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IPG 45-1002 (B), July 1963
B-side of There He Goes
(Written by Robert Hamilton)
It struck me yesterday that when discussing the career of the Velvelettes, probably the most unfairly overlooked act in Motown’s history, I hadn’t mentioned the supreme irony of the final chapter in the Velvelettes story. The UK Northern Soul scene has always been decidedly sniffy about artists and records that achieved too much mainstream success on original release, and so a group with a string of fantastic but little-heard R&B singles takes on a particular resonance for the weekender crowd. For these hardcore British soulies, the Velvelettes – a group most people who worked for Motown might have had trouble picking out of a line-up, let alone casual music fans – enjoy a reputation that exceeds that of pretty much any other Motown group, with the result that the reconstituted group need never want for regular live bookings on this side of the Atlantic.
Quite right too.
That’s The Reason Why – recorded on the same day as the A-side, There He Goes, and therefore also featuring the talents of Little Stevie Wonder on harmonica, as he happened to be in the studio for that session – is the heavier and stronger of the two sides of the Velvelettes’ début single. If There He Goes had been redolent of Martha and the Vandellas’ own début, I’ll Have To Let Him Go, then That’s The Reason Why eschews the midtempo calypso style in favour of the uptempo flavour of several tracks by another top Motown girl group of the era, the Marvelettes.
Opening with a startling, outlandishly-pronounced intro – drums, horns, Stevie’s wailing harmonica, and a strange, oddly-cadenced, almost-chanted group vocal – I don’t be-LIEVE in love on the BOR-ROW / here to-DAY and then gone to-MOR-ROW” – that instantly grabs the listener’s interest, That’s The Reason Why quickly opens out into a thoroughly enjoyable girl group stomp.
The vocals are excellently confident, and there’s a cheeky smirk in the lyrics – the song is about a girl explaining her refusal to “put out” for her boyfriend unless he puts a ring on it first (Prove that your love is real / Let the preacher close the deal / I don’t want to take a chance / On just a fly-by-night romance) – which suits lead singer Cal Gill down to the ground. She was only fifteen when this was recorded, but her delivery here is again mature beyond her years, and her sassy, no-nonsense demeanour makes it completely believable she’d stand up for herself like this.
(There’s a great bit right at the very end, barely audible as the song fades down, where Cal explains “So many guys have come around / Trying to take me for a clown”, with a wry, barely-concealed subtext of “but I’m sure YOU’RE not suggesting that sort of thing, are you?” I love it.)
The Velvelettes’ Motown Anthology, pictured left, features a subsequently-rejected re-recording of this, done a month later without Stevie Wonder to hand. That version is still good, but this original version is (for my money, anyway) the better of the two; Stevie’s harmonica, used sparingly and granted a miniature solo in the middle eight, adds something to the record not often heard on girl group workouts.
The band, too, are on fine form, especially the drums and horns; if producer Mickey Stevenson can’t quite corral all the various instruments into a cohesive whole, each individual musician still does himself proud given free rein to express himself. It’s the drums that really catch the attention, though, with their pounding, echoey shuffle and dynamic fills, and they fit the sound of the group’s developing vocals perfectly, the early-period Velvelettes here presaging the days when – under the aegis of Norman Whitfield – they’d make better use of Motown’s rhythm section than just about any other group.
They still weren’t the finished article quite yet, but the two sides of this record amount to a fine début, and this B-side is just a whole lot of fun, such that it’s hard to pick too many holes in it.
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!)
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There’s an earlier version of “That’s The Reason Why” that was “left in the can” in The Motown Vaults, that has, in my opinion, a much tighter instrumental, and a stronger/better (more soulful) vocal. I CAN’T figure out why Mickey chose the other version for release. A tape of that other version was taken to The U.K. in 1980, and summarily booted (together with several other unreleased cuts, for play on The NS scene).
Mickey has stated that he asked Berry’s permission to release The Velvelettes cuts on an outside label, and that the top man said he had no problem with that. I still find that difficult to believe. I think Stevenson just went ahead and did it. At Airwave Records in the early ’80s, we occupied the suite next to Mickey’s. We often hung out with him. I never had the nerve to ask him about his IPG venture.
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Interesting – is that a different version to the one on the Anthology?
Mickey’s story does seem highly unlikely, but that’s the Motown party line now at least…
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Yes, it IS a different version from that on The Anthology. To my knowledge, that version (my favourite), has never been officially released. It sounds much more like Motown than The Tinny I.P.G. version. It has a much edgier, dynamic instrumental by The Funk Brothers, and a better arrangement, a better (and more soulful) vocal as well. The amazing thing about the two recordings is that the “better” recording, is dated a few months earlier than the I.P.G. version, and yet, it sounds like a typical 1964 driving instrumental, whereas the I.P.G. sounds like 1963.
The earlier version’s instrumental sounds a lot like the groove The Funks were in on “Mama Please”, -the unreleased original Motown (Jobete Music) version of “Daddy Please”, sung by The Adorables on Golden World Records.
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It’s interesting that it was seen fit to include a record on a non-Motown label in the Complete Motown Singles. It’s a pity (and inconsistent) that the three releases by Cornell Blakely between 1961 & 1963 on the Rich label could not be included.
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It is a pity, but I don’t find it inconsistent. This is effectively an unreleased Motown single; that Mickey Stevenson managed to sneak it out “under licence” to IPG is a strange historical quirk, but unlike the Rich recordings it remained a Motown recording through and through (whether you consider that to be defined in terms of ownership, recording, musicians, writers, producers, or any other measure you care to apply), so a case can definitely be made that as Universal Motown owned the rights to it, it would have been perverse to leave it out. That’s my take, anyway.
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If Cornell Blakely’s Ace-distributed and Mercury-distributed Rich Records would have been included, then Marv Johnson’s, Eddie Holland’s and Wyatt “Big Boy” Shepherd’s UA-released productions, as well as Ken Masters’ two Snakepit-produced sides released on Decca should also be included.
The other Rich releases were leased to Rich Records, just as Marv Johnson’s, Eddie Holland’s and Shepherd’s sides were leased to United Artists, and Ken Masters’ were leased to Decca Records. The Rich Records were half-owned by Berry Gordy, and half-owned by Rev. James Hendrix. Cornell Blakely’s contract was owned half-each by both. The Velvelettes’ contracts were totally owned by Motown. IPG just leased the masters for a short period. The masters reverted back to Motown after the period. Unlike that situation, in the case of Motown’s artists that went to UA, they were signed to that label. All their product recorded FOR that label (albeit at The Snakepit by Motown producers and Motown musicians, and singing Jobete songs) stayed with United Artists, who payed for the production and recordings. Those recorded songs are STILL in The UA catalogue. As far as I know, The Velvelettes were never signed to IPG Records, which had no artists, but simply leased master recordings and pressed up records.
Furthermore, I believe that according to the pressing/distribution deal Rich Records had with Mercury Records, the 3 Mercury-distributed Rich releases are STILL property of the Mercury Records Catalogue (whoever owns that now). Rich 1801, was a new Motown subsidiary label (half-owned by James Hendrix), similarly to Harry Balk owning only half of his Inferno Records label, when it was produced/pressed and distributed by Motown (effectively as a Motown subsidiary label). I assume that those two Inferno releases will be included in the Motown singles CD releases.
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I sure would like to know who Robert Hamilton is and how he figures in the Motown story.
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Robert (“Bob”) Hamilton (AKA Rob Reeco during his time with Ed Wingate’s Golden World/Ric Tic Records) was one of Detroit’s 3 Hamilton Brothers, along with Al Hamilton (AKA Al Kent), and Eugene Ronald Hamilton (AKA Ronnie Savoy). They all were raised in Detroit, but Al and Ronnie lived in New York, for a while from the late ’50s to the early ’60s. Bob was the only one that worked at Motown (in the early ’60s), before all 3 started working for Ed Wingate’s Golden World family of labels at the beginning of 1964 as songwriters and producers. Ronnie was also a recording artist on Wingate Records. He had formerly been a solo artist with MGM records during the early 1960s. Al Kent was a solo artist starting in 1959 and through the early ’60s, on several local New York labels, plus, he recorded a Berry Gordy song for Chess Records. I believe all 3 had been in the same R&B group in 1958, starting out their music careers. Bob and Al were 2 of Ed Wingate’s major producers, along with co-owner, JoAnne Jackson, Don Davis. and Popcorn Wylie. Bob had a songwriter’s contract with Motown in the early ’60s (I believe he was with them in 1962 and 1963). I remember seeing writing credits for him on a couple of Tamla records during those years. He was not a producer at motown. He’s one of a large group of Detroit writer-producers who worked for a short time at Motown (didn’t just about every Detroit musician, singer, songwriter and producer?):Don Davis, Mike Terry. Popcorn Wylie, Sonny Sanders, Robert bateman, Don Juan Mancha, Steve Mancha(Clyde Wilson), William Weatherspoon, Joe Hunter, Tony Hester, Melvin Davis, George McGregor, Ray Monette, Bob Babbitt, Dennis Coffey, etc.
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