Tags
Gordy G 7008 (B), November 1962
B-side of Hold On Pearl
(Written by Robert Gordy)
The story goes that when Robert Gordy, youngest member of the Gordy family, released his début single, the gentle Everly Brothers flavoured rocker Everyone Was There, on Carlton in 1958 under the name of “Bob Kayli”, it started picking up radio play and climbing the charts – until he played a live show to capitalise on his record’s burgeoning success, and audiences realised he was African-American.
I never knew whether that story was true – the coruscating sax on that record should have been a dead giveaway to racist thickos that “Bob” wasn’t some clean-cut Caucasian bobbysoxer – but had the record in question been this dreck, released over four years later yet somehow sounding even more dated, I could certainly believe it.
Motown boss Berry Gordy Jr. lavished quite a big production on his little brother’s label swansong, with echoing brushed drums, gentle woodwind backing and double-tracked vocals, but it’s all in the service of a thin, wispy bit of half-song that would have seemed wet and lifeless even ten years before. A syrupy ballad bearing a resemblance to the excellently-named Henry Lumpkin’s We Really Love Each Other, but without that song’s inherent loveliness; it has a pretty enough but entirely inconsequential tune, and it goes absolutely nowhere, just petering out at the end as if it’s given up.
Also, there’s not a vocalist in the world who could convincingly sell a breakup song centred around the words “Toodle-loo!”, and so Kayli – never a particularly talented singer – is on a hiding to nothing from the start. Hearing Bob try to infuse those words (which he wrote himself, incidentally) with a completely unearned, unsubtle helping of passion and heartache, you’re actually embarrassed for him. Calling the song Farewell My Love or something more sensible might have been a cliché, but in very self-consciously avoiding that trap by trying to come up with a unique hook, this song just ends up falling down a very deep hole.
Cringeworthy, drippy and pointless.
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 Bob Kayli? Click for more.)
 |
 |
| Bob Kayli “Hold On Pearl” |
The Miracles “Happy Landing” |
Motown Junkies 
At least nepotism didn’t go overboard, and as you note, after this one Robert and Berry gave up using the latter’s record company to make a singer out of baby brother.
But, before we say so long to Robert as a Motown singing artist, let’s note he would score noticeably more, and a decade later, as an actor.
In a small but unforgettable part in “Lady Sings The Blues,” as the drug-pusher Hawk, whether cruelly teasing a jonesing Billie-Diana or slapping a defiant Piano Man-Richard Pryor, Gordy was frighteningly spot-on good. 🙂
Further, and in a way of sticking up for Robert, Barbara McNair, Chuck Jackson and Billy Eckstein, artists with far more established credibility as singers, didn’t score legions of new fans thanks to their individual tenures at Motown. To mix metaphors, Motown may have been the musical Mt. Rushmore of Detroit, but they didn’t hit them out of the park every time at bat.
LikeLike
Point well made. Recheck YEAR of release.
LikeLike
…and The YEAR shown on the A-side as well 🙂
LikeLike
It’s not THAT bad. It’s kind of a rip off from Hushabye by The Mystics. It’s sappy, it’s filler, yes. But I find it much more tolerable than those early wannabe-Blues singles. I’ll give it a 4.
LikeLike
I agree with the post above its not that bad..my favorite Bob Kayli song 🙂
LikeLike
I think it rates quite high in the “So Bad It’s Good” category…. I dig the hell out of this song for all it’s twisted stylistic irony. It’s insipid but quite cutting and blunt lyrically, I think the title is perfect. To be fair, insipidness can’t really be much of a point for demotion for much of any pop recordings from day one. While I trust none of this was intended (e.g. the Gordy boys didn’t say to each other “lets make an incredibly ironic recording”), even the production quality really fits it perfectly, if willing to stand back a little bit and appreciate it for what it is as well as what it isn’t and, especially, the juxtaposition of the two with each other. Even the racial irony is very cool to me. It’s an obscure gem. Also fascinating to hear this as part of the pre-Motown sound…
LikeLike
The scary part is that THIS is one of Robert’s better Motown cuts. It’s kind of ironic that his non-Motown release (although produced by Berry, and backed by “The Barry Gordy Orchestra”, “Everyone Was There” was seemingly better than any of his Motown cuts. They should have had him singing over that great “California Soul” Funk Brothers’ backing track given to The Messengers. He probably would have sounded better than they did.
LikeLike