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Tamla T 54102 (B), August 1964
B-side of That’s What Love Is Made Of
(Written by Smokey Robinson)
Stateside SS 353 (B), November 1964
B-side of That’s What Love Is Made Of
(Released in the UK under license through EMI / Stateside Records)
Definitely the better of the two sides – let’s get that straight right from the start. Would I Love You is a much stronger song than That’s What Love Is Made Of, simple and enduring. Would it have made a better single? I’m not so sure.
Smokey cut this gentle ballad in Chicago with a string section, following the lead of the earlier underwhelming single (You Can’t Let The Boy Overpower) The Man In You and dating from around the same time. It seems to have sat on the shelf for a little while, but maybe Robinson fancied pairing the A-side’s nursery-rhyme tweeness with another song of melodic and lyrical simplicity.
Certainly, there’s a shared lack of “edge” between the two songs, a kind of gentle inoffensiveness (is that a word?) that seems to hint at Smokey the artist – as opposed to Smokey the million-selling songwriter/producer – moving in a softer, more mainstream, MOR direction. (I’m sure, on this evidence, not many people predicted that the Miracles’ next single would be a raucous, lunkheaded would-be dance rocker. But that’s a story for another day.)
That’s where the comparison ends, though. Where That’s What Love Is Made Of is grating in its simplistic form, Would I Love You billows along in graceful simplicity, and there’s a world of difference between those two things.
It’s really quite lovely, and if it catches you when you’re in the right mood, you could certainly fall head over heels for its many charms. Smokey is on excellent vocal form (the unexpected kick up the scale at 1:36 – would I HOLD you? – is perhaps my favourite moment of his singing career so far, but his call-and-response work in the second half of the song is almost equally noteworthy).
I’ve never read a review of this that didn’t single out Claudette for individual praise, and I’m not going to break that streak; she sounds wonderful, leading the rest of the Miracles in some strange, ethereal backing vocals before soaring away to take the main vocal line, pulling the titular refrain right up to the rooftops. The bed of strings and tinkling high-register piano wrap everything up in ribbons the colour of spring… it’s all so pretty.
And then there’s the lyrics. While rather more direct than Smokey’s usual fare (there’s no self-amusing wordplay here, nor any sense of Robinson finding the exact expressions for the feelings he wants to convey), they’re instead disarmingly honest, in the manner of much of his best work. A song of love, devotion and total openness, and one that can’t be derailed by the use of the word “birdie” in the first stanza.
But – you knew there was a “but” on its way, right? – if it catches you in the wrong mood, it falls flat on its face. It’s another absolutely standard, off-the-peg ambling 6/8 doo-wop cut, and the tune is only carried away from the usual doo-wop chord changes and taken somewhere interesting by the strings. The song itself, lyrics aside, is absolutely flat. If it’s undeniably more beautiful (much more beautiful!) than earlier Miracles attempts to disguise a song’s factory-settings nature by hanging all manner of vocal and instrumental loveliness on that standard skeleton – see You Can Depend On Me, or Who’s Lovin’ You, or I Can’t Believe, or I’ve Been Good To You, etc etc etc – it’s still something of a surprise to find it happening again. Unlike the Marvelettes’ Forever, it’s never quite pushed me over.
All of which has always stopped me ever pushing this right to the very top, rather than seeing it as a really good Miracles song. It’s probably not the sort of thing that would have made a suitable A-side – it’s too slow and gentle, and (more importantly) too meandering, for that, lacking the killer hook to take it to the very top level – but it’s beautiful and it’s honest, and if a record has those things going for it, you can’t really say too much against it.
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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Since we’re all getting hung up on marks this week ( 🙂 ), this one was so close to being an eight that I edited the review and changed it back and forth almost every couple of hours before it went live. It’s a high seven, put it that way.
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Thursday, March 29, 2012, 8:30 a.m. ET, and your review isn’t up yet, Nixon, but I can’t wait.
As long as I’m here on Earth
For everything that I’m worth
Just like a flower loves the rain
I’d try to never cause you pain
Like all the best Motown, good from the first note to the last drop. This one is a solid 10 for me, and if I were confining myself to 50 across all Motown singles, I’d still steal a 10 from something else to give it to this, if I had to.
I’ve loved it since I was 10 years old, and I’ve found no flaw in the record in all the years since to diminish it. It immediately ascends to the same plateau where “I’ll Try Something New” resides and Smokey, in his work with the Miracles, has plenty such similar work to go. Both songs offer their lead character at a moment-of-truth stage, both completely vulnerable and heart in hand. We know they are either to have all their dreams come true, or be dreadfully disappointed. If this isn’t Smokey at his best, I don’t know what is.
But even Motown seemed to have doubts. I can think it was only timidity that stopped “Would” from being pushed as the A-side. Perhaps it was thought too slow, too adult and serious?
It got folded into Greatest Hits From The Beginning LP, Tamla 254 (the company’s first two-disc album release), in the spring of 1965, but that set became haphazard to locate by the 1970s. The single itself was discontinued with the inauguration of the Yesteryear oldies series in 1972, and “Would” went lost as a 45 unless you found some drill-holed, remainder original. Next came the Anthology set of the mid-70s, and “Would I Love You” wasn’t on it. Most fatally, in the CD era, it was left off the otherwise definitive Miracles 35th Anniversary set, and as far as I know, didn’t appear on a CD till the Lost and Found series of 1999.
That’s not a kind way to treat a masterpiece, and that’s what “Would I Love You” was and is.
>> Good morning. I’ll live happily with your 7, Nixon, but obviously it means much much more to me. There’s lots to go and you’re sure to talk me upward again on songs I took too lightly. Looking forward to it 🙂
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It’s still rather lovely, and I can certainly see how one could fall for it – it’s just never quite “got” me in that way. But then – as I’ve said before – I know there are people who, faced with the last remaining copy of I Want A Guy in the universe falling into a trash compactor, would happily press the “Go!” button.
According to the paperwork unearthed by Ketih Hughes, Motown had this sat around for something like six months; the A-side was in stores within a couple of weeks of recording, which makes me wonder if they’d originally rejected this and then dug it out again when they were just casting about for something to put on the flip.
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Mr. Nixon, “lovely” is a perfect word for this song. I have always enjoyed this one. I managed to score a copy of the 2 record set “Greatest Hits from the Beginning” for Xmas of 1970. I was 12 at the time but already a Motown fanatic. Of course, old bonehead here, got rid of a bunch of vinyl in the 80s & that was among the ones I off loaded. Oh well. Hope someone out there is enjoying it!
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Time has been kind to this track. It definitely sounds the stronger side now. It didn’t on release-date. 8/10.
[I can’t wait for your next review; I have a feeling I’m going to agree with you!]
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Oh no, now there’s pressure! 🙂
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I’m sure this cut found its way onto quite a few hi-fi’s during the latter stages of quite a few house parties…
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I guess I’m in the wrong mood because I don’t dig this song at all! (lol). I’ve listened to it 3 times and the results = too slow, can’t remember the hook, and me asking when will this song be over? Smokey is in good voice, but Claudette is the best thing about the record.
Mr. Nixon I would give this a 5 and “That’s What Love Is Made Of” the 7 = )
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I grew up in the Philly area and heard this song many many times on the radio as a teen. As my favorite Smokey songs are in his earlier period I can certainly say this is amont my top five or six Miracles songs. I must admit I found the lyrics not up to the melody, arrangement and vocals, but , as a whole recording, found it to be terrific.
Love the site!
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Yep Fitz, it was a big hit in Philly… more popular than “That’s What Love is Made Of” I still hear it occasionally on WOGL. I still love hearing it. My rating: 9/10.
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Didnt hear it much on the radio but it was surely a turntable hit at the platter parties and record hops.
This is throwback Smokey at his-almost-finest. If the instrumentation were less sophisticated it could have been recorded in 1959. It was also a look at a Smokey-to-come. Check the flip side of next years “My Girl Has Gone” called “Since You Won My Heart”.
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This seems like nothing more than (very well executed) 50s doowop. I greatly prefer the A-side, but this many Motown Junkies can’t be wrong so I’ll keep listening and wait for the lightbulb to go off over my head.
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