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Soul S 35014 (A), September 1965
b/w How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
(Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr.)
Tamla Motown TMG 814 (A), May 1972
b/w How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
(Released in the UK under license through EMI / Tamla Motown)
It’s almost exactly one hundred reviews since we last met Motown bandleader Earl Van Dyke as a headline act (back in January 1965, with All For You), and many, many things have changed at Hitsville since then. In January, it had been merely unlikely that Earl and his studio bandmates the Funk Brothers would make a name for themselves as artists; by September, with Motown having since racked up five more Number One singles, it was now inconceivable that that could ever happen.
I’ve talked on this blog before about how the Funks’ story has become distorted over time; in particular, about how it makes me uncomfortable to see people talk about the greatest studio band in American history as if they were somehow being held back, as if we never got to see their true genius. Not only does that casually dismiss the brilliance of the actual, magical Motown records we got to hear, it’s just flat out wrong to say they were never given a chance.
Equally, though, and rather confusingly, it’s also wrong to infer from the existence of singles like this one – taken from the sessions which produced Earl and the Funk (“Soul”) Brothers’ very own studio album, That Motown Sound (pictured further down) – that the musicians got to play off the leash and do their own thing, and that what we’re hearing here is the band let loose. No. That Motown Sound – the sessions for which this version of I Can’t Help Myself was taken – was emphatically not the sound of the Funk Brothers doing what they wanted. We’ll get to hear that soon enough – trust me, we will – but for now, this is something else: a compromise that likely pleased nobody, not the musicians, not the bean counters, not the hardcore muso jazz-heads, and certainly not the fans.
Specifically, what we have here is the sound of a makeshift deal aimed at keeping the musicians sweet, the Motown top brass throwing the band a bone by agreeing to give them their own releases while simultaneously making sure that what was in those actual grooves hewed as closely as possible to the company’s R&B-pop blueprint. To that end, the greatest studio band in America is given a stack of their own backing tapes – material they’d cut for other Motown artists to sing over – and told to chug through a series of ropey overdubs, replacing the vocals with lengthy jazz-muzak instrumental passages.
I Can’t Help Myself, repurposed from the Four Tops’ chart-topping mega-hit, wasn’t actually featured on the LP – but it would have been one of the better cuts on the album, an LP chock full of hastily-rearranged resprays Earl and the Funks were somehow persuaded to work on. Perhaps mercifully, there’s no extra organ on this to replace the Four Tops and Andantes’ heavenly vocals from the original; rather, it’s fist-bashing piano and rippling ivories all the way, which comes as a relief. Earl’s deranged fingerwork over the intro effectively re-times the start of the song, briefly disguising its origins for theoretical radio listeners, and from then on he attacks the rest of the song with glee, gussying-up an instrumental bed that was only ever intended as a vehicle for a great lead singer and six lovely backing voices.
But there’s the rub: you can’t simply replace Levi Stubbs with a bar-room piano. It’s still the same old song (ha ha) playing underneath, and what we’re left with is unmistakeably a very familiar backing track that’s been shorn of its best features. It’s not even karaoke, because the decision to have Earl’s lengthy piano solo run pretty much the entire length of the record turns it into a meandering jazz-out, an instrumental jam that surely nobody in America was asking for.
This is good-time music alright – the lack of organ is a blessing, and it’s fun to hear Earl going nuts on the piano. Unlike some of the Brothers’ other cuts, he sounds like he’s having plenty of fun with this himself, which makes a difference. But what does that leave us with at the end of the day? A harmless curio, something to play once for its novelty value and then go back to the original. Completely pointless, and almost defiantly inessential.
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 Four Tops (April 1965)
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 Earl Van Dyke or the Funk Brothers? Click for more.)
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| The Temptations “Don’t Look Back” |
Earl Van Dyke & the Soul Brothers “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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As a musician, I am OK with the root concept of the cut/album on one level. Coltrane doing My Favorite Things is probably what I might have expected, looking back to then, from now. Though In 1965 I was probably more apt to be more moved by the original version of My Favorite Things and repulsed by Mr. Coltrane et al. Listening to the EVD & TSB single now however, I don’t think there was any real sales potential for this concept in all honesty. While not being afforded the opportunity to stretch out, at least he musicians can say they “had an album out”. I recall a picture of The Funks at a club date with the album jacket displayed prominently. We know now the Funk Brothers and the contribution that they made to the music looking back in hindsight. In 1965 we did not. Jazz fans would not be buying this, and Top 40 record buyers could again, put on the original Levi Stubbs vocal instead.
It is a 5 for me
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I was given this album as a gift (re released as “Funk Brothers” on CD)…and upon opening it I thought it was just the backing tracks to the hits.
Cue my disappointment when it wasn’t just that – not that it sounds bad, it’s just I wanted to hear the backing tracks sans vocals to pick out what was covered up.
I was just left scratching my head wondering “why…this makes no sense – it’s just the hit with a piano over it”?
Hopefully they got some royalties out of it….
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This track did not appear on the “That Motown Sound” album although the B side did. I do agree that “I Can’t Help Myself” is one of the better overdubs done by Earl Van Dyke which makes it even more surprising that it did not feature on the album.
I purchased the album in the 70’s and, like Tom, was dissapointed that the backing tracks were spolit by the piano/organ overdubs. Like you say, there is better to come from EVD but this deserves no more than a 5 in my book.
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Ha! You’re absolutely right, I’d mis-filed this in my MP3 system. (The perils of modern technology, etc.) I’ve amended the review accordingly. Thanks John.
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Thanks Tom.
Your last sentence raises an interesting point. Unlike many other screwed-over black musicians of the 50s, 60s and 70s, the Funk Brothers’ later woes weren’t necessarily financial – the key players were (relatively) well-paid by the standards of the time, albeit I’d never suggest they were in any sense “well looked-after” – but rather that Motown crassly discarded them like a used tissue, and then airbrushed them out of the label’s history.
That they apparently got paid quite a lot of money (more than a lot of artists, certainly) for obediently toeing the line doesn’t diminish the fact they were screwed over – Motown’s lack of recognition for some of the men who’d built the empire in the first place meant (a) whether you were a fan, a producer looking for a session man or a concert promoter, you had to know who they were to know who they were, and (b) they and their families’ subsequent hard-luck stories found little currency in the press until it was much, much too late. Their long battle for recognition wasn’t, as far as I’m aware, a fight for residuals (though I’ll happily stand corrected if anyone knows different!).
I don’t know whether that makes it any better, of course. That story in Standing in the Shadows of Motown with Robert White and the waitress (the guitarist hearing My Girl strike up on a diner radio, excitedly telling some watiress “That’s me!”, only to cut himself off because he realises he’d just sound like another crazy old man) makes me tear up every time.
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Having just finished up a biography of James Brown (“The One,” in case anyone is interested), it seems that shabby treatment of the backing band was common in that era – in James case, for fear of losing them (at least until it was convenient), and thus the “sound.” I’d venture Berry Gordy felt the same – pay enough to keep them around, but not give them any notoriety, and make it hard for them to play for anyone else.
The Funk Brothers had that sound…even on the non Motown songs they moonlit on: “Cool Jerk”, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher”, and “Someone’s Been Sleeping In My Bed.” Did Gordy punish them at all for playing on those tracks?
Shame that they were attempted to be airbrushed from history…but at least there are places like this that give them their due, and of course “Standing in the Shadows of Motown.”
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Ed Wingate’s Ric Tic/Golden World operation was one that “borrowed” the Funk Bros. on numerous occasions. I think it was in “Standing in the Shadows…” that one of them said that Gordy would have spies outside Wingate’s studio. Any FB member seen there would be fined $100. On one occasion Wingate ave the fined players $200! Wingate was so tenacious, Gordy bought him out, and the Golden World studio became Hitsville Studio “B.”
I’m sure the Brothers are the rhythmic bed on this instrumental from ’67, by the grandiosely-named “San Remo Golden Strings.”
San Remo Golden Strings – “Hungry for Love”
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One reason for records like this is that they were programmed into jukeboxes along with the hits. When I was about 12-15 I had a paper route that took in a couple of bars. And when I’d go in there I’d frequently hear instrumentals of the latest hits playing on the jukeboxes. But they tended to be a little more (what I perceived as) “jazz versions” than a backing track type of thing like this record. But perhaps that was the market Motown was going for. The jukebox audience was a pretty lucrative target and it struck me that certain records were made for them.
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See also my statement about Top 40 soul radio in the b-side’s comments.
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An often spun and oft requested side at our Soul Nights here in Shropshire, but we (the DJ’s) are big fans of instrumentals. I’d be generous enough to give it a 6, maybe even a 7 if I was having a really good day
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There was no audience for this record—a piano solo laid over a recent #1 backing track? I can only hear it as backdrop for a dj’s local announcements. It also works as a way to get local gigs since back then it was hard to get bookings with no record on the market.
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I first learned of this single in the late ’70s and I was excited to hear an actual Motown instrumental; since I had received “The Motown Story” as a pre-teen and heard Berry Gordy talk over the instrumental of “Baby I Need Your Loving” I was awestruck that the music itself sounded good with NOBODY singing on it! As I became a DJ in College (Late ’70s) and eventually a Club DJ (’80s) I fantasized about finding Motown instrumentals to construct 12″ versions that came into vogue well after their heyday. I would blend into this Dub from the vocal version and back again to finish it but rarely if ever recorded myself doing this. Sadly, apart from “Nowhere To Run” I could find no other track that inspired me to do an extension; and Choker Campbell’s LP was an epic failure to this end. Thankfully in 2005 with the release of Motown Karaoke, this was possible on some small scale. Since I didn’t see your review for this song yet (Surely it must be forthcoming) I will offer a link here; http://youtu.be/QeULODEQ9Lw Uptight (Everything’s Alright) EVD/SB rating: 7
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I disagree with the reviewers opinion that this is a pointless throwaway recording. Obviously, it was put together quickly and cheaply as it uses the identical backing track with the vocals replaced by piano. However, to my mind it works perfectly as an instrumental classic for two reasons. Firstly, the melody is so strong it stands on its own without lyrics. Secondly, the piano playing is, not surprisingly, superb. I get as much joy out of this version as the Tops original. In other words, a lot of joyl
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To call this track “pointless” and “inessential” is irreverent in the extreme, and from a 1960’s UK perspective, completely incorrect.
For any record to achieve the near legendary status that this single achieved amongst Motown aficionados at that time must count for something.
Maybe you weren’t around back then.
If you were, you would know this.
If you weren’t, why pontificate about stuff you are too young to understand??
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Why read it?
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Well, either he’s gone to bed or he’s not coming back.
Raises an interesting point, though (not the “me being too young” thing, I think we’ve already covered that elsewhere) – this wasn’t released as a single in the UK until 1972, and wasn’t on the album, so I’m guessing the “1960s UK Motown aficionados” mentioned had imported copies of the single – was this one’s belated British release one of those Tamla Motown gestures to the Northern Soul scene, bowing to public pressure to issue it as a single?
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I turned 60 last March 31st Nixon (which helps me never forget Diana Ross’ birthday; since she burst into my life 50 years ago, she’s always 10 years and a week older than me), and I like to think I’m smart enough to know that I’m not done learning till the day I die, and there’s plenty to learn from younger people too.
Because you manage to write this blog better than I could dream doing, I’ve found myself occasionally lamenting for you that really weren’t there for the initial excitement of so many of these songs when they only existed on 7 inch vinyl sides, when it was a still a question which ones would turn legendary, the uncertainty that there’d be more to come, and the delicious, agonizing wait till it did. That’s the part of the experience that, logically but unfairly, can’t be duplicated for any Motown lover once that magic house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard was on its way to renovation as a history museum.
But post after skillful post, your insight belies the reality that you weren’t right in that studio when these records were being birthed. It was the spring of ’10 when I discovered Motown Junkies, and I’d pretty much given up hope I’d ever meet someone whose knowledge of Motown and skill at expression would (happily) beggar my own. Your pupil thanks his teacher. 🙂
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Thanks Dave. Don’t lament for me – while some things are irrevocable (e.g. Marvin Gaye, like John Lennon, has always been dead), I came to Motown quite late in life anyway, and there are advantages to doing it this way round as well – being presented with all the B-sides and album cuts and unreleased demos at the same time as the big hits (and not knowing, on first listens, which are which) has, I think, given me a fairly unique perspective writing this stuff.
I like to think I’m largely free from the influence of received wisdom, which makes it especially jarring when someone says something like “oh, you just go along with the big hits” – I don’t come with any preconceived notions about which ones those are (and I try not to look in advance)! The radio show probably gives a pretty good idea of where my head is at in terms of what I like.
The drawback is that occasionally I’ll make a historical mis-step, because (as soshe quite rightly points out) I don’t know the context and will sometimes slag off a record I think is poor, but which turns out to be a beloved cult favourite. This one isn’t one of those times, though: I rather like it, I just happen to think it’s pointless – who would choose Earl’s piano ahead of Levi Stubbs? As it turns out, Northern Soul fans circa 1968/9, apparently. I live and learn.
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Yes, I had gone to bed.
I used to attend the allnighters at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, from around 1967 (after the Mojo in Sheffield closed) until 1971.
Back then, there were certain records that achieved almost legendary status. To have your own copy was a pinnacle of respect amongst fellow Mods.
In 68-69, THIS record was probably one of THE most collectable records. And no allnight session took place there without this record being played a good few times.
Your critiques make excellent reading. But your views on this track are historically incomplete.
I say that with no intention of denigrating your excellent work on here. Merely to point out that even the best “experts”, when relying on hindsight, can sometimes be unaware of all the facts.
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As an aside, why do you write DISSENT IS ENCOURAGED – and when you get dissent, your reply is “why read it”……..??
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It was a rather rude question in answer to your own rather rude question. But I wasn’t trying to shut down debate with a snippy comment – I was hoping for an answer, one you still haven’t really provided. I make no bones about not having been there, so regardless of whether someone agrees with me or not, if they think I’m (by default) unqualified to write about records that came out 14 years before I was born, well, why would they bother to waste time reading what I’ve got to say at all?
(Not that I want you to stop reading (or commenting, or arguing), you understand! I like debate.)
In terms of the reply, it’s extremely interesting – while I wasn’t there, I’ve been to a lot of Northern events and I hang around with a lot of Northern fans who very definitely were there at the time (including a former regular at the Wheel at the same time as you!), and the subject of this record has never once come up. Both The Complete Motown Singles and Terry Wilson’s history of the UK Tamla Motown label gloss right over this, and in the seven months the review’s been up, nobody else has referred to its being a fondly-loved record at the time. So it’s invaluable to have this kind of context provided – apart from anything else, it explains the 1972 release, which has confused me for years. And see my reply to Dave above for a little more on the record itself, and my relationship with history.
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As I said, my friend, it was about being there, and seeing what was happening.
Terry Wilson has written a great book, but (quite understandably) is subjective in terms of what HE likes and dislikes. Any music fan will put their own spin on things. And if he wasn’t part of the 60’s (as opposed to revival) Mod scene, in particular in Northern England, he may well know little of this record. Or maybe he was there, and simply didn’t care for it. I don’t know.
The Complete Motown Singles Box will, I guess have been annotated in the US, and so they too will have no knowledge of what went on in the Mod scene in the 60’s. Why would they even care?
Even UK hits are often ignored by US “experts” – Otis Redding had a UK only hit with “My Girl” – it is often left off of US compiled “Hits” compilations. “Dust My Broom” and “Beauty Is Just Skin Deep” were the most played Ike & Tina tracks in the 60’s clubs – but they are usually absent from (inevitably US compiled) compilation albums.
The fact that someone is deemed (by a record company or a publisher) to know EVERYTHING about an Artist is short-sighted. But it happens.
Let me try to put it into perspective.
In around 1967, in the UK, the Mod scene (although completely invisible to the rest of the populance – the term “northern soul” was years away) was burgeoning.
The record companies, apart from exceptions like UK Sue, knew little about the market they were selling Soul Music to. We often bought up copies of singles for the B-side, only for the record company to rerelease the single with a different B-side!
And we were learning (from DJs like Pete Stringfellow at the Mojo) that there was stuff to be had on import that was otherwise unavailable in the UK. But the stuff was hard to find.
So where does “I Can’t Help Myself” by EVD feature in this?
Well, I would go as far as saying that in 67-68, it was THE most in demand import single – BAR NONE. Perhaps only a limited number had been pressed – I don’t know.
You say you haven’t heard mention of it by anyone else – well here is a comment (not from me) about it from my old forum site, http://www.twistedwheelclub.com
“getting hold of a copy of this in the sixties was the equivalent of finding the holy grail, I was fortunate to have one, but thanks to light fingers and misplaced trust, not for long.”
And if any version of “I Can’t Help Myself” was played in the northern Mod clubs in 68, it was definitely NOT the Tops – it was always EVD.
The other fact that passed the record companies by, was that rereleasing a track might get you a little bit of chart success, but it would kill it in the clubs. Once it was rereleased in 72, it ceased to be unique, and the crowd moved on. (Tami Lynn “I’m Gonna Runaway From You” was massive until it was rereleased. Dead as a Dodo afterwards – but she toured on the back of the chart success – so good for her – but it was short lasted).
For working class kids to spend all their hard earned cash on Mohair Suits, Lee Rider Jeans, Import Soul Records and Amphetamines was certainly “pointless” to the rest of the “grey” population, who were completely oblivious to our existence
But to us, it was THE point – and the fact that WE has records like EVDs, and they didn’t, made them SO much more special to us.
And as I said – folks will always temper any review with what THEY like. That’s cool. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it.
But to reiterate my initial point – “I Can’t Help Myself” by EVD was a classic record of its time, whether it appeals to you or not.
And to a whole bunch of Motown fans in the 60’s, it was not “pointless” 🙂
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First off, I should probably apologise in case it came across that I was doubting the veracity of what you were saying – I was trying to thank you for filling in where other sources had left gaps, not implying that because they didn’t mention it, it wasn’t true!
Anyway, as you pointed out (and I’ve admitted the same thing elsewhere), as I said to Dave, historical quirks like this will occur as a result of me not being there – not mistakes per se, but things one simply can’t pick up from secondary sources at four decades’ remove. That’s one of the reasons these comment threads are open and uncensored, to put me straight. So, thanks! Please do pick me up on these things in future. (Though if you can do it without using phrases like “why pontificate about stuff you’re too young to understand”, that’d be appreciated, ta.)
On the record itself, I don’t think popular = classic, whether it’s in terms of the charts or in terms of cult fan status, but in any event I’m still struggling to understand why this one was favoured over the Tops’ original – was it just its rarity value which led people to look on it fondly, or is there something about this that really speaks to people? (And by “people” I really mean “you” 🙂 – as you’re only the second person to unequivocally state their love for this version on this page, it’d be good to have someone make the case for Earl here.)
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I guess it is a “Detroit Instrumental” thing.
Al Kent’s “You Gotta Pay The Price” is very obviously a backing track with the vocals removed.
And yet it sounds so much better (and was far more popular) than Gloria Jones’ vocal version.
Lots of the “lesser” Detroit labels shoved out instrumentals on their b-sides (no piano track from Earl to cover up the missing vocals) and these instros were often the club hits. Some of Popcorn Wylie’s instros are truly fabulous – they stand up on their own without vocals.
And some of the Motown stuff is equally good. If you have a copy of the backing track to “Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)” by the Isleys, give that a listen. It takes on a completely different feel. If you’d never heard the original, you would swear it is a groove called “Wait – Before You Walk Out The Door”. If that had been put out in the 60’s we WOULD have listened to it, danced to it, and bought it.
And that is the nub. Detroit backing tracks stand up on their own, and take on a different feel to the vocal version.
Without wishing to sound disrespectful (because I really don’t want to be) to say that you don’t understand why the EVD version would be popular in a club like the Twisted Wheel is like you don’t understand why the club existed and was popular.
Even today, any self-respecting DJ wants to have their own exclusive remix or extended version of a popular tune(they can even make their own, these days!) – and it was just the same back then.
EVD’s version presented the DJs at clubs like the Wheel the opportunity to play NOT the chart version that everyone knew, but a UNIQUE version that only THEY had.
For that very reason, instros were huge for a while – at least one DJ/come future record producer founded his career on removing vocal tracks from Detroit singles and bootlegging the result.
And again – you could argue that because the EVD single was possibly the very first time a backing track to a hugely successful single had been released, with only a vestigial piano over the top – its place in Detroit music history is (or should be) pretty unique. 🙂
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I may well be wrong, but I THINK it’s 1972 UK release may have been another Tony Blackburn thing. I have dim memories of him playing this quite a bit at one time as a kind of ‘bridging’ music for that spare minute or so left up to the news or the end of his progrmme, with him talking over some of it – I think he did the same thing with the San Remo Strings ‘reach out, i’ll be there’, which UK Motown also released as a 45 a couple of months before ‘i can’t help myself’.
This could explain why it got the UK release when it did, rather than in 68/69 when soshe says it was so big in the clubs.
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This is an interesting debate, I was ‘around’ at the time and I can tell you that if there was a blueprint for the perfect Northern Soul track, it would be ‘I can’t help myself’ by The Tops. There is nothing that is not Northern Soul perfection about it.
The problem? The song was a global commercial hit so it could not possibly feature at any self respecting all nighter.
This was the solution, it had reasonable rarity value and no one had any idea who the artists were.
I tend to agree that although Earls manic piano playing is great fun, it’s trumped by the sublime vocals on the original.
Sorry it took so long to respond, I’ve been mulling it over………
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