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Tamla T 54107 (B), November 1964
B-side of How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
(Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Freddie Gorman)
Stateside SS 360 (B), November 1964
B-side of How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
(Released in the UK under license through EMI/Stateside Records)
A cover of an earlier Marvelettes B-side; if all you knew of either Marvin Gaye or the Marvelettes was What’s Going On and Please Mr Postman, that might seem incongruous.
But this isn’t some retooled bit of girl group froth. Rather, the Marvelettes’ original was one of the more arresting (and, to be honest, more disturbing) Motown tracks to date, a frank and open examination of a woman willing to trade her dignity for her man, set to a pretty tune – a precursor to Baby Love, but done in the form of a torchy ballad rather than a kicking 4/4 dancefloor smash. For Marvin to take it on shows a major commitment to a piece of serious art, rather than some kind of po-faced reinterpretation, an ironic reimagining of featherweight fluff.
If anything, he’s not up to the job yet. In Marvin’s hands, while it’s still arresting, and it’s certainly still pretty, it actually comes out softer, smoother, somehow less striking than the original.
As has been well-documented on this blog, Marvin wanted to sing standards and show tunes, not swaggering R&B or rock and roll. He didn’t want to be a pop star in the new, Sixties sense; unlike most of his labelmates, he didn’t want to be Ray Charles or Dinah Washington, he wanted to be Nat King Cole.
But that sort of thing needs a certain kind of talent, and he didn’t really have what it takes. When Marvin takes on an MOR standard, the deliveries are usually good, from a technical point of view at least, but there’s no feeling there; he’s so respectful of the tune, he spends so much energy paying homage to both the writers and his vocal heroes and heroines, that he doesn’t often really get inside a song, make it his own.
The ultimate conclusion is that he doesn’t have the acting chops to make MOR and jazz material really work; he sounds like a musical tourist, a dilettante indulging himself. And, to an extent, that’s what happens here too.
Forever is no MOR standard – it’s too low-key and too lyrically troublesome to really wow ’em in Vegas, even if this new version lays it on thickly, adding a bunch of schmaltzy overdubs that weren’t there in the original – but the quality (and qualities) of the songwriting are obvious, and Marvin reacts accordingly. He turns in an absolutely beautiful delivery, some of his sweetest and loveliest vocal work to date. But he’s so respectful of the tune, so mindful of the need to please the punters in the front row and bring his vocal home, that he ends up singing it rather than living it, and that’s where he loses out to the Marvelettes.
The song itself hasn’t got worse, it’s still superb, and this is still a fine record. But yet again, I’m left wondering what I might have made of a Motown recording if I’d heard this version first, because as things stand, as lovely as Marvin sounds here, I’d go for the Marvelettes’ version every single time.
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!)
COVERWATCH
Motown Junkies has reviewed other Motown versions of this song:
- The Marvelettes (February 1963)
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.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in Marvin Gaye? Click for more.)
Marvin Gaye “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” |
Kim Weston “A Little More Love” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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Bob Harlow said:
I agree with Nixon 100%.
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Dave L said:
To be honest, this version never really moved me.
Motown’s practice of passing around all of the Jobete material like buffet items for almost every artist to have a try, wasn’t always a good idea. Whatever other wonderful things Wanda Young Rogers brought to this song, I think in the imagination of many a Motown fan -including this one- she made it a girls song, then and always. (This in-trading about doesn’t always work for the girls either; Supremes A Go-Go is larded with versions of Baby I Need Your Loving, I Can’t Help Myself and Come and Get These Memories, I could have done without.)
This is like your reviews of “Run Run Run” and “I’m Giving You Your Freedom”; we both come up with a 12, only I’d put the 7 on the a-side and the 5 here.
Perhaps Marvin loved the song so much, he just insisted on a go-round with it, and to that degree, it’s hard to blame him. All these years later, though, Wanda’s remains the unthreatened classic.
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MichaelS said:
Here’s a link to an ingenious “duet” of “Forever” by Marvin Gaye and The Marvelettes. Enjoy!
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John Plant said:
Would it be utterly blasphemous to confess that THIS is now the version of FOREVER I like best? I love the encounter of Wanda’s hard-edged steadiness and Marvin’s velvet. In any case, that was a real treat, Michael S. Many thanks!
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MichaelS said:
Glad you enjoyed it, John Plant!
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Mary Plant said:
Thanks so much MichaelS! One of the wonderful and humbling things about this blog is that it’s showing this formerly cocky Motown afficiando how much she doesn’t know! This is a gorgeous take!
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The Nixon Administration said:
Wow, that’s quite remarkable, what a great find! People’s ingenuity never fails to amaze me.
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Randy Brown said:
Did the link change? All I hear is sucessive posts of the Marvelettes’ version.
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144man said:
Yes, the link has changed. It did originally play the “mash-up” here.
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Damecia said:
After listening to Marvin’s version of “Forever” I wished that I hadn’t dissed the Marvelettes version (lol). I agree that this version is prettier and the tempo is better and the lack of emotion from Marvin takes away from the song. But perhaps, no man could give this song the treatment a woman could. For this reason, The Marvelettes version is superior. (Marvelettes plz forgive me for dissing “Forever” on the review lol). I got caught up in the aesthetics of the song and didn’t take in consideration of the emotive performance and the overall story. With that said, Marvin still deserves his 7 because without a doubt this is a pretty song.
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gregory said:
I tend to agree with Damecia, I never got a chance to compare until now the two different versions between Marvin and Marvelettes. The Marvin version still a very pretty version smooth but could use a little more on that particular song of emotions
department. I still like it !!!!! It brings a slower more romantic tone to it !! It tells a great story!!! one thing that could of been better is that it sounds like it was faded out too early form the original session tape ??possibly?? It is a song that seems like it should of been at least 35 sec. longer!!! Of coarse you know how it was, with AM Radio airplay back in the 1960’s the D.J.s wanted the records to not be more than 3 minutes long most record company’s listed them at 2:59 or or a tad bit lower. I’m thinking that’s what this song fell victim to even though it was a “B” side I do remember a few D.J.’s flipping the record over an playing this “B” side! It does show a different side of Marvin! I do enjoy the Marvelettes version It also seems to be too short in its running time!! also I really appreciate and enjoyed the down load from Micheal S about the duet of both Marvin and (the Marvelettes version) I don’t know if that was a original recording master or if it was a remix blending the two versions together but it could of been a good single on its own!!! ” Thanks Micheal S. ” I would also tend to give this one a “7” as well
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Damecia said:
Thanx Gregory! I also noticed the same thing about the fade out, except I thought that the Youtube users faded out the song themselves. I did not know it was the actual record.
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MichaelS said:
The “duet” is a remix posted on YouTube by someone who goes by the name “THEmotownboy.” Many thanks to him!
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Abbott Cooper said:
In NYC, although “How Sweet It Is…” got the dominant radio airplay, I do remember “Forever” getting significant exposure on the R&B stations.
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Landini said:
You said it lady! The word “pretty” totally defines this song. I love both versions but probably like Marvin’s a little better. A doo wop group (whose name escapes me) did a pretty good version of this as well.
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Landini said:
Oh by the way. When I said lady I was responding to Damecia – not you Michael! LOL!
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144man said:
Marvin Gaye’s voice has often been described as “pretty”, which is why he is one of the few male artists who could have given a convincing performance on a song, for which the general consensus is that it is more suitable for a female vocalist. I rate it 7/10 as well.
Thanks MichaelS for the link to the Marvin Gaye/ Marvelettes “duet” which deserves to reach a wider audience.
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Dave L said:
If there’s one thing worth regretting about this wonderful song, is that no film or videotape seems to exist of either Wanda or Marvin performing it. And that would surely be something precious today.
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Ed Pauli said:
This is where I start to lement the loss of Mary Wells, as this would’ve been the perfect song for her. Marvin’s version is the one I heard first. The Marvelettes’ version is OK, but I always preferred uptempo stuff from them –as for Mary, her soft ballads always did it for me [except I did like her hard edged Bye Bye Baby] .
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Mickey The Twistin' Playboy said:
I’ve always liked Marvin’s version just for the quality of the vocal. Rating = 8/10
It would have been interesting to hear Levi do a version.
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Randy Brown said:
Please note that both versions use the same backing track. Who are the girls on Marvin’s version…the ever present Andantes?
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MotownFan1962 said:
I think the background vocalists sound more like The Miracles than The Andantes. There are male voices (or at least one male voice) in the background and only one female voice. I could be wrong, though (I had once thought it was Marvin himself singing with the Andantes).
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bogart4017 said:
Beautiful song……for the Marvelettes. Marvin doesnt sound so convincing begging to a woman with no backbeat behind him. I’ll take the 7/10.
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George Ramsey said:
I loved both versions, and Marvin told me years ago, that he loved the song. I worked as road mgr for both Fred Gormans group The Originals and Lamont Dozier. Fred wrote with Lamont and Brian, before Eddie, it was H-D-G, first.
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Landini said:
Wow! So you were a road manager for the Originals! i saw them open for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles at Carter Baron Ampitheater in Wash, DC – summer of 1971. I wish I could remember the concert better.
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the burnman said:
I first heard this one in the context of the 3 LP MG Anthology, which I pretty much wore out as a teen back in the early 80s. For that reason, the backing vocals on the MG version seem indispensable, and the singing is more mellifluous than on the Marvelettes version. But now that Nixon has opened my ears to it, I definitely hear the chilling emotion in the original, and so have gained a new appreciation for it. Still, I will ultimately be a dissenter and will prefer Marvin’s take for the rest of my days.
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