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Tamla T 54057 (B), March 1962
B-side of Big Joe Moe
(Written by Berry Gordy and Gwen Gordy Fuqua)
Motown boss Berry Gordy and his big sister Gwen team up to provide the label’s resident blues man, Alabama-born Singin’ Sammy Ward, with a straight-down-the-line blues number.
Straightforward and mostly forgettable, it’s an obvious soundalike follow-up to Ward’s previous single, the re-recorded What Makes You Love Him, complete with almost identical arrangement and backing vocals, but it’s not as well-performed and about a quarter as interesting. Ward does his best with the lacklustre material, but it just doesn’t stick in the mind; there’s simply no reason to seek out and listen to this one, not when there’s a superior version of what is for all intents and purposes the exact same song already out there.
Following up one single with a similar-sounding record would become a Motown staple, and it’s not difficult to guess that this was originally meant to be a single before the eventual A-side, the considerably more commercial Big Joe Moe, was recorded and this was condemned to the flip. Few would mourn its fate.
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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| Singin’ Sammy Ward “Big Joe Moe” |
Debbie Dean “Everybody’s Talking About My Baby” |
Pretty unmemorable. I’d give it a “3”, at most. I’m a big fan of traditional Delta Blues, 1930s-’40s City Blues, and, especially, Chicago ’40s and ’50s Blues. But Sammy Ward’s Motown cuts don’t seem to fall into any of those groups. I don’t really like ANY of his Motown recordings. His material is all very poor, to my taste. The only decent Blues song released by Motown, that I can think of is “Devil With The Blue Dress”, by Shorty long. I’d guess that “Who’s The Fool” is Ward’s best. But it is fairly forgettable. Motown would have done better to sign famous Detroit Blues singer, Eddie Burns, who arrived in 1963, with Harvey and Gwen’s Harvey/Tri-Phi crew. But that was already after Motown’s officers had decided to drop their Blues artists and production.
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