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Gordy G 7019 (B), June 1963
B-side of Pa (I Need A Car)
(Written by Raynoma Liles Gordy and Mike Ossman)
Of course, the mere fact that a Contours record doesn’t sound like Do You Love Me isn’t so laudable when the record in question is as bad as You Get Ugly. Written and produced by Berry Gordy’s ex-wife Raynoma Liles Gordy – “Miss Ray” – this horrible, cacophonous stomp is the worst thing the Contours had done since their 1961 B-side Funny.
It’s actually awful on two levels. Firstly, it sounds terrible, Billy Gordon mumbling unintelligibly, the other Contours shouting their “harmonies”, the band – apparently bored with their appointed task – turning in a rote performance, the lyrics (when you can make them out) either perfunctory or just plain silly, the production muffled and difficult to listen to; the whole thing is just generally noisy and annoying, and the group’s attempts to sell the whole thing as a “wacky” comedy romp grate on the nerves. Finding out that Contour Sylvester Potts apparently hated the song just adds to the overall feeling of “forced fun”.
Secondly, and I didn’t even know this until it was pointed out in the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 3 (as part of the aforementioned comments from Sylvester Potts), it’s an almost note-for-note and (I’m guessing here!) word-for-word rip-off of Jimmy Soul’s If You Wanna Be Happy – an equally naff record I’d mercifully managed to remain unaware of until today. So this isn’t just awful on its own terms, as I’d previously believed to be the case, but it turns out it’s also a craven attempt to sponge off another record’s chart success, the sort of thing I thought Motown had rather grown out of by this point in history. I never learn.
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 Contours “Pa (I Need A Car)” |
Amos Milburn “My Daily Prayer” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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Yeah this is a pretty bad record. I’d never heard (of) it until I got the CMS for ’63. And it is obviously “inspired” by “If You Wanna Be Happy”. But that Jimmy Soul record was huge in the US a few months earlier! It was obviously inspired by ribald calypsos. It actually went to number 1! I’m surprised there weren’t more ripoffs. It was part of the Richmond (Va) party sound that was briefly popular and was best exemplified by Gary U.S. Bonds records.
Your rating of 2 for You Get Ugly is on target.
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Yeah, this record dreams of getting a 2. Some chance.
However huge the Jimmy Soul record might have been, I’d honestly never heard it in my life until I started digging around You Get Ugly. I don’t think it’s very good (certainly not in the Gary US Bonds league!), but for sure it’s a better record than this one.
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Just a technical note – the next song button for You Get Ugly doesn’t go to My Daily Prayer, but rather lands back on the page for You Get Ugly itself…
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Thanks Thom, good spot – I’ll fix that as soon as I get a chance. There are probably a few other broken links like that throughout the site – as is probably obvious, I create these entries by cutting and pasting the previous entry and using that as a template for changing the text; I do proofread (quite badly) but it’s possible a couple of other things have slipped through the net before I caught them. Sorry!
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i’m quite surprise you’ve never heard the Jimmy Soul record. It was extremely popular in ’63 and got tons of airplay. People still think back and laugh when that record is mentioned—you’d never get away with it today.
As for The Contours poor imitation—there is a reason why God invented the skip button…
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Sixteen years before I was born, in a different country?
Incidentally, if you hadn’t realised I’m British, that might explain the confusion you have over some of the words I use 🙂
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Sorry dude—-with your vast knowledge of American music i keep getting you confused with a 60 year-old hipster from a big northern city
accept my sincerest apologies.
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There’s no need to apologise (I’ll never be offended by someone mistaking me for an American. I love Americans!), I just meant I can see how some of my language could be confusing or seem affected if you didn’t know I was writing from Wales.
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Wales? Way cool! That makes you….what welch?
How come i’ve never heard Tom Jones or catherine Zeta Jones use one of your wonderful expressions??
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I’d give this a 2. I never have liked novelty records, in the first place. I don’t like Billy Gordon’s voice, in the second place. And this song is lousy, in the 3rd place. It only gets a 2 to differentiate it’s value from the ones (like “Randy The Newspaper Boy”). “If You Wanna Be Happy” is no terrific gem, but it’s leagues better than this tripe!
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