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UNRELEASED: scheduled for
Tamla T 54121 (B), July 1965
B-side of You’ve Changed Me
(Written by Smokey Robinson)
Somehow, somewhere along the line, Who’s Lovin’ You – which started life as a Miracles B-side back in the dark days of Motown’s Stone Age (or 1960, as I believe it’s called in the outside world) – seems to have become accepted as part of the canon of all-time Motown greats, a beloved Hitsville standard. This is the third version of it we’ve seen here on Motown Junkies, and it won’t be the last.
And yet it’s still not a terribly good song. There’s not a version of this I really like, not even the Temptations’ take (which may in turn have prompted this remake); it’s a harmless enough artefact from Smokey Robinson’s distant past, back when pseudo-country pastiches and plinky-plonky rhythms and cheap, stabbing staccato string breaks were where it was at in Smokey’s head. And Brenda’s version – despite her best efforts to ruin it, again, by detaching herself from both the tune and the words – is entirely pleasant as far as it goes. Recorded hastily to bulk out the rush-released Every Little Bit Hurts album (which was meant to be a cheap and cheerful début set, an introduction for new fans on the understanding it would be supplanted by heartier fare further down the line, but which would end up being Brenda’s one and only completed and released Motown LP), it’s patchy and carelessly assembled, but still not without its charm. I just don’t get it, that’s all.
Brenda Holloway is proving very difficult to write about on this blog, and Who’s Lovin’ You doesn’t make my task any easier. She’s manifestly not stupid – her sensitive, intelligent interpretations of some people’s songs are breathtaking, and we mustn’t forget she was a brilliant (if under-used) songwriter in her own right – so it’s confusing to come across her treating a song as a scribble pad to show off her vocal stylings, as though she just doesn’t understand what it is she’s meant to be singing. Similarly, you’d have to be some sort of idiot to argue she doesn’t have a great voice, because she obviously does: the power, the control, the grace, they’re all here in spades. And yet, time and again, we find her descending (and ascending and descending and ascending, etc etc) into some kind of sub-Whitney melisma routine, as though she’s warming up for an Aimless Warbling competition, almost as though she’s afraid of trying to hold a note (which would be fine if we didn’t already know she could knock 95% of Motown singers into a cocked hat if she so chose).
The way she pronounces the “Who” in the title here is particularly troublesome; at 1:40, at the end of the first chorus and the start of the second verse, over the course of just three words (“who”, “you” and “I”) she manages to pack in what by my very rough count is an astonishing twenty-three notes. I don’t have a problem with melisma per se, even melisma for its own sake can be thrilling, but not here. Why is it here?
It’s to Brenda’s credit that even after I take all the annoying parts of her vocal here, and add them to the uninspiring skeleton of a song she’s been saddled with, this is still an interesting record, I still come away wanting to hear what she’s going to do next. It’s the sort of thing which almost works better as background music than in the foreground under my microscope; I can imagine someone doing the dishes or changing their sparkplugs and hearing this on a radio in the next room and whistling along contentedly.
It’s hard to argue that it doesn’t sound nice, but given the pedigree of everyone involved – given this is Motown we’re talking about here, and in the summer of 1965 to boot – well, I’m just looking for more than pleasant and meaningless wallpaper.
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 Miracles (September 1960)
- The Supremes (June 1961)
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 Brenda Holloway? Click for more.)
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| Brenda Holloway “You’ve Changed Me” |
Martha & the Vandellas “You’ve Been In Love Too Long” |
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Motown Junkies 
I agree. Brenda’s performance is out of control, and I’ve never understood why this song has sustained the life it has. It’s even popped up on Michael Buble’s new album (currently a best seller), which suggests some sort of classic status. He also includes Berry Gordy’s “To Be Loved,” so he’s clearly a Motown fan.
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You would think Buble would be all about Sinatra and Dean Martin, but he has professed to be great Motown fan.
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If we temporarily ignore originality of voice and style, the song itself, and the relevance of the record to its era, and measure just pure vocal execution (pitch, rhythm, timbre, dynamics), most of Brenda Holloway’s records are easily 10/10s, but as you say, this one veers a bit out of control – even the A-side has a few slight blemishes – still 7/10 or 8/10 though. She’s got an amazing set of pipes.
But turning to the whole package, the question seems to be why Brenda Holloway wasn’t more commercially successful, given her often superhuman vocal gifts. In order to get to the bottom of that …
QUESTION: Can one or more of our experts rank the Motown female vocalists in terms of pure commercial success? In other words, in terms of total records sold on which that singer sang lead – or total number of top 10 hits or whatever metric is handy.
1. Diana Ross
And then who? Martha Reeves? And where do Well, Weston, Holloway, Terrell, et al fit in?
And then the same for male vocalists. (But leaving out post-Talking Book Stevie and post-What’s Goin’ On Marvin which are really a different album-based genre.)
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Heard the Temptations version first, and loved it. To me, this is a classic, but I’m kind of building my own mythology into it. I can see David Ruffin delivering the ‘life without love’ bit on his knees as girls in the crowd scream. Not sure if that ever happened, though I do believe it might have been a live favorite. I think his melismatic improvisations are quite tasteful, definitely not over the top; the definitely make the song.
Michael Jackson’s version is okay if nothing knew. Smokey’s version I finding irritating. The vocal performance grates; it showcases everything bad about Smokey in his high range. Brenda’s version just doesn’t move me at all. It’s not awful but it doesn’t play to the strengths of the song at all. Lauryn Hill’s version at the Apollo Amatuer night might be available on YouTube and is an interesting watch.
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Thanks for writing this. I’ve always been puzzled (and slightly annoyed) by the vise-like grip on classic status this song seems to have retained. Can’t say I’ve ever encountered a version that did a thing for me. I approach every unheard Brenda Holloway track with high hopes. I mean, considering the lady’s vocal prowess and the fact that we’re talking prime-time 60’s Motown, I’m always half expecting something amazing. Yet ,when it comes to her records, one way or another – and far too often -,she and Motown manage to fumble the ball. Still, when Brenda Holloway’s truly on (as in the fantastic one of a kind “Land of a Thousand Boys”), she’s golden.
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I dunno. I kind of like this. Agree not a classic performance, but pleasant enough. Interesting that there are so many versions of this out there (on Motown alone there are five that I know of — Miracles; Brenda Holloway; Supremes; Temptations; Jackson 5). I probably like the Temptations’ version best. I have to be in the mood for the Jackson 5’s version. Outside of Motown, I think Peter & Gordon did a version. Hmm. That would be interesting to hear.
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..and we still have to get to the Jackson’s Five’s version–this is the ultimate “Always a bride’smaid -never a bride” song in the Motown book. I mean–four B-sides but never an “A” side and with this one not even getting a release–wonder what Mr Gordy was thinking..and worse than this is a cover by Peter and Gordon [RIP Gordon Waller] on an obscure LP which has Gordon’s voice breaking left and right due to a sore throat he was sporting and with NO time for a “do-over”.
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Oh wow. I heard P&G’s version earlier today. What were they thinking? Our lads made some good solid records but that is simply awful!
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Maybe the song became an in-company joke: passing it around into as many hands as possible so that then wagers and votes could made over who came up the ‘worst’ version. Or, at least, the most boring.
I too, don’t understand the effort put behind trying to make a silk purse out of this rather lukewarm song. If Smokey loves it, that makes sense – it’s his baby. But in the face of “Choosey Beggar,” “I’ll Try Something New,” “Save Me,” “A Fork In The Road,” even “Oh Be My Love” and “Baby Don’t You Go,” “Who’s Lovin’ You” will never sit in their company.
But the alternative is even more scary. Suppose a song that had made into pure gold the first time around, like “Since I Lost My Baby” had been subsequently passed around as freely and threatened with catastrophe and annihilation with each ‘remake.’ I’d rather not even dream of it.
Perhaps it’s best to think of “Who’s Lovin’ You,” as an in-company, ‘dues paying’ obstacle course, a test of the tenacity of the hands it passed through. Like some others, I have the most patience for The Temptations’ version.
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I would incline to agree, the song is rather pedestrian and David Ruffin is probably the only one who can make any song sound good.
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nope Smokey for me!!
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I’ll always kick myself for not buying this Lp when it was released. A friend of mine would play his copy everytime i came around because he knew i was a Brenda “fiend”. I just never got around to it.
Brenda, to me, was so pretty that she could sing the map of the United States and i would be first on line to buy it. So, if this had been released as a b-side i would certainly have purchased it and waited for the a-side to take off knowing she would be making some tv or live appearance to back it up. That way i could gaze into her doe-eyed beauty and wonder what it be like to have someone that fine to sing me to sleep every night.
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Who’s Lovin’ You is the ultimate Motown ballad, and the Jackson 5ive’s mono version on the B-side of “I Want You Back” (NOT the stereo abortion), is the best thing Michael Jackson ever did, with or without his brothers.
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The order Who’s loving you was recorded
1. The Miracles 1960
2. Supremes 1961
3. Brenda Holloway 1964
4. Temptations Later 1964
5. Jackson 5 1969
My favs of those 5
1. Jackson 5 (9)
2. Brenda Holloway (6 somedays a 7)
3. The Miracles/Temptations tied (5)
4. Supremes-theres is awful (2)
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