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Gordy G 7001 (B), March 1962
B-side of (You’re My) Dream Come True
(Written by Otis Williams, Berry Gordy and Eddie Kendricks)
It occurs to me that I probably didn’t stress, during the last review, just how much I love (You’re My) Dream Come True. Which may seem strange considering I opened it by saying “Oh, man, I *love* this record”, and ended it by saying it was “possibly the best song Berry Gordy ever wrote”, but it’s been playing on my mind these last couple of long, Motown Junkies-less days. So, let’s set the record straight: I think it’s a Temptations masterpiece, quite frankly (certainly better than the actual Temptations song of that name eleven years later); the bit where Eddie sings “For every hand, there’s a glove / For every – for EVERY heart / There should be love” just gets me every single time.
There, that’s better.
Now, the B-side. This B-side, recorded several months before the A-side (though at the rate both Motown and the Temptations were developing in 1961/2, it might as well have been three years) is an odd throwback to an earlier time, a simplistic, jaunty, uptempo R&B/doo-wop dancefloor shuffle that sounds maybe 10bpm faster than these young singers’ comfortable speeds. Oddly, it’s not only dated by the Temptations’ standards – and it was dated, they’d already covered this territory on their enjoyable début single Oh Mother Of Mine (and covered it better, too) before moving on with giant, seven-league boot strides for the follow-ups, the multi-part epic Check Yourself and the gorgeous A-side here – but it’s also dated in that it seems to have been a conscious attempt to “go retro” even when it was brand new. It would have fit perfectly on the radio in 1955; the slightly flat minor-key vocal/bass/drums break at 1:54-2:07 might have got on the radio in 1945, to be honest.
It’s still a Temptations record, of course, and no Tempts single of the era was a completely straight-down-the-line affair; there’s still far too much invention going on here for most groups, complex blending of harmonies, Melvin Franklin’s rolling railroad bass vocal (BOM bom BOM bom BOM bom BOM bom, steady as clockwork throughout, before a stunning solo at 1:17), judicious use of co-writer Eddie Kendricks’ skyscraping falsetto calling to mind the better work of Del Shannon… it’s plenty of fun.
It can sometimes be hard to shake the nagging feeling that this should really have been the Satintones singing here (they’d left the company by the time it was recorded), and that they missed out on an opportunity. Mostly, though, it’s just a fun, frothy, meaningless doo-wop ditty, which coming from a group like the Temptations is both highly enjoyable and maddeningly limited.
Sadly, the Temptations’ experimental, “prehistoric” phase was already drawing to a close; they’d shortly be sucked into a dry spell that saw almost two years’ worth of charmless, boring doo-wop stomps released as singles, singles that got nowhere near the charts; only their local popularity on the Michigan live circuit (where people both remembered the Primes and the Distants, and appreciated the group’s stellar showmanship) stopping Motown from dropping them altogether.
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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The Temptations “(You’re My) Dream Come True” |
Eddie Holland “You Deserve What You Got” |
Not their best, but they’re trying. They show they can move a crowd. When I went to their concert in ’67 the crowd was raucus. This is what they would be calling for, not Dream Come True. I still didn’t know of them at this point, probably not many outside Detroit did, but I hear their talent…let’s get them some good tunes and a good producer….Smoke!
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More fool them, then. This isn’t half the record Dream Come True is, but may well have worked better live – but then it’s also (more pertinently) not anywhere near as good as, say, Get Ready or I Know I’m Losing You. If a 67 Tempts crowd was shouting for this, they were a bit odd to say the least 🙂
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Heavy influence of Leiber-Stoller here, as well as the Isley Brothers. Isn’t it a shame the Isley’s didn’t join Motown straight after “Twist and Shout” instead of when it was already the Hitsville Factory?
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Thing is, Eddie can’t stay in key, which kills it for me.
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This tune IS another oddity on an odd album that seems like it should have been released in the middle fifties ( “The Way You Do The Things You Do” excluded). Nevertheless I heard a mix or remastered edition via Amazon Prime Muslc that really brought out the fidelity.Their screams in the beginning of the song actually overload the mikes causing distortion. Their individual voices are plainly heard and much of the falsetto screeching, shouting, and screaming is Al Bryant not Eddie Kendricks. It must be heard IMHO.Not only a historical curiosity , like the whole album but a necessary part of said history.Again, IMHO. I’d give it an eight just for the audacity.
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“Dream Come True” is 1000 times better than this, according to my taste. The former is a very special recording. This is a very ordinary R&B tune. Motown being ordinary is very weak Motown. I’d give this a “4”, and “Dream Come True” an “8”.
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