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Motown M 1055 (B), February 1964
B-side of Only You
(Written by Alice Ossman and Harry Bass)
Following on from the A-side, a sub-par cover of the Platters’ Only You concocted by Motown’s recently-opened NYC office in an ill-fated bid to revive turn-of-the-decade crooner Sammy Turner’s career, here the flip brings more bombast and bluster without substance.
This is a huge number in terms of both writing and production, amateurishly executed on both fronts. A big, heavy show tune, bedecked with strings and choirs, a series of climactic choruses full of huge notes; these were seemingly conceived as opportunities for Sammy the vocalist to really show off his stuff, with a flourishing, full-on “big finish” scheduled almost every twenty seconds.
It meets with only limited success; whilst Right Now is probably closer to the way George Kerr and Sidney Barnes (who produced both sides) intended Only You to sound, it’s still dependent on Turner to bring it home, and he doesn’t really live up to his end of the bargain.
The whole thing is an imitation of depth, of “classic” status, rather than anything approaching the real thing. The kettle drums and swooping strings are great, but the tune doesn’t actually do anything – a collection of final lines from Vegas standards, two full minutes of the payoff from My Way or New York, New York but without any of the buildup. It’s compelling to start with, even thrilling, but the showiness and chest-thumping quickly grates as you realise the record’s left itself nowhere else to go. Meanwhile, Turner’s lead vocal, as with the A-side, is technically competent but totally devoid of emotional interpretation, such that there might as well not have been any lyrics at all – you’d get the same impact if he was just singing a scale. (Also, there’s a badly out of control “popcorn” bongo percussion rippling away in the background and punching all manner of holes in the hull of the record’s stately, classy facade.)
Impressively puffed-up, but on closer inspection it’s absolutely wafer thin, and there’s nothing here to get your teeth into at all.
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 agree with you. That cut (just like “Only You”) is really poorly done. What I forgot to mention among my “Only You” comments, was that Sammy sang with a LOT of feeling/emotion in his recording of “All I Have Left are Memories”, also produced by Kerr and Barnes. As I stated before, they’d have done better to release that than these 2 cuts. But, as I also stated before, it was too old-fashioned (DooWoppy) to garner many sales, in any case.
But, at least, we know that Sammy could sing with feeling. I know that hindsight can make geniuses of us all, but sometimes I really wonder how the record producers who produced such “duds” could really have thought they had a chance for a hit, and even risked their jobs or their own record label’s demise, because their monetary backer was paying a carload of money to have the recording put on tape, records pressed up and to have them sent to distributors (oh yes, and also to pay the payola bribes to the DJs to play them). Yes, payola was going on all through the ’60s, as well as the ’50s. It also still existed in the ’70s and ’80s (when I, myself, was in the business).
At 15 years old, I might not have been able to tell which Pop songs would make hits or flops. But, I’d surely have been able to predict which R&B/Soul songs wouldn’t have a chance. And these two Sammy Turner cuts are prime examples. Based on what I’ve seen in the music industry, my guess is that Berry Gordy KNEW that he was wasting money having these records pressed up (also Al Klein’s Mel-o-dy and VIP novelty and Pop releases), but did them anyway, for in-house “political” reasons. He also paid to have records pressed up that had no chance, as favours for friends who helped him or Motown in some way (Tom Clay, Joel Sebastion). That is partly why he took Marv Johnson back, and why he let Clarence Paul, Andre Williams and The Andantes, Hal Davis and Frank Wilson record.
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I feel this could have been better with a stronger lead voice and a clear more powerful mix on the orchestration. The song, although not great, does have some potential, but not on this recording. The whole thing sounds somehow weak and muffled even though there’s a full orchestra used. Don’t know what happened on the mix. I simply don’t like the tone and insipidness of the lead singer’s voice. Now, Levi Stubbs could have really gotten his teeth into this!
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This was probably originally recorded as a demo for The Four Tops, or another strong Motown artist or group, and, as I indicated above, just released, as is, to placate it’s producers or the artist, KNOWING that no real money would be put behind it’s pressing or release.
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