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VIP 25001 (A), December 1963
b/w (He Is) The Boy Of My Dreams
(Written by Frank Wilson)
The very last record Motown released in 1963 turns out to be the beginning of a whole new branch of the Hitsville family tree. Specifically, this is the first flowering of what became Motown’s West Coast operations, initially a diversion, a regional office which eventually ended up absorbing the entire company.
All of that must have seemed light years away when some of Berry Gordy’s California contacts got together to start recording some material for release through Motown. Almost everyone involved with this record would go on to play a significant part in the Motown story: writer Frank Wilson, producers Hal Davis and Marc Gordon, the Los Angeles session musicians who actually put the track together, and Brenda Holloway, big sister of the lead vocalist and (according to some sources) featured on backing vocals here. Everyone, then, apart from the headliner Patrice Holloway herself.
Sadly, I’m writing about this record just slightly too early to take advantage of Patrice’s upcoming Love and Desire CD anthology, and the no doubt excellent research that will have gone into its liner notes, so I can’t shed much light on why this was her one and only single for Motown. Rumours abound of a legal situation so complicated it actually caused this single to be withdrawn from sale; supposedly Motown attempted to sign Brenda and Patrice together, this single the first product of a promising new California connection, but when Patrice’s former management contract (she’d previously cut the striking Do The Del-Viking for little-known Taste Records) interfered with the plan, Berry Gordy simply couldn’t be bothered with the hassle, and – barring a few demo cuts, due to be anthologised on the aforementioned CD – that was that as far as the Motown career of Patrice Holloway went.
VIP Records, the Motown imprint which began by carrying much of the company’s West Coast product (having not always been the second-string clearing house it later became), was treated as a poor relation among Motown labels throughout its lifespan. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that the Holloway family – treated as poor relations among Motown acts – should provide its first release, and that Patrice – treated by Motown as a poor relation to her big sister Brenda – should be the one to do it. Whatever the case, it’s a wildly uneven record, a bizarre artefact which breaks the amazing run of above-par A-sides Motown had brought to close out 1963.
It’s a strange concept in and of itself, regardless of the discogrpahical context; this is one child artist (Patrice was 12) cutting a tribute record to another child artist, both sides of the single paying homage to Motown’s newly-famous chart-topping star, Little Stevie Wonder.
This one starts off extremely promisingly, it must be said. Patrice shows off a deep, mature voice to go along with the mature sentiments in the lyrics – Stevie, do you love me? Do you really care? – you’d never for a second imagine that the woman singing those lines was actually a twelve year old girl. Meanwhile, Frank Wilson conjures up an instantly riveting, haunting chord progression, Davis and Gordon intentionally bedeck the track with Stevie’s trademark instrumentation of pianos, hissy drums and bongos (though no harmonica!) lest anyone miss the Wonder connection. 35 seconds in and I’m preparing myself for at least an eight out of ten job, possibly even more.
Sadly, it can’t last. Patrice loses control of the whole thing far too quickly, the entire record devolving into an unlistenably shrill, directionless delivery on top of a fine band track. The vocal becomes unintelligible, clearly showing Holloway’s age as she climbs the register and then gets stuck up there.
In sharp contrast to the Pacific waves of the introductory verses, she’s reduced to hollering at the top of her voice – she actually sounds very much like Little Stevie Wonder on I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues (Part 1) at this point, and I don’t mean that as a compliment – and it’s already become tiresome before the record runs out of ideas and inexplicably repeats itself in full once we reach the halfway stage. By the time we get to the end, when Wilson has Patrice interpolate a whole snatch of Fingertips (Part 2), a direct lift from a much better song in case anyone hadn’t got the joke yet (Everybody say yeah! Say yeah!), she actually somehow sounds even younger and wilder than Wonder himself had.
As far as I can make out amid the din, the lyrics are bizarre, too, casting Stevie – the subject of the tribute, and a Motown labelmate to boot, and therefore the artist whose fans were likely the target market for this cash-in effort – in the role of the heartless cad who’s broken Patrice’s heart. (And it’s not subtle, either, she’s really been screwed over here – check out these lines: They were only sugar coated words, dipped in my love and covered with a little white lie / Now I don’t believe love any more… I’ve learned my lesson the hard way…!) Painting Stevie as a heel on his own tribute single is a very interesting idea, and as far as I know there’s no surviving information on how he himself took the “compliment” (or even if he ever heard this record at all); really, it just goes to show how chaotic and half-finished the whole thing is. Maybe Motown had to rush it out before it was ready to try and beat whatever legal wrangles would soon lead to its withdrawal?
A messy start for everyone involved, even if there’s plenty of promise being shown at the same time, this is ultimately a weak record which is all the more frustrating because it could have been genuinely superb. A pity.
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 Patrice Holloway? Click for more.)
Eddie Holland “Leaving Here” |
Patrice Holloway “(He Is) The Boy Of My Dreams” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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Robb Klein said:
Unfortunately, the song was written solo, by Frank Wilson. I like ALL the songs he co-wrote with Marc Gordon-they are great! But, as a solo writer, I think Wilson own writing rambles all over the place, with no direction. I can’t remember ANY song he wrote solo that I like, or that has any structure (including the $32,000 record, “Do I Love You(Indeed I Do)”.
I much prefer “Sweeter As The Days Go By”, which is the main reason I bought that record in the first place (Tamla-Motown presing, of course). Although we DID have the storestock Soul Records 45 in our office in Motown for about 5-6 years.
It’s a shame that Motown couldn’t record Patrice more, and start off her career. She cut some beautiful recordings with them. I’d rather “The Touch of Venus” and a few of the others were pressed up than this one. This is ANOTHER record that WAS NOT in The Motown or Jobete Music Co. record files. Again, no one in the company that I talked to remember it having been released. Maybe there were only the 6 store stock pressing plant masters pressed up (just as the Frank Wilson Soul record and The Andantes’ VIP. Or maybe they had a small run of them pressed, and then recalled them from the distributors. But, I’ve only heard of this ONE copy being found.
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Landini said:
Hey Mr Robb. Yeah. “Touch of Venus” is da bomb. Love it. I saw Patrice on Soul Train in the early 70s performing “Thats the Chance You’ll Have to Take”. I always loved the song “Bah bah bah” that she and Brenda wrote for the supremes. Didn’t Brenda & Patrice do some background vocals for Elton John and maybe Neil Young?
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Robb Klein said:
Nix,
I have written a long treatise on Jobete Music’s L.A. office operations from 1963-66, putting the Taste Record into context. I also provided a link to the old classic “Platinum Thread” in Soulful Detroit’s Forum Archives, which has a discussion by Motown/Detroit Soul experts about the L.A. and New York Jobete Music Offices’ operations, in which you most certainly would be VERY, VERY interested.
I’ll be curious to read what you think of both.
Robb K.
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144man said:
According to the notes in the “Love & Desire” CD anthology booklet, Patrice Holloway was Stevie Wonder’s girlfriend.
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Robb Klein said:
In 1963, Stevie was 13 and 14, and Patrice was about the same age. Stevie lived in Detroit and Patrice in L.A. Stevie came to L.A. to record “Stevie at The Beach” and some other cuts. They probably had a little fun together. I doubt that they spent all that many days together while Patrice was with Motown. It made a “nice” little publicity story, but likely wasn’t anything serious.
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Mickey The Twistin' Playboy said:
Hi Mr. Klein,
Is there any record of when Touch of Venus and The Love of Mike were recorded? I’ve never seen a reference made to recording year for either track. Both are great songs and should have been released as singles.
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Robb Klein said:
We definitely have recording dates for both. I don’t have that data with me, but, if I remember correctly, both were recorded in 1965.
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Mickey The Twistin' Playboy said:
My guess was ’65. Thanks for the confirmation. A waste that they weren’t released.
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Landini said:
Hey Mickey. I am definitely a fan of “Touch Of Venus”. Really great tune. I’ll have to check out “Love of Mike”. I have hazy memories of seeing Patrice Holloway on Soul Train in about 71 or 72. She did her then current record “That’s The Chance You’ll Have to Take” – kind of a peppy, Jackson 5 style song. I also believe that in the 70s, Patrice & Brenda did some background vocal work for Joe Cocker, Neil Young & Elton John. Not completely sure but have some other vague memories about that. Of course, the Holloway sisters weren’t too shabby in the songwriting dept! Love their song “Bah Bah Bah” which the Supremes did on the REFLECTIONS album. Cheers friend!
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Mickey The Twistin' Playboy said:
For the Love of Mike is on one of the Cellar collections. I forget which volume. I don’t remember hearing on the radio in NYC where I grew up any of Patrice’s Capitol releases. I was most familiar with her from the Josie & the Pussycats cartoon.
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Robb Klein said:
I believe that “The Touch of Venus” by Patrice was also released on a legit Motown CD. I’m sure I have it on one. Her Capitol records were NOT played on WVON in Chicago. And, I don’t believe they were played on KGFJ in her home town of L.A., or on KDIA in San Francisco Bay Area. I wonder if they were played anywhere?
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Landini said:
Hi Robb & Mickey, Yeah “Touch of Venus” is on the first volume of “Cellarfull…” I finally heard “Love of Mike” Great tune! I also got a listen (via You Tube) to Patrice’s 1972 single “That’s the Chance” on Capitol. That is the one she performed on Soul Train. The song actually sounds like something the Honey Cone (“Want Ads”) might have done at the time. Of course, Honey Cone had some Holland-D-H involvement as they recorded for HDH’s Hot Wax label. I beiieve that due to legal problems HDH couldh’t put their name on the records so they used psuedonyms like Dunbar/Wayne & Stagecoach Productions. Back to Patrice, besides hearing her record on Soul Train I don’t recall any airplay of her Capitol stuff on Wash, DC soul stations. Their loss!
Robb, do you know anything about the Holloway sisters doing background vocals for Neil Young & maybe Elton John in the early 70s? My brother had some early N Young albums & he was looking at the liner notes where they mention the musicians on the album. I think I recall him telling me that some of my “soul singers” were on the album.
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Robb Klein said:
I know very little about ’70s music. But I’ve heard that The Holloway sisters did sing some backgrounds for some hit pop/rock albums of other artists. I know that both of them were members of The Watesians (who recorded for Bob Keane’s Donna Records. I never heard any of Patrice’s Capitol cut on the radio.
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Steven said:
The Holloway sisters sang backing vocals on Neil Young’s first album, released in January 1969. Two songs, The Old Laughing Lady and I’ve Loved Her So Long feature Brenda and Patrice, as well as Merry Clayton, Gloria Jones, Sherlie Matthews and Gracia Nitzsche. Gloria Jones and Sherlie Matthews later worked as songwriters at Motown. The connection must have been the producer on this album, Jack Nitzsche, who was the arranger on many of Phil Spector’s hits. His wife, Gracia was a member of The Blossoms (LA’s answer to The Andantes) who surely must have sung on many of the recordings made in LA by Hal Davis and Marc Gordon for Motown.
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Landini said:
Wow Steven! Thank you for all of the info. I thought I remembered the Holloway sisters being on that N Young album. It was only 40 or so years ago! Amazing how Motown folks show up in the most interesting places. Thanks again for the info friend. Hope you are having a great week!
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Robb Klein said:
I hadn’t heard that The Blossoms sang backgrounds on any L.A. Jobete Office productions. But it could well be that they did. I do know that Darlene Love’s sister, Edna Wright (AKA Sandy Wynns) did, along with Gloria Jones, Mary Love, Brenda and Patrice Holloway and Pat Hunt. The Blossoms’ Jeanne King, and Merry Clayton probably did as well. I haven’t heard that Shirley Matthews did, but IF The Blossoms and Merry Clayton did, she was a good bet, too. Jeanne King had an L.A. release singing 2 Jobete Music songs, written by L.A. Jobete producer, Al Capps. So, she was around.
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MotownFan1962 said:
The Blossoms on Motown…an interesting thought. Fanita, Jean (King), and Darlene meet Mary, Cindy, and Jean (Terrell). Imagine the collaborations!
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MotownFan1962 said:
Also, The Blossoms were regulars on “Shindig!” I wonder what kind of conversations, if any, they had with Motown artists (The Supremes, The Miracles, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, The Marvelettes) who performed on the show. Darlene could’ve given Diana a few pointers.
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bogart4017 said:
I just finished purchasing the Patrice Holloway compilation so we will soon find out…
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Slade Barker said:
Very solid & accurate review.
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