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Soul S 35004 (A), August 1964
b/w You’ve Got To Change
(Written by Andre Williams)
Well, here’s a surprise: an unexpected return to the Motown release schedules for (Singin’) Sammy Ward.
It had only been four years since Sammy, once the company’s resident blues man, had scored a vital early chart hit for the newborn label with the stinging Who’s The Fool, and yet no-one had heard from him since Someday Pretty Baby back in 1962. With everything that’s come between (almost 250 entries on Motown Junkies, for a start!), in the new world of Golden Age Motown, the world of the Supremes and Four Tops and Temptations, and even on Soul Records sandwiched between future hitmakers Junior Walker and Shorty Long, Sammy feels like a name from the almost-forgotten past.
But as soon as Ward’s voice strikes up here, the interval is as nothing; you want to rush out and greet him like an old friend. Welcome back, Singin’ Sammy, we’ve all missed you terribly.
What’s more, this brief interlude of some proper dirty, scuzzy blues is very welcome indeed, Sammy as coruscating as ever as he does what he does best and lays on the amused scorn. Cajoled along by an out-of-tune piano on which someone is banging out a series of tinkling riffs – the only thing which stops Bread Winner from grinding to a complete halt between choruses, themselves bookended by a couple of stabbed horn breaks straight off a Temptations LP – Sammy sounds thoroughly fed up. As with all his best records, he’s calling a no-good woman’s bluff: see how you get on without me, then. It’s great.
Go ahead, be the star that you think you are
‘Til the finance company come pick up the car!
In spitting out the song’s standout line (This is it! / I’m sick! / I quit!), Sammy sounds as though he really has had enough. The liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 4 read this as meta-text: this single was Ward’s final effort for a company that didn’t need him any more, and that line (penned by another soon-to-be Motown castoff, Andre Williams) was about more than the narrator’s ex-girlfriend.
But those same compilation CDs, throwing in this and the other Soul singles from August ’64 cheek-by-jowl amongst all the great R&B-pop (and not-so-great C&W) on the Motown release slate that summer, highlight just how much Motown really did need a Sammy Ward; he’s like a breath of fresh air here, and knowing that Junior Walker will keep cropping up throughout the Sixties to plough his own furrow, it’s a real pity we won’t get to meet Sammy again doing his own thing too.
Not that Sammy’s the only thing going on here; after a sneaky quote from Who’s The Fool, he then goes completely missing for the whole middle third of the record, ceding the spotlight to a rich, shining-stringed Charlie Christian-style guitar solo while Ward wanders offstage to have a smoke.
The effortless ease with which he comes back in again, picking up exactly where he left off, is another indicator that this was a guy who really knew what he was doing; full of raw-throated pain his vocal may be, but he was a trouper, a showbiz veteran with consummate stage craft. Motown may not have thought there was room for him in their brave new world, and commercially they may have been right; but you can’t help but feel that in discarding such a pro – with such a knack for making good records – they’d made a bad mistake.
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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| Jr. Walker & the All Stars “Monkey Jump” |
Sammy Ward “You’ve Got To Change” |
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This is a blues with the full-blooded Motown sound. The record gets as much power from the musicians as it does from Sammy, and that’s saying a lot. It is featured on a 1996 CD titled Motown’s Blue Evolution, which also has a bristly later cut by Sammy, “Then You Changed,” along with tunes by Amos Milburn, Mable John, and Luther Allison.
I wish that Motown had followed this path parallel to roads they started taking as their sound got more and more popular.
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Of the two sides of this record, it’s surprising that Motown judged this to be the more commercial. Very good side nevertheless.
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I’m so upset this is the first time that I can’t listen to the song that you’ve critiqued! From your description and rating it sounds like a great song. I’m glad that I joined this blog late because growing anticipation for your next Supremes post is leaving me sleep deprived = ).
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Never heard of this one—- Now I gotta go find a copy–II’m always doing the mashed potatoes to DON’T TAKE IT AWAY — and I’m am Andre Williams fan–I don;t think he ever belonged on Motown though–too sleazy and greazy, but I love Sleeze!!
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Trivia: According to the TCMS 4 liner notes, this was Andre Williams’ final Motown recording session.
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Hey Mr Pauli. Anyone who does the mashed potatoes is okay in my book ! You go dude!
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Haven’t heard this one but it is interesting that in the early 70s Motown sign bluesy vocalist Willie Hutch. Not pure blues – but more like Stax styled music with a dollop of blues. Willie’s 1973 album “Fully Exposed” is quite good. His does his own version of “I’ll Be There” which he co-wrote for the Jackson 5 which is very good – much different that the J-5’s version (which I like too).
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Willie Hutch is so cool and underrated! Alot of my beat making friends love to sample his music because it’s soooo good. I first heard him I think in the Pam Grier film Coffy and in The Mack…good music lol. I knew he was part of The Corperation. Just like the Supremes were best with HDH, J5 were best with The Corperation. I never heard Willie’s version until now it is good and very diffrent from J5’s like you mentioned. Still nothing beats the clearness & sincerity in little Michael’s voice. I can’t wait…(which will probably in a couple of yrs. lol) for Nixon to start critiquing the J5.
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Never heard this before but i do like Ward’s voice. One of my favorites is on Cellarful of Motown vol 1. I think it’s called “When I’m Gone” or something like that but it has the Temptations on background vocals. Check it out.
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A bit late to the party here, but I found this site while working my way through the Complete Motown Singles sets. Singin’ Sammy Ward has been one of my favorite finds on this excursion — thanks for all the detail you provide!
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