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VIP 25002 (A), January 1964
b/w I’ll Cry Tomorrow
(Written by George Kerr and Sidney Barnes)
Asinine pop pap, produced by Berry Gordy’s then-wife Raynoma Liles Gordy, “Miss Ray” herself. Fittingly for VIP Records, already becoming a low-profile label in the Motown system, a depository for shunting weird outlying stock, a home for family favours, business deals, material cut by people hundreds or even thousands of miles away from Detroit… the new Miracle Records, and only two releases old.
The Serenaders’ handful of cuts were the first fruits of Motown’s East Coast office in New York City’s Brill Building, mirroring the West Coast efforts taking place in Los Angeles as Motown became a true nationwide concern. Miss Ray, who presided over operations in New York, auditioned this grizzled veteran group of Fifties NYC doo-woppers and produced their one and only Motown release. The liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 4 note the group split up after this single, and further note the supposed popularity of some of the unreleased demos they also cut for Motown, none of which I’ve ever knowingly listened to. Band members George Kerr and Sidney Barnes, who between them wrote this record, became more valuable to Motown as songwriters than performers.
Oh yes, the record itself. It’s not completely awful, but it is very cheesy in its attempts to marry old-school doo-wop, new-school R&B (of the type championed by Frankie Valli, that is) and white pop-rock. It’s also offensively simplistic; “Let the lit-tle girl go!” is the message – if you’re not 100% sure, male listener, if you have any doubts whatsoever that you can’t do better, then drop her! “Her” being a cipher who doesn’t get a say in the matter. Or a personality.
As if unsure of the material, both the band and the singers pile on with undue effort and energy, and the poor production leaves this an uncoordinated, noisy mess, an attempt at a Brill Building pop record gone badly awry as bucketfuls of bad ideas are sloshed on top with no care for whether they work or not.
A shoddy, dated record, and poorly-sung and recorded to boot; not exactly the bottom of the barrel, but you can certainly see it from here.
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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I disagree wholeheartedly. I love the sound of Timothy Wilson’s lead voice, as well as the groups harmony, and also The Funk Brothers’ background tracks (recorded in Detroit). The Serenaders were one of my favourite groups (both with George Kerr and with Timothy Wilson on lead). I was very excited to find they’d signed with Motown. The flip of this record, “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” is a terrific doo wop ballad (admittedly dated-but very nice, nonetheless). They also had a few terrific cuts which remained in The Vaults (including “Tears, Nobody and a Smile”, and “All Have Left Are Memories” with Sammy Turner as guest lead, , and “Say, Say Baby”).
I would give this song a 7 out of ten.
By the way,…..This record was originally scheduled for Motown 1046. At the last minute, Berry had it changed to VIP. I have no doubt that that move was the result of a further rift in the relationship between Berry and Raynoma. She probably had started doing things that he did approve of in their New York operation, as a reaction to his refusal to send her operation enough money to function. That eventually led to Raynoma Gordy ordering hundreds of copies of Mary Wells’ hit record of “My Guy” pressed up, and her selling them to distributors for cash to operate the office. That led to Berry closing the New York operation down in mid 1964, Berry and Raynoma’s divorce, and George Kerr, Sidney Barnes, Timothy Wilson, George Clinton, The Parliaments, Gene Redd, Jr., Sammy Turner and others leaving The Motown family, and, eventually, Raynoma’s marriage to “boyfriend” Eddie Singleton (who had been co-director of Jobete Music’s New York office). That lead to the new couple forming Shrine Records in Washington, D.C.
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Really? You surprise me. Just goes to show how subjective this whole exercise is – one man’s treasure and all that. Always good to be reminded I’m just one opinion among many!
Thanks for the NYC information, I was really hoping you would be able to fill in some of that story! As always, your scholarship is greatly appreciated.
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I wonder if this is the same Timothy Wilson who recorded “My Queen of Hearts”, and “Baby Baby Please” as well as “These are the Things that Make Me Know You’re Gone”?
And if so is he the same lead singer for the doo-wop group “Tiny Tim & The Hits” from the late 1950’s?
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Yes, the lead singer on this is the same Timothy Wilson who sang lead with Tiny Tim and The Hits, and was a solo artist produced by ex-Motowner Robert Bateman in partnership with Lew Courtney for Buddah Records, and who also recorded for VEEP Records. He actually sang another Jobete Music song (“Just Another Guy(On a String”) on Buddah, written by Motown’s New York office staff, which was also recorded by The Four Tops.
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Were any copies actually pressed on the Motown label?
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I really doubt that any copies were pressed on Motown. It was scheduled for Motown 1046 near the very end of 1963, but, then it was switched to VIP some weeks later in early 1964. I did not see any copies of it in The Motown record File or Jobete Music Record file (where copies of The Andantes on VIP, Frank Wilson on Soul, Little Stevie Wonder Tamla 54108, and other non-released records were found). I’ve never seen nor heard of its existence, nor heard of any record pressed using Motown 1046.
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I have since seen scans of both sides of the Motown 1046 store stock pressing of this record. So, it may have had a limited Detroit release before the national VIP release, or, at least, the 6 pressing plant test pressing records were pressed.
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I disagree here too. This is a terrific little 45. A sweet performance by the group and the Funk Brothers turning an ordinary song into something more. But I agree it sounds dated for early ’64, had it came out a year or two earlier it might have made some noise on the R&B chart. Too bad Gordy had to bury it.
Motown was a little ahead with a marriage of old-school doo-wop, new-school R&B and white pop-rock. The 4 Seasons would start making Motown-influenced hits starting with “Let’s Hang On!” And Golden World scored a monster USA hit with that formula with the Reflections “Just Like Romeo and Juliet”… which features the Funk Brothers (working undercover).
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Yes, not only did “Just Like Romeo and Juliet” feature a LOT of Funk Brothers and other regular Motown musicians playing, but ex Satintone and Rayber Voices memeber Sonny Sanders arranged it, and ex-Motown writer, Bob Hamilton, and ex and future Motowner Freddie Gorman were its songwriters.
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Noise aside, I really like this one a lot. In a vast majority of songs, I have found the chorus superior to the verses, melodically, or the verses far better than the chorus. In this song, I feel that both chorus and verse are of high quality and that makes a song pretty darn good. I also like how it starts with the chorus; a nice break from the more familiar mold. I’ve been playing it continuously for the past 2 or 3 weeks, when I heard it for the first time thanks to TCMS. My heart says,”Give it a ‘9,’” and my mind agrees completely.
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