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Motown M 1075 (A), April 1965
b/w Whisper You Love Me Boy
(Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr.)
Tamla Motown TMG 516 (A), May 1965
b/w Whisper You Love Me Boy
(Released in the UK under license through EMI / Tamla Motown)
Astonishingly, this was the Supremes’ fifth straight US Number One hit. Easy to see why: right now, they were unstoppable, and this is another really good Supremes single.
Really good. Not great.
Back In My Arms Again shares a great many similarities with the group’s third American chart-topper, Come See About Me, the record it was apparently written to follow – and the similarity isn’t restricted to just what’s in the grooves. As well as being the two most “conventional” of that first clutch of five Number Ones for the Supremes, based around the same structure and (broadly) the same set of ideas, Back In My Arms Again and Come See About Me are the two which barely dented the British charts, this one limping to Number 40 while the magnificent Stop! In The Name Of Love was still riding high above it.
Plus, and this is important, both Back In My Arms Again and Come See About Me were old news by the time they were (rush) released, both having been leapfrogged by newer songs which gazumped their places on the release schedules: just as Come See About Me didn’t make its 45 bow until the newer Baby Love had stolen its thunder, so Back In My Arms Again was originally recorded (in raw, demo form) long before Stop! In The Name Of Love was even written.
That may explain why this – while it’s very good, and let’s not lose sight of that – feels like something of a retrograde step in a few ways. Re-recorded in the wake of the success of Stop!, it’s slick, stylish, even thrilling in places; but it’s not magical.
SINGING IN THE REIGN
It would be impressive for any group to have racked up five successive US Billboard Number One hit singles; when that group are the Supremes, for so long the runts of the Motown litter, it’s nigh on astonishing. But it happened, and you can look it up, it’s right there in black and white: in less than 12 months, the one-time “No-Hit Supremes” went from being nobodies to having five number ones in a row. The greatest girl group of all time. Pop royalty – and from a standing start.
More remarkable yet, all five were also really good pop records. (Even this, the last of the, um, “famous five”, is a fine pop single in its own right.) And the two albums they spawned – Where Did Our Love Go and its follow-up More Hits by the Supremes (left) – are classics, perhaps not recognised as such at the time (in a culture which didn’t really know how to handle the LP as an artistic statement rather than a glorified maxi-single, and from a 45-centric label whose LPs are still overlooked even now), but standing up supremely well fifty years later, all killer, no filler, with nary a dull moment on any of the four sides. This new version of Back In My Arms Again was the second chance the public (on both sides of the Atlantic) got to hear a sampling of what was around the corner on More Hits, and it’s very good.
It’s an excellent single, in point of fact. All the ingredients from the group’s rise to fame, and their newfound prominence, power and posterity, are here for your pleasure: a stomping 4/4 beat (now augmented by some frantic instrumental passages which are full of pounding bass and drum fills, making it more like 8/8 time), shimmering vibes, grizzling horns, three fine singers on great form, a pretty, bouncy tune contrasted with downbeat lyrics (albeit this time Diana Ross’ narrator actually gets to be happy, for now at least, but she spends most of the song relating her past woes and very little time contrasting them with her present joy).
Why, then, do I like it a bit less than their previous six singles? Why is it my least favourite Supremes 45 since When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes two years and a musical lifetime ago? Why, in short, don’t I love this?
OVER AND OVER
Having given it a lot of thought, I believe it’s because both the girls and the hitherto-peerless Holland-Dozier-Holland team have taken their eye off the ball. Put bluntly, it’s the sound of a group – a great group – resting on their laurels, finding comfort in polishing up what’s gone before, rather than moving forward.
Only part of that can be laid at the feet of the superseded, repurposed song; this expensive-sounding, expansive-sounding new recording wasn’t made by accident, but rather in the full knowledge of just how striking Stop! had turned out. H-D-H have the wisdom to base the whole thing around a similarly striking contrast, here between a deep, growling horn riff and the much higher, sweeter (if not softer) notes coming from the plinking piano, shimmering vibes and the cooing tones of the ladies themselves.
But the tune’s not anywhere near as strong as Stop!, or even Come See About Me – in fact it’s the weakest tune Holland-Dozier-Holland have served up for a Motown A-side for a while now. Where Stop! was a departure, and a thrilling one at that, from both the Where Did Our Love Go album’s musical template and the sound of Come See About Me (the Supremes single immediately preceding it in that royal flush of Number Ones), this feels like more of the same. Which was probably the original idea, I suppose.
Musically, it’s almost a caricature, an archetypal Supremes record, like something some future computer would churn out if you fed it all the Supremes’ singles to date, got it to understand what made Motown and the Supremes so great, and then asked it to write you a new one. It’s not a bad record, it’s never close to being a bad record, but I can’t put it up in the same exalted company as the previous four Supremes hits in this vein.
THE WISDOM OF TIME
When I say it’s more of the same, I don’t mean there’s nothing new happening here – there are three particularly obvious new ingredients here being added speculatively to the melting pot (one of them also particularly goofy, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing).
The first new ingredient, I’ve already alluded to: the thumping, ominous war drums that mix with the grumbling sax and the high, twinkling piano and vibes to create a genuinely strange amtosphere for what is otherwise an almost acapella chorus, opening the record in a bassy thunderstorm. It’s not ominous in the way that Stop!‘s intro was ominous, with its dark cloud of Hammond organ suddenly appearing over the horizon to devour us all, but it’s still interesting all the same.
The second new ingredient: Happy Diana. If Back In My Arms Again isn’t exactly a laugh riot – as mentioned, most of it takes place in the past, where Diana’s gossipy friends caused her to dump her boyfriend, leaving her with nothing but “many long and sleepless nights” – then at least her character gets to sing from a happier place, if not necessarily about one. Unlike the previous four Number One hits, she’s singing from a position of triumph, rather than despair, as she vows to stand by her man in the face of her friends’ accusations. The first of the Supremes’ big hits not to feature Diana either pleading or demanding something right in the title, it’s like a (not much more) grown up take on Run Run Run, or the Marvelettes’ Little Girl Blue. And like those records, right under the bouncy surface, there lies a darker theme, the girls’ past masterful meldings of pain and dancing ironically giving rise – off the page – to the biggest questions yet. Is the narrator’s happiness real, or is she putting on a brave face? Did this guy sleep around, or was it just bitchy innuendo? Someone’s right about him – who’s it going to be, the narrator, or what seems like every other person in the world? What’s going to happen to her?
The third, and goofiest, new ingredient is much more of a gamble: mindful of the need to market all three Supremes to a new audience already conditioned by Beatlemania to pick their “favourite” (see the single picture sleeve (right) which was used as the template for the album), Holland-Dozier-Holland have Diana Ross break the fourth wall, mentioning the other two Supremes by name as the friends whose unwanted advice messed things up. With them right there in the room.
“How can Mary tell me what to do / When she lost her love so true?”, she sneers, sounding genuinely annoyed, with a frisson of pleasure which doesn’t say a great deal for their friendship. In fact, the tone of this whole section, probably best described as undeservedly smug, casts a different light on the sympathetic nature of the rest of the record – and there’s bitchier to come. “…And Flo, she don’t know / ‘Cos the boy she loves is a Romeo”. Is Diana sure about this, and if so, has she told Flo? How is that different from what Diana’s friends have supposedly been doing to her, winding her up enough to sing a whole song about it?
Fascinating relationship vignette though it may be, I’m not sure it does the marketing department’s quest to make these girls seem like happy-go-lucky schoolmates and BFFs quite as many favours as Holland-Dozier-Holland seem to think. But it’s a surprising moment, and indelible (especially given our gift of hindsight, knowing what actually went down between these three ladies and where Flo ended up); once heard, it’ll stay with you forever.
Those are all great things about this record. (Even the fourth wall bit, which sets my teeth on edge, is fascinating – and I can appreciate clever marketing and cheeky winks to the audience when I see them.) But the “new stuff” isn’t enough to completely dispel the feeling that we’ve heard it all before, even when we actually haven’t. There’s no getting away from the fact that in the summer of 1965, musically at least, the Supremes could have been mistaken for a one-trick pony – a great trick, sure, but it was becoming more noticeable that the exact same trick had already been done better before. (And, in fact, would be done better again, courtesy of the Isley Brothers’ magnificent Holland-Dozier-Holland collaboration This Old Heart Of Mine, another similar groove making similar use of a similar tune, similar structure and similar instrumental breaks, except faster, stronger, pared back, not so ponderous.)
But Back In My Arms Again is not a bad record. Lord, is it not a bad record. It’s such a good record. Catch it on the radio, it pops right out of the speakers, alternately pummelling the listener with that pumping intro and then soothing them with the happy sounding chorus. The recently-dissed Flo and Mary again best both Little Richard and Paul McCartney in showing just how effective a well-timed oooooh! can really be, while Diana again proves what a remarkable gift she had for emotional interpretation; she’s no great actress on record, and yet time and again she sells a song so convincingly you’d swear she wrote it herself, so beguiling here that I still can’t decide whether I think her happy face is real or an act. It’s a special record alright.
STUCK ON AMBER
It’s just that it’s not special enough, or rather it’s not special enough for me to completely fall in love with it, not the kind of unconditional love I’ve given to every Supremes single since 1963. The six Supremes singles before this one, going all the way back to When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes and the real start of the Supremes/HDH partnership… those were all special. Each of them – even Come See About Me, the most conventional of the bunch – has something magical about it, something almost intangible but definitely there, which marks it out as a great record.
Back In My Arms Again is a good, solid, catchy pop single, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all, but it’s not quite what I’m here for. Or rather, it’s trying too hard to be what I’m here for, and in self-consciously trying to make “a Supremes record”, it seems to sacrifice that spark of the divine which has marked out all those other Supremes records.
And there’s the rub, I suppose. Whilst it’s good, I’d find it exceedingly hard to argue against its being the weakest Motown Number One we’ve yet seen (Fingertips being much less of a song, but compensating us with a demented glee that never makes its way into Back In My Arms Again).
Of course, it’s still a Motown Number One, and those are still rare at this stage (if rapidly becoming less so), and looking at all the other US Number Ones of 1965, I’d put it squarely in the middle of the pack… but it’s surely a stretch indeed (even for the most dedicated, die-hard Supremes fan) to confidently assert this one would have made it to the very top without the exceptional four that came before.
The Sixties pop singles market seems to have reacted in strange ways to perceived stagnation. Just as had happened with the (by now ancient) partnership of Mary Wells and Smokey Robinson, the public tolerated one helping of “same again please” from its new-found darlings, lifting it to the commercial heights of the previous peaks, but that’s as far as it would go; it’s the follow-up that suffers.
As with Mary and Smokey, this is no bad thing if it forces the writers and singers into action, makes them up their game (and it did, of which more later in the year) – and lest it seem like I’m overemphasising the “failures” of Back In My Arms Again, they’re really all relative, and this is certainly better than something like Laughing Boy. But it’s a step sideways, even backwards, rather than forwards.
The theme of Motown in 1965 was reinvention, and what this one shows is that even an act with five Number Ones would have to involve themselves in that process a little bit. In the meantime, this is just about as excellent as treading water can be. Take that any way you like.
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 Supremes “Whisper You Love Me Boy” |
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Motown Junkies 
For those of you (and I know you’re out there!) who just scrolled through the reams of text to look at the big coloured number at the end: yes, I’m giving this seven out of ten. And I don’t think the follow-up is as good as this, though that’s very much a story for another day.
If you want to comically spit out your coffee, declare you’ll never read any of my nonsense again, and/or provide a lengthy riposte explaining exactly how I’m wrong and why these are actually the finest pair of Supremes singles since, um, sliced bread (that metaphor got away from me a bit), then now is the time to have your say.
But don’t fret, Supremes fans: other than the mythical tens, the marks are really the least important part of what I do here, but if they mean a lot to you, rest assured that (a) sixes and sevens are good marks, and (b) in any case, these ladies aren’t yet done with the higher reaches of the scoring system. Not even this year.
So we can all get back to being friends again. He said optimistically.
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“Guarantee For A Lifetime” and “Looking For The Right Guy” were two grades that I admit shocked me. But the text that accompanied them made a sturdy case that they were weak records. They are weak records.
There are a lot of different junk foods that, when I get a craving for them, no doctor or dentist is going to keep me from them. In the same sense, when a mediocre Motown side starts up, but is one that long ago crystallized in my affection, no words on a page are going prevent what it does to me emotionally.
I knew from the first when I discovered and started reading Motown Junkies, more than two years ago, that you’d likely talk me up from items I received indifferently -and you have- but I still love those (respective) weak Mary Wells and Kim Weston outings.
Dangerous a thing as it might be to sound like I’m talking for a group, my instinct tells me the reason Motown Junkies has fostered such loyalty from the regulars among us, is because we know we can count on you being true to yourself.
“Back In My Arms Again” only gets a 7? Well, how about that. 😐 You think that’s going to stop any of us from returning to see how “Whisper You Love Me Boy” does? Hell.
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Thanks Dave. That people understand I’m never trying to be anything but brutally honest (including about my own shortcomings) is the most important thing.
Agree, disagree, it’s all good, but know that I always, always mean it.
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I don’t generally like The Supremes very much, as compared to the other major Motown artists. Yet I wouldn’t give this nice song as low as a 7. I’d give it an 8. The song is well-written, has an outstanding instrumental, and is sung well by The Supremes.
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It is a nice song. On a good day this might well have landed an 8, even though I find it less spellbinding than Come See About Me. But yesterday wasn’t a good day, and on such small things etc.
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If it’s any comfort, I prefer Come See About Me to this as well. I don’t argue the points given any more. Unless it’s jaw-droppingly strange.
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oh nixon, our tastes clearly don’t match. this is the supremes without the gimmicks of “stop!” a rollicking grand song that starts out rocking and just won’t quit. my bet is that this could have gone to either the supremes or the tops and been a smash. i am not sure you younger brits get how good this sounded in its day. this is motown in fourth gear. now, i don’t even wanna read your “nothing but heartaches” review. methinks you’ve let the charts and the number of times you’ve heard a song dictate the song’s quality! in my book the supreme tens thus far would be “run, run, run”, where did our love go”, “come see about me” and now this, “back in my arms again”. you are going have to make a big turn around to get back into my good graces!! but, i will patiently wait for your next disappointment! a seven …. shame!
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Because they were so spectacularly well crafted, it was very exciting to hear what the latest Supremes record sounded like. “Back in My Arms Again” is appealing because it has an element of fun that, when coupled with the single’s incredible musical drive, is irresistable. It makes the more “classic” sound of “Stop! in the Name of Love” sound almost academic.
“Flo…she don’t know” may not be a lyric that rises to any aesthetic heights, but some of us old timers still love to hear her name. It’s almost irrelevant what you (or I) would give this tune as far as points go because of the emotional memory the record evokes..
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Absolutely, and it is exciting. I don’t give out sevens cheaply. Just because I like it less than some of their other songs, well, that doesn’t mean I don’t still really like it.
The “Flo, she don’t know” bit is bittersweet, because I only heard this for the first time twenty years after her death, long after Diana had been typecast in the (white male dominated) media as one of music’s most selfish divas, and it’s impossible for me not to apply a subtext to it. But according to a couple of biographers, things were still relatively rosy in the Supremes camp at the time, and any knowing hindsight is conjecture based on coincidence.
It is a really good record, though. Unanswerable question: would I like this better if it was the Supremes’ début single, and if there were no Baby Love, no Where Did Our Love Go, no Stop!…?
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I’d never conflate chart performance and quality, as I’ve already patiently explained about eight times (I even name checked you in Stop!), but there does seem to be an Atlantic split over this record – number 40 with a bullet indicates it’s not just a question of my age.
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Oh, and don’t worry about our tastes not matching – the fact you love Run Run Run means you’re alright in my book, and (from the list of upcoming Supremes 10s you previously posted) we have a few favourites in common yet.
And since you seem to approve when I give high marks to more obscure things… One of my favourite Supremes songs, and therefore one of my upcoming 10s, my top 50 Motown records of all time… is a B-side.
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(and for fans of obscure songs by other groups, you’re not left out either… in fact quite a few of my upcoming tens are B-sides…)
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🙂
Hey, I give it a 9 to a 10, and definitely a 10 to the next side, but you could have dropped it to a 5 and I wouldn’t be mad at you. I read every word, I loved every word.
Yes, if we’re looking for a true step forward, then “Symphony” is the song we’re waiting for and it isn’t here yet, and “Arms” is indeed ‘treading water,’ but I’m glad there was time to do that, time to get ‘Arms,’ ‘Heartaches,’ ‘Mother Dear’ and ‘It’s All Your Fault’ into the can before the game got upped to ‘Symphony.’ Hell, even ‘Take Me Where You Go,’ ‘Beach Ball’ and ‘Surfer Boy’ are songs to get a kick out of.
I was two weeks past my 11th birthday when this came out, probably a lot more patient about how the group would grow, and content and undiscriminating for ‘more of the same.’ And this was just different enough; I loved the other girls being addressed by name, and I loved what was the longest intro on a real Supremes hit so far. That, and for a brief while -the spring of 1965- Ross was pulled out of romantic distress. (But for total bliss, ‘I Hear A Symphony’ and ‘Everything Is Good About You’ would eclipse even ‘Arms.’)
In May of 1965, this was doing a terrific job as greatness, when we couldn’t know it would occasionally be outdone, and more commonly, be soundly matched.
Love your review, even though I love the record a little more than you.
P.S. One member of a yahoo Motown group whose postings come in my mail, cites More Hits as a very early signal of trouble to come. On the cover of Where Did Our Love Go the girls are all posed staring into the middle distance, just to the side of the camera’s eye, but on More Hits, only Diana looks directly at us, while Mary and Florence are posed to gaze lovingly at their ‘leader.’ Hmmm.
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P.P.S. I can’t be the only sex-obsessed one either, when Ross gets to all those ‘I’m satisfied, so satisfied’s’ and the bass is extra thumping, who is thinking … pelvic thrusts. 😮
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I steered clear of that whole, um, area, but yes, it’s definitely possible to discern a sexual component to this which would change the whole emphasis of the song (he’s back in my arms = I’m back in his bed) – maybe Diana “overlooks” his dalliances because he’s so good in the sack…?
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Absolutely. And all this plus what I hear as rock-jazz is why I give Back in my Arms Again a 10.
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I’ll be discussing that notion (the happiness thing, not the album art conspiracy theory) when we get to Symphony a bit later. Rest assured I’ve got a lot to say on the topic…
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Can’t wait to read! = )
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LMAO! Wow people love to get deep about things. That yahoo Motown member has really been studying these record covers!
Must also mention that I still adore ‘Surfer Boy’ it would be in my Top 20 Supremes tracks and that it is underrated! = )
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Fun record with the shout outs to Mary and Flo. I’ve always loved the intro as well with the vibes prominently featured. Rating 9/10/
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Definitely fun. And the intro (or, really, any of those 8/8 “war drum” sections) is riveting. As I said, catch it on the radio, you’re not going to finish whatever you were just doing. But it would never be near the top of my list.
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This record taught me that everybody hears things diferently.
My first reaction to it was that it was the catchiest song I’d ever heard. I was therefore dumbstruck when a classmate of mine said out of nowhere that he didn’t like the new Supremes’ record because it wasn’t very catchy.
Apart from the vocal performance and the song, I think the backing-track is the subtlest yet. In my opinion, it’s a much better record than “Come See About Me”, and I never cared much for “Where Did Our Love Go” anyway..
At least 8/10.
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This might be a case of “presentism” – great word, by the way – btu I love this song & would easily give it an 8 or 9 – I’ve mentioned in prior posts howmuch I still love the Flo, she don’t know line, and this song just makes me happy every time I hear it.
Great review!
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Wow. When you said you were going to give a 1965 Supremes A-side a lower score than “8” I certainly did not think it would be this one! (My fear is that it would be “Nothing But Heartaches,” one of my all-time favorite Supremes tracks — now I can rest easy, I think.)
While you make a good defense for your “7,” you have to imagine a 13-year-old boy turning on the cheap radio in his bedroom and hearing this blast forth in 1965. Even in that year of fantastic pop music, this grabbed you by the ears and wouldn’t let you go. It certainly didn’t hit Number One because of fans grateful for “one more helping, please.” If nothing had come before, this would still be a brilliant record.
(It got a nice shout-out twenty years later when Eric Carmen recollected singing along with it on his car radio in “Make Me Lose Control”.)
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HI Nick, Yeah I too thought that was cool when Eric Carmen mentioned this song! “Make Me Lose Control” is one of my guilty pleasures!
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I’m also a fan of “Nothing But Heartaches”.
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Ooh. Um. You both might want to skip my review of that one, and just mentally visualise me awarding it a 10 instead.
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I like “Nothing But Heartaches” too. Not desert island material but nice enough for what it is. My friend, Nixon, you may write whatever you please about that or any song! We still like you!
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Landini said “We still like you”.
Yes, but maybe just a little bit less (ha-ha)!
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Hmmm…well, I’m still looking forward to your review!
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Nick: As I was a 14 year old boy at the time, it is very easy for me “to imagine a 13-year-old boy turning on the cheap radio in his bedroom and hearing this blast forth in 1965”! I totally agree with your take.
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Wow! It would be a boring world if we all agreed. I would personally give this a 10 myself. It is such a great arrangement – the vibes, piano, the oohs, Diana’s vocal. Out of all of the 12 US #1’s this is my favorite! At first, the arrangement seems a little heavier than past Supremes’ songs. One might at first think “This sounds like something Martha Reeves should be singing” but when you listen you realize how much it is tailored made for Diana’s voice. I do have a question. Has anyone ever ascertained whether or not any Andantes are on this? I am assuming it is just Mary & Flo but when I hear those “oohs” I wonder a bit. Any thoughts?
Never paid much attention to the lyrics, but it sounds like Diana needs to get some new friends. Don’t they have anything better to do with their time? Imagine if they had internet/facebook back then!!! Of course, when we get to “He’s All I’ve Got” she really comes up against a dangerous gossip girl! By the way, I think Flo’s boyfriend wound up being a “Romeo” because it rhymes! LOL!
FYI – back in the late 70’s some strange rock chick named Genya Ravan did a really insane remake of this song. It was pretty horrible! Motown actually had their 80s girl group High Inergy do a pretty lame remake too. This is one Motown song which is untouchable IMHO.
By the way, if I am off the site for the next few days I want to wish all of my Motown friends a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! Thank you for your kindness to me!
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If we discuss which tracks the Andantes might be on, there’s the danger of getting bogged down with the subject without ultimately getting anywhere. Let’s hope it wouldn’t lead to fisticuffs LOL.
A Merry Christmas to you too, Landini, and to everyone else here.
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That Soulful Detroit thread about whether the Andantes and/or the Supremes were on “Stop!” was soul-destroying, and a good example of why I don’t hang around there too much.
I like to think that all of us – perhaps with the exception of that rather strange fellow who piped up on “Xmas Twist” to declare that “objectivity is in the eye of the beholder” – are all grown-up enough to accept that heated, angry arguments over favourite records are about as productive as arguing over which is better, yellow or blue?
I’m hoping to get at least one more entry in before I leave the country for the holidays, but just in case… Merry Christmas, readers!
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Oops! Sorry guys! No biggie about the Andantes either way. I was just curious. No big deal. Still love the record no matter who is/isn’t on it! Again, a most Happy Christmas to all.
Oh yeah… since we are in the Yuletide season, may I be the first to admit that Stevie Wonder’s “One Little Christmas Tree” song makes me cry! And “The Children’s Christmas Song” makes me … well never mind!!!!! No offense intended for anyone who likes that song. LOL Happy Holidays!
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“One Little Christmas Tree,” Landini, has puddled my eyes a time or two when it’s caught me off-guard also. That song, and “What Christmas Means to Me” belong to Stevie alone, but to my ears, “Someday At Christmas” got away from him once Melvin Franklin got a hold of it. Stevie’s original, while not bad, was rather juvenile sounding, while Franklin’s booming-bass, spoken-word version on Temptations Christmas Card, raises the profoundness of its message several fold, and unfortunately, in light of the recent Connecticut massacre, it remains as immediate and relevant 42 Christmases later.
🙂 Speaking of Christmas, a merry wish to all regulars of Motown Junkies from me 🙂 not that I won’t be peeking in every day, even the 25th.
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ANd Happy hoidays to you and to everyone on MOtown Junkies! I have to say that – as a generalization – the cameraderie and collegiality of the responses on this site compare VERY FAVOURABLY INDEED with the aggressive territoriality and intolerance to be found on many classical sites – one of several reasons why, although classical music and opera are my primary passion, I’m hopelessly addicted to this site and keep coming back for more, whereas I avoid most classical sites (not all) like the plague. Not to mention a level of passionate and discriminating analysis which -as I keep saying – should have the world’s major university presses fighting for a piece of Nixon!
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I agree. Happy holidays to all Motown Junkies. Steve, this site is a regular and anticipated part of my life. Thank you.
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My dear Mr Plant. I hope 2013 is starting off to be a good year for you my friend. This really isn’t “Motown related” but thought you might be interested in this. Saturday I attended a wedding (not my own!) There was a soloist – a young lady. She sang a contemporary arrangement of “Come Thou Fount”. She had a nice alto-ish voice but the church’s acoustics were terrible. Though she was miked her vocals got swallowed up. Also, the piano accompanying her needed a good tuning! We in the congregation got to sing “Great is thy Faithfulness”. Because of recent health issues, it is harder for me to sing (& hit high notes) so I improvised a bass/baritone part. If I have sheet music I can sight sing some. Still a very nice wedding. Though I didn’t hear any Motown at the reception, they were playing a lot of 60/70s soul music. Fun to see all the 20-somethings out there dancing. If old Landini had been feeling a bit better he would have been out there shaking a leg with the young uns!
Okay here is a Motown “bit”. A very dear old friend of mine visited me on Friday. We were in my car going to lunch. I had “With A lot of Soul” by the Temptations in the CD player. My friend said “Wow! What station is this?” I explained that it was a Temptations album. She actually recognized “All I Need” which is pretty good for your average music fan. She has pretty good music tastes. Anyway, I better get some work done. Cheers!
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It it’s true that “Back In My Arms Again” is missing some of the magic that went into the previous four No. 1’s, doubtlessly that can be put down to nobody wanting yet to tinker with a formula that, so far, was paying off like a slot machine. There had to be some thinking that it wasn’t time to go back to the drawing board till the next single happened to fall just outside of the top ten, much like the Heat Wave/Quicksand/Live Wire string. It’s also got to be a reason why Mary and Florence’s voices weren’t experiment with much, or developed.
In “Dreamgirl,” Mary Wilson mentions of the period that ‘the unspoken but unmistakable message was relayed to us that Motown had carried The Supremes for a long time, and now The Supremes were going to be expected to carry Motown for a while.’ The work load on them is now enormous, and during one period in 1966, Diana’s weight actually dropped dangerously below 90 pounds.
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Oh, absolutely – and not only do I not blame them for it, it’s part of what makes More Hits such a magnificent listen. But as a single, when we’ve already had Stop!, I’ve always felt it a bit… Well, you know how I feel by now!
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Well, I’m never going to read this blog AGAIN. I’m going to to tell all my friends to never read this blog ( actually I’ve never told them – this blog i s too personal ).Seriously , i’ts not my FAVORITE but a 7? The cha cha beat, the farting sax, the backup harmony , the sheer danceability rates at least an 8 . Also, it was never overplayed and was dug up 18 years later to be featured on The Supremes Medley Of Hits super club mix. I think this one and “Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart ” were put out to inject a little soul in back in their catalogue.
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🙂
I have a pet theory that this is perhaps more fondly regarded now than it was in 1965, precisely because it was never overplayed, and so because everyone hasn’t heard it a million times, it feels fresh and energetic compared to Stop!, Baby Love etc. See also the post-facto love-in for “Rain” by the Beatles – it feels like a “new” song rather than a groansomely obvious Beloved Classic(TM). Thoughts…?
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That’s true in the sense that, as radio stations became more homogenized, their playlists focused on one or two singles for big name acts (“My Guy,” “Stop! in the Name of Love,” “My Girl,” etc.) that were definitely based on popularity and sales. (Even though this is Number One, it surely fell behind the first three or four Supremes hits as far as units sold.) Still, in my experience, this one got played at home or at parties as much as any other of their big hits.
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Interesting! Thanks Mark.
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I can’t stand this song lol…. Probably my least favorite supreme single
I DO like the name dropping diana does that’s cute and wooo part…other than ehhh
5/10
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Interesting! I personally wouldn’t go as far as that – I still really like it, Lord only knows what would have happened if I’d given it a bad review – but despite all the “agree” votes on the Thumbs of Judgment above, you’re apparently the only person so far who doesn’t see this as an all-time stone cold classic.
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Do you really like “The Happening” better than this song??? I would find that hard to understand.
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“but it’s not magical”
OK… this is the first case of “violent disagreement.” For me, an intense 10. Why? The raw sax… the driving beat… the stellar back-ups… the Funk Bros completely in the groove… Diana’s flawless lead… but most importantly, the mention of Mary & Flo. For me, the Supremes were “Flo, Mary, and Diana” – ranked in priority of personal preference. Seeing them perform this live several times, watching the expressions and gestures of Flo and Mary as they were mentioned… heaven. They were at the top of their game… recently-minted superstars… and the pleasure they had in performing this song was a joy to behold.
And I loved the fact that the song could not be performed after Flo left. (Not much rhymes with Cindy. Windy?)
I have 23 versions of the song in iTunes. Nuts, I know… but with several live versions, extended takes, mono, stereo, without lead vocals, alternate lead vocals, and the same version released a zillion times on different CDs… each one takes me to a fantastic place. The WLV version, with Flo & Mary crystal clear, takes me to heaven!
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I have SO MUCH to say on the subject of Flo and Cindy, but I’m saving it for when we get to “Reflections”. In the meantime, violent disagreement is fine.
Interestingly, of the three “scholarly” (i.e. long and serious) reviews of this record I’ve read – Terry Wilson in Tamla Motown (not online, but imagine something like a printed version of this site dedicated solely to British releases – well-written and worth getting just for the pleasure of disagreeing!) and Sally O’Rourke in No Hard Chords (nohardchords.wordpress.com) – mine is by far the most complimentary.
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I can’t really remember whether they sang this when I saw them live, but the three times I did see them (the original lineup) it was quite a thrill (the Safari Room, San Jose; the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco; and Spartan Stadium at San Jose State, San Jose).
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Liking a song is a personal thing and I enjoy all of the debate. But consider this, the song went to No. 1 in 1965, a year that produced some of the best rock and roll/pop songs in history. Look at all the other No. !’s :Satisfaction, Downtown, Mr. Tamborine Man , California Dreamin’, Help, I Got You Babe, and some other great Motown to boot. This song was not riding on anyone’s coattails. Back In My Arms Again was with some pretty heady company.
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From Sally’s site above, that list of 1965 US Number Ones in full:
The Supremes: Come See About Me
The Beatles: I Feel Fine
Petula Clark: Downtown
The Righteous Brothers: You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
Gary Lewis & the Playboys: This Diamond Ring
The Temptations: My Girl
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week
The Supremes: Stop! In The Name Of Love
Freddie & the Dreamers: I’m Telling You Now
Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders: Game Of Love
Herman’s Hermits: Mrs Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter
The Beatles: Ticket To Ride
The Beach Boys: Help Me Rhonda
The Supremes: Back In My Arms Again
The Four Tops: Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch
The Byrds: Mr Tambourine Man
The Rolling Stones: Satisfaction
Herman’s Hermits: I’m Henery VIII I Am
Sonny & Cher: I Got You Babe
The Beatles: Help!
Barry McGuire: Eve Of Destruction
The McCoys: Hang On Sloopy
The Beatles: Yesterday
The Rolling Stones: Get Off Of My Cloud
The Supremes: I Hear A Symphony
The Byrds: Turn Turn Turn
The Dave Clark Five: Over And Over
Like any other year, some classics and some dross, although as I mentioned in the review, the ratio was particularly good in ’65 – and I’d personally put this one pretty much squarely in the middle of the pack.
* * * *
And for everyone else… for the last time, in case anyone’s not got it yet, I LIKE THIS RECORD. I don’t love it, I think it’s the weakest Supremes chart-topper to date, but that’s only a relative thing. Hear it on the radio, it’ll brighten your day for sure. That I like so many other Supremes (and Motown) records better than it is testament to the quality of the Supremes (and Motown). We won’t meet another Supremes song I genuinely dislike for quite a while yet.
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but the song of the year wasn’t even on that list—-not Roger Miller–but SAM THE SHAM — Wooly Bully!!!!!
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Which, in a neat burst of coincidence, was kept off number one by… Back In My Arms Again.
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Great way to put things in perspective!
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Nowhere else to put this, really, so:
THAT IS ALL
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Writing this on a strange computer… Just wanted to say that I love the review and agree entirely with your rating. I was surprised to find myself liking this song MORE on reacquaintance than I expected to. I love it when Diana starts the song with a beautifully comically exaggerating image – this one of her fielding an endless stream of telephone calls from five or six phones – a few songs from now she’ll be fielding monumental performances of massive Brucknerian or Mahlerian symphonies every time she catches a glimpse of her beloved. I like this song very much indeed, in fact – but your high standards are contagious, and 7 is about right. I certainly don’t like it more than ‘As Long as I Know He’s Mine’ for example. Our only disagreement here is that I still think youù’ve drastically underrated Come See About Me. I’ll have to wait until I get back to Nova Scotia to read all the comments – by which time I trust Motown Junkies will have moved forward – but this seems to have generated a record level of response. Thanks for Motown Junkies – your approach is precisely the right one!
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I’ll chime in here with my Christmas greetings to everyone – May your Christmas be joyous and new year filled with peace, love and good health. And, of course, wonderful reviews and terrific commentary!
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I’m biting my nails.
Make me know that nothing’s changed,
your love for me it still remains
Having Motown 1075b on repeat play over Christmas -or any other time- would never be disagreeable with me ❤ but I can only speak for me 🙂 And wonder how the holiday hubbub affects our host's perception and patience.
Neglecting me just isn’t fa-a-air.
Oh God, I hope it doesn’t come in too poorly, I love it so much. My own thoughts have been done for days and ready to paste in when it comes.
Hope you all had a great Christmas. Mine was just fine. 🙂
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Hi Dave L. Glad you had a good Christmas. Mine has been pretty good – not feeling the best this year but it was still good. Had a “Motown moment” in the convenience store yesterday. They were playing “Silver Bells” by the Supremes. At least it wasn’t “Children’s Christmas Song!” LOL! Are you in the States? Here in Maryland we had a little post-Christmas snow. Just a dusting! Cheers!
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Wow. I’m in northern neck Virginia! Hi neighbor 🙂 I woke up to a light dusting myself this morning, much to my delighted surprise. 🙂
Yeah … speaking of “Children’s Christmas Song” … well, let’s not, other than that most desirable blue and black & white sleeve of them on the sled.
It’s not been entirely difficult, but I’ve taught myself over the years to think of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me” as the top side of Motown 1085. No argument, it’s plenty gooey in its own way, but once it moves into the song proper, I can abandon myself to its sincerity and the idea of Ross speaking from a star’s point of view. (And blessedly, those drippy kids got the shaft.)
If you gave unselfishly
and make a wish come true,
I’ll always shine for you.
The album stands up all these years despite the addle-brained choice of single. The kick-ass “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” (Oh God, those drums!!) or the ethereal, dreamy, rich-as-cheesecake mono “White Christmas” might have as indelibly associated The Supremes with Christmas, like the deathless numbers found for Darlene Love, Brenda Lee and Bobby Helms.
Can’t have everything.
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I know I’m late and the holidays are over, but I think Diana’s verison of “White Christmas” is 1 of the absolute best versions and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me” has always been underatted. Really a shame The Supremes didn’t land them a Christmas classic! I wonder if Miss Ross, Mary or even Berry sometimes think about this lol
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let me just say that i listened to “the complete motown singles: 1966”. get ready for some real battles. if 1965 is great … 1966 is the ultimate! watch out!
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OHH yes indeed. The challenge will be not giving absolutely everything 7 or more. 1967 is also splendid.
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I do hope & pray that all of my Motown Junkie friends have a very blessed 2013! Thank you all for your kindness to me!
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“Take that anyway you like” Steve D. ends this review with those words. Not only will I take this 7/10 I will absolutely take and accept. I remember when I first started listened to the Supremes (around 2000/2001) this song did get skipped the most on the 18 greatest hits CD. LOL. Not because it was bad, but because what our Motown Pusher has said up above….the sound was just repetitive. This song is a combination of all 4 of their previous #1’s and also “Lovelight.”
I love Miss Ross’s innocent child-like appeal on this record. I love the loudness of the record…this was definitely a song that was mad to blast from speakers. I love the catchy hook “I got him back in my arms again/right by my side”. I love the shout-out or should I say the call-outs lol to the girls. But the biggest shout-out that I can possibly give Mary & Flo is that the made this record. Without their Little Richard “Woooooooos” this record would have been less fun and exciting to hear.
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“Motown Pusher”… I like that 🙂
I’m coming to the conclusion that More Hits, beautiful LP though it is, maybe just isn’t well suited to being parcelled out into chunks. But this is a story for another day – there’s a new Supremes review due up soon, and it’ll be a race to see whether I have time to do that before my second child is due to be born in a fortnight’s time…
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Steve D I didn’t know you were a expecting father! Why haven’t you said anything before??? LOL. Congrats! This makes me so happy!
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>”Oooooo”
I think the full chain of custody goes from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Little Richard to the Beatles to the Supremes.
But even though they came fourth to the party, their way of choreographing it was definitely the coolest:
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Agree
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for some reason Back In mY Arms Again, wasnt one of my favs,although i would agree and give it a 7. but to me it broke the hit streak.i know i am the only one who may think this but i preferred Nothing But Heartaches better.it did fair well and it did sell just over a million copies and gave the girls their fifth million seller. it has grown on me over the years and i can see why it was a hit.the girls did sound good here and it is bouncy and fun.guess i like it better than i thought.
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Its the record where you can hear them slowly pulling away from the harsher R & B-based sound and closer to theior pop appeal. Still loving the vibes!
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This is a very cool Rolls Royce of a record and I’m surprised it’s not a ‘9’. One of my favourite Supremes tracks.
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One thing that hasn’t been addressed here is the written names on the picture sleeves: Florence’s autograph is almost a semi-circle, starting low, rounding upward and then bending downward; Mary’s writing starts high and drops off; Diana’s signature is level. It’s not too great a stretch to say that in the first case, the person is given to fluctuating attitudes and many emotional lows, in the second case, the person starts out enthusiastically but loses energy and in the third case the person is confident, committed and straight-forward in purpose.
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Great observation!
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New job title: Motown Administrative Handwriting Analyst!!!!
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When you gave that Hillsiders song an 8/10, you accurately predicted how unbearably obnoxious we’d be the next time one of the iconic tracks came in below that. So (he said, unbearably and obnoxiously) I can understand this as a 7/10 if the competition is limited to HDH and Robinson classics but ranked against all of TCMS?
If I were trying to argue in favor of your 7/10, I’d change your comment, “Really good. Not great.” to: “Really great. Not complete.”
What I mean is that this song has a really great verse, chorus and performance, but it would have been so SO easy to add even an average bridge that would have made coming BACK to either of those hooks truly orgasmic. I mean … HDH were so deeply “in the zone” at this point and had such an embarrassment of million dollar hooks just pouring out them that I can’t understand why they were so stingy with them. Imagine one of their trademark modulations where they jump into new material in the middle of a new key and then surge out of THAT back into “I lost him once through a friend’s advice …”, or, alternatively “but now he’s back in my arms again”. It would be truly devastating. Maybe Berry forbade them to exceed the 3 minute mark?
On another topic, the entire decade of the 80s owes a tremendous debt to that little block chord figure at the beginning.
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I don’t think HDH were in the habit of using conventional bridges very often. “Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things)” and “In And Out of Love” were notable exceptions.
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“Although the Supremes’ records take off with members at a speed that almost bypasses the need for a review, many have asked that such records should be included if only for the record. The problem is one of what to say without sounding corny! This disc is interesting (apart from being so good) because it is a departure from the latter-day Supremes image and bears more similarity with their classic Let Me Go the Right Way than their recent hits. Diana on lead is as wonderful as ever, with Flo and Mary giving an echoing support, to exceptionally good and complex lyrics. 4/5
“Flip is lyrical and effective with superlative backing. 3/5”
[Dave Godin, Hitsville USA 6, 1965]
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Pingback: Back In My Arms Again – The Supremes (1966) | 1960s: Days of Rage
It is interesting that in a review that complains because you saw this song as too much like things the group had already done, thus repetitive, you relentlessly repeated that conclusion about 8 times in your review. I would think that would mean that your assignment of a 7 out of 10 score to the song for seeming a little too familiar would result in your review deserving a 3 out of 10 because not only are there aspects of this review that have been in your other reviews, there are aspects of this review that were in the preceding paragraph & the one before that & the one before that.
I understand that you love Motown as I do. I also understand that you have challenged yourself to do reviews of a truly remarkable catalog of music. You probably feel that you need to give a range of scores to appear objective, and it is certainly your prerogative to do so. But, you also said that you thought it was well done in every respect, but just slightly missed because you thought it seemed a bit familiar. Then, you dropped the score to a 7. Reading your explanation, I was expecting a less than perfect score, but a 7?
Reviews, numerical scores & lists are almost all completely subjective. We often react to the same things in different ways. For example, I think “Come See About Me” is one of the Supremes best songs & I think it played an important role in their advance to the pinnacle of the industry. Why? Because Rock & Roll, Pop & R & B music includes a wide range of musical styles & the Supremes proved over & over that they could handle every musical style & produce hits in them all. “Come See About Me” & “Back In My Arms Again” had a harder rock & roll edge & when they could take the soaring beauty of “Baby Love,” the unique & plaintive wail of “Stop,” and the edgier rock sound of “Come See About Me” to the tops of the charts, the world knew they could play with the very best. When they demonstrated it over & over, they erased any doubts. This song is not a 7. You noted that it is really good & really good is not a 7.
It is also disappointing that so many, including some of their fans, refer to the Supremes as the most successful female US group of all time. It is true, but they are also the most successful US group of all time, male or female. There is no other group, whatever their gender, who had 12 number one Hot 100 songs. They earned the ranking & it should always be afforded them. Please know that even when I disagree with a score, I still love your work & I am happy I found Motown Junkie! Thanks.
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