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Tamla T 54031 (B), August 1960
B-side of Who Wouldn’t Love A Man Like That
(Written by Berry Gordy, Gwen Gordy Fuqua and Roquel Davis)
A bluesy pop ballad with doo-wop tempo, Mable John turns in a similarly startling lead vocal performance as she did on the A-side, the sassy, assured Who Wouldn’t Love A Man Like That – but the song isn’t anywhere near as strong, and the backing is slightly out of key with Mable’s lead, making for a rather underwhelming experience all told.
It calls to mind – in so far as it calls anything – a much-less-good cousin of Etta James’ superlative rendering of At Last, without the riveting strings. Strongly sung, but ultimately forgettable.
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!)
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.
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| Mable John “Who Wouldn’t Love A Man Like That” |
Barrett Strong “Whirlwind” |
Motown Junkies 
I can’t agree that it’s forgettable…but then I must have played it several hundred times. I’d say it’s more bluesy than pop.
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I can’t hear ANY backing voices on this. Quite like this tune, in fact all Mable John tracks are good……try her CD on Spectrum.
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That’ll be because there aren’t any! I have literally no idea what I was talking about. I can only assume that having written thirty-five reviews in four days (check the dates on these early entries – I wanted to fill the site up with content straight after launch, and rather than writing them all in advance, which would have been the sensible thing to do, I launched the site and then started writing furiously), I was starting to lose the plot or something.
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Wow 35 reviews in 4 days! You were busy = ). I love it!
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This song does kind of remind me of “At Last.” If “sweetening” had been added to the track it could have be a pop song. Again this song is just alrite.
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