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Gordy G 7007 (B), September 1962
B-side of Your Love Is Wonderful
(Written by Berry Gordy)
Motown boss Berry Gordy Jr. wrote and produced both sides of this, Hattie Littles’ official début single, following the cancelled Back In My Arms. If the A-side, the engaging Your Love Is Wonderful, had seemed like a conscious attempt to reposition Hattie away from being a blues artist and towards a more R&B/pop place, then this takes things considerably further: it sounds like something that could have been cut by the company’s biggest chart star of the era, Mary Wells.
(Indeed, in several places on this record, Hattie actually sounds almost exactly like Mary Wells – it’s most noticeable in the throaty, come-hither voice she uses to start a mid-song verse (“and then-uh, here you come) at 1:45, but the whole performance is very much in the Wells mould.)
This is a good thing in my book – I love Mary Wells – and it’s done in the service of a really good pop song. Written in the same midtempo style that Smokey Robinson had scored so many songwriting hits with in the spring and summer of 1962, this tale of falling for with a man who’s recognisably bad news (shades of Martha and the Vandellas’ Love Bug Leave My Heart Alone) has a great tune, with each verse leading into a rousing, climbing buildup that crashes into an irresistible chorus – a call-and-response of “Misery!” between Hattie and the backing vocals.
Those backing vocals – credited on the label of some pressings to “the Fayettes”, whoever they are (the recording dates show this was done in July 1962, right in the middle of the Vandellas’ brief stint as Motown’s female vocal backing group; while the vocals here don’t really sound like the Vandellas to me, Rosalind Ashford (see comments section below) has confirmed it is indeed them) – are slightly flat, but that’s really just nitpicking – they do well enough, and reinforce the impression that putting Hattie squarely in a more commercial setting was a great decision.
Mary Wells would have been proud to have made this.
This record in itself throws up a bunch of interesting theories – Berry Gordy wrote and recorded it on Hattie after her previous single release had been cancelled, so was this ever considered as a possible A-side? Did Gordy, who spent 1962 becoming increasingly involved as a full-time businessman (and thus further and further removed from the coalface of songwriting and producing), and who’d long since relinquished artistic control of Mary Wells herself to Smokey Robinson, want to develop Hattie as a project of his own? Or was he just looking to show what he could still do in the R&B/pop crossover stakes? Interesting questions (to me anyway), none of which have ready answers. Whatever the motivation, though, this is a really good record.
Indeed, good though Your Love Is Wonderful is, there’s little doubt in my mind that this would have been a better choice for the A-side. Or perhaps it should have been held back for a follow-up single – Motown would release no further singles on Hattie to follow this one, an extremely belated attempt in 1965 resulting only in another cancelled release.
A pity; perhaps the company simply didn’t know what to do with her, perhaps Hattie (a committed fan of the blues and a keen performer of the kind of big-voiced, jazz- and gospel-tinged R&B that would later be termed “deep soul”) simply didn’t want to play the pop game in the way Motown wanted to package her. Who knows?
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 Hattie Littles? Click for more.)
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| Hattie Littles “Your Love Is Wonderful” |
The Charters “Trouble Lover” |
Motown Junkies 
When this record was reviewed as an oldie in the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society’s magazine in 1965 , “Here You Come” was shown as the A-side, so I think it might have been flipped at some stage as Dave Godin didn’t make many mistakes.
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This may well have been originally scheduled as an A-side. I have a Motown press release from the period which lists ‘Outstanding Records’ at the end of it. There is only one title listed and that is “Here You Come”.
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The review of this in Hitsville U.S.A. 2 began “One from the Motown archives this, but it is well worth importing. Here You Come jogs along at a medium pace and is a wonderful example of the “Detroit Sound”. Miss Littles is well backed by a femme chorus and handles the lyrics well.” The review then continues “For my money however, the flip Your Love Is Wonderful is the best…” The rest of the review can be found in the comments to the previous post.
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I seem to be coming over as a bit of a Vandellas fanatic but then I guess that I really am. I emailed Roz of the Vandellas this track asking whether it was indeed them. Here is her reply:
Hi David
Yes that is us on the Hattie Little song.
Roz.
Another bv question cleared up, I hope.
Best wishes,
David.
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We need more fanatics! Thanks for clearing that up, it’s much appreciated.
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I wonder if the riddles of who were The Fayettes and The Paulettes have really been cleared up completely. Based on what we now know about The Darnells and The Vells, and how The Rayber Voices kept changing lineups, I wonder if perhaps the reason for not listing The Vandellas on these cuts, and not listing The Andantes on The Marv Johnson cuts credited to The Paulettes, is because the backing ensemble for those recordings included those groups, but also at least one extra female voice (maybe one Andante or other female Motown artist on The Hattie Littles recordings, and a similar situation with The Paulettes). Roz and Louvain say after 50 years that their groups sang backgrounds on those songs, but just neglected to mention that there was one more female singer (mainly because we didn’t ask them if anyone else was also singing on those songs-only if THEIR group was),
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I think you are most likely on the button with this one, Robb. Annette Helton nee Beard once said to me that although the Vandellas are singing on all the recordings that were made when she was with the group until mid-June 1964, she could never be sure what the produces added once they left the studio. She can hear herself loud and clear on all the recordings from that time period, as can Roz. I’ve sat with them when they did this and identified themselves.
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I recently replayed all the releases I have of Hattie Littles and was impressed with her talent, my favorite is “Conscience I’m Guilty” and “Here You Come”. Is there plans to release a compliation of her work on Motown, both
released and unreleased?
I love the Motown Junkies site and never start my day without it. Please keep up the good work.
Best regards,
Mary Magaldo
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Unfortunately not, or not as far as I’m aware anyway – she did release a couple of albums for Motorcity in the 90s, but while her voice is still very good on those recordings, the production/instrumentation is standard-issue Motorcity fare (i.e. soulless low-budget pop with cheap, plasticky synth drums and artificial instruments), so I can’t recommend them. There’s no decent compilation of her generally excellent Sixties work; hopefully someone will right this wrong soon.
Thanks for the kind words, Mary, it’s always nice to hear someone enjoys what I’m doing.
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Thanks for the info on Hattie Littles. Sorry to hear there are no plans yet for a compliation. I think we need compliations on the rare Motown artists like La Brenda Ben, Sammy Ward, Frances Nero, etc. I am grateful for the Cellarful of Motown series and currently have all 4! and am waiting anxiously for 5! in the meantime lets all be grateful for Motown junkies. Let the good work continue!
Your fellow swinger and friend,
Mary Magaldo
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Over on amazon now are some unreleased Hattie Littles tracks that are available on download only. Unreleased Motown 1962 – Girls, I think it’s called. She sounds just great on her tracks.
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Hi Mary. Nice to see you’re over here, too. I think there is a reasonable chance that Ace/Kent will eventually decide to release a Motown anthology of Hattie Littles. They have done a lot of those on the secondary artists, so far (including The Monitors, Spinners, Brenda Holloway, Contours, Shorty Long, Patrice Holloway, Satintones, Marv Johnson, Eddie Holland, and more. I am pround to have helped on many of them. I have, myself seen and heard about 18-20 Motown recordings by Ms. Littles. So, there seem to be enough for such a CD release. I would be very surprised if one WEREN’T released. I think it is just a matter of when. I’ve been asking for a combo of Linda Griner and Carolyn Crawford, together, as they only have about 20 Motown recordings between them.
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First of all, I just stumbled upon this site after the usual google search a few weeks ago and I’m addicted. Fantastic work, and I look forward to reading every new entry!
If I missed any talk about this, I apologize, but apparently Hattie was in jail for a time for the murder of her abusive husband. At least according to Ian Levine.
Is there truth to this?
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Thanks for the kind words, Rob, it’s always nice to know people are enjoying what I’m trying to do.
The treatment of Hattie Littles is one of Motown’s scandalous episodes; when the company dropped its blues roster in 62/3, she was effectively turfed out with nowhere to go. I’d seen Levine’s comments a while ago; never seen those allegations raised elsewhere, but he’d have no reason to make it up. Without knowing the facts, it’s important to remember that domestic abuse is far more recognised now than even 20 years ago and in the UK, many “murder” cases from the 60s involving an abused spouse snapping and killing the aggressor wouldn’t be brought as murder today, sometimes not brought at all (not sure if it’s the same in the US) under adjustments to the law brought in to cover this situation. Without knowing exactly what happened in Hattie’s case, it would be unwise to speculate further; sadly, all we can say with any certainty is that she didn’t have a terribly happy life.
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Hi! Just recently discovered your site. Love it! Good job friend. I heard this song a few years ago on a Rare Oldies radio show. Great song. Do you or anyone else think she sounds a bit like Jeannette Baby Washington? Kind of a blusier verson. Always wondered what Motown would have done with Miss Washington. She made some great records but never really crossed over. Always liked the Marvelettes take on “That’s How Heartaches Are Made.” Oops, sorry to get so off topic!
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Hattie Littles was far “bluesier” than Baby Washington, at leaast by material chosen for her. Baby washington could have sung Blues as well. She was a great singer. She’d have been a big star with Motown. But they got Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Isley Brothers, Chuck Jackson, Terry Johnson, The Four Seasons, Lesley Gore, Jerry Butler, Billy Eckstine and Barbra McNair, all from outside Detroit, and all AFTER they were already stars. So, I suspect that Baby Washington would also have “died on the vine” from no real “push” from the company.
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Hi pal. Have ever heard Handful of Memories by Baby W? That song is da bomb. An oldies station in Wash DC used to play it back around 74. Back to Miss Littles. In his Motown book David Morse really praises Your Love is Wonderful.
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Scandalous indeed! Sammy Ward was pulled off the first Motown Revue as the tour was headed to NYC for the Apollo. That was it for him and blues at Motown. My guess is that Gordy didn’t think he would go over well with a New York City audience.
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