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Motown M 1009 (B), April 1961
B-side of Money (That’s What I Want)
(Written by Janie Bradford and Richard “Popcorn” Wylie)
If the A-side, a largely inexplicable piano rock cover of Barrett Strong’s 1959 hit Money (That’s What I Want), was slightly unexpected, this B-side is just completely out of nowhere.
No, this is very strange indeed. Here, Richard “Popcorn” Wylie, the hellraising, happy-go-lucky jazz pianist, the man who previously gave us a song about General Custer being possessed by Yogi Bear and advised us all to take some red ants and shake them in your pants, and who spent the entire A-side almost screaming and frothing at the mouth as he bashed seven bells out of his knackered piano, serves up his most unexpected curveball yet: a full-on, totally straight MOR romantic ballad.
Wylie gets to use his smooth, rich baritone to fine effect, all the more so because his previous three outings on vinyl had given no indication whatsoever that he could even sing like that, and it takes a few moments for the shock to wear off before the realisation sets in that the song is going to end up being a disappointingly bland number.
It starts so, so promisingly, though. Or, no, that’s not right, it doesn’t start promisingly at all. (Bear with me a moment, I need to explain this). It starts out with some subtle brushed drums which are quickly enveloped in a syrupy goo of MOR ballady backing music, complete with what sounds like a purposely-detuned tack piano plinking away in the worst cocktail-bar style, and you’re reaching for the stop button. But then, right, he starts singing, and he’s got a really good voice, and he croons – without the slightest hint of mockery or sham, like I said, totally straight, sounding completely sincere – “If your new love / Don’t turn out right…”
Then, out of nowhere, the most perfect female backing vocal refrain floats in over the top (and here, someone with a better ear for music could tell you what actual chords they are, but I can’t – all I can tell you is that they’re so beautiful, they are completely, utterly wasted on a song like this), and just then, just for a moment, everything seems to crystallise in time and space and you’re all but ready to fall head over heels in love with a throwaway B-side from a man whose previous best was an interminable comedy sketch devised solely to provide a series of weak feed-lines for quotes from contemporary pop hits. It is magical, and sets up the promise both of a beautitful record and an early precursor to the Four Tops’ Reach Out I’ll Be There in content and tone.
Sadly, the song can’t live up to the promise of those perfect few bars. The chorus is almost maddeningly conventional, a dreary MOR supper-club ballad, utterly predictable in almost every respect, which might, just might, be the most crushing thing in the entire Motown catalogue.
There are over three thousand songs to be covered on this blog, out of which hundreds of them have excellent ideas, and of those there are perhaps a dozen or so which have excellent ideas which aren’t built upon and are only glimpsed in tiny snatches, and of that dozen or so, it might just be that this one, with that bit, just that bit, could maybe be the worst missed opportunity of the whole lot.
“If your new love don’t turn out right…”
(Oooh-oooh-oooh-oooh)
“…And your future don’t look too bright…”
Just that bit, right there. If they could have bottled that, if they could have made a whole song out of it, it would have been a classic.
It was a flash in the pan, and an exceedingly brief flash at that. The song was covered by Mary Wells for her second LP, The One Who Really Loves You, in 1962; her version unaccountably discarded the good bit. Wylie went back to light-hearted, throwaway blues and boogie-woogie for his third Motown single, Have I The Right, before eventually coming back over ten years later with a zany funk workout for his fourth, Funky Rubber Band, in 1971 (one of the longest gaps between releases in Motown history). But oh, Popcorn, what might have been, eh?
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 Richard “Popcorn” Wylie? Click for more.)
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| Richard Wylie & His Band “Money (That’s What I Want)” |
The Satintones “Tomorrow And Always” |
This slightly MOR lazy, mid-tempo, is very much like his early 1960 effort for Johnnie Mae Matthews’ Northern Records. I wish we could find out who his female backing group was. Those on this cut sound like they could be the same as those on the Northern cuts. The “Mohawks” were his other band members. There was no Mohawks female group in 1959-61 (as far as I know).
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Janie Bradford should leave this one off her resume.
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She can keep those magical few seconds, though. Those are great.
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I think she ought to be proud of every second this. To me at least, the dreamy, “sticky-sweet” MOR sound actually works a little better than the calypso-esque arrangement used for Mary Wells’ version. Mr. Wylie’s smooth (though not perfect) vocals are wonderfully complimented by the angelic Andantes, and the drums and guitar get my feet tapping. While I generally prefer loud, fast songs with lots of brass, winds, keyboards, and/or strings, there’s nothing wrong with a little softness every now and then. Besides, he definitely needed a little break after that rendition of “Money” (which comes across to me as more Screaming Jay Hawkins than Jerry Lee Lewis with all those ominous-sounding chords).
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On further thought, the female backing group may have been The Andantes. We should ask Louvain Demps if she and her group sang on Popcorn’s Northern cuts, and this one.
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I completely understand how Nixon feels about this song. It’s sooo close to being good, but alot of bad things happen. Popcorn has a fantastic voice! With that said, this song sounds dated for 1961. If it had been made to sound more contemporary than maybe it should have been the A-side.
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I actually like this song it shows off Popcorn in a softer light instead if being like the A-side although i think Mary Wells versiin is a tad bit better i think this should have been released as the A. Verdict 7/10
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Beautiful melody on this song. However, I definitley prefer Mary Wells version as a female vocal seems to suit the attractiveness fo the melody compared to a male vocal. Maybe I just prefer female singers to male, and generally speaking I do.
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Sounds like a Jerry Butler version of a 2nd tier Bacharach/David Brill Building composition. As we’ll see with “Tomorrow and Always,” Motown was listening to Bacharach during this period and emulating, even copying the successful duo. This effort sounds like an attempt to capture the Bacharach sound
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