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VIP 25007 (A), September 1964
b/w Should I Tell Them
(Written by Mickey Stevenson and Norman Whitfield)
Stateside SS 361 (A), November 1964
b/w Should I Tell Them
(Released in the UK under license through EMI / Stateside Records)
I adore the Velvelettes, but – although it has a status approaching something like a signature tune – this is actually my least favourite of the six Velvelettes singles we’ll be seeing here on Motown Junkies. “Least favourite” being a relative term, of course; it’s still way above average.
This was the group’s first official Motown release, following their abortive earlier effort There He Goes back in the spring of 1963, which had been shot down by Quality Control and ended up sneaking a release – licensed or otherwise – via the IPG label. The positive reaction to that single led to the Velvelettes, now down to a three-piece, getting a shot at a “proper” Motown 45. It was an opportunity only grudgingly granted, and the group – educated middle-class girls with college commitments, unable to drop everything and move to Detroit at a moment’s notice – didn’t get back to the studio until the summer of 1964, having lost ground to their labelmates that they’d never make up.
The red carpet wasn’t exactly rolled out; despite being assigned to work with the same writers and producers (Mickey Stevenson and Norman Whitfield) who’d been so impressed the first time around, the Velvelettes were shunted to VIP Records, already the neglected member of the Motown label family. If singles on VIP didn’t actually cost any less money, it’s still hard to think of it as anything other than Motown’s budget imprint, especially with that hideous, “no expense spent” yellow label.
So when the Velvelettes turned in what is manifestly the best A-side in VIP’s catalogue to date, and promptly scored the label’s first ever hit on any chart – going Top 50 pop and just missing the Cash Box R&B Top 30 – you’d have expected Motown to take notice, maybe move them to a higher-profile label. But Motown was already well-served for excellent female vocal groups (the Supremes, the Vandellas, the Marvelettes), and so the Velvelettes remained in the shadows for the rest of their short time at Hitsville. It wasn’t for want of great records, that’s for sure.
This one still feels a bit like an early effort; all the ingredients are there, everything’s almost ready, but it doesn’t quite gel together.
On the one hand, you have Mickey Stevenson and Norman Whitfield’s vision for a new Motown Sound – distinct from that being perfected by Holland-Dozier-Holland, tougher and louder, guitar-heavy and with more of a blues influence – which would go on to reap great rewards over the next eighteen months. On the other hand, you have a bunch of standard Brill Building girl group tropes (including a doo-lang doo-lang refrain lifted directly from the Chiffons’ He’s So Fine). The juxtaposition of the various ingredients – Marvelettes-style sass, Chiffons-style clean-cut girl group good times, coruscating sax, muscular bass and heavy drum echo, all great elements in their own right, is a mix that jars every time.
It’s somehow unsatisfying for that reason – Whitfield and Stevenson would shortly be mastering the art of combining sweetness and drive (and unbelievable percussion!) to come up with some great productions, and the Velvelettes would be the best exponents of their art, but for the moment everything about this record seems slightly awkward, slightly forced.
Hard to put your finger on many specific moments, but Cal Gill’s lead vocal seems to be struggling to compete in places, the lyrics call for a knowing, older narrator (Cal herself admits in the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 4 she didn’t really understand what this was meant to be about), the messy lead-in to the chorus just doesn’t quite sit right, and the one-chord guitar riff and foot-stomp rhythm – hypnotising in its own right, as with the intro – seems to come from a different song altogether compared to the Sha-doop! Ba, ba, sha-doop! backing vocals. I don’t know, it just sounds… wrong, somehow.
There’s greatness here too, of course – these are the Velvelettes, after all! – not least the fact that it’s absolutely packed full of hooks. Some of them (the drilling intro, the sax break that squeaks as it hits the roof, the crotchet pulse orchestra hits at the end of the chorus) are down to the band, but most of them are the girls’ work, showing off their remarkable skill and timing for interplay.
If the Shangri-Las-meets-Shirelles style back-and-forth the song aims for never quite comes off (What’d I say, girls?), it’s because the vocals are already in a more sophisticated place than your standard throwaway teen drama. The unexpected bounce up the scale when Cal sings I’m telling you girls: you’d better LOOK! / before you LEAP, yeah!, with Norma and Bertha joining her at the top for Leap! before cutting back to backing vocals as Cal gives it the full Mary Wells for the rest of the verse, is a work of art. And the smoky quaver in Cal’s opening lines – Well, well, I once believed / All fellas were nice – presages her outstanding work on the group’s follow-up single, He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’.
There’s more than enough here to make it a very good Motown single, and as a calling card it’s hard to top; they were about to get it completely right, and that much is obvious from this record alone even without knowing what was around the corner. But then, knowing what’s around the corner probably makes me go harder on this than I otherwise might.
It’s good, but never in a million years is it the one they deserve to be remembered for. A work in progress, a hint of the shape of things to come, that also happens to be very groovy in its own right. That the Velvelettes’ weakest Motown single is still several orders of magnitude better than most artists’ best should tell you all you need to know.
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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The Velvelettes “Should I Tell Them” |
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A 6?!? Seriously?? While I agree with most of your review — this does come across as something of a hybrid effort, a mix of Girl Group effects with a tougher, emerging identity for the girls — it is still a fantastic single. No doubt my affection for it is
influenced by where I was at when I first heard it — a 13-year-old boy trying to find my way in the soulless suburbs of L.A. If I heard it today for the first time, I’d probably still love it, but that emotional connection would be missing. Yet you hit it on the head by calling it “packed with hooks” — indeed it is, and all of them are glorious! This would be a definite 9 (or 9.5 if I could award half-points) from me.
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I’m certainly in a minority, and this is one of those reviews where I’m expecting lots of Disagree votes – but it’s my least favourite of their A-sides. Without giving too much away, future Velvelettes reviews may seem like overcompensation… 🙂
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(incidentally this horrific new comment box is not of my doing and I’ve asked WordPress to change it back!)
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I hate it too, and the banner across the top, as if I don’t know my own name or what site I’ve gone to.
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I’m sure Nick in Pasadina remembers “Needle In A Haystack” as I do from KRLA
where it was Top 20 late in ’64. A great sounding record on the radio.! For me it’s an 8. There is one Velvelettes coming soon that I like even more.
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Yes, Bob, I was always glued to KRLA! In retrospect, it’s good to know they were more partial to some Motown discs than stations in other parts of the U.S.
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No offense to the Velvelettes –ever– but I also came to think, eventually, the V.I.P. label stood for “Very Insignificant People.” For years, the only VIP 45’s I ever had were this, The Elgins and The Spinners’ “It’s A Shame.”
I read in one of the many books, that eager as Whitfield was to have The Temptations to himself, some wise head inside Motown convinced him to prove himself with less-hot groups first, and thus we lucky listeners got this feminine classic and an indelible Marvelettes signature song within two months of one another.
This was my favorite Velvelettes for years, simply because it was the only one I knew, but it’s got a strong rival since in “A Bird In The Hand.”
I’ve read interviews too with Cal Gill in the last few years, and this is a hell of a great lady. Despite the half-hearted treatment she and her group got from Motown, she expresses no bitterness, and indeed speaks only with pride and gratefulness about her association with Berry Gordy’s company. She makes it very easy to love her.
Speaking of love, I detect plenty in your text, Nixon, so a ‘6’ doesn’t trouble me, even though I go maybe two more.
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(LOL) “Very Insignificant People.”
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If the Supremes sound unenthusiastic on “Where Did Our Love Go?” The Velvelettes sound that with a touch of loss on this record.
Funny that Mr. Nixon mentioned that they went to college. I’m assuming they probably were hated on by the other girls groups who probably thought the the Velvelettes were better than them, as far as class is concerned (lol).
Regardless, though because everything in the record is inconsistent and slightly off, this record is great. Nothing beats these girl group records that were made in the late ’50s and 60s.
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Ah, once again, Nixon, you demonstrate with eloquence and lucidity why this song deserves a much higher grade than you’re willing to give it! There’s so much to love here – before reading the post, my suspense was whether it was going to get a 9 or a 10. For myself, I regretfully settled for a 9, recognizing that there are greater things to come (He Was Really Saying Something and These Things Will Keep Me Loving You – for which, as I recall, they graduated to the Soul label) – But this was my introduction to the Velvelettes – on Volume 6 of the Motown Original Hits LPs. It never made it to Middlebury jukeboxes, my primal source of new Motown in those days.. (apart from returning home to South Jersey for vacations, where the proximity of Philadelphia meant a quantum increase in soul largesse on airwaves and jukeboxes.) Rummaging in recordshops a few years later, I was rewarded with ‘A Bird in the Hand’ (which owes more than a little to this song) and ‘These Things….’ but never heard ‘He Was Really Saying Something’ apart from the (splendid) version on the Marvelous Marvelettes album featuring ‘The Hunter…’ I didn’t even realize it was a cover! But what vitality and what authority the Velvelettes manifest here! What sass, what energy, what primal wisdom!
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Context is key, I guess; the Velvelettes are responsible for some of my favourite records, and coming to this one after them, it can’t help but feel like a job half-done. It’s still fine fare – but they’ve spoiled me for themselves. “If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor…”
Incidentally, as I put on my Misstra Know It All cape and goggles, it’s “The Marvelettes” you’re thinking of, commonly called “the Pink Album” (1967) – a brilliant record from start to finish, and featuring the best version of Message To Michael ever recorded as well as Tonight Was Made For Love, a strong candidate for a 10 here if Quality Control hadn’t been busy that day slamming their heads in a door for a bet.
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The cap and goggles suit you splendidly. I remember that the Pink Album (as it shall henceforth be known in my mind – I wish I still had my copy, along with many other treasures that made their way, in those less prosperous days, to the second-hand shop in exchange for vittles or beer – or opera) also contained a definitive version of The Day You Take One (You Have To Take the Other) – with, if I’m not mistaken, an absolutely riveting contribution from Mr. Jamerson.
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It should require an x-ray finish whether Playboy (Tamla 231) or The Marvelettes (Tamla 274, March 1967) proves the best studio album the girls ever released. The later one, with significantly more mature material, was the last to feature Gladys. When I first bought it, just weeks before turning 13, I didn’t happen to have a 45 of Warwick’s “Message To Michael,” and after hearing Gladys’s version, felt no rush to get one.
From the opening notes of “Barefootin’,” to the final bars of “I Need Someone,” The Marvelettes is dearer to me than the most expansive “Greatest Hits” that ever came after. As a showcase of the maturity Gladys and Wanda had reached as lead singers, it’s definitive.
And yes, the album supplies a sense a frustration every bit as great as that attending “Knock On My Door”: the single of “When You’re Young And In Love” departed Billboard after June 24, 1967 and “My Baby Must Be A Magician” is not released until November 21, more than enough time to issue “This Night Was Made For Love” as a 45, and reveal its magic to the world.
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It’s the hook that gets me every time – hook, line and sinker. An easy 9/10
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Hi!
Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when you and I were discussing “Surfer Boy” (which I think is 1 of the best Supremes’ song) well the movie Beach Ball came on TV tonight and I watched the entire thing to see the Supremes perform “Surfer Boy” & “Beach Ball” (lol). I thought they were going to be in the middle of the movie, but they were at the end. The movie wasn’t that bad. Cheesy surfer movie plot with alright music. I was shocked to see the guy who played the character Vince Fontaine in “Grease” in the film (lol).
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Hi! I shall keep a watch out for it being shown in the UK.
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I’d give it at least an 8. I do like “Lonely, Lonely Girl Am I” better. But this was a great recording, nonetheless.
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Easily a 9 for me. Unfortunately we never heard the Velvelettes original on Australian radio. A local group called The Twilights, a male group, changed the gender and covered it and it was a big hit in Oz.
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“A big, brassy, bouncy, irresistable rush of a pop song” is how you summed up the Temptations’ “Girl, (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)”, which you gave 9, and i feel that that description is equally applicable to “Needle In A Haystack”.
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This song for me is just fun to listen to, especially when I’m driving..”Needle In A Haystack” has an awesome rythym track and the saxaphone bridge in this really drives it home. I too would give it an 8 or 9.. For lyrics not so much but the sound!!
1964 was the first year that I began really hearing “The Motown Sound”, I was 13
listening to ” My Guy” “Where Did Our Love Go” ” Baby I Need Your Loving” as they came out on the radio and knew these songs didn’t sound like anything else that I had ever heard before. Everybody I knew were into the Beatles which to me were okay,
but this was the “Sound Of Young America” and I couldn’t wait for the next Motown record release..
Thank you Nixon for this website!!! “And The Motown Hits Just Keep On Coming”
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A quick note..I see where a little earlier on this thread ” This Night Was Made For Love” by The Marvelettes was mentioned, that was my other favorite besides ” The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game” from the ” Pink Album”..I still listen to it to this day!!
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It’s still difficult for me to decide whether “Needle In A Haystack” or “He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin'” is my favorite Velvelettes single. One thing I do know is that “Needle” is deserving of at least an “8.” I’m not sure what stopped you, Mr Nixon, from taking it to that level but your critique, as always, is greatly appreciated!
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In 1964 I was 9 and this slipped under my radar, the big hits of the year were …..big. This barely made the Top 50. After having an opportunity to here the song, I would give it a 6. It is alright, as a song. It is a better record.
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6 is far too low in my estimation. Certainly not a 10 but easily an 8, maybe a 9.
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All the pieces are there for a great song, but it never coalesces into anything greater than the sum of its parts. I keep waiting for it to hit that extra gear that all great Motown songs have but it never gets there. Technically well executed, but I keep waiting for the emotional wallop where it hits me in the gut and drags me along for the ride. Never happens, so I’d agree with the 6, maybe a 7 on technical merit alone.
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You’ve described my feelings about this song perfectly!
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Because of the adrenaline rush I experience every time I hear this, such that I often have to immediately repeat play the track to maintain the feeling, I find it desperately difficult to understand how others cannot feel the same. Particular highlights for me are the arch girl group campness and sassiness, matching anything by The Shangri-las, and what I consider to be the finest handclaps on any record, both stingingly sharp and mostly bang on the beat apart from a brief moment when one pair gets deliciously sloppy. This is not a harbinger of better to come; this is a glorious template. 10/10 and a joy forever.
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Spot on, David!
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Needle in a Haystack is quite simply The Velvelettes best record, right up there with He Was Really Sayin’ Something. I would give it at least a 9/10! …and, in case you guys have never seen this clip, I am happy to share the wealth!
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Uh…that wasn’t in the link I sent. How weird…
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Sadly, the only time i’ve seen this performed was when The Blossoms did it one night on “Shindig”. I don’t think the Velevelettes got out very much.
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I span this record at an admittedly mainstream Northern Soul night in May, preceded by Gladys Knight & The Pips “Just Walk In My Shoes” and followed by Tommy Neal’s “Goin’ To A Happening”. The dance floor was full for Gladys and her Pips but by the time Tommy made his entrance there was barely room to breathe (thank heavens I was behind the decks), right from that familiar guitar driven handclappin’ intro.
I’d only owned my copy for a couple of months. I have a friend who lives in Nebraska who, when he visits his local record shop, grabs me a handful of singles from the 99c box and sends them over. Usually they are so beaten up there’s no hope for them but in this batch there was this, on that “hideous, “no expense spent” yellow label” in pretty much perfect condition. I had to play it out somewhere.
I’ve always loved it from first hearing it, probably at The Mackadown in Birmingham in 1979/1980. It crossed that void between the records that the boys liked to show off to (Time, Get Ready) and those that the fellas cleared off for while the girls danced around their handbags (Jimmy Mack, Third Finger Left Hand), always a floor filler.
An 8, maybe even a 9 on my scale.
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Nice to see the Velvelettes getting their props on this website; they were terrific and never got the attention (not to mention the record sales) they deserved. It’s hard for me to list a favorite song of theirs; on some days it’s “Needle in a Haystack,” while on others it’s “He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’ ” or “These Things Will Keep Me Loving You.”
Great fun to read the comments above from Nick in Pasadena and Bob Harlow, as I also spent a lot of time listening to KRLA when I was a kid. But my favorite station was KGFJ, which sent out a strong signal to the upscale beach community I lived in. This funky white boy LOVED the music on KGFJ!
Anyway, I’d rate “Needle in a Haystack” higher than the 6 it gets here; I’d give it an 8 or a 9 (out of 10).
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I used to listen to KGFJ too, when I attended UCLA for 3 of my undergraduate years, and again for 2 of my 3 graduate years (between 1966-72). 5 and a half more bars from Magnificent Montague, Huntin’ with Hunter – they played lots of obscure L.A. Soul, also some obscure Bay Area cuts, and most of the Motown releases that weren’t the obvious “throwaways”. It was an interesting change after having listened to WGES and WVON in Chicago, which had a heavy Midwestern bias. We also had Mexican station, XERB, which had Wolfman Jack and a few other Soul DJs playing Ghetto music, with a slightly different slant. Patrick, did you ever go to any of the South L.A. nightclubs – like Divck Barnett’s Guys & Dolls, or The Californian Club? Or see an shows at The DooTone Music Center, or El Monte Legion Stadium?
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Yes, I agree with you, the Velvelletes never seemed to get the attention they deserved except perhaps in Los Angeles via KRLA radio. “Needle in a Haystack” went to #13 on KRLA local radio but did not even reach top 40 on the National Billboard Charts. My theory is that the Velvelletes changed personnel much too often, in fact, it probably is not even certain which group of girls actually sang on the recording of “Needle in a Haystack.” You need to have an identity or else it is just another great record with no identifiable group members.
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I love the vocal harmonies at 0:57 – the chorus holds steady while the lead goes down the blues scale. I wish they’d done each time.
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If this song isn’t a 10, then no Motown song is a 10. I first heard this song in the 1980s from a dance party show broadcasting out of Philadelphia that played all the favorite floor-burners from that storied city. This song probably got played as often as any other, and for good reason! Not only did I fall in love with it, I bought the 45. Then later, I went out and bought the first Velvelettes comp I could find! I wonder if Nixon doesn’t dance, or has never seen the effect the best Motown records have the dance floor. Because he would just simply accept this record as “As Great As They Get,” imo. I’m sorry if I am dissenting TOO much. (I grew up with the OTHER Nixon as my President, and he didn’t tolerate ANY dissent.) On the other hand, I don’t even know if “The New Nixon” (one of RMN’s slogans) even reads comments on his old posts. But I just discovered this blog.
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I do, and welcome! And dissent is indeed encouraged. I’ve already had my say up there 🙂
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I just read on Soulful Detroit that, thanks to the revenue from this single, Motown were saved from impending bankruptcy (Berry Gordy apparently mentioned this at some award ceremony).
If this is indeed true, it’s surprising and a little depressing that they were not given the honour of a move to Tamla/Motown/Gordy and a bigger promotional push from the company.
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