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Gordy G 7047 (AA), September 1965
b/w My Baby
(Written by Smokey Robinson and Ronnie White)
Tamla Motown TMG 541 (B), November 1965
B-side of My Baby
(Released in the UK under license via EMI / Tamla Motown)
Mid-year in 1965 is a strange sort of time for these Smokey Robinson groups, isn’t it? I can’t imagine what listeners at the time would have made of this recent run of sides we’ve had here on Motown Junkies. It’s not that the Smokey-penned material Motown was releasing at the same time, both for himself and for his protegés, was bad or anything, it’s just that taken together, these songs seem to suggest a lack of direction, a sense of progression.
That sense of confusion is heightened when it comes to Don’t Look Back. The A-side here, My Baby, a slight but slinky pop number in the style of Mary Wells, had been merely okay; nice enough on its own, especially given David Ruffin’s beautiful lead vocal (which I now realise I barely touched upon when writing the review), but a strange blip in the seemingly never-ending sequence of great Temptations/Smokey singles we’ve enjoyed since the summer of 1964. Don’t Look Back, which picked up enough airplay (especially on black radio) to chart in its own right, makes far more sense as a single; it’s clearly coming from the same musical place as the Miracles’ most recent 45, the underwhelming My Girl Has Gone, rather than anything the Temptations have turned their hands to of late, but it’s both a better song and a better record, and so it’s no surprise the DJs were keen to flip this one over to find the goodies underneath.
For a start, the lyrics to this one actually make sense, the narrator urging their hesitant, recently-dumped would-be lover to let go of the past and stop letting fear of rejection hold them back. It’s a nice idea for a song, well-executed by Smokey, suddenly reminding us what a great lyricist he really was after three uncharacteristic misses in a row. And it scans well, too; much was made in the comment section of the charming simplicity of My Baby, but I feel those comments would be much more appropriate here, the smiley, youthful insouciance of Eddie’s high harmonies (The past is behind you, let nothing remind you!) bursting with the kind of spiritual sunshine feeling we now see was missing from the A-side. If the backing vocals are more of a pounding chant than the presumably intended nod to the lush harmonies of My Girl – the group coming across more like the Spinners than the Temptations (or Mary Wells) – well, the effect is still striking. There’s scarcely any better sound in pop music than the Temptations in full flow when they were really enjoying themselves, and that’s a large part of what makes Don’t Look Back so much fun.
Musically, too, it’s a lovely record, the high, twisting strings calling to mind Jackie Ross’ magnificent Trust In Me, and underlining just what a half-finished hack-job My Girl Has Gone really was – Don’t Look Back isn’t such a very different song to that Miracles single, and it’s clear that with a bit more care and attention, a bit more love, that one might have been as good as this one. Because this one’s excellent.
The best thing about this, though, is Paul Williams, the forgotten man of the Temptations’ trio of lead singers, the voice of those early days (and in particular of Just Let Me Know, a surefire hit single whose relegation to B-side status seemingly took Paul down with it). Pushed aside first by the prodigious devleopment of Eddie Kendricks from wayward falsetto to angelic songbird, and then by the parachuting-in of musical lightning rod David Ruffin, opportunities for Paul to sing lead were now few and far between, and when they do come along they’re almost always moments to treasure. Here, he’s on particularly fine form, all gravelly and earthy, as though he’s already been pleading for hours by the time the record opens to catch him in mid-flow; his voice is nowhere near as technically strong as either Eddie or David, he often doesn’t quite nail the notes he’s going for, and yet he’s so utterly, completely believable that he absolutely makes this song. We’re left under no illusions that this time, for once, after the record’s over, the narrator is definitely going to get the girl.
This should have been the A-side; this should have been the way the Miracles approached My Girl Has Gone. Should, should, should. What it is, though, is another excellent Temptations single. We won’t be meeting them again for six months; Don’t Look Back is good enough to make that temporary parting hurt.
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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As one of the “listeners of the time” you speak of (even though I was only 14), I do recall being somewhat disappointed by Smokey’s productions in 1965. But (I probably reasoned at the time) that was because the spotlight had shifted so dramatically to H-D-H. Each new Supremes or Four Tops single seemed to outdo the last. I’d expected much bigger things for Brenda Holloway, but I was pleased with the new vitality Marvin Gaye was showing. So, all in all, it looked like Motown was in very good shape (as indeed it was). Even with so much happening music-wise at the time, it was really in a league of its own, always straining my meager allowance money!
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Spiritual sunshine is right – and you’re quite right about the kinship with ‘My Girl Has Gone’ (though I’ll NEVER agree that it’s a ‘hack job!’) – with the same sort of ritual gospel feel (‘You can’t run, you can’t hide’). And yes, Paul doesn’t have David’s virtuosity, but the soulful urgency and vulnerability in his voice, the sense of wisdom gained through suffering (‘Love has problems, I know, but they’re problems we all have to face’ ) certainly provide ‘moments to treasure’. Would there were more of them! 8 is certainly a minimum. I didn’t recall the six-month gap between singles! – I know that ‘Get Ready’ was the locus of the first parental complaint about music – the torture scene from ‘Tosca’ and the loudest moments of Mahler passed without demur, but ‘Get Ready’ was too much for them! – Despite my eloquent explanations of why it was such a masterpiece! – (They later made handsome amends by taking me to see the Temptations shortly before I emigrated to Canada….)
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Ha! Ha! I guess Canada traded me (and maybe a draft choice) for you! I moved from Winnipeg to Chicago. Where did you live in USA, and to where in Canada did you move?
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Born in Yonkers, grew up in rural southern Pennsylvania and then south Jersey (near Philadelphia), went to college in Vermont, moved to Montreal in 1968, now living in Nova Scotia!
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I’ve got cousins in Montréal – favourite city. I guess you’re Canadian enough. You’ve been there for 45 years. You left USA when Motown had already reached its peak. Are you any relation to Robert Plant? It’s a very unusual last name.
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No relationship has ever been demonstrated – but my dad was born in Birmingham, England (came over on the Baltic, aged seven, in 1919) – which is, I believe, RP’s home town.
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Just wondering, Robb, if I taught any of your cousins music during my quarter century at St George’s Schoo in Mtll – I remember lots of Kleins!
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No. My cousins didn’t live in Westmount, In any case, they attended an independent Jewish School. Did you teach in the elementary or the high school?
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St. Geoge’s Elementary in the morning, Concordia U. in the afternoon – conveniently leapfrogging adolescence!
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Well, Nix, I’m glad to see that you rate this song highly. It was great to hear a new paul Williams-led Temptations’ song that was so strong. What a great 2-sided record. It could have easily been an A-side on its own release.
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A fantastic record, and although a love song in lyrical content, more than one writer has found an empowerment message in it akin to Curtis Mayfield material of the time like “Keep On Pushing” and “People Get Ready.” It’s there.
All these years later one is glad that Smokey came up with at least one evergreen jewel for Paul and Paul made it immortal. I loved it from the first time I turned the 45 over. Yes it should have been an A-side; Motown as much as admits that folding it into the first Greatest Hits a year later, and five months after that in the first Live album it’s the curtain-closer in a near 7 minute version.
Otis Williams doesn’t speak lightly when, in the group’s autobiography he calls Paul Williams “the heart and soul of The Temptations.”
While it lasts here’s a YouTube performance with every member of the group still a healthy young man.
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Paul L. I just read and then reread the recently published Dancing In The Street book that covered so well the life and times of that song. While becoming more seasoned in the game of life, I would say now, that it is among the best Motown books ever written. When I was younger I would not have liked it as much. Being much more interested in who wore what shoe size etc. What I find interesting is your take on “Don’t Look Back”, being a “Message” song on par with the well documented in the book, “People Get Ready”, and “Keep On Pushing”. I have felt to some degree the message all these years. So I would have to agree that yes it is a “Message” song if you look at one side of the coin, and a love song if you look at the other.
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Isn’t that why The Jamaican Reggae movement adopted it, because they assumed that it was communicating a message?
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I didn’t know that, but it makes perfect sense! For me the title packs more of a “message” than the actual song (as, indeed, does Dancing In The Street), but it shares the same bounce and flex as a lot of mid-Sixties proto-reggae – it’s close enough to the Jamaican-flavoured soul of e.g. Jackie Edwards that coupled with the seemingly political sentiment it could work in a sound system’s set.
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The discussion of this song’s influnece on Reggae reminds me of the time my uncle played a version for me. My uncle showed me the reggae version of this song by Mick Jagger and Peter Tosh, not knowing until we had listened, that I knew this song because of the Temptations version. It seems to me that Reggae in general has been hugely influenced by soul and earlier r&b music.
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Oh Dave, thank you! That’s just beautiful. Not just the expressive and poetic choreography (and of course the matchless singing) but the heartbreaking earnestness of Paul’s expressions as the song unfolds. Amen!
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I met Paul Williams Jr. as part of Dennis Edwards Temptations Review 5 years ago, I wish I would thought to ask him if this song was ever a part of the DETRevue setlist.
On the Temptations Live CD when the Classic 5 closed the show with the song, the song was only two years old, and pretty fresh in the minds of the audience. The CD era affords the opportunity to put out more material compared to the original album, but that cut should have been on the original album. For one, it captured the live experience, and the album was maybe 35-40 minutes long.
When Paul started doing “For Once In My Life”, that became his signature tune, and it appears “Don’t Look Back” was retired by the Classic 5.
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A weird thing happened to me vis-a-vis this song. Sometime in the 70s (after a bit of a drought in classic Motown listening) I returned to this song and without checking had it pegged as a Norman Whitfield composition/production. It struck me as a little rougher around the edges (in a good way) than the typical Smokey production. It wasn’t until I got TCMS5 and read the book that I realized I was wrong.
That said, it still sounds more NW than Smokey to me. But anyway you look at it, it’s great track and great production. I like it better than the A side. And I loved the fact that it reminded everybody that Paul Williams was there if needed.
And I also like the fact that this song has taken a life of its own with a number of cover versions.Does anyone know if Smokey ever cut a version of this song or performed it live?
I like your 8 on this Nixon
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Yes , he DID, at the time that he devoted a special part of his show devoted to songs that he (and the OTHER Miracles) , wrote for the Temptations. It’s especially noteworthy that Smokey sang DON’T LOOK BACK during his medley.
He did NOT sing ” MY BABY ” . This clearly shows which song he had originally planned to be the “A” side. Not only THAT, but the fact that Motown Records conceived DON’T LOOK BACK as a dynamic show-closing number for The Temptations , as opposed to “MY BABY” , which the group appeared to sing almost as an afterthought. (Listen to the “TEMPTATIONS LIVE” LP.
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Ahem…Mr. Nixon, Kendricks did the lead on “Dream Come True.”
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Ha! I knew that, I meant “Just Let Me Know” – “Dream Come True” is one of my all-time favourite Temptations cuts, I have no idea what on earth I was thinking (not just writing the wrong title, but then linking to it as well)…? I’ve amended the review, anyway.
I’m glad someone spotted it, or it might have sat up there forever. Thanks Randy.
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I don’t think listeners of the time considered Smokey in some kind of creative drought. We just took the records as they came. For me, i loved “My Baby” for its bounce….and the fact that you could tell it was a Smokey comp. “Don’t Look Back” i really considered a showpiece. I dug the record but to appeciate it you had to see them live or check them on TV doing it. Curiously, i wasnt all that happy with the things Smokey was doing with Marvin Gaye. To this day, while i don’t hate them, i tend to avoid “Ain’t That peculiar” and “I’ll Be Doggone”. I much prefer things like “Hitch Hike” or “Pride or Joy”.
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I agree with this. Smokey was such a great writer that we knew he couldn’t write a super-classic every time out. ALL of his songs written for Temptations “A” sides were great. I enjoyed them all. I was only disappointed in a few Miracles’ “A” sides. “Come On Do The Jerk” and “Come Round Here”.
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What no one else in this blog has stated so far, (and maybe never knew) was that “DON’T LOOK BACK” actually WAS the ORIGINAL “A” SIDE of this recording. This has been confirmed in Wikipedia, as well as in the Temptations bio book “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg : The Troubled Lives and Enduring Soul of The Temptations by Mark Ribowsky on Pgs. 144–145 . It’s relative chart failure was the reason that Motown flipped the tune over, and promoted the David Ruffin-led flip side, “My Baby”.
More Proof: Don’t Look Back was written by the SAME team of Miracles members that composed the million-selling # 1 smash “My Girl” : Smokey Robinson & Ronnie White…and it was felt that the same team could compose a smash for Temptation Paul Williams. Alas, it was not to be. Interestingly, Wikipedia states:
“Considered one of original lead singer Paul Williams’ showcases, “Don’t Look Back” was regularly employed as the closing number for Temptations live performances. Although the original flip side, “My Baby”, was initially more popular with pop audiences at the time, over the decades, “Don’t Look Back” has proven to be the far more popular and enduring tune,having inspired many cover versions by Al Green, Phil Collins, Bobby Womack, The Persuasions, and Teena Marie. In 1978 Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger covered it as a reggae tune as “(You Gotta Walk And) Don’t Look Back”. In 2008, Belgian singer Dirk De Smet covered it as “Walk and Don’t Look Back”. It was also performed by the group on The Ed Sullivan Show. There are no known cover versions of “My Baby”.
More proof : “DON’T LOOK BACK” was conceived as a dynamic and elaborate closing show number for the Temptations in their live concerts. “My Baby” was added basically as an afterthought.
Wikipedia continues:
“”Don’t Look Back” was originally this single’s A-side, but was passed over by the nation’s DJs in favor of the Ruffin-led “My Baby”, which had a much bigger pop success than this song, and placed on the B-side.[citation needed] The song nevertheless was promoted as if it were an A-side and would the only B-side to chart in the Hot 100 for the group (but missed the Top 40 as it peaked at #83).
Although the song’s relatively modest initial chart success prevented Williams from getting any more leads on Temptations singles releases,the fact is that “Don’t Look Back” became a huge belated hit, because his dynamic performance of the song on the Temptations Live! LP received huge airplay by R&B DeeJays nationwide, and propelled sales of the album into the Top 10 of the Billboard pop album chart.[citation needed] Both sides of the single would receive a second pressing and the tracks remixed, with the following statements added on: “Taken from the album #G 914 The Temptin’ Temptations.” With the second printing, the sides were reversed, making “My Baby” the A-side, while ‘Don’t Look Back, the original A-side, was relegated to B-side status.[1]
“Don’t Look Back” was more often performed at Temptations live shows than “My Baby”.[citation needed] On the 1967 Temptations Live! album, the women in the audience can be heard demanding that the group perform the song, which they proceeded to do. Paul Williams, who developed many of The Temptations’s dance steps, developed a routine for the live shows that had him following the song’s advice to “keep on walkin'” and performing a strut across the stage, to the delight of the audience. As befitting an intended “A” side, “Don’t Look Back” was conceived by Motown Records as an elaborate and dynamic closing number for the Temptations.”
Maybe with a little more promotion, the song would have been a bigger hit . But , the facts are that DON’T LOOK BACK , having been performed on the “TEMPTATIONS LIVE” album , made the ALBUM a Top 10 smash….and THAT’S even BETTER !!!
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Not according to Motown’s own paperwork it wasn’t. Plus the chart thing Ribowsky mentions is impossible given My Baby charted before Don’t Look Back. There were two distinct pressings of the single with two different mixes on both sides, so it’s sometimes confused for a re-issue – but The Complete Motown Singles is absolutely clear that My Baby was the plug side both times.
Also, never use “proof” and “Wikipedia” in the same sentence. I could add a citation to Wikipedia right now stating the song was originally written under the working title “Giggles the Birthday Clown” (p.176, Mary Kohoutek, “Temptations: The Life and Times of Motown’s Greatest Group”, Garraway Press 1997) and it’d be months before anyone picked up on it 🙂
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Perhaps. But consider this…1) Despite My Baby’s “bigger hit” status, it was “DON’T LOOK BACK” that the group performed on “THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW” , at that time considered U.S. television’s top talent and entertainment showcase. 2) When Smokey Robinson tours live, he has a segment in his show where he often sings the hits that he (and the other Miracles) wrote for The Temptations. The song he sings is ALWAYS “DON’T LOOK BACK” , NEVER “MY BABY” ,To me, that says a lot.
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