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Miracle MIR 02 (A), February 1961
b/w Continental Strut
(Written by Raynoma Liles Gordy)
Nothing to do with Little Eva of The Loco-Motion fame; in February 1961, she was still babysitting for Goffin and King in New York. No, this “Little Iva” is the Miracle label’s artistic director, former member of the Rayber Voices, and Berry Gordy’s second wife: Raynoma Liles Gordy, otherwise universally known as “Miss Ray”. Not sure what the need was for this, her only solo single, to be released under a pseudonym, or why the record was made under the Little Iva name rather than her universally-applied sobriquet of “Miss Ray”.
Anyway, this is actually a nice bit of doo-wop balladry. Miss Ray (or “Iva”, or whatever) had a decent voice, as shown by her outings with the Rayber Voices, and she carries off a lead vocal reasonably well despite a few ropey moments. As with the previous Miracle Records single recorded under the auspices of Miss Ray, Don’t Feel Sorry For Me by Jimmy Ruffin, there are deliberately no backing vocals on this one, and again, like Don’t Feel Sorry For Me and its B-side, it’s to the detriment of the record since its tentative lead singer’s flaws are exposed and magnified by the lack of cover.
There’s definitely the germ of an excellent song here, even if it doesn’t ever really take off; there are definite shades of Smokey Robinson, and the chorus sounds like it might have been better suited to a full girl group delivery, virtually calling out for a lush backing vocal, even a call-and-response structure; alternatively, you can imagine Mary Wells absolutely going to town on this. Instead, it’s more a question of what might have been; it’s nice, but it’s a few missing ingredients short of being elevated above the inessential.
Apparently no stock copies of this single were ever manufactured, let alone released (see the “Comments” section below). Whatever the case, it’s regrettable that this single’s utter commercial failure meant no more Motown singles for Miss Ray; the Miracle label, which had been set up in part to allow her some creative freedom, never had a hit, and it appears no further Little Iva records were sanctioned for release with the imprint struggling to break other artists. An indispensible member of the Motown backroom staff during the crucial first years, she was also an arranger and largely-unheralded performer (both vocally with the Rayber Voices, and as a keyboardist, playing key Ondioline parts on a number of early Motown singles). As her marriage to Berry Gordy fell apart, she first moved to New York to head up Motown’s new NYC office, and then left the company altogether in 1964. A second stint with Motown in the late Sixties and early Seventies followed, again with Raynoma in a number of administrative and support roles (including as PA to Diana Ross during the latter’s relationship with Gordy); she went with Motown when the company made the move to Los Angeles, and was eventually fired in the mid-Eighties, bouncing between a number of jobs and releasing a controversial tell-all book, Berry, Me and Motown, in 1990.
This song is one of those for which an original master couldn’t be located for The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 1; the version in the collection had to be dubbed from a 45rpm 7″ single, and it shows in a high level of distortion when Miss Ray sings the consonants “s” and “f”. A pity.
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.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in Little Iva & Her Band? Click for more.)
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| Barrett Strong “You Got What It Takes” |
Little Iva & Her Band “Continental Strut” |
Motown Junkies 
We had a discussion about Miss Ray’s Miracle release on Soulful Detroit Forum. Those of us who were best able to make educated guesses (including Ron Murphy (now deceased), or put together what we heard back in the day with our knowledge of the pressing evidence, came to the conclusion that Miracle 2 not only went unreleased and unpressed (as Miracle 3 and 4 by Gino Parks and Andre Williams), -but it was only pressed up in mid 1963. This was said to have been done in a very limited pressing job (maybe 100), requested and paid for by Raynoma, herself, to be used to market herself as a writer, from her position running The Jobete Music New York office, together with Eddie Singleton. The pressings were made at a completely different plant from all the other Miracle Records pressing jobs.
It was interesting to me that there was NO copy of her “release” in The Motown Record Corp. Record File, nor in The Jobete Music Record File, during the entire 1970s and early 1980s (when I had access to them). There were also no copies of Miracle 3 and Miracle 4. All three had been “slated” for release (had made the future release lists), but not sure if release dates were scheduled. There WERE copies of Soul Records 35019 (Frank Wilson), and VIP 25006 (Andantes), presumably 2 of the 6 pressing plant test pressings (which were the only records of those catalogue numbers known to have been cut).
I think that Berry changed his mind, and squashed the project to release her record, and that the recording was NOT a finished one. Background vocals probably would have been added, had he intended to market it. It think she just got the tape that was left “in the can”, and had it pressed up, despite the fact that it wasn’t “commercially finished”.
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Fascinating stuff, thank you! Why was it squashed, though? Did Mr and Mrs Gordy fall out in the interim, meaning he was no longer interested in pushing her stuff? (If so, it would also go some way to explaining why the next two Miracle Records singles were also scrapped, until Motown could take proper control of the label roster?)
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2 years later I’m thinking you Mr. Robb for writing this. It makes sense now why there was no backing vocals.
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Robb,
What about the second pressing?
Didn’t Ron Murphy’s scan of his copy of the record have the spelling as “Little Eva?
It’s spelled “Little Iva” in Miss Ray’s autobiography.
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What Do you mean by 2nd pressing? Are you referring to Miss Ray’s press run, or some bootleg facsimile issue, which is unknown to me? Miss Ray’s 1963 pressing order was the only one of which I am aware. As far as I know, there were NONE pressed up in 1961, because the project was cancelled, just as the Gino Parks and Andre Williams slated projects didn’t even have the 6 test pressings pressed up. Miss Ray’s 1963 press run had the artist name printed as: “Little Iva”, just as it was written on The Miracle Records assigned slated issues list. All my 8 years at Motown’s trips to look through The Motown Corporate Record File and Jobete Music Co. Record File, and Miracle No. 2, 3, and 4 were NEVER in their file space from at least 1973 through 1980. I’m sure that is because they were not printed because they were never issued, and Miss Ray only had 100 or 200 pressed up for her own use as a marketing tool in The New York Jobete Music office, that she and Eddie Singleton set up in 1963. I think they were pressed in New York, and she never even sent 2 copies to Detroit for the record files. The print font on her pressings WAS the typical font used by Motown in early 1961. So, I believe that the project was cancelled AFTER the label printing plates had been made, and Raynoma had the labels made in Detroit, but took them with her to New York, where the records were pressed, because the plastic form, thickness of the records, the distance from the end of the trailout to the records’ edges, and the curve of the record’s edge were different from those of records pressed in the Detroit pressing plants of that time, and look more like those used by a few plants in The New York Metro Area at that time. There was a bootleg set of super-rare late 1950s and early 1960s Detroit, Motown, and Motown-related 45s issued around the beginning of the 1990s, which included several early Motown issues (including “Angel” and “Motor City” by The Satintones, and “Bad Girl” and “The Feeling Is So Fine” by The Miracles (on Motown), among others from other artists. But the Little Iva record was not pressed among them. So, as far as I know, there was never any pressing that was printed as: “Little Eva”. Ron (may he rest in peace) was a good friend of mine. His copy was spelt the same as all Miss Ray’s pressings: “Little Iva”
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I am referring to a reply you sent to motowntreasures@yahoogroups.com on 23 November 2005, in which you say that Ron Murphy had informed you that a lot more than the 6 pressing plant demos were pressed, and that you were shocked to see that Ron Murphy’s copy, which was scanned to the Soulful Detroit Forum, showed the spelling as “Little EVA”.
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Yes, a LOT more than the 6 test pressings were made. Raynoma had a box or two pressed up for marketing her services in New York (maybe 100, or even 200). But, I don’t remember EVER seeing a copy spelt with an “E”. Maybe my memory was fading when I made that comment on Motown Treasures (I don’t remember ever having made a comment on “Motown Treasures”. My memory for events after 1980 has been absolutely TERRIBLE. However, the scan I still have of the Little Iva pressed record, which was of Ron’s copy, is spelt “Little Iva”, and I’ve never seen a photo of, or a physical copy spelt with an “E”. So, either you are remembering a post on Motown Treasures by someone else, or my memory was totally shot IF I made such a post, or I now have an advanced case of Alzheimer’s disease, and am suffering from delusions.
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You say in the post that you changed the spelling from Iva to Eva in all your want lists and discographies after seeing the scan on SDF. You go on to say that you can’t remember if the Soulful Detroit thread thad had the scan on was the old one or the current one, so it might have been quite a while before then that you saw the scan.
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This is very scary to me, because this misspelling doesn’t even ring the slightest bell to me in my memory. Maybe if I could actually see the post on Motown Treasures that you think is me, it would ring a bell. Honestly, I can’t remember joining Motown Treasures and making a post on it. Was that a Google or Yahoo group? Does it still exist? Can you copy that post for me to see? My only memory of seeing a Little Iva physical plastic record is scans of 2 different records: One is the one whose scans of both sides I, myself, supplied to this website (which we see above, and on the following page), and my friend Ron Murphy’s copy, which I saw at 300dpi, and distinctly remember it looking very different from all the other Miracle releases in terms of its vinyl edge thickness, trailout, and grooves. And I distinctly remember that it was spelt: “Iva” – NOT “Eva”. If it were something so strange as “Little Eva”, someone else (probably several people) connected with Motown, would have had forum discussions about the 2 differently spelled pressings. I can’t recall any discussions, even about 2 different pressings. Perhaps some joker was pretending to be me. Was “my” post on April 1st? I’d like to read Keith Hughes’ and Harry Weinger’s take on all this. Unfortunately, most of my friends and colleagues who would have been able to answer these questions are deceased, or as in the cases of Robert Gordy and Robert Bateman, too many years away from when they could have answered the question, to remember what they would have answered. As far as the thread on SDF, that doesn’t exist any more, so it must have occurred before mid 2004. Most of the people who participated on those threads are deceased, or gone from the forum. The few who are left, like Ralph Terrana, and Stu Bass, Bob Ohlsson, Dennis Coffey, and a few others remember mostly details about making and recording the music, but not the esoteric details more related to record collecting, like the differences between different press runs. Maybe Reg Bartlette knows something about this. But I have no contact with him anymore. Maybe Andy Rix, Keith Rylett, Paul Nixon, or some of the other British Motown collectors know, or Swede, Lars Nilsson. But, we’ve discussed all this before, and none of them knew any more than I, last time we discussed this record.
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The info I have comes from a print given to me many years ago from a member of SDF. I have no access to a scanner at the moment owing to lockdown. Unless someone hijacked your account, the email was sent on 23 November 2005 from your account at yahoo.com.
If you give your permission, I can post the whole thing here.
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Yes, please post it here. It may trigger my memory.
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Because of the WordPress format, I am going to have to reply in a new comment below.
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“Berry, Me & Motown – The Untold Story” – first published 1990, Contemporary Books, Chicago, Illinois – ISBN 0-8092-3967-1 / ISBN 0-8092-4340-7
Curious, isn’t it, that what was seen as an insightful account (and unique, in 1990) of the early Motown, can be dismissed in 2010 as simply “vitriolic” ?????
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I think that information (not the “vitriolic” description, that was me distilling someone else’s comments) was from the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 1. (I think, anyway. I’ll have to check when I get home – I wrote that back in October 2009, not this year).
EDIT: No it wasn’t!
Anyway, whichever source I got it from, they stated she’d written a warts-and-all book in 2003 – I assumed they were talking about two separate books, given the discrepancy in dates between that and The Untold Story.
(Although the TCMS notes do often follow the Motown party line, and the “official” position statement in 1990 was that Miss Ray’s book was “Trashy and false. Raynoma is an opportunist…. What did she really have to do with building Motown—with Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder? She’s trying to capitalize on other people’s success”, so it might well have been their put-down. Like I say, I’ll check when I get home tonight.)
EDIT: Once again… no it wasn’t!
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Right, it definitely wasn’t from those notes! I got the “2003” thing from an online biography (that I helfpully now can’t find), which is obviously an error. (I’m a lawyer by day, you’d think I’d pick up on something like that. It’s astonishing they let me out in public, really.)
Anyway. The “vitriolic” description was a one-word summary of the way that article described what I thought was a second book. Now, I’m not 100% sure that it can’t also be used fairly accurately to refer to Berry, Me & Motown – several reviews across the Internet, including a few written at the time (“a spotty, often bitter, and sometimes self- serving memoir”, said Entertainment Weekly; the Free Press called it “a bitter, finger-pointing work that may be the most biting and controversial book yet about Detroit’s famed record label”) cast it in a rather bad light. Still, I think while Berry, Me & Motown paints a fairly unedifying picture of several key Motown characters, “vitriolic” is putting it a bit strongly.
Accordingly, I’ll edit the piece to remove the date error and avoid future confusion. Thanks for the tip-off, Gordon!
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That’s OK — much better. Now here’s a question… play Ray’s “When I Needed You”, then Jimmy Ruffin’s Miracle B-side “Heart”. Similar in one respect (in melody, tune, but obviously not in tempo) and is one vocalled, perhaps, over a slowed-down backing track of a PART of the other? — Opinions welcome.
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Why a new label? Why have Miss Ray run it? My theory is Berry saw this as a way to grow without burdening him, since he was so busy. He would produce Tamla and Motown material, she would produce Miracle material. Another option would be to delegate producing duties which he was not quite ready to give up, or didn’t trust anybody enough. A common problem for small companies experiencing exponential growth. He would soon bite the bullet and benefit immensely.
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“Fascinating stuff, thank you! Why was it squashed, though? Did Mr and Mrs Gordy fall out in the interim, meaning he was no longer interested in pushing her stuff?”
No, – I’m sure that Berry and Miss Ray hadn’t had a falling out as early as 1961. However, people who were at Motown at the time have stated that by mid 1963, when Berry “sent” her to New York to run Jobete Music’s offices there, he was trying to “get her out of the way”. She probably wanted the chance to operate away from him, and probably welcomed the opportunity. Clearly, she wanted to continue to operate with Motown, and participate in the firm’s growth. By mid 1964, when Berry wouldn’t support her office with funding, she took what she felt was her branch’s proper right (by having Mary Wells’ “My Guy” pressed up, selling the records on The East Coast (competing with Motown’s distributors) and keeping the cash for running her office. That led to the divorce and her removal from the company.
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You are very kind to give this a five. Miss Ray supposedly had perfect pitch. Uh … NOT !!!!
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LMAO! Perfect pitch was the first thing I heard about Miss Ray.
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Well … “perfect pitch” means the ability to identify the pitch of any note out of context – not the vocal chops to sing perfectly in tune under pressure. If you wake someone up in the middle of the night and say “sing me an A”, a person with perfect pitch will be able to do it, but if you make them strain for a high note in the middle of a hard phrase they’re no more likely to hit it in tune than anyone else. The gift for hearing absolute pitches doesn’t go hand in hand with the gift for vocal control. So Miss Ray probably really did have perfect pitch.
Also, thanks so much for clearing up the Little Iva vs. Little Eva mystery for me. I guess the pseudonym was a variation on the “answer song” marketing ploy. Now if I can just get myself straightened out on Ivy Jo & Ivory Joe!
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Thanks for clearing up perfect pitch Kevin!
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First, someone has to tell me is “Berry, Me and Motown” worth me purchasing on ebay? Secondly, I didn’t know Miss Ray was Miss Ross’ PA. Interesting to say the least (lol). Thirdly, what made Miss Ray call herself Little Iva?
Anyways this was not a bad song at all. Who ever says background vocals aren’t need on any song is a liar. Background singers don’t get much respect, but without them most songs wouldn’t sound nearly as good. Singing background also isn’t an easy thing to do. This song definitely needed backing vocals. I agree with Mr. Nixon when he says this song would’ve been better for a girl group. As I was listening to the song I couldn’t help but think how great of a song this would’ve been if the Ronnettes had recorded it.
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“Berry, Me and Motown” is structured more like a novel than a biography; which makes it an enjoyable read.
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Sounds like my kind of book! (lol)
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Before i bought the Complete Motown Singles volume 1 i had downloaded this from iTunes because i liked it that much lol and the fact she wrote it for Berry is also a nice touch to the song. The Little Iva thing sorta different shoulda been just Miss Ray lol6/10
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Perfect pitch my Aunt Fanny! The song itself was nice, early 60s teenage-love fare. It just needed a singer with more…umm..talent. At least she didn’t pull out that damn Ondioline/clavichord thing that pervaded most of the Marvellettes first album.
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The almost obligatory use of the standard bridge that starts on IV and ends with II7 V is getting a bit old here – it’s making my mouth water uncontrollably for the eventual arrival of the high priestess of bridge-writing, Valerie Simpson.
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The following has been prepared from the contents of a photocopy of an e-conversation at the Motown Treasures Yahoo Group on 23 November 2005 of Robert Klein.
Little Iva/Little Eva
While working at Motown in the ’70s, I got a look at several of their “official” lists of productions, recordings and catalogue releases, I saw that they ALL were spelt: “Little Iva”.
I was told by some Motown insiders that it was pronounced Little “Eeva”. I believed for many years that was the correct spelling. Unfortunately, by that time, neither the Jobete Music Record File nor the Motown Corporation Record File had its copy of the record still in the files. So, I couldn’t check. But for many years, I thought “Iva” was the spelling on the record (IF the 6 pressing plant demos even had been pressed).
A few years ago, I heard from Ron Murphy that a lot more than the 6 pressing plant demos were pressed, and that a first pressing was made, and they were distributed to distributors (and possibly several record shops) before the record was recalled. Some commercial copies ended up in private hands (although most were retrieved and destroyed). Ron scanned his copy of the record onto a thread on Soulful Detroit’s forum.
I was shocked to see that it read: “Little EVA”. So, then I changed it on my discographies and wants list. Apparently the spelling: IVA was a misprint on a first small pressing, and a second pressing changed it to Eva. But this is getting really shocking, because that means that six pressing plant demos for each of the two pressing runs were pressed as well as two press runs. I didn’t know that more than few copies escaped into private hands that still exist. In all my years of collecting and seeing colleagues’ collections and record company record files, I had never seen the record.
There can’t be more than a few that survived. Yet we have two DIFFERENT pressings! Incredible!
I can’t remember if the Solful Detroit thread that had the scan on it was on the Old SDF Forum or the current one. If it was on the Old one, it may have been lost.
We’ll have to ask David Meikle if that thread still exists. Otherwise, we’ll have to beg Ron Murphy to scan it for us again.
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That post seems to be my style. So, It must have been me. But, I still don’t remember that,, and don’t remember seeing it spelled with an “E”. But the record getting to distributors, and some escaping the recall explains the distributor not-for-resale punched hole in the copy I submitted to this website. it must have been away from its box when the recall had them destroyed, and it eventually just got thrown together with other unwanted 45s to be sold for meltdown. But, whoever bought them resold them. So, it is likely not so rare as I had thought. The few top, big Detroit collectors who had friends at the Detroit distributors probably got copies before the recall orders came.
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Everyone forgets things as they get older. I wouldn’t worry if I forget my passwords occasionally. I might worry if I forgot how to change them.
I’ve just had a look at the hand-written Motown discography, which I started in the 60s when I was a member of the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society. I have the entry for Miracle 2 written as by “Little Eva & Her Band” in blue ink, but I have over-written the E with an I in black ink to make it spell “Iva”.
I also have a footnote to my listing saying “Also singles by : Little Eva, Equadors, Pete Harfield, Joel Sebastian”. I do not know the source or the timing of the information I used to fill in the gaps, but it does show that I originally thought the name of the artist was EVA before I found out it was IVA.
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Now that I’ve noticed the 2005 date of that post I made, it’s clear that Ron’s post was lost in our SDF 2004 forum platform changeover. Too bad. It IS very scary to me that I don’t even recall that event or my discovery, even after reading my post. I never ever forgot things like that related to subjects near and dear to me, like Motown trivial details. I’m sure the record I saw from Raynoms’s 1963 press run was spelt with an “I”, so if it was a misprint, WHY on Earth would she have it spelled incorrectly (unless she had found the misspelled original artwork from the first batch in 1961, and used that to make the new batch, just to save time or money. But that makes no sense, because she wanted to use them as a marketing tool for her firm’s services. Misspelling on a finished product shows a lazy attitude, and lack of professionalism. Somehow, I still find it impossible to believe that I wrote that post, and that I ever saw a pressing spelled with an “E”. It’s like gremlins going back, behind your back when no one is looking, and changing history. You absolutely KNOW that things happened another way. You were there. You lived through it. The Powers of The Universe are perverse and nasty, and just messing with you for their amusement. And I don’t like it!
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I’m coming to this thread very late in the game, so I don’t know if anyone will still be following or not. I was a songwriter for Motown in the 1980’s and I knew Raynoma Gordy Singleton well. I sadly attended her memorial a few years ago. Berry Gordy himself spoke and praised her for having perfect pitch. It’s so easy for people to put down someone they didn’t know, but I wanted to express the fact that she was a remarkable woman who (I feel) was robbed of her deserved legacy.
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