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Motown M 1048 (A), August 1963
b/w What’s Easy For Two Is So Hard For One
(Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr.)
Stateside SS 242 (A), November 1963
b/w What’s Easy For Two Is So Hard For One
(Released in the UK under license through Stateside Records)
Mary Wells, Motown’s first solo superstar, was coming to the end of her time with the label – though it’s likely nobody knew it at the time. Somewhat unbelievably, this was actually her penultimate Motown release. Egged on by one-time husband Herman Griffin, in the spring of 1964 Mary would begin legal proceedings to have her Motown contract torn up (arguing – successfully – that back in 1960 she’d been too young to sign it). She’d decamp to Twentieth Century Fox, supposedly lured by the promise of a movie career that never materialised, after which her career entered a shockingly fast and irreversible tailspin.
In most accounts, it’s presented as a baffling decision, especially since – at the time she chose to drop her legal bombshell – Mary was sitting on top of the world, copies of her one and only pop No.1 single My Guy flying off the shelves as fast as Motown could get them there. But up until that time, Mary’s career had actually been in decline – after a dominant 1962, she wouldn’t have a Top Ten record in all of 1963. Commercially, My Guy was an anomaly.
Commercially, but perhaps not artistically. Smokey Robinson, who’d had care of Mary Wells’ career for almost two years, had penned Mary’s last five singles – The One Who Really Loves You, You Beat Me To The Punch, Two Lovers, Laughing Boy and, most recently, Your Old Stand By; all based around the same central formula, a midtempo calypso-inspired sound that focussed on Mary’s sultry, sophisticated sound. The public had been crazy for that sound in 1962, but rather less so in 1963; although Smokey had made efforts to change things up a bit, quite successfully in the case of Your Old Stand By, the sales had continued to slide. Motown’s top priority, as always, was success rather than loyalty; Smokey wasn’t getting the job done, and so the field was opened up to competition. First among that competition were the company’s hottest up-and-coming songwriting trioHolland-Dozier-Holland, who had very different ideas on how Mary should sound.
The result is a record quite unlike anything Mary Wells had recorded before; her most energetic single since I Don’t Want To Take A Chance more than two years previously, this is the kind of uptempo full-blooded dancefloor-minded R&B-pop fresh air that HDH had come to specialise in during the course of 1963, most famously in their work with Martha and the Vandellas.
From the opening attention-grabbing piano notes and backing cries of Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!, it’s clear we’re in for a very different kind of Mary Wells experience. This couldn’t be more different from Two Lovers if it had been sung by Howlin’ Wolf.
It sounds fantastic, there’s no denying that. The gospel-style backing vocals – a choral mix of male and female voices, supposedly including members of both the Supremes and the Temptations making uncredited cameo appearances (this has never been verified either way, but check out the backing at 1:34, where someone sounds very like Diana Ross!) – compete with a bevy of horns, piano and a tough rhythm bed of drumbeats and tambourine to push the record along. Based around a recurring two-note four-bar horn riff and the crotchet notes that would later come to define the “Motown sound”, the thing powers along irresistibly. Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier were making giant strides in their production techniques, and this just pops out of the groove and out of your speakers, packing a real punch.
Anchored by a barrage of wailing sax and those unstoppable drum and tambourine fills, it sounds like a hit single all the way. What it doesn’t sound like is a Mary Wells record; for the first time in her career, she’s almost a passenger. She never sounds completely comfortable taking a song at this lick, unable to bring her customary pathos and insouciance to the lyrical tale of one-upwomanship over her boyfriend’s ex. (Yes, your loss is my gain…, she sings, …now tears of regret has covered your face, and yet it feels as though Mary doesn’t have time to do anything more than simply get the words out before she needs another breath; it robs the song of some of its emotional impact.)
Worse, she sometimes ends up subsumed beneath the band and the backing vocals, in what seems like an intentional move on the part of the song’s writers and producers; on more than one occasion, her voice is deliberately mixed into that mini-choir for the main hook of chorus – you lost the sweetest boy that you had that time, the sweetest boy that you had – which definitely adds a real vigour to the sound, but it’s done in such a way that it can be hard to pick her out. It’s almost as if Mary was being pulled just a little out of the spotlight, and just a little more into the background – just a little, but pulled nonetheless.
It’s still a good record, but there’s something just not quite right about it all. However, all of this laid the very necessary groundwork for My Guy, moving Mary out of her rut and into pastures new, broadening her range, recasting her as a star capable of sassy gospel-pop records as well as massive midtempo R&B balladry.
If this wasn’t the commercial revival she or Motown were looking for – the two sides of this single yielded Mary two Top 30 hits on the pop chart (both went top ten R&B), a respectable if not spectacular performance (perhaps each side cannibalised the other’s chart positions) – it’s still a fun, vital record which still sounds fresh and young today, and it shows a side of Mary Wells that audiences across America had forgotten she even had.
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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Mary Wells “What’s Easy For Two Is So Hard For One” |
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Any chance that the Supremes were helping back her up on this? I swear I hear Diana.
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It’s a bit of widely-repeated Motown trivia that at least some of the Supremes are on this (along with at least some of the Temptations), and it sure SOUNDS like them, but nothing’s ever been decisively proven either way. I’ve amended the entry to make reference to this (I first wrote it, half-asleep, about a week and a half ago…!) Thanks Matt.
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Mary Wells always had a strong line in righteous indignation – which would serve her splendidly in her forthcoming duet with Marvin Gaye ‘What’s The Matter With You Baby’ (so this isn’t QUITE the penultimate single!) – and I find that the quick tempo here gives an edge to that quality: ‘You thought it was fun/to make the boys run’ and ‘Your little scheme backfired, it’s true…’ Well, I think the breathlessness works for her here. In any case, YOUR COLUMN IS ADDICTIVE and I’m going to have a particularly hard time waiting until tomorrow…
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Sharing the gospel influences of “Heat Wave”, this record was probably ahead of its time, which expains why sales were split with the more traditional b-side. For those who particularly like YLTSB, the similarly-styled “One Block from Heaven” on the “Vintage Stock” LP is recommended.
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My favorite Mary Wells track, I’d rate it a 9. Sure it’s more of an “ensemble” work than anything she did with Smokey but that creates an excitement that works in its favor. Having another strong number as its flipside did prevent this song from being the top 10 success it deserved.
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Oh that’s Ross in the chorus or my name ain’t Dave.
I love this, and you’re right about ‘different.’ This is not Mary explaining herself (Two Lovers), detailing why she is the better ‘bargain’ (The One Who Really Loves You, Your Old Stand By), consoling an old boyfriend who might be regretting his actions (Laughing Boy), or having a dream romance crash out of euphoria when her love is revealed a cheater (You Beat Me To The Punch). This is Mary in total triumph over a fool of woman who used her way through them all, disposing of trash and treasure both, and carelessly. I absolutely love this record even as I agree HDH are pushing Mary to an unaccustomed energy level.
That ‘happy,’ dancing tambourine right in the center of the mix, gets me every time đŸ™‚ (Beware of some awful stereo versions where it doesn’t seem to be there!)
During this same year, Lesley Gore was having a glorious streak of success at Mercury, guided by Quincy Jones who, through his work with Gore, added one more building block in his own eventual legend. Gore’s third consecutive Top Ten, “She’s A Fool” was climbing the charts at the same time as “Sweetest Boy.” It’s kind of neat – if you listen to “She’s A Fool” immediately followed by Mary’s record, then “You Lost The Sweetest Boy” becomes exactly the conclusion Lesley’s record dreams out loud for.
I agree whole-heartedly with 144man about the quality of “One Block From Heaven,” and at least that one was available by the end of 1966. That song and this one prove, with HDH’s help, Mary could put stompin’ feet on a dance floor as well as any of her labelmates. Marvin will be getting that same assist next, and the Supremes are on that one too. (Marvin says so himself on the five-volume “Motown Story” from 1971.)
“You Lost The Sweetest Boy” gets a strong 9 from me too.
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As always, your writing is a joy to read! Much appreciated is the way you tied in Lesley Gore’s hits of the same time. Great connect-the-dots between “She’s A Fool” and “Sweetest Boy”.
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This is my favorite Motown record of all time. If it was released a year or two later, I think it would have gone top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The other side is also great, and that is most likely the reason both sides stalled out in the 20’s. The split airplay killed both sides.
YLTSB has evrything I like about Motown in one high powered package. Late 63 had so many great high energy H-D-H Motown releases , “Heat Wave”, “Can I Get A Witness” “When The Lovelight Shines” “Leaving Here
“Quicksand” and to me the best of all “You Lost The Sweetest Boy”. A 9+ from me.
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My only problem with it is the awkward lyric of that chorus, “You lost the sweetest boy that you had that time.” Exactly how many “boys” did this person “have”? The phrasing makes it sound like they’re talking about dogs or cats.
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Ha, I see what you mean. I always assumed it was awkward phrasing for “You had the sweetest boy in your grasp, and you blew it”.
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Now really though, would that have sounded any better once you put it to music?
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I never got that impression. The first time I heard it at 14 I knew what that line meant: the girl was a “player” and blew it. She let a good one go. The phrasing isn’t awkward either unless you’re aiming for something more in line with a grammatically correct phrase. Those don’t always sing so well…
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Yeah, I definitely think that was the intent.
Thanks for the wonderful reviews. I learn a great deal from them.
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It’s ironic, because in less than a year Eddie Holland will be a fully-fledged master of both scansion and economy of expression, but neither of these things is on display here, leading to both the confusingly-worded chorus and a number of unseemly gaps and stretched or shortened syllables. Not enough to ruin the record by any means, but not quite yet the finished article. Oddly enough, a previous HDH/Mary Wells collaboration, Old Love, suffers from the same problem (to a markedly greater extent).
Thanks for the nice comments – glad you’re enjoying!
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I’m trying to pick up those issues with the lyrics and the way they synch with the music but I’m honestly wondering if this is boiling down to a difference in cultural speech patterns. I never, ever felt there was an issue here with scansion.
To me, sometimes you just can’t perfectly synch every lyric, line and word to the rhythm/flow of a song. Well, you could try but then you may end up with something that is technically correct but flat and gutless in spirit.
An author, who was commenting on the songs of H-D-H, once wrote that the trio wasn’t above inventing words and writing backward sentences to convey a feeling (or words to that effect) and I think he nailed it. It can be very hard to write a song, convey the emotional aspects, AND fit every syllable perfectly with every beat without losing something somewhere. Sometimes you do have to write ’em a bit backwards. But this song gets the feeling just right. The kids in the streets knew just what Mary was saying.
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The song indicates Motown being true to its gospel roots. Sounds like the Andantes and Love-Tones to me in the backgroud but I can hear Diana at the same point everyone else does. My rating is 9/10.
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Pardon if I sound rude, but if The Andantes are on this record, then The Supremes have drowned them out. And I think the Love Tones disbanded by this time. The male vocals sound like The Temptations to me.
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9/10. Great stuff. Isn’t HDH laying down the foundation for a truly great run? This is an important building block. Without the commercial sales, they may have sensed rejection and headed elswhere, heaven forbid. Oh, and kudos to Mr Bowles. He’ll be kept real busy in ’64.
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This is an insanely great record! I love the whole let’s mix Mary in with HDH throw it against the wall and see if it sticks approach. I thought some great Motown records came out of trying an atypical style with a certain artist.
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That is the Supremes & Temptations on bg.Temptations-Elbridge & before David were working with Mary alot on the road during ’63. YLTSB is is a GREAT record & one of the first with what would be labeled the Motown Sound.It would have been a much bigger record chart wise if it didn’t have to split air-play with Whats Easy…as said above.When Mary did this LIVE at the time, it would bring the house down. I would rate it a 9.5 for sure!
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Perish the thought that I should try to manoeuvre the discussion to talk about the VELVELETTES but……the VELVELETTES did record a version of this song in French. Interesting that of all the artists that Motown had on its roster, it asked the VELVELETTES to record the song and not the Marvelettes or the Supremes or the Vandellas, all of whom were at the label at that time.
Of course, we know now that the Marvelettes also recorded the song with Wanda taking the lead…but naturally, it was sung with the English lyrics.
This was also one of those songs where Mary Wells sang different lyrics.
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The fact that Cal had studied French and spoke it fluently just might have had something to do with it!
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…and the fact that Berry Gordy Jr was sitting there with mouth wide open listening to Cal and this post guy both converse in French…and he didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. But he was mighty impressed!
The Velvelettes went to France for the first time in the same year that they were at Northampton which is a few years ago now. They met up with the producer of those sessions Pierre Berjot.
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I just heard the Marvelettes version of this. Just got the Forevermore set (which is awesome!) Their version is pretty good. Isn’t interesting that the Marvelettes recorded versions of both sides of this single.
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Oops! Meant to say Isn’t it interesting…
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I was looking forward to hearing the Marvelettes’ version and when I did I was disappointed that it was slowed down.
You Lost The Sweetest Boy is the most gospel sounding of Mary’s recordings. I love the Love-Tones and Andantes together contributing to the call and response elements of the song. My rating: 8/10
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Yeah, I’m with you on feeling a little letdown by the Marvelettes version though I still like it. Speaking of Forever More, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the “In Full Bloom” & “Return of…” albums were – even though they were basically thrown together collections. I listened to these albums on a good pair of headphones & was really impressed by the bass playing on many of the tracks. Isn’t it great how the Funk Bros, always put their best behind anything they played on?
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Whoops! I shouldda scrolled down before I commented!
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There’ll never be any penalty for digression here, and certainly not where the Velvelettes are concerned. Thanks for all your comments so far, John, much appreciated. You won’t like my next Velvelettes piece, but you’ll be happy after that, I predict…
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Vive Les Velvelettes!
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Weren’t the Velvelettes asked to do the other groups’ songs because Berry learned Cal had taken French in school? That right there should have given the group a certain “something special” to set them apart. I know there was a reason that made sense but why didn’t Berry capitalize on this? An American soul singer, a young one at that, who could sing in French?
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Someone beat me to it! Note to self: scroll all the way down!
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I’d give this a 10. It has the classical 1964 “Motown Sound”, in summer of 1963 (ahead of its time-as many of The Motown hits were).
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They took this one to Pentecostal church!!9/10.
A double-sider always creates split play (unless you’re the Beatles) and affectes chart positions. Billboard or Cash Box or Record World would have tabulate a total sale of 1 unit even though you’re purchasing 2 and 2 are charting.
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This is one of my all-time favorite Motown records. I’ve been stingy with my grades up to this point (for those I have commented on), but here is my first “10.” Call me crazy, but if Motown had put “unGodly” but Gospel sounding records like this one, “Work Out Stevie, Work Out,” “Leaving Here” and “Can I Get A Witness” on the Divinity label, that brand could have lasted several more years.
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