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Advertising Council special record (promo only)
September 1965
(One sided promo disc)
(Written by Phil Spector)
Eagle eyed readers (if there are any of you left out there, following my recent vacation absence!) will have spotted by now that I start each review with a number. My reasons for doing so are easy enough to fathom – it keeps internal links short, and it helps me keep track of how far I’ve got as I blog my way through the entire Motown catalogue, one record at a time. But the numbers also sometimes throw things into stark relief. Here we are, exactly 200 reviews since the Supremes finally broke into the national consciousness with Where Did Our Love Go, and in that time the group have gone from being three artless teenage girls from the projects to, arguably, the biggest group in America.
Over the space of a year and a half, the one-time “no-hit Supremes”, runts of the Motown litter, have chalked up five US Number One singles, two big-selling albums, sold-out live shows, a loyal following around the world, and a groundbreaking appearance on the cover of TV Magazine. Now, that progress is even more vividly illustrated by their being chosen as the voices of a civil rights public awareness campaign. Things Are Changing, indeed.
On the face of it, this should be one of the legendary Motown records: not only was this not widely released, it’s the only time Motown and Phil Spector ever officially worked together, and it’s a snapshot of a pivotal time in the history of both Motown and of America in general. But the closer you look, the more you dig into the convoluted backstory of this record, the more the shiny coating rubs off, the more the mythic glow fades away. What’s left is an interesting curio, for sure, and certainly not without its charm (by turns goofy and magical), but anyone anticipating a stellar collaboration between two of the greatest forces in Sixties pop music (or even just a splendid lost Supremes single) is bound to come away rather disappointed.
For starters, this song – and its backing track – had already gone through two distinct iterations before it ever got anywhere near Motown, and neither of those incarnations was intended for the Supremes; the girls are, effectively, special guest stars, appearing in someone else’s show. They take to their assigned task with pleasing aplomb, of course – it’s not as if they weren’t accustomed to singing over pre-recorded backing tapes, or that they were used to writing or producing their own material anyway – but this is no Motown-Spector exchange of ideas, it’s more like the Supremes being loaned out to sing for Philles for the day.
LET’S DANCE THE SCREW
The track was originally recorded as the only useable fruit of a short-lived collaboration between Spector and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, the two camps’ mutual musical admiration breaking down when it came to actually being in the same room. Both Spector and Wilson were already widely known for having odd working habits; factor in Brian’s increasingly paranoid, reclusive behaviour and Spector’s legendarily abrasive and prickly attitude, and the stage was set for fireworks.
It’s the sort of idea which can either bring out the very best in a genius – the stuff of legend – or fizzle out amid acrimony. Unfortunately, this was one of those that fizzled out amid acrimony; after a row over songwriting credits culminated in a walk-out, all that came out of the sessions was a half-finished idea for a Ronettes song, tentatively titled Don’t Hurt My Little Sister; not exactly the foundation of a bold, unstoppable new dynasty in American pop.
The Beach Boys themselves went on and finished their own version of Don’t Hurt My Little Sister, the song ending up as throwaway filler for the Today! album; meanwhile, Spector was left with the half-finished Ronettes track (which may or may not actually feature Brian Wilson on piano), and promptly shelved it.
Fast forward a few months, and the Advertising Council approached Spector to write a song promoting civil rights in the workplace, to support their campaign to raise awareness of employment issues faced by African-Americans and women – and especially African-American women – and to emphasise that, thanks to the Johnson Administration’s new legislation, things were indeed changing for the better.
(Anthony Chen gives the whole project a darker spin – an attmept by big business to stave off any further government meddling and the prospect of affirmative action by pushing the PR lie that everything was all better now, and that if black people didn’t now go out and get good, well-paid jobs (in industries that had previously slammed doors in their faces!), it would be their own fault. I don’t go that far, and certainly it was a laudable aim to get a campaign like this all over the radio whatever the underlying motivation, but I’d be lying if I didn’t point out the uncomfortable overtones of pushing the onus away from the companies and onto the would-be workers.)
Anyway, it’s fair to say the project wasn’t exactly top of Spector’s list of priorities, but he apparently dusted off the unfinished track, wrote some new lyrics for the song, incorporating the Council’s touchstone policies and slogans, and then handed the whole thing over to producer Jerry Riopelle to finish.
Once the track was completed, three different groups were press-ganged into recording vocals on the new song, as a glorified PSA: Jay and the Americans, whose version hews closest to the song’s Beach Boys origins; the Supremes; and, finally, Darlene Love and the Blossoms. (A fourth version, by Julio Angel and Lucecita, was released in Puerto Rico.) By the winter of 1965/66, the song in its various guises was getting radio exposure all over America, and no black woman ever had to worry about racist or sexist discrimination at work again (SUBS PLEASE CHECK).
IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO YOU MAY BE
Anyway. What’s never been made entirely clear is how the Supremes ended up involved in this project; it’s not completely alien to us here in the 21st Century, we’re used to seeing boy bands and girl bands du jour co-opted into fronting PSA and charity messages for the kids, and so it makes sense that someone might have approached the Supremes – arguably the top American chart act of the time, never mind the top black female group – with a tentative request to see if they were interested. Obviously they (or Motown, or ITMI) said yes – perhaps not even knowing the level of Spector’s involvement, never mind openly seeking to collaborate with him – but what happened after that is anyone’s guess.
The three different groups’ vocal tracks for Things Are Changing were all recorded separately, the Blossoms the only one done in-house in Spector’s studio. We don’t know who produced the Supremes’ vocals or even when they sang them; all we know is that here, with Motown’s golden summer of 1965 drawing to a close, there was yet another Supremes release jostling for attention, wading into an already saturated market looking for some airtime.
But more interesting to me is the idea of the Motown/Spector collaboration as a kind of passing of the baton. Earlier in their career, the Supremes had been at the vanguard of several Motown acts aping the Spector sound (as seen most notably on pre-fame Supremes singles like When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes and Run, Run, Run), and so it’s fascinating to see them doing it for real. And sure enough, the Supremes do enough here to show they could have hacked it as a Philles group, at least; their harmonies are sweeter and tighter than the Blossoms’ effort, and it’s fascinating to hear them effectively pretending to be the Ronettes or Crystals; a glimpse of an alternate musical history of Sixties America flashes up for a fraction of a second and flickers away again just as quickly.
So, yes, on this evidence, the Supremes and Phil Spector actually working together might have made something special happen. But it would have happened already; here, in 1965, the Wall of Sound is already passé, already datemarked as yesterday’s news in the face of both the British Invasion and (more pertinently) the almost aggressively perfect pop already coming out of Hitsville. Compare Things Are Changing not to Run, Run, Run but to Nothing But Heartaches, and it’s clear the world has already moved on. The Spector/Riopelle backing is muddier and murkier than Motown’s own attempts to mimic that sound, and now the Supremes bring an illustration of the new sounds which had supplanted it: tighter, clearer, sweeter, better.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR YOU TO BETTER YOURSELF
Because we don’t know the behind-the-scenes details of this, it’s hard to say where it fits into the Supremes’ story; here on Motown Junkies, we’re meeting the girls after their first (relative) setback in a year and a half of almost uninterrupted glory. After an astonishing run of five straight Number One singles, their would-be sixth in the series, Nothing But Heartaches, had unexpectedly stalled outside the Top Ten.
But we can’t take this earnest charity record as anything other than an extra-curricular jaunt – we don’t know if it was greenlit in an attempt by Motown to focus attention back on the Supremes again after their last single had spluttered out, or if it was slated for release months and months in advance; we don’t know if it was recorded from a position of confidence, or whether it dates from the days before their superstardom was assured. All we can do is listen to this cold, as a little extra treat, a bonus opportunity to meet the Supremes in this, their most spectacular year.
And it’s… alright. It’s not a classic or anything, but it’s probably better than we had any right to expect, even briefly thrilling in places, so I’m calling it a win.
Diana’s in her element doing the clunky spoken-word “sassy” parts; far be it from me to suggest that she sounds comfortable bossing other girls around, but she’s definitely having fun with this, perhaps more so than either Darlene or Jay and the Americans on their equivalent opening monologues. (“Get your man, take him by the hand, and bring him here to me!”)
But there’s no getting away from this being an afterthought; it’s not really finished, musically it leaves loose ends (the chorus feels like a classic Spector looping effort, things are changing / for the better, things are changing / for the better, but the loop is cut short with a swingeing off-the-peg economy measure to get us back to the verse again in quick time – Now is the time / For you to better your-SELF – which sounds forced and unwelcome, as if lurching unnaturally from Spector’s usual mode of writing to a different type of song.
Plus, the lyrics are as awkward as feared, and the Supremes can’t fully commit to them – it’s not exactly phoned in, but equally it’s never going to be anything more than a PSA, a glorified radio jingle. It’s a pretty jingle, and it’s as catchy as you’d expect of anything Brian Wilson had a tangential hand in, but a jingle nonetheless. Not bad, not great; rough and heavy-handed in places, beautifully sung in others. The soaring pre-chorus break (It doesn’t MAT-TER) is a thrill, worth a couple of marks all by itself, but other than that one spectacular moment, it all remains somehow earthbound.
But hey, it’s the Supremes, sounding lovely, singing Phil Spector for real two years or so after doing the whole ersatz Wall of Sound thing; it may not be vintage Supremes (or vintage Spector, for that matter), and it’s certainly not the stuff of legend that might have been expected of the only official Motown/Spector collaboration, but, well, it’s the Supremes pretending to be the Crystals, and don’t pretend you weren’t curious to hear how that turned out.
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!)
Kim Weston “Don’t Compare Me With Her” |
Marvin Gaye “Ain’t That Peculiar” |
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The Nixon Administration said:
And I’m back. Hello everyone!
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144man said:
Hello Steve. Hope you had a good time. We missed you.
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The Nixon Administration said:
Thanks. It’s good to be back!
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Nick in Pasadena said:
Whew! I was getting worried.
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The Nixon Administration said:
Complete List Of Things Which Will Bring This Project To An End Before It’s Done:
1. My untimely death
/End of list
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Damecia said:
lol
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Robert said:
I agree with your assessment, and especially your rating. Too good for a 5, but not good enough for much else. My only additional comments:
I first heard this around 11 years ago. My expectations for the vocal production were not met in this record. I wanted them to sound more Spectoresque. Something more echoey, a la the Merry Christmas lp. No, no, I wouldn’t have wanted it Andate-ized as that album was. Just Mary and Flo sounding less upfront and separated, and Diana more monaurally echo-chambered, if that makes any sense. I mean, I definitely wanted to hear Mary and Flo’s voices prominently, just prominently in a Spector sort of way. My guess has always been that Phil sent the instrumental tracks to Gordy and said “Do what you want.”
Again, not a bad record at all. But once I get a taste of that delicious opening bass (Carol Kay? BWAHAHAHAAA…) I generally advance to the next track.
Robert
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The Nixon Administration said:
It very likely IS Carol Kaye on bass this time. Though the band track was pre-recorded long before the Supremes got anywhere near it, so… yeah.
The vocals interest me because they’re not exactly in the Supremes’ usual HDH mould, but they’re still so much clearer and more up-front than anything Spector would have done (compare and contrast the Blossoms version!) – is it that Motown didn’t want to do an exact copy, or that they couldn’t, or that they wanted to but couldn’t resist using some of the trademark Hitsville tricks when cutting a vocal?
(Also, we shouldn’t forget Hitsville at the time – if that’s where the vocals were cut – didn’t even have a real echo chamber, if you don’t count the bathroom…)
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144man said:
It’s right to review this record, but as it was only a campaign song, I’m not sure if it is fair to attempt to mark this record out of ten as if it were a scheduled commercial single release.
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The Nixon Administration said:
If it’s good enough for Lee Alan, it’s good enough for the Supremes 🙂 Everything that’s even vaguely a song gets a rating. And the mid-Sixties Supremes aren’t done with baffling ephemera just yet.
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treborij said:
I never heard (or heard about) this record until the 90s. But where I grew up (upstate NY) there were no black stations which I assume would have been the ones to play it.
I didn’t actually hear it until I got TCMS V.5. And, yes, it was a disappointment considering the pedigree. But it’s not horrible. It’s just….nothing special.
Does anyone remember hearing this at the time?
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Robb Klein said:
I ONLY listened to “Black stations” (WVON in Chicago, KDIA (San Francisco Bay Area (Oakland) and KGFJ in Los Angeles. I never heard this song played on the radio. I’d be curious to find out which stations played it in 1965. I never saw the record, nor heard of it. I DID find “Scott’s On Swingers”, “Set Me Free” and the Supremes’ Interview record. This one must have been very rare, and almost unknown to most collectors. I also knew several Detroit Motown collectors, and never saw this in anyone’s collection.
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treborij said:
Robb – I remember during the summers of 1964 and 1966 we went and visited an aunt in Chicago. I was really excited to hear the music on WVON. It was what I wanted to hear then (in addition to the Beatles, of course). I had my transistor pasted to my ears (foreshadowing Ipods…admittedly the transistor radio was a little more cumbersome) wherever we went much to my parents chagrin.
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The Nixon Administration said:
Judging purely by auction prices (never a particularly exact science!) the Blossoms one seems to be the only one that was printed up in any significant quantities, and even then we’re only talking “relatively few” as opposed to “ultra-rare”.
I don’t know how much of a splash this whole Things Are Changing campaign made at the time (readers?) – I’ve seen pictures of the billboards and newspaper ads produced for the campaign, but none online.
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Kevin Moore said:
>KGFJ in Los Angeles
where was that on the dial? I only remember KHJ, KFWB and KRLA – all clustered around the center
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Robb Klein said:
I do remember hearing “Don’t Be A Dropout” and “Don’t Take drugs” by James Brown, -both played a lot. I also never heard the great Brenda Holloway cut, “Play it Cool, Stay in School”.
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Mark V said:
Meh! Not worth noting except as a curiosity, and a 6 rating is way too generous.
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Dave L said:
I didn’t hear it till the 1995 Anthology CD set, and like “The Only Time I’m Happy,” it’s probably as well I didn’t know about it in the 60s, or the exhaustive search would have been on. “Happy” was already on More Hits, and I don’t feel bereft that this interesting curiosity waited till I was middle-aged.
It’s fun, but there’s nothing about it that prepares anybody for the next genuine new word from The Supremes.
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Robb Klein said:
I’d give it a 4.
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Damecia said:
Steve D you’re back! = )
I must first start off by saying I love any track where Miss Ross speaks lol. I already knew I was into something good. I like the message the song contains… very positive….maybe a record we need right now in America.
I heard the Blossoms record and will have to agree when Steve D says our girls (Supremes) “harmonies are sweeter and tighter than the Blossoms’.” I’m going to take this song for what it was and agree with the 6 Steve D has dished out. I guess this was a musical effort on behalf of Motown and the Supremes to help out during the civil rights movement, but really they didn’t have to do this because Motown brought so much hope and joy to a mass of people with the great songs they were releasing at the time.
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John Plant said:
I’m constitutionally allergic to music as a medium for moral propaganda – as opposed to, say, the free expression of moral outrage (as in Stevie’s glorious ‘You Haven’t Done Nothing’) or inspired conviction (as in the Staples’ ‘Long Walk to D.C.’ – not to mention Liz Lands’ amazing tribute to JFK, or, well, Beethoven’s 9th). I make an exception for ‘Don’t Be A Dropout’ because it really sounds like JB, and because of the line ‘He had a soul family and his kids were all out of sight!’ – but I fervently hope this peculiar mishmash never crosses my eardrums again. But oh how we’ve missed you, Steve! – welcome back!
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Sonic eric said:
To me , Don’t hurt my little sister is a bit more than a throwaway filler in this unsung masterpiece The Beach Boys Today. For the rest, a wonderful reading as always.
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The Nixon Administration said:
Really? I love “…Today!” as an album, but I’d never in a million years pick that song out as a highlight; Please Let Me Wonder, obviously, but I also go for Good To My Baby, When I Grow Up, She Knows Me Too Well, their version of I’m So Young, plus you’ve got Dance Dance Dance and the weird but glorious Help Me Ronda (sic) that now sounds like a demo…
I want to listen to the Beach Boys now.
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Sonic eric said:
Sure Don’t hurt is no Please Let me wonder but I like very much the beautiful contrechant of Brian Wilson on Why don’t you kiss her. Glad you like Today too !
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Landini said:
Oh wow! Beach Boys Today is a great album. If only it had the “good” version of “Help Me Rhonda” & left out that nonsense chatter at the end it would be perfect. It doesn’t surprise me that Motown fans like Today. I feel like there is some subtle Motown influence here & there. As great as Pet Sounds is, I might actually choose Today over it.
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Randy Brown said:
Hey, I happen to LOVE that “weird” LP version of “Help Me, Rhonda” (it also appears on their 1970s comp “Endless Summer”).
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Steven said:
Great essay on Things Are Changing, but I have to disagree with one casual remark you made. At the time Brian Wilson had a major hand in the creation of this song, he could be called anything but reclusive. In addition to writing, arranging and producing around 40-50 songs a year for the Beach Boys and his side projects (Jan and Dean, Glen Campbell, The Honeys, etc.) he also toured with the Beach Boys until his nervous breakdown just before Christmas 1964 (when he was briefly replaced for live performances by Glen Campbell). It was this breakdown that “bought” him a couple of weeks rest.
Then he was back into the studio to continue work on The Beach Boys Today!, one of three albums he produced for the Beach Boys in 1965. Brian didn’t let up until 1967 when he had another major breakdown during the collapse of the Smile recording sessions.
As for paranoid, anyone in their right mind would have had some issues if they’d had their record company, their manager father, and a cousin (Mike Love) constantly second-guessing and pushing him for more “product”.
But like I said, great essay! Thanks!!
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The Nixon Administration said:
Thanks Steven. I wasn’t sure when this actually dated from – I knew that by mid-’65 Brian had unfortunately begun to suffer with some major issues but I wasn’t sure what the situation was when this was actually recorded.
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Robert said:
According to the timeline in Mary Wilson’s autobio Dreamgirl (she kept logs and diaries of their activities over the years) “Things are Changing” was recorded in August 1965, just after their July 29 Copa debut. And right around the anniversary of WDOLG’s ascent to Number One on the US Billboard pop chart. Amazing list of accomplishments in one year.
Upon further reflection… The vocals on this remind me of their “Dr. Goldfoot” opening credits theme. Very clear and upfront. Also remind me of the delightful yet sometimes lyrically bizarre “Honey Babe” which I’ve had on bootleg for years and was finally officially released on the WDOLG double CD a few years ago. Sometimes Mary dominates, sometimes Flo, and of course, usually Diana. That record, to me, is vastly superior to “Things are Changing” as far as vocals go.
Robert
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Damecia said:
This totally off topic but I don’t know who else to share this with besides you Junkies! lol.
I’ve just heard a song by Dee Dee Sharp called “I Really Love You” and it is soooo DOPE! lol. I’m sure this isn’t a Motown song, but the instrumentation is close to perfection and her delivery is great. Is anybody familiar with this song, if so any thoughts?
Geez, I love music lol.
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144man said:
I don’t think Dee Dee Sharp, despite her early success, has ever got the recognition she deserves. If you like “I Really Love You”, you’ll probably also enjoy Lorraine Ellison’s “I Dig You Baby”.
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Damecia said:
Hello! Long time since we chatted =)
So are you saying that she is like an underrated one hit wonder? I don’t know much about her?
I’m going to check out the song you suggested. Will let you know what I think.
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Landini said:
Dee Dee Sharp is my girl! She actually had a string of early 60s hits (“Mashed Potato Time” “Do the Bird” “Wild” “Slow Twistin” w/Chubby Checker ) Her early records were in a kind of Marvelettes/Girl Group mode. She continued to record for several other label & have some r&b hits. She was married to Kenny Gamble (of Gamble/Huff) for awhile & had some comeback dance & quiet storm hits in the late 70s. Her song “Invitation” is a quiet storm classic! Seems like a classy lady.
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Damecia said:
Wow! Didn’t know she was the girl who sang “Mashed Potatoes” so she the baby sitter who inspired Carole King to write the song? Also, didn’t know she was married to Kenny Gamble. I heard “Invitation” and I couldn’t quite get into it.
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Robb Klein said:
No. Little Eva was Carole King’s babysitter. She sang “The Loco-Motion”, Let’s Turkey Trot, “Just A Little Girl” “keep Your Hands Off My Baby” and “The Trouble With Boys”.
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Damecia said:
Oh lol I’m getting artist and songs mixed up!
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bogart4017 said:
Also check out a Philly grouip called the Ambassadors and their smash hit version of “I Really Love You”.
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Damecia said:
Okay. Will do.
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Damecia said:
Listen to “Dig, You Baby” and I like it. It has that early 70s laid back style. I feel it could have been better though. I don’t really like the chorus singers. I think they’re too loud.
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Robb Klein said:
Although her biggest hits were her early Cameo novelty/dance songs, she was a great singer, who made some very nice Soul recordings released on her later Cameo records, and also on ATCO and her husband Kenny Gamble’s labels, Gamble, TSOP, Philadelphia international Records. I’m most partial to her “Chicago Sound” recordings recorded by Jerry Butler’s Conlo Productions (written by Barrett Strong, and with some tracks recorded in Chicago by Carl Davis’ crew) including “I Really love You” ‘s flip, “Standing In The Need of Love”, and “It’s A Funny Situation”. Also like Gamble songs on Cameo, “There Ain’t Nothin’ I Wouldn’t Do For You” and (That’s What My Mama Said”, and Gamble productions on ATCO. “My Best Friend’s Man”, “What Am I Gonna Do” and “Bye, Bye, Baby” (not the Mary Wells song).
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Damecia said:
Thanx for the info Robb! I’m going to check out some of the tracks that you’ve mentioned.
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Landini said:
Interesting that some rock critics writing about the early 60s pre-Beatle years say that Dee Dee Sharp may have been one of the first black, female teen idols. Ms. Sharp said in an interview that when she performed “Mashed Potatoes” on Amer Bandstand she didn’t even know how to do the dance!
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Landini said:
By the way, Robb… Thanks for the shoutout to the Chi-Town Sound. I love the Chicago sound. Damecia, you ought to read Robert Prueter’s book “Chicago Soul” Excellent book!
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Damecia said:
Will see if “Chicago Soul” is at my local library
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Damecia said:
Oh wow that is interesting and here am never hearing a word about this woman
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144man said:
The material on both sides of those early Cameo singles is remarkably strong. Of the later recordings, “What Kind of Lady” and “I’m Not In Love” deserve a mention.
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bogart4017 said:
Wow. This pressing is 1 33 rpm microgroove? I thought those were phased in somewhere between 1959 and 1962.
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benjaminblue said:
Maybe Diana Ross and The Supremes were involved in this project at the request of Lynda Bird Johnson, the president’s daughter, who is exactly one week older than Diana.
In one of the glossy, photo-laden booklets prepared for sale at Diana Ross and The Supremes’ concerts, Lynda Bird was quoted as saying, “You all are my favorite group, and I love you all so very much…”
As for the promotional single, I never heard it aired. However, I had a friend who worked at a small radio station which apparently — along with all radio stations all across America — had received the record. Knowing that I loved the group and would appreciate hearing the novelty, he called me in one day and played the record for me.
My only recollection from that unexpected hearing was that Diana spoke on it (!) and that it was not a typical Motown song. Of course, I knew none of the background you’ve detailed here. I kind of liked the song, though, and for a time I remembered and was able to hum the melody. It was a treat when the promo was released, finally, on CD!
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Aidan said:
I find “Don’t Hurt My Little Sister” to be a quality Beach Boys track, with an interesting Brian Wilson chord progression and great falsetto.
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tomovox said:
For me, there is an odd poignancy to this record. There is something that goes beyond rating it and whether or not some like it and some don’t. I may be off, because I was born in 1966 and missed just how it was then, but I always feel a little sad that such a record even had to be made. A record addressing that there actually WAS or HAD BEEN issues with minorities and women having trouble finding decent employment. Its’s sad that people couldn’t take being able to enjoy the basic rights and benefits that come with a job (not even a career, just a basic, entry-level job) for granted.
My father told me how for years, blacks weren’t hired at the factory where he worked until around ’65. My mother told me how loan officers would even factor in any income a wife was bringing in. Wow. We take so much for granted now, but I’m imagining if you had to do a PSA telling minorities and women that, “Hey, it’s safe now! You might actually get hired!”, there is something patently sad about that.
I love hearing all the backstory to this, as I’ve always wondered how it came about too, but again, to me, there is something of much more gravity here than people blowing this off, like, “ahhh, it’s no Stop! In The Name Of Love”. It wasn’t meant to be a Supremes masterpiece or smash radio hit. I might be reading more into the importance of this record, but it just seems to mark a very dark time in the Civil Rights Movement that this was even necessary.
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