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Miracle MIR 01 (B), January 1961
B-side of Don’t Feel Sorry For Me
(Written by Jimmy Ruffin)
Like the uptempo A-side, this workmanlike doo-wop ballad was both written and performed by Jimmy Ruffin. It’s not fantastic.
Based around a “spelling out” gimmick (“H is for the heart that I gave to you / E is for ever, ever true / A is for always, always I think of you, I think of you”) which gets tired almost straight away, wears thin after a couple of lines and then begins to seriously grate around the start of the second verse, it’s a real understatement for me to say this is a much weaker song than Don’t Feel Sorry For Me; this is a straight-down-the-line doo-wop with little to commend it. Even Ruffin’s voice, so natural and expressive on the A-side, so full of potential, is just a dismal off-key caterwaul here.
(A caterwaul, incidentally, for which there’s no excuse; Ruffin wasn’t as young as some of his Motown vocalist brethren, being on the cusp of turning 22 as this single was released, and he had plenty of singing experience with his family group and more recently around Detroit. I’m going harder on Jimmy here because I know – hell, we all know – that he could do so much better, even at that time. The A-side proves it.)
Possibly the record might have been improved by a fuller backing, which would have covered a multitude of sins in Ruffin’s naff delivery. Instead, producer Raynoma Liles Gordy (“Miss Ray”), the musical director of Motown’s short-lived Miracle subsidiary, chose to strip back the band for this B-side (the band who had sounded so engaging and full of beans – and Beans – on the sax-laden A-side… hmm, what an obscure joke), and she further made the questionable call not to use any backing vocals at all.
The result is a sparse bit of third-rate pedestrian doo-wop filler which would have been rejected by Motown’s Quality Control meetings had it been recorded even a year later. It doesn’t sound tense, raw, intimate, minimal, low-key, or any of the other adjectives usually applied to pared-down recordings; it just sounds awful. Avoid.
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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| Jimmy Ruffin “Don’t Feel Sorry For Me” |
Debbie Dean “Don’t Let Him Shop Around” |
Motown Junkies 
Sparse and third-rate are two of the things I love about this record. I searched for a few years for this record and it got some great reviews when I spun it on last week’s show. Go figure
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Mr. Nixon I think you’re being too harsh on this record. You went in on Jimmy (lol). I’m afraid if 0 was in the scale you would have given this record that. I think some background singer should’ve been added to the record. I also think Jimmy’s song writing attempt wasn’t that bad. With some few words added and some taken out this song could be revamped today! = )
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I agree with Nixon this song is at least a 1 or 2. Jimmy sounds a bit ratchet. He is just all over the place in this song Wish i liked it but he sounds like he is in pain. Dang, Jimmy lol
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I’m not contesting the low rating, but here’s one little tidbit:
@1:08 – “oh darling” … now, from this point, sing the bridge of McCartney’s “Oh Darling” … “when you told me, you didn’t need me anymore”. And remember that the Beatles of this pre-Beatlemania era had to play 10-hour stints in Hamburg, were constantly looking for unknown B-sides to cover, and were constant denizens of the best record shop in England where they were allowed to listen to every release. More great “nicking”.
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