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UNRELEASED: scheduled for
Motown M 1080 (B), July 1965
B-side of Mother Dear
(Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr.)
Motown M 1080 (B), July 1965
B-side of Nothing But Heartaches
(Issued with different song on the A-side)
Tamla Motown TMG 527 (B), August 1965
B-side of Nothing But Heartaches
(Released in the UK under license through EMI/Tamla Motown)
So before the inevitable controversy over Nothing But Heartaches, here’s a little calm before the storm: it’s another old Mary Wells song hastily-repurposed as a Supremes B-side, a throwaway affair meant only to bulk out the tracklisting of the upcoming More Hits album, a gentle watercolour doodle.
It’s absolutely lovely. As with their take on Mary’s Whisper You Love Me Boy, the Supremes do a fine job with this. The newly-recorded backing vocals are an improvement over the original, while Diana Ross’ high, piping lead vocal floats around the track like fluff on the wind but still somehow manages to convey some of the jejune, defensive pride that Mary’s narrator had previously brought out. (In fact, Diana’s more girlish voice – again sounding several years younger than Miss Wells, even though she wasn’t, giving the impression of a far younger schoolgirl narrator – might actually suit the song better).
Most strikingly for a Beach Boys fan like me, having sat through the echoes of Help Me Rhonda in Mother Dear, He Holds His Own fosters a sense of karmic balance: the similarities between this and Brian Wilson’s beautiful Please Let Me Wonder, recorded a few months after Mary’s version of He Holds His Own hit the shelves, jumped out at me right away. This doesn’t have the soaring chorus, of course – in fact, it doesn’t really have a chorus at all, now I come to think of it – but besides the nearly identical tune in the verses, the tone, the sense of painful pining under a gentle, genteel exterior is here alright. And for me, this is a Good Thing.
(Of course, the Supremes aren’t white men, and so this doesn’t get discussed very much. But hey.)
Anyway. This is the beautiful centrepiece of side 2 of the More Hits by the Supremes album (left), and – as with Mother Dear – I’m so glad we get to talk about it in isolation here on Motown Junkies, because it’s one of those “missing link” pieces that helps fill in the Supremes story – another halfway step between the Supremes of 1964 (when this was written and the backing track laid down) and the Supremes of 1965 (when the vocals were cut), the yearning bouffant schoolgirl blues of the past as re-envisaged by the new biggest pop group in America.
The calypso-tinged percussion, hints of bossa nova and wandering Sergio Mendes jazz piano, mark it out immediately as an artefact out of place, but it’s also a blissful exercise in romance, a song of joy and future happiness, magnificent in places, all with a dark edge of uncertainty kept at arm’s length but never completely pushed away.
If it’s one of the few tracks on More Hits which could absolutely never have been picked as a would-be hit single, that works in its favour there as it does here: a brief oasis of calm and contemplation amid a sustained barrage of banging high-gloss pop tunes. Really rather lovely, and not at all unwelcome.
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 “Mother Dear” |
The Supremes “Nothing But Heartaches” |
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Motown Junkies 
There’s a scene in one episode of The Wonder Years, the award-winning, family-centered ABC series that ran, maybe 1988 to 1994, where hero teenage Kevin Arnold is delivering pizza in his four-wheeled junker one night. He’s stopped at a traffic light, and doesn’t know a couple of his buddies have pulled to a stop in the lane next to him. And there’s Kevin, in full vigorous, animated performance of Marcie Blaine’s I wanna be “Bobbie’s Girl.”
If you’re a guy who loves The Supremes (and all the Motown girls), you’ve got an unacknowledged mental list of certain songs that you never let other males watch you totally surrender to. “Dancing In The Street” is not on that list; “Whisper You Love Me Boy” certainly would be.
So, too, is “He Holds His Own.” You did a beautiful job by it, Steve. Since 1965, this side of Motown 1080 is like a cool breeze on a July night. Gentle, devoted, blissfully in love, were it staged as a music video, Ross would almost have to be seated on a cloud.
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Great commentary Dave!
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A young Diana Ross could sing the saddest song and convey the sadness perfectly, yet in here voice you always heard hope. Diana’s voice is music to my ears! Mary and Florence are holding down the background very nicely.This is a nice ballad written by HDH. It has a beautiful flow of romance similar to “I Hear A Symphony.” This to me is a classic Supreme song. This should have been released with another killer B side. Perhaps “Mother Dear”? I think mainstream America would have appreciated this gem. “He Holds His Own” proves that the Supremes were more than just a “pop act.” This jazzy, ballad proves that they could broad out into a total entertainment entity.
In my rankings this is a 10/10.
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This is a nice song & a fine choice for an album track. Would this have been a hit single? Not sure. I know cool people like us appreciate various Motown songs (LOL) but John Q Public tended to like their Motown a bit more predictable & this song seem to just color a little bit out of those lines. Motown wisely released “Symphony” at a time when they knew the public would be ready for that style of song. It is so funny how some of my friends (who I love dearly) hear a song & I’ll say “That’s a Motown song” & they will say “Oh no that can’t be a Motown song!” There are people who still think “Motown” is a style of music rather than a record label. Oh well. I had dinner with some old buddies the other night & the topic turned to baseball & I was useless! LOL!
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Just listed to Mary’s version and The Supremes version back to back, and I strongly prefer Mary’s version. To me, her version is far more believable. This is one of the few Supremes songs that I never liked.
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So do I. Mary’s version is vastly superior to this. Mary’s emotion is better. I like Mary’s singing style and voice a lot more than Diane’s. The instrumental seems sharper and cleaner, as well.
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The first time i heard the song i thought it was dreadful! The worst thing i ever heard. Then i replayed “Meet The Supremes” and changed my mind.
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I never thought of Sergio Mendes when listening to this song; I thought of it as having a country & western feel. Had this been a single pulled from The Supremes Sing Country, Western & Pop (and had the banjo song been removed from that album) there would be less temptation to dismiss that entire album, which had plenty of good moments. For instance, Tears In Vain is terrific, as is Funny How Time Slips Away, and The Supremes’ version of Sunset is vastly superior to Stevie Wonder’s.
But I love having the song on More Hits; all the songs there — except (I’m So Glad) Heartaches Don’t Last Always — are revelations.
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oops! I was thinking of Who Could Ever Doubt My Love, not this one!
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To me it sounds more like “Let it Be Me” (1960) than Please Let Me Wonder.
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I love this song and, more importantly, I love this version of it because The Supremes give a stellar performance on it. Mary and Flo’s backing vocals are quite lovely and are far superior to the obnoxious background singing on the Mary Wells version which sound like they are being done by a combination of The Lovetones and The Andantes. Another thing I don’t like about the Mary Wells version of the song are the lame ad libs that Mary does about the boy being so true and never making her blue at the end of the recording. I also feel that the Mary Wells version is slightly oversung by Mary herself while the lead vocal by Diana Ross on the Supremes version is beautifully executed due to her wonderful phrasing and delivery. Furthermore, I like the fact that it doesn’t seem like Diana is trying to alter the song’s wonderful lyrics. All in all, I would rate the Supremes version of “He Holds His Own” as a “9” while I would give the Mary Wells version a rating of “6” but that’s mainly due to the fine work by The Funk Brothers on the music supporting Miss Wells on her version of the tune.
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