such an album, as well as ‘come to me/whisper’?
I’m thinking of the similar situations where Spinners/Junior Walker Tri-phi/Harvey tracks were included in mid-1960s Motown albums, and even the Miracles ‘got a job’ being included in the ‘from the beginning’ album, (and the MJ UA tracks were also published by Jobete), but would Motown have actually had the power to issue them on Gordy in the 1960s or even later?
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I found recently (and very cheap) a copy of this record, and bought it, because I’d noticed something peculiar…
As we all can see from the 45″ image on this post, the label is backgrounded yellow, but on mine is ORANGE. The color is not shaded, the address is from Gladstone St. and Matrix # are TAM 101 G1 / TAM 101 G2
I believe is a repro, but i’ve seen others which are ALL yellow…
Any Clue?
Thanks in advance
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I believe that this one is meant to be a solid, unshaded yellow, and that the shading on Lars’ scan above is a scanner issue. Does your orange copy look like the roughly contemporary Wade Jones single: https://motownjunkies.co.uk/o ?
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First of all, thanks for your quick replay.
Mine does not look similar to the Wade Jones copy, it seems red (shaded, naturally) to me.
Here is an URL where I’ve found the most similar color, but without any TAMLA adrress printed. Hope this helps.
Thanks again
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Hi Juan,
Early Tamla labels are very much a hit and miss affair – don’t forget these Tamla 101s were not very much above the level of demos, pressed up at low cost for a “label” that only really existed to show off the new songwriting and production house from that guy who wrote some songs for Jackie Wilson.
The address appears on some pressings of some of the earliest label stock (see https://motownjunkies.co.uk/4/) and not on others (like the one in your link). I don’t know what the difference is, if any. In the early days, Motown couldn’t even keep its own catalogue numbering system in order, never mind check printers’ proofs properly for any minor changes or omissions. (Even if they had, in the mid-Sixties there are half a dozen Motown singles that still crept out with huge glaring errors – spelling mistakes, wrong titles, in one case the complete address of some unrelated company in New York – on the labels.)
The colour is meant to be consistent, but printers being printers, some variation is obvious (look at the purple on some of the Gordy singles, and the sometimes golden, sometimes canary yellow background of mid-Sixties “globes” Tamla pressings, or the shades of orange and brown on later VIPs, or the blue half of Motown labels – it’s hard to find two that match up exactly the same!), and aging doesn’t help, and then scanners and cameras add yet another layer of inaccuracy which causes further confusion.
I’d say your copy, Lars’ copy as illustrated, and the copy in your link were all meant to look the same shade of golden yellow at one point.
In summary, without seeing it it’s hard to say, and I’m sure some discographers might be able to help correct me if I’m wrong here, but it does sound as though your copy might well be legit.
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Nix, regarding Motown’s mid-sixties “laxity” in keeping track of their catalogue numbers and getting correct information to the printers, I can vouch for the fact that the record company can provide PERFECT information to the printer, and printer errors will still be made, and label colour errors and wrong labels pasted onto wrong discs all done by people at the printer or pressing plant due to no fault of the record company staff. We had some mispellings on Airwave Records despite my having provided the printer with perfect mock-ups and/or label credit listings.
I can assure you that “Distributed by Bell Records, Inc. N.Y.C.” printed on Soul’s Hit Pack and Freeman Brothers’ 45s was NOT a Motown staff error, but an error at the printer’s plant. There was yet another error (of omission) at the pressing plant (letting the records be pressed with those labels glued onto them). There may have been a Motown staff error as well, as technically, Motown’s quality Control Dept. was to have a look at two of the 6 pressing plant test pressings before the press run is to occur. Those 2 copies generally ended up as the two records placed into the Motown Record Corp. Record File, and The Jobete Music Co. Record File. Upon seeing the “Distributed by Bell Records” on the test pressings. A Motown staffer should have phoned the pressing plant and had the press run put off until new labels could be printed. But that was not done. The entire run had the bogus distributor printed on the labels, and Motown just had the people at the plant, or (more likely) their own flunkies) cover the bogus print with black marker. This leads me to believe that Berry Gordy never intended those two records to sell any copies. They were just throw-aways, which earned him some money by taking the full industry average preparation and promotional cost tax write-offs, while he put no money into them.. At the same time, he was keeping the artists quiet by giving them their promised “release”.
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Oh, absolutely – mid-Sixties Motown, with Loucye Gordy Wakefield involved, was a much, much tighter ship than many other labels (indeed, Nelson George directly credits Motown’s business organisation as the thing that set it apart from indie contemporaries who fell by the wayside, mentioning Vee-Jay by name).
My comments about lack of oversight related solely to these early pre-West Grand days and how easily inconsistencies could slip in. The later mistakes show it can happen to anyone, no matter how diligent and professional.
It’s one of the immutable laws of the universe that printers will invariably mess things up, often hilariously; I used to run a label too, and my experience mirrors yours (we had to send back 2000 sleeves once because they’d somehow managed to print them with the cover art upside down, quite an achievement given we provided them with completed, professionally-designed artwork), while friends who work in publishing confirm it’s not just pressing plants that have the problem (a friend’s magazine, published by a major company – using its own in-house print chapel – and with circulation of almost half a million copies, once hit the newsstands with two pages of a completely different magazine where his centerfold article should have been).
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I think the phrase ‘WTF’ was designed specifically to deal with printing errors – our label has twice changed an artist’s name from Bobby to Booby and pressed up a couple of thousand copies of the offending article – one we didn’t notice until the artist himself rang to complain about our boob, shall we say. Motown, of course, famously printed God knows how many copies of The Marvelettes’ Sing album with the artist credit The Marveletts. Some errors create collectors items – when I worked for CBS, one over-zealous printer decided the ‘E’ in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band stood for East and printed a few hundred sample copies of the singles bag for The River as Bruce Springsteen & The East Street Band (all were supposedly pulped, but I managed to retain one copy), whilst I think it was the same printer who changed the name of Bob Dylan’s single to Lennie Bruce. You could fill a book about such errors….
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Tamla 101 was bootlegged in the late 1980s. The original matrix numbers were” Tam 101 G1 and Tam 101 G2″, etched into the groove trail -no stamp impression. So, your copy might be real, but could also be the boot. If I remember correctly, the bootleg was light yellow, and its black print was not as solid as it should be (made from a photocopy of the original label). So, I’d suspect that your copy was NOT the boot. Perhaps, because it was found in such good shape, the seller thought it must be a boot, and then lowered his price, accordingly? I’ve seen some early legit Tamlas fade to a yellow-orange hue from years in storage.
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Thankyou very very much Nix & Robb!!!!
I’m glad to hear that my 45″ is more valuable than I suspected.
Thanks also for your wide explanation and interest on my enquire.
Happy Easter!!
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Thought this might be a story you may be interested in .
Summary :
Newfield NY small Internet radio station about to do a LIVE broadcast from historic HitsVille USA – Motown Studio A !!
Interviews with the Funk Bros., Caroline Crawford, and many many more Motown staff members and personalities are scheduled.
See full story in press releases below :
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/bullseye-radio-goes-motown-pr-464015.html
http://www.i-newswire.com/bullseye-radio-goes-motown/218331
http://www.prlog.org/12113481-bullseye-radio-headed-for-hitsville-usa.html
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What about the peppery cover of this song by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (from “Lost and Found: Along Came Love)? Anyone know what year that was recorded?
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I would guess by the sound that “Along Came Love” by The Miracles was recorded in 1960. But, how is it a “cover” of “Come To Me”? The speeds of the 2 songs are as different as night and day. The words aren’t even remotely similar. Nothing about these 2 songs are even remotely similar. And “Along Came Love” couldn’t have “covered” Marv Johnson’s release, as it didn’t even exist as a recording when his song was being played on the radio during its initial run of sales. In any case, a single record company releasing the same song by another artist on its own label wouldn’t be considered a “cover”, EVEN if it came out at the same time. A “cover” is released with the intention to steal sales. This would have been more of a “piggyback” situation. But, I’m sure that Tamla 101 sales were at least 95% over, by the time “Along Came Love” was recorded (only “Oldies sales” were left/
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Hi Robb
I think you’ve misunderstood – I might be wrong but I think John was asking about the Miracles’ version of Come To Me, as featured on their 1999 rarities compilation (which is entitled “Lost and Found: Along Came Love 1958-1964”), and not about Along Came Love itself.
As it happens, the Miracles’ recording dates for both Come To Me and Along Came Love are both unknown (by which I mean even Keith Hughes’ mindbogglingly comprehensive Don’t Forget The Motor City song-by-song discography doesn’t know).
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Thanks. I have now listened to The Miracles’ “Come To Me”. It sounds very old. It might have been recorded in late 1959 or early 1960, would be my best guess. I would expect that it would not have been recorded later than 1960.
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Robb, Nixon… Thanks for your replies. Yes, I was asking about the song “Come to Me”, as covered by The Miracles and appearing on the compilation, “Lost and Found: Along Came Love 1958-1964″. I tried all kinds of Google searches in an effort to find the information I was looking for. The only thing I could find (after posting my question here) was in an Amazon review from 2007, of all things. The reviewer, “Lozarithm” from the UK, gave a fairly lengthy review (it’s the second review from the top).
Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Found-Along-Came-1958-1964/product-reviews/B00001QGU3
The comment I noticed was this one (in paragraph 8): “…Marv Johnson’s Come To Me was the first release on Tamla, recorded in December 1958, and the Miracles’ more upbeat reworking comes from December 1959, during their Chess period….”
I don’t know who “Lozarithm” is, nor where he or she got this information. And I don’t even know if it would be possible to contact him or her to confirm it. But Lozarithm’s placement of the song in December 1959 matches your assessment, Robb. And I agree, this song does sound like something recorded much earlier in the Miracles’ development.
Thanks for your comments.
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More interesting to me about “Lozarithm’s ” post on that website is his reference to The Miracles having had a release on Bobby and Danny Robinson’s Fury Records of New York from their period before Chess and Tamla. I looked up the discography of Fury Records, and it lists a record by The Miracles from 1957: Fury1012 – The Miracles – “Your Love”/”I Love You So”. I think this is an error. I don’t believe that those Miracles were Detroit’s Miracles (but were a New York group). Otherwise, why would we not know that Smokey’s group had a release on Fury Records in 1957, given all the interviews with Berry Gordy, Smokey, The Holland Brothers, etc.? If we heard of Smokey’s Matadors’ recording made in 1955, we’d have heard about that, too. This seems like one of those errors made by the gathering Internet data by a young person, who has no knowledge of what really happened.
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Robb – I found your answer intriguing so I looked this up and (naturally) it’s on You Tube. I gave it a listen and it’s passable doo-wop of the period but I doubt it’s Smokey’s Miracles. The group is listed as Carl Hogan and the Miracles. The one odd thing is that the composer’s credits are listed as Hogan – Robinson – Sampson. The publisher is not Jobete but Fire Music BMI. I’m thoroughly convinced it is not our Miracles. But doesn’t it further confuse things just a little more with a Robinson being listed in the writing credits?
And I totally agree with your comment about people gathering data from the internet without a basic knowledge. It causes problems.
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I had forgotten about Carl Hogan’s Miracles. They were a New York group. The “B. Robinson” was Bobby Robinson, owner of Fury and Fire Records. Smokey Robinson was known as “Bill (Smokey) Robinson. So, we see how the error was made. As Berry Gordy had his acts (The Miracles, The Five Stars (Originals) and David Ruffin) recording for George Goldner’s New York labels in 1957-58(End, Gone, Mark-X, Vega), the author of that piece thought he also had The Miracles record for another New York label (Fury). As we old-timers die off, and the crowd on The Internet becomes composed totally of people born after 1970, more and more of such errors will become accepted “history”.
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A great comment as always, Robb.
I do disagree with your final sentence, though. The Internet is full of wrong information presented as fact – but then it’s also full of lots of correct information available at historians’ fingertips, information that might previously have required serious research, scouring of local papers from 60 years ago, visiting libraries, speaking to people who were there (whose memories, as any historian will attest and as we’ve already discovered on this site, are liable to be as unreliable as a second-hand account). If the Motown books of the 70s and 80s are anything to go by, misinformation is more easily corrected and guesswork less prevalent today than it was then.
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This is not exactly to do with “Come to me”, but as the discussion seems to be including very earlier Miracles recordings, I was wondering if anyone has any info on an early Miracles recording that I have been wondering about since the 1970s. In 1966 I bought the Tamla Motown UK album “The Miracles From The Beginning” TML 11031. This album contained a track entitled “Mama Done Told Me”, a rather peculiar sounding up tempo item which sounded like Bobby Rogers on lead vocal, there was no sign of Smokey’s voice at all. Later in the 1970s I bought a US copy of the “Miracles Greatest Hits From The Beginning” and found that the track on the US album entitled “Mama Done Told Me” was a completely different song to that on the UK album. In fact the US album contained the correct track and the UK album contained a completely unknown recording which seems to have never been issued or even mentioned anywhere else. Does anyone have any info on this rarity.
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That recording on the UK album had to be an alternate take that was recorded in 1958, in the same session for George Goldner’s End Records. It had to have been leased in 1966, from Roulette Records, who owned its rights at that time (along with the rights to all 4 cuts that were released on the 3 End Records’ single releases in 1958-60.
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Thanks to your comment. The recording certainly sounds pre 1960 and the ‘right’ “Mama done told me” was released as the flip side to “Got a job” on END in 1958. It would appear in that case that two totally different songs with the same title were written/recorded by Smokey and Berry around the same time. The ‘wrong’ version as issued on TML 11031 is different in melody and lyrics and starts if I remember “we’re gonna have a whole lot of fun, we’re gonna dance until the break of dawn, oh what a night it’s gonna be…….”. Further through the lyrics the words “mama done told me” can be deciphered although they’re not that clear. The real mystery is how EMI got hold of this track when it was never issued in the USA. Presumably, the master tapes they used had two “Mama done told me” recordings and they used the ‘wrong’ one through ignorance and in the USA they used the ‘right’ one because they already knew it.
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In 1966, when Motown leased the tapes from Roulette Records, someone at Roulette must have sent the wrong tape. Hearing “Mama Done Told Me” faintly in the background indicates that George Goldner, at End Records, may have decided to tape over that tape of “Mama Done told Me”. That was a very common way small labels saved money, as recording tape was expensive in those days. It seems that the re-recorded tape was put back in the “Mama Done told Me” can, and, due to an error by the re-taping crew, was NOT RE-LABELED. too bad for British Miracles’ fans.
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Hi – I have this tune on a London American 78 HLT.8856. Has a 1958 date on it. Most pics seem to be of 45-HLT.8856….
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In the UK Decca issued London singles in both 78 and 45 format for all releases from 1955 until mid 1959, after that only selected singles (mainly by big stars) were issued in 78 format. The very last London 78s were issued in summer 1960. Even as late as 1958 many people in the UK had only 78 speed turntables so didn’t buy 45s. Within a year or so many people upgraded to 3 speed turntables which were incorporated in portable record players which many working teenagers could afford on hire purchase and very quickly the demand for 78s declined. This Marv Johnson record was probably pressed in similar quantities in both 45 and 78 formats. However, less 78 versions probably exist now due to their fragility.
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Thanks for the info. So they were starting to decline by the time of this release. I goggled the 78 & got no text or picture hits but loads for the UK 7″ & millions for the US 7’s…..
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A Motown family treasure of mine is a U.S. “Come To Me” on 78 rpm….an oddity to me. The reason this is possible? United Artists 78.
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The UA 78 label scan is on google and You Tube, where I uploaded it.
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Tmla 101 came out in January 1959. It MUST have been published by Jobete Music in late 1958 (ergo the 1958 publishing date printed on the London American label).
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When I was listening to this I thought “well, this sounds strangely similar to ‘Reet Petite’, surprisingly enough”. It wasn’t until I went to Wikipedia that I discovered “Reet Petite”‘s Berry Gordy/Motown connection. I suppose it stands to reason that Gordy would look to his earlier hit to help him write a solid record to launch his new label.
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