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Motown M 1083 (B), October 1965
B-side of I Hear A Symphony
(Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr.)
Tamla Motown TMG 543 (B), November 1965
B-side of I Hear A Symphony
(Released in the UK under license through EMI/Tamla Motown)
Once again, Motown fail to capture the magic of a classic A-side. The Supremes’ sixth chart-topping single, I Hear A Symphony, might just be the perfect Supremes record. Everything about it glowed with quality: the sheer pop beauty of the tune, the sweetness of the vocals, the achingly lovely lyrics, the neat scansion, the seamless construction, the graceful instrumentation.
Who Could Ever Doubt My Love, yet another track from the More Hits by the Supremes album pressed into service as a B-side here, has none of those things. Where I Hear A Symphony was almost effortlessly elegant and intricate, this is harsh, earthbound, the joins not quite properly sanded down, the vocals stretching to meet the music, the music stretching to meet the vocals.
Right from the start, a stabbing orchestral sting pounds out the rhythm like a drunken Morse Code operator, strings being scraped loudly and gracelessly just to tap out (and crudely emphasise) a beat. The drum track is clunky and intrusive, throwing in a series of altered-time fills that don’t ever really fit with the rest of the song. The lyrics are wordy and laid out in oddly-constructed, oddly-divided sentences, leading to Diana Ross almost sounding as though she’s stuttering over some of her lines. And Diana herself is slipping back into old habits, her voice high and reedy, straining in places for both power and control. Even the production is slightly off, several moments of audible distortion affecting the string and guitar parts, twisting them into rough-edged, buzzing echoes of themselves.
I’ve talked before about the mythical “quality of Motown”, a concept closely related to another elusive idea, “the Motown Sound”: the idea that some great Motown tracks are so well-built, so full of inspired performances, that they can seem magical. Who Could Ever Doubt My Love, on the other hand, is mortal, earthbound in a way that very few Golden Age Supremes tracks are; every join is visible, every gasping, stretching breath and microscopically mis-timed moment underlining that this is the work of very human hands.
So, with all of that in mind, why is it such a remarkable listening experience? Why is it my hands-down favourite song from More Hits? Why do I come out in goosebumps every time I hear it? In short, why is this so good?
That it ends up packing such an incredible punch – first flooring the listener, and then sweeping you away in a stunning kaleidoscope tunnel of light and darkness, not unlike being rolled down a hill in a barrel – is probably testament to its creators’ instincts (on both sides of the glass), if not necessarily their prodigious skill. It’s a magnificent song, an instinctive, defensive reaction that seems to be coming from a wounded and vulnerable place, but expressed with absolute conviction. All the more surprising, then, to find it strapped to the back of one of Motown’s loveliest, frothiest creations.
HISTORY CHIMES
Between them, Who Could Ever Doubt My Love and I Hear A Symphony add up to the ideal Supremes single, a yin/yang pairing of tracks verging on genius. I’ve said before that I find the Golden Age Supremes, magnificent though their many three-minute triumphs surely are, to be a treat best served in small portions; a mid-Sixties Supremes greatest hits playlist for me would end up being weaker than the sum of its individual parts, simply too much sugar to take in one sitting. Indeed, there’s an argument to say that the Supremes benefited more than anyone else from The Complete Motown Singles series – and, therefore, the way I’ve heard these songs to review them here on Motown Junkies – by setting each of their magnificent pop jewels back in their proper context, separating them out, surrounding them with a sampling of obscurities, lesser lights, and some other high-scoring contemporary chart candies, and thereby making them shine as bright as they did on the radio back in 1965.
Taken as a whole, this particular 45 serves much the same purpose. One of the things that makes I Hear A Symphony a masterpiece is the temporary laying-aside of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s usual pattern (bouncy, pumping melody playing against angsty, wounded lyrics) in favour of unalloyed joy on both sides of the glass. But it’s a trick they couldn’t employ too often, couldn’t rely on too heavily lest they end up drawing away some of the power in the heartbursting rush they’d created. (Look at some of the laughably overblown MOR sides we’ve covered by the likes of Tony Martin or Sammy Turner; if you don’t keep your powder dry, if you bring in your massive finale too early, you not only leave yourself nowhere further to go, you end up making it rather less special each and every time you keep doing it over and over again.) However beautiful I Hear A Symphony is in isolation, however magical the illusion that the song might really “go on and on and on” forever, it ends at exactly, precisely the right time, just in time to stop (most) listeners beginning to tire of its relentless, invincible happiness.
By putting Who Could Ever Doubt My Love on the flip, that full stop is emphasised; from the very beginning, that heavy-handed intro crashing in, we’re in no doubt that we’ve wandered into different territory, heading off in a very different direction. Two of the Supremes’ best songs – and they’re both brilliant for completely different reasons – in a perfect state of complementary harmony.
GOWNS, GLOVES, GUT PUNCH
I always found it somewhat jarring when Berry Gordy, asked to define the Motown Sound, came up with a much-quoted aphorism: “a combination of rats, roaches, soul, guts, and love”. When most people think of Motown – and this isn’t a lazy generalisation on my part, but rather my own personal experience from four years of talking to non-fans about my writing this blog – when most people think of Motown, it seems they think of poise, of the mid-Sixties Supremes, the mid-Sixties Temptations, the mid-Sixties Four Tops, the early Jacksons. Glamorous ladies in evening dresses, with their long gloves and clipped movement and innocuous sweetness; handsome men with sharp suits and gleaming smiles and processed hair clicking their fingers and dancing in perfect synchronisation; squeaky-clean kids with mile-wide grins and handclaps and sparkly disco balls. If most (white) outside observers seem, on some level, to be aware that as an independent, black-owned label, Motown couldn’t just have popped into existence with their best acts topping the charts, doing prime time TV specials and playing the Copa, well, there’s not a great deal of engagement with the actual mechanics of how all of that happened. And surely, that’s the way Motown wanted to keep it. They certainly worked hard enough for people to think that way.
The idea of rats and roaches running the floors and climbing the walls of Hitsville while those immaculately-presented ladies and gentlemen were writing themselves into pop history is an incongruous one, given Motown spent so much time and money pushing themselves as being so very classy. Maxine Powell, who ran Motown’s Artist Development unit (jokingly referred to as a finishing school, but that’s actually not a bad comparison at all), was tasked with taking a bunch of gum-chewing street kids, many of them from the projects, many of them not burdened with an over-abundance of formal education, some of them from very bad backgrounds or already involved in petty crime, and getting them straightened out and straightened up, smoothed and trained and trained and smoothed until they were ready – in her own words – to play just two venues, Buckingham Palace and the White House.
(She managed it, too. Penny for her thoughts on Gordy’s comments.)
But the more telling part of what Berry said is the middle part. Soul. Guts. Not words you’d necessarily associate with the Supremes, you’d have to say. And you’d be wrong.
In many ways, what the Supremes were doing was new, and as commentators have been saying ever since – to this day, even on comment threads here on Motown Junkies – it had very little to do with the R&B and blues that had built the Motown empire in the first place. Even the most ardent Supremes fan would be pushing it to call, say, Baby Love a “soul” record. Never mind the wider soul and R&B fan community, there are many Motown fans who can’t stomach the Supremes too. The Four Tops and the Temptations were never quite so consistently sugary; the Supremes provided Motown with the ideal vector (in a society still heavily riven with racial tension and naked prejudice) to infiltrate not only white American radio and white American living rooms, but white American culture as a whole, to finally achieve the parity Berry Gordy had always dreamed of, and that came at a price. The move certainly didn’t cost Motown its soul (take that in any sense you want), as I’ve hopefully already long since demonstrated, but nonetheless some observers have consistently felt betrayed by Motown cutting unashamed pop records.
Which is fair enough, to an extent. There’s no law that says in order to like the Supremes you have to like the Jackson 5, or (perhaps more pertinently) that in order to like Junior Walker you have to like the Supremes. And there’s no getting away from it, these mid-Sixties Supremes records are manufactured pop music in the truest sense. Think of a dessert, each ingredient carefully weighed and parcelled before cooking… the resulting cake is both beautiful and delicious, but you perhaps wouldn’t want to eat twelve of them one after the other, and it’s wholly understandable that some people will even go so far as to proclaim they don’t like cake at all, it’s too sickly, it’s bad for you and rots your teeth, it’s no substitute for a ribeye steak. And so it goes with the Supremes. No matter how much blood and sweat and sleepless nights and emotional pain went into these records, “soul and guts” is simply not a phrase you would readily associate with the mid-Sixties Supremes.
Soul, though, is a state of mind. Who Could Ever Doubt My Love is a soul record through and through. One of the things I like about it is that, for once, it’s not perfect; indeed, it seems to go out of its way to proclaim that. But it’s a breath of fresh air all the same, and delivered for maximum effect just when things were in danger of becoming too samey.
The edges are messy because they’re smeared with tears; the softening of that jagged backing track is done by Flo and Mary, positively angelic as their harmonies vamp in and out, smudging the lines to make this human, make the narrator a real person with real frailties and real anxieties. In its way, to be laid bare like that – and I’m not just talking about Diana or Mary or Flo here, I’m talking about Holland-Dozier-Holland, about the Funk Brothers, about Motown as a whole – takes more guts than to release a confrontational jazz-blues jam. And for me, that’s what soul is about.
A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE I HAVE BEEN
On the A-side, Diana Ross’ lovestruck narrator couldn’t believe her luck, riding a cloud, climbing and climbing and turning around to suddenly realise she was at the top. Here, once again, she can’t believe the situation she finds herself in, but here the driving emotion is not joy but injustice, so keenly felt that the entire track seems to share her keenly-felt, almost inarticulate anger, her disbelief, her inability to understand. Why? Why has this happened? It’s not even a rhetorical question, it’s as though she really does want someone to explain. WHAT IS GOING ON??
The story is simple enough; the narrator has been falsely accused of cheating on her partner. But the impression that I get from Who Could Ever Doubt My Love is that her pain – and it’s real, genuine pain alright, like I said, some proper blues-level pain – her pain isn’t necessarily for the faltering relationship itself, or the depth of her feelings for this guy at all (we never find out anything much about him), but rather her shock that he would so readily believe these unsubstantiated accusations. It’s the way he’s misjudged me that really hurts me so, she weeps.
And check out that title. Not “My love is real”, not “Don’t doubt my love”, not even “Why would you doubt my love?”. No, we’re on a universal scale here – who, in the world, could ever, in the entire history of human relationships, call my love into question? Right from the off, we’re on her side – the notion that this is merely one side of the story, that she might actually not be telling the truth, didn’t even register until several listens in, and the feeling runs so deep here with this one that I dismissed the very idea out of hand.
(Kudos, too, for that unconventional phrasing, and for the use of a line like “forsaking all others, giving my life to him”. Literate pop, in the best sense of the word. But I digress.)
So, on the one level, this is effectively an elaborate screed amounting to “Dude, what the hell?” – but then you notice another unusual thing about the lyrics here, because they’re not in the second person a la Stop! In The Name Of Love: the song isn’t actually being directly addressed to Mr Untrusting Bloke there. In fact, it’s not at all clear that it’s being addressed to anyone at all; the lyric might even work better if we imagine Diana singing this to herself, into her tear-stained pillow, crumpled-up kiss-off note in her hand. It’s a cry straight from the heart, and it’s made super-believable by virtue of its not being wrapped up in an icing-sugar bow; it’s so raw you can practically taste the tears.
And it’s another killer tune – everything about this is whistleable, hummable, sweeps you up in its arms even as you know it’s going to spit you back out again. All of those weird little off-kilter moments and bits that sound like they’re going to be stop-time interludes and offbeat drum riffs and string parts appearing out of nowhere, all those bits where the track seems like it’s about to break down altogether (When I’ve been nothing but good to hi-im… good to him, SO good to him…), they all somehow fit together to make this – for me, anyway – just about the most breathtakingly strange but equally strangely breathtaking thing the Supremes have yet put together.
What we end up with, really, is the missing link between the poise and grace of More Hits by the Supremes and the rougher-edged moments of the preceding Where Did Our Love Go LP, a kind of summation of the Supremes’ sound just as they were getting their big break as opposed to having soared several months past it. Stately, stentorian backing with Flo and Mary cooing their soothing harmonies and Diana waxing emotional over the top: it’s a formula I thought we’d already long since dispensed with, but its reappearance here is a nice surprise for sure.
So, yes, this is one of my very favourite of all the Supremes’ records. And the fact that so much about it is slightly off-centre, the fact that it practically advertises up front that it’s not perfect? Well, that’s just about enough to make me think it really might be. Crafty blighters.
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.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in The Supremes? Click for more.)
The Supremes “I Hear A Symphony” |
Jimmy Ruffin “As Long As There Is L-O-V-E Love” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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Motown Junkies presents the finest Motown cuts, big hits and hard to find classics. Listen to all past episodes here. |
Landini said:
Wow! I’m the first one to comment on this. This is a cool song in its own way. I kind of like the Isley Bros version a bit better. But this one is definitely good. Really enjoyed your commentary on this one & its A side.
I am just dumbfounded by people who don’t even understand what Motown is. Some people think it is a “style of music” that applies to any black music from the 60s & 70s. I have heard people call everything from the Shirelles to Aretha Franklin “Motown” Arghhhhhhhhh!
You are right that this is more of an R&B tune. I never really thought of it that way.
Also it is funny that the Isley Bros recorded versions of both sides of this single !
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Robert said:
Well, I just typed a whole big long thing about this song and then it disappeared. Note to self: When you’re going to type big long things, do it in Word and save it. Anyway, not one of my favorites but it’s okay. Geez I could take a sledgehammer to my g-d laptop right now.
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Damecia said:
I hate when that happens!
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Dave L said:
Yep. Save it in Word, that’s what I do when my thoughts are ready before Nixon’s review. Condolences, sincerely.
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Landini said:
One more comment. Just read the last paragraph from Nixon. Yeah, some records are “perfect” in their “imperfection”.
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Damecia said:
Exactly!
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Rhine Ruder said:
you’d better be saving up some tens for: my world is empty without you, love is like an itchin’ in my heart, you can’t hurry love, you keep me hanging on, remove this doubt, and i’m going down for the third time! you’ve already squandered your tens on baby love & i hear a symphony! ever cantankerously yours … !
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The Nixon Administration said:
2/6
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Rhine Ruder said:
4 left, eh? mistakes have been made! i’ll be monitoring the situation, cuz it’s causing my heart complication!
keep up all this hard work & take care, nixon!
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Damecia said:
Love the “Love Is Like An Itchin In My Heart” reference lol
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Damecia said:
2/6 of those songs are 10s….Steve you’re really surprising me and I love it lol. I can’t wait to dissent with those Supremes songs I feel you under value.
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Robert said:
LOL Damecia. There’s one Supremes song that is almost universally reviled but is one of my faves. Can’t wait to get to that one! On the other hand, there’s one that’s almost universally adored (by fans but especially non-fans) that I hardly ever listen to. Can’t wait for that one too!
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Damecia said:
lol I can’t wait to see what song review I might have to say “Robert what are you hearing?” lol.
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Rhine Ruder said:
jeez, i missed your 2 outta 6 comment completely. only 2 of my 6 are gonna get 10’s. now, you are. in a heap a trouble, nixon! you really did squander this one here!!!
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The Nixon Administration said:
Thanks! Do be sure and tell me what my real 50 personal favourites are… 🙂
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Rhine Ruder said:
well, based on your past track record for the supremes … of my six … i will guess that you choose you can’t hurry love … and perhaps you keep me hangin’ on. i know you go for the big hits … and then you throw in an odd duck from left field. ‘cept i can’t see you going for “remove this doubt” or “going down for the third time” … i will wait anxiously!
even though i diss you … i still think this a monumentally great project … hope i live to see the end of it. write faster!!!
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The Nixon Administration said:
(*whistles nonchalantly*)
You’ll have to wait and see! All I’ll say is that there are more than 2 Supremes 10s left in the pipeline. Ooh, cryptic etc.
Also, thanks for the kind words, but honestly don’t feel you (or anyone else) should have to qualify disses with praise – I always enjoy reading dissenting opinions.
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ExGuyParis said:
At first, as I read, “clunky and intrusive” “drunken Morse Code operator” etc., I was all “WTF!”… but them the plot twisted and you perfectly described one of my absolute favorites. Angelic harmonies, and breathtakingly strange but equally strangely breathtaking indeed! I LOVE this review.
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Richard said:
You know when these records were coming out (one after the other, I used to think the Supremes spent most of their life in the studio, their output was unbelievable)
I never really thought too much about each song on it’s own, I liked them all and always listened to the B Sides of their records, not so with other 45’s I bought.
After reading your reviews I have honestly gone back through them and listened with new ears. My appreciation for The Supremes has only grown since I found this website. They are very underrated (in my opinion) and a lot of people overlook their contribution to music in general. They were my first introduction to black artists on the radio and on television, and encouraged me to listen to all types of black music at the time. They really did break down barriers. I love knowing so many people still listen to all of the Motown artists. We’ll never see anything like it again. Hopefully there are a lot more tens coming up for the Supremes, you haven’t even gotten to my favourites yet!
P.S. My contribution for a Motown sound-a-like record is “Right Now and Not Later” by the Shangri-las.
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Robert said:
Richard, I agree with practically everything in your post. I say “practically” because I was slightly too young to go out and buy records myself in those days, but thanks to the elder people in our household I was able to love the Supremes via radio, and later, their records. Oh, and I never heard that Shangri-las record, so I can’t express an opinion, LOL.
But you really hit the nail on the head. Lots of people, too many people, either ignore or deny the impact this group had on so many things, including society in general. It was okay for white boys to like The Supremes because, more than likely, their girlfriends did. When I was rediscovering the group (long story) in the seventies, when I was in high school, I would borrow Supremes albums from young women I knew who were near 30 and had collected those records when they were teenagers. One such person worked in my father’s pharmacy and had practically all of the albums. It was just unheard of, especially in the Deep South, for white people to not only listen to a black group, and not only buy their singles, and not only to buy a greatest hits album, but to actually collect their albums.
I could tell you stories of when the group came to perform near my hometown in ’65, what young people did to get to that concert. As I said, unheard of.
Robert
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Damecia said:
I have to give you an air 5, lol, for you stating that the Supremes are underrated. I support and endorse this statement lol
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Landini said:
Richard… Hey buddy. Just listened to the Shangrala’s song you mentioned. You sure hit it on the head pal. That is awesome! I am the only person on the planet who never cared for “Leader of the Pack” or their other tragedy songs. Why didn’t they do more stuff like this? Wowzer! Another cool song of theirs (though not totally Motownish) was “Give Him A Great Big Kiss”.
Also, RIchard, Robert & Damecia… I definitely amen the thought that the Supremes were underrated. Miss Ross didn’t exactly have the greatest voice ever, but she knew what to do with it & she knew how to follow the directions of H-D-H & others in the studio. She was a professional & worked very hard.
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Damecia said:
“Give Him A Great Big Kiss” & “Out in the Streets” are my two favorite Shangri-las songs
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Mickey The Twistin' Playboy said:
Mine too! They should have been bigger hits.
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Mickey The Twistin' Playboy said:
Another Motown soundalike.. Ikettes’ “I’m So Thankful.” Sounds like it could have been done by the Marvelettes.
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Landini said:
Wow! Listening to it now. You are so right!
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MotownFan1962 said:
Apparently, “I’m So Thankful” was written by Frank Wilson and Marc Gordon, which explains the Motown feel. Now that I think of it, it kinda reminds me of “Sweeter as the Days Go By”.
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Robb Klein said:
It ought to sound like Motown. Frank Wilson and Marc Gordon wrote it for obete Music. It was only recorded by The Ikettes, because Motown didn’t have a recording of it done by one of their own artists and then release it. That was also true for the several Mary Love Jobete Music recordings released on Modern Records, as well as several other Jobete songs recorded by LA artists produced by Hal Davis, Marc Gordon, Frank Wilson, Ed Cobb, Chester and Gary Pipkin, Al Capps, H.B. Barnum, William Powell and Royce Esthers.
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Robb Klein said:
I have since learned that Barbara Randolph recorded “I’m So Thankful in 1966 for Motown. The Ikettes’ version is better. I’d still like to hear a 1965 version of “You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet” by a Motown artist with instrumental backing by The Funk Brothers. Mary Love’s vocal was terrific, so, I doubt that would be topped, but, I like The Funk Brothers a LOT better than L.A.’s “Wrecking Crew”. Interesting that L.A. Jobete producer, Royce Esters, later became a lawyer, and important member of The NAACP and several organisations in the civil rights movement,
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Mickey the Twistin' Playboy said:
Robb,
Was Randolph’s version released on a compilation?
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Robb Klein said:
Yes, it’s on the “Barbara Randolph Collection”. It’s pretty good, but I like The Ikettes’ better. The instrumental sounds to me like it was produced by Hal Davis, in L.A., recorded by The “Wrecking Crew” in 1966. It doesn’t sound to me like The Funk Brothers. Here’s the link to hear the full song:
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/I+m+So+Thankful/3YNezC?src=5
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Robert said:
Okay, I’ve taken a nap and settled down and my laptop’s life has been spared. I’ll try to collect my thoughts and reconstruct what I already wrote, but it’s never as good as when it first spills out of my brain.
This one has never been one of my favorites, but it’s okay. After the manic ups and downs of Side 1 of the magnificent “More Hits” lp, Side 2 begins with the near-perfection of “Whisper You Love Me Boy,” a song that, in its mellowness, signals a gearing down of emotions. The emotions are there, all right, but the expression of them is not as extreme as on Side 1 (“Ask ANY girl!” “STOP!” “NOW he’s back in my arms again and I’m SO satisfied!” “He’s my HONEY BOY!!!” You get it.).
In my case, and I’m speaking as someone who, until fairly recently, listened to this only on a vinyl lp that I had to actually flip over to play the other side, Side 2 was always a bit of a letdown after Side 1. Not only a letdown, but an annoyance, in that I always had to flip over to Side 2 in order to taste the delights of “Whisper…” Sure, I’d let it play and I got to hear the songs that followed, but for me, the interestingness began to dwindle after “He Holds His Own.” So the song on the block today never got a whole lot of listening time from me through the years.
Having said all that, I will say that I admire Diana Ross’s delivery of lyrics that are, at times, just plain clunky. I love Mary and Flo’s backgrounds and the fact that there’s no disputing that they are the ones singing. The production is somewhat muffled, but it works. But here’s the kicker for me…
As I said, Diana does a good job with some lyrics that are a little unwieldy at certain points. And yet, at other points, I really have to give HDH major credit, and admiration, for this sequence of events in the song: They have her say “…good to him…” and follow it with two different sets of lyrics:
“…good to him, forsaking all others, giving my love to him…”
And
“…good to him, rearranged my life to please only him…”
And finally,
“…good to him, GOOD to him, so good to him…”
Wow. In that final part, they give Diana Ross the gift of lyrics that actually fit the music for which they’re written, unlike the first two parts where she has to shoe-horn the words in to fit the music. And she does a damn fine job of it. But listen to what she does with that final part. Really listen to it. It’s so heartbreaking to hear her sing that. When she emphasizes that middle “GOOD,” you somehow get the feeling she doesn’t mean she helped Buster pay his light bill. That line always did, and still does, pack a wallop for me. Her delivery of it is filled with so many conflicting emotions. She was good to him because she loved and still loves him, she still wants to be good to him for those reasons, she’s confused as to why he believes lies about her after she’s been so good to her… But it’s also almost as if she’s addicted to him, to his… um, you know, lovin’. I don’t know; you be the judge. Listen to her sing that line and that word. Loads of stuff in there.
One more thing. I notice that HDH are less specific about the situation here than in other songs on that lp. By that I mean they give fewer details. In “Stop!” you can practically see him walking down the street, and having secluded nights with his other love. In “Back” you can practically see her rolling her eyes when her telephone rings. In “Honey Boy” you can practically see her prettiest dress. But in this song, it’s all about hurt and confusion and not much background is given. But I suppose they make up for it by having her declare how “good” she’s been.
Good song; I’d give it a gentleman’s 7.
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The Nixon Administration said:
I disagree with the ultimate conclusion, obviously, but that’s an excellent and insightful comment and I really enjoyed reading it. (And I share your pain at typing up a huge essay only to see it vanish into the ether…) Thanks!
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Damecia said:
I’m so glad you were able to retype your thoughts Robert because you capture everything I hinted at in full detail. I mention I love the “good lines” and you’re absolutely right “her delivery of it is filled with so many conflicting emotions.” You’re also right about the lack of imagery this song lacks. I don’t see anything when I listen, I really just listen to this girl (Ross) pour her heart out which is filled with love, anger, disappointment, disbelief and persistent grief.
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Robert said:
Thanks, Mr. Nixon and Damecia.
One correction: I said in my comments “after she’s been so good to her” and of course I meant “him.”
I also want to clarify something I said about the three “good” lines. When I said that HDH “follow it with two different sets of lyrics,” I meant that the first two times she sings the part about “good to him,” each time gets a different set of followup lyrics. But the third time, she dispenses with giving examples of how she’s been good to him. She just repeats it twice, each time in a different way, as if she’s said all she can say and just wants to be understood. God, the more I think about it and the more I listen to it, that’s just pure near-genius.
I think I may have to bump up my rating to a 9.
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Damecia said:
I agree completely 100%
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Ron Leonard said:
Wow!! A 10? For me, this song like you Nixon has always given me goose bumps..The backing track in this yes, maybe some what clumsy however, the tune is haunting! Absolutley love the string arrangement in this that adds to the haunting and almost eerie back track..Yes, I know this same track was used with Brenda Holloway and the Isley Brothers..Holland Dozier Holland were brilliant! Again, like you I love this and have since I first heard it in 1965..I got used to flipping over to the B sides on Motown records because sometimes it would be a real surprise and many times would be very happy with the results..ie; “Ask Any Girl”, also the B side to “My World Is Empty”, “Everything Is Good About You”..B side of Ask The Lonely by the Four Tops,”Where Did You Go” and B side of “My Baby” by the Temptations, “Don’t Look Back” and so on..Yes, “Who Could Ever Doubt My Love” is a 10 for me! Thank you all for your comments..I appreciate it!
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MichaelS said:
As always, a fine, thought-provoking essay, Mr. Nixon. I must, however, respectfully disagree with your rating. For many of the reasons you yourself have given, this recording, in my opinion, deserves no more than an “8.” It is quite good but compared to the “10s” which have come before it and will follow it, it is not in the same league. Given the finite number of “10s” you are working with, methinks this “10” has been squandered.
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Rhine Ruder said:
KA-GCHING! so true!!
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The Nixon Administration said:
See, one of the things that I really like about this is that so much is “wrong” with it on paper. Yet, paradoxically, from all the treasures on More Hits, it’s this one which I find keeps me coming back for more.
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Robb Klein said:
I like this song, and it is reasonably high quality. But, I’d give it a low 7 at best. I think that giving this a “10” waters down the value of 10 to have little meaning.
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The Nixon Administration said:
The 10s are my fifty personal Motown favourites. This is one of them. No watering down has taken place.
(Even if you’d misunderstood what a 10 is, I find it hard to believe any line has been crossed here that wasn’t already crossed the first time I handed out a ten – which was to another shonky Supremes side, I Want A Guy…)
What are your fifty personal Motown favourites?
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Nick in Pasadena said:
I agree. But one of the things I love about this blog is when a song I’ve always considered second-tier (this one was a B-side, after all) not only gets a ’10’ but is accompanied by such a detailed and well-crafted analysis that I start hitting myself on the head and saying, “Why have I never appreciated this damn thing more?!”
There are at least three Supremes records coming up I would expect to get a “10,” so I know I’ve got some disappointment to look forward to. (One has been mentioned so often in others’ comments that anything less than a ’10’ might provoke a full-scale riot!)
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Robert said:
I agree with your comments. Although this song has never been one of my favorites, I do have a newfound appreciation for it thanks to Mr. Nixon’s review.
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Damecia said:
lol
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Rhine Ruder said:
you asked … it was too hard with your built in arbitrary limit … did it too fast … off the top of my head … mistakes were made! here goes:
you – marvin gaye
i’m a road runner – jr. walker and the all stars
got to give it up – marvin gaye
nothing but heartaches – supremes
girl, why you wanna make me blue – temptations
take me in your arms and rock me – kim weston
you met your match – stevie wonder
i love every little thing about you – syreeta
if i were a carpenter – four tops
put yourself in my place – isley brothers
keep on running – stevie wonder
(loneliness made me realize) it’s you i need – temptations
darling, come back home – eddie kendricks
love gone wrong – chris clark
chained – marvin gaye
the end of our road – gladys knight and the pips
love hangover – diana ross
nathan jones – the supremes
when i’m gone – brenda holloway
stoned love – the supremes
bernadette – four tops
(come ’round here) i’m the one you need – miracles
7-rooms of gloom – four tops
the love i saw in you was just a mirage – miracles
nowhere to run to – martha and the vandellas
i’ll turn to stone – four tops
contract on love – stevie wonder
just a little misunderstanding – contours
from head to toe – miracles
behind the painted smile – isley brothers
loving you is sweeter than ever – four tops
the hunter gets captured – the marvelettes
just ain’t enough love – eddie holland
love is like an itchin’ in my heart – supremes
the day you take one – the marvelettes
you’ve lost the sweetest boy – mary wells
you’ve got to earn it – temptations
trouble man – marvin gaye
this old hear of mine – tammi terrell
(i know) i’m losing you – temptations
love starved heart – marvin gaye
superstition – stevie wonder
do i love you (indeed i do) – frank wilson
sho-be-do-be-do-da-day – stevie wonder
remove this doubt – supremes
i’m ready for love – martha and the vandellas
my world is empty without you – supremes
this old hear of mine – isley brothers
you’ve been in love too long – martha and the vandellas
if you can want – miracles
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The Nixon Administration said:
NICE! And my hat’s off to you on the speed, as well as the picks. We have several 10s in common coming up in the future, near and far, if that helps soothe the Supremes-related anger…
The 50 limit isn’t arbitrary (or isn’t mine, depending on how you want to see it) – it was sparked by the Motown 50 compilation a few years ago, which asked fans to rank their 50 top Motown tracks, the 50 most popular choices then being made into a compilation CD set. Supposedly, thanks to Diana Ross and the Supremes’, um, vocally loyal fan base, the final result when the votes were all tallied was actually a playlist of 50 Diana/Supremes songs, meaning some editorial tampering had to take place to produce the final product…
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Rhine Ruder said:
well now that it doesn’t have to be exactly 50. here is the rest of my list of tens. thank god … i couldn’t stand not having a complete list.
good loving ain’t easy to come by – marvin gaye and valerie simpson
first i look at the purse – contours
i don’t need no help – valerie simpson
nothing’s too good for my baby – stevie wonder
forever came today – supremes
forever came today – jackson 5
don’t do it – marvin gaye
you keep me hangin’ on – supremes
going down for the third time – supremes
i’m in a different world – four tops
darling baby – the elgins
i promise to wait my love – martha and the vandellas
happy landing – miracles
two can have a party – tammi terrell
standing in the shadows of love – four tops
you can’t hurry love – supremes
danger, heartbreak dead ahead – marvelettes
i want you – marvin gaye
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Damecia said:
I was going to say Rhine Rhuder no J5? But I have be relieved a song of theirs made your 10s.
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Landini said:
Rhine Ruder, Wow many of my favorites on your list. Some good choices. Was just listening to Tammi’s version of “This Old Heart of Mine” & think it is quite good!
Sure hope you & my other Motown friends are doing well!
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Damecia said:
Grandpa Landini it’s your gran girl Damecia lol how are you?
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Landini said:
Hi! I’m hanging in there. Still wish I was feeling better. Still in remission from cancer. Will get another scan in December. Overall, I am very blessed. Thank you for asking.
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Damecia said:
That’s great to hear! Yes you are very blessed.
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Ron Leonard said:
Great to hear you are in remission, Landini! You are blessed and inner strength and prayers make a person keep you strong and yes, support from others..By the way, I agree, I enjoy Tammi Terrell’s version of “This Old Heart Of MIne” I bought the Album where Tammi is setting on the cover…Too bad we had to lose her! Also enjoyed, “I Can’t Believe You Love Me” and “Come On And See Me” and yes, her duets with Marvin!
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Damecia said:
A 10! Wow Steve you have really shocked me lol. I like this song, but a 10….wow! I’d probably give this an 8 or 9, but 10 no.
In my opinion, this is a “ratchet” Supremes record. I’m using “ratchet” in the sense that kids my age use it today, meaning that it is not bad, but likeable and very cool and it has a dare I say “hood” feel about it. There is something so street about this song, but I can’t place my finger on it. If “I Hear A Symphony” was made for the masses then “Who Could Ever Doubt My Love” was made for the Brewster Projects. “Who Could Ever Doubt My Love” is a song I can hear crazy little school girls singing loud. It’s a song I can hear women gathering around their stoops to listen to. It’s a song that if it comes on the radio someone immediately says, “turn it up this my song!” lol.
If “I Hear A Symphony” was pop then this was definitely R&B. Diana’s performance is again brilliant. Her delivery is not perfect as Steve described above, but it is something so believable and enduring about this song that it has to resonate with most people. The lady should have won an Oscar because she is acting her ASS off here. Maybe she has an EGO, but WHO COULD EVER DOUBT HER LOVE? She doesn’t believe this guy could be so foolish and listen to foolish gossip which leads him to mis-judge her and by the time I get through listening to this song I CAN’T believe the guy listened to his friends (probably haters lol) when “she been nothing but good to him” (I love the way she sing that line around 1:57 lol).
Steve I adored reading this. I nearly smiled the whole way through and did a double wide smile once I got to the bottom and saw a 10 lol.
Does anybody else hear a similarity as for as instrumentation is concerned with “Any Girl In Love”?
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Robert said:
I do hear a similarity to AGIL. Also, when she gets into the “good” lines, “When I’ve been so good to him…” it sounds like “Say what you will about him…” from “He Holds His Own.” I think all of those songs on Side 2, after “Whisper…” but add AGIL, were recorded within the same short period.
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Damecia said:
Yes! I just listened to “He Holds His Own” and I can hear the resemblance.
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Landini said:
Interesting that you guys are talking about the similarities between some of these songs. Thinking about “Any Girl in Love” & some others, I have noticed that the subject of gossip tends to run thru many of these songs’ lyrics. I always thought that AGIL actually had a pretty good storyline. Jealous Gossip Girl breaks up Diana’s relationship but DOESN”T get the guy herself. She is just an insecure person who is unhappy herself. I am sure we have all known people like this in our lives. And who knows? Maybe I have acted like that at times (no I haven’t broken up relationships) but have let jealousy/envy cause me to do/say some thoughtless things to my loved ones.
A big OOPS. I just realized I was thinking about “He’s All I’ve Got” rather than AGIL. “He’s All I’ve Got” has the Jealous Gossip Girl storyline. Oh well!
One more word on the whole gossip subject in Motown songs. Wow, in “Shake Me Wake Me” poor Levi Stubbs sounds paranoid about his neighbors gossiping about him. I feel like telling them to leave the poor guy alone! LOL!
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Damecia said:
The whole time I’m reading an like he’s clearly thinking of “He’s All I Got” lol. I enjoy the moral/story of that tune as well just the same as “Shake Me, Wake Me” people who are in love always face haters.
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Landini said:
Another good paranoid/gossip song (though NOT Motown) is “I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore” with awesome versions by both Jerry Butler & Dusty Springfield. Written by Randy Newman.
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Mark V said:
I love “I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore” by Dusty, and I’ll have to get Jerry’s version. I can just hear him singing it. That tune made me appreciate “Shake Me, Wake Me” a lot more.
Glad to hear you’re doing well. Feel better. And thanks for your comments on other musical styles as they compare/contrast with Motown.
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Landini said:
Thank you my friend for your kind words. It is fun to discuss music with my Motown friends here. Another little tidbit. It is interesting how many songs that Jerry & Dusty both did versions of (“Lost” “Brand New Me” etc)
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Robert said:
Oops from me, too. When I said that Side 2 songs on More Hits sounded like they had been recorded at the same time, I added “Any Girl in Love” but I meant “Ask Any Girl.” Anyway…
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Ron Leonard said:
“Any Girl In Love” from the “I Hear A Symphony” LP is yet another gem!! However, it was a cut from that album and probably won’t be here on junkies!! Yes, another Holland Dozier Holland track that is still one of my non single favorites!
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Landini said:
Definitely with you on AGIL there buddy! Good tune!
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Damecia said:
This song is so good, I’ve had it on repeat for almost 30 minutes lol. I can’t stop listening to it and it get better each time. Thanx Steve for the reminder = )
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Damecia said:
This song is so good, I’ve had it on repeat for almost 30 minutes lol. I can’t stop listening to it and it get better each time. Thanx Steve for the reminder = ) = )
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144man said:
Seems you’ve got your comments on repeat as well lol.
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144man said:
I rate this as A-side material in every way.
Brenda Holloway’s version was recorded nearly seven weeks earlier than the Supremes’. At this stage in their respective careers, Brenda was still technically a better singer than Diana Ross, and she brings a bruised indignation into the mix rather than Diana’s naïve sense of injustice.
Which interpretation is the superior? Brenda shades it in my opinion, so I give her a 9 and the Supremes an 8.
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Landini said:
Didn’t know Brenda recorded this . What do you think of the Isley Bros version? I heard it before the Supremes’ version & like it just a bit better. I feel like the song, especially in the Isley version has an almost gospel feel to it. Interesting how many Supremes songs were also recorded by the Isleys. Of course, the Supremes didn’t sound too shabby on their version of “This Old Heart of Mine”. In that case, I might be tempted to vote for their version over the Isleys (thought their version is quite good).
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144man said:
I’m not keen on the Isley Brothers version of WCEDML. I just don’t think the song suits their style of singing.
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Mark V said:
I’ve always thought Brenda was a better singer than Diana but I think no one can top Ross’s version of this tune. Maybe it’s her unfiltered approach that conveys her feelings more directly.
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Dave L said:
“Forsaking all others, giving my life to him,” “rearranged my life to please only him,” “I’ve been cast aside because he believed someone’s lies…”
LP cut or b-side, this was fantastic from first listen. Ross may still love the guy in this one, but she’s no pleading doormat asking him back, and is damn insulted that all the accommodations she’s made for him have been rendered valueless by his readiness to accept gossip as truth.
We learn little about this guy, but we don’t like him.
More Hits By the Supremes has been done long overdue justice by this blog, and I’m very grateful for that. For 48 years I’ve defended it as my choice of the first album I’ve ever owned, and I still love it today. Thanks, Nixon. Yes, a 10 surprised me, but I’d never quarrel with it.
And … the next track in line on More Hits supplied delicious recovery: “It’s so wonderful this change in me/ how rejoiced I am to over be over you/ at last no more tossing and turning and losing my sleep/ cause heartaches by the number you gave to me.”
I’ve got five copies of the album; maybe I’ll ask for a sixth come Christmas 🙂
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Robert said:
Back in the old days, before I knew anyone else cared about such things, I used to debate with myself which one was the greatest, Where Did Our Love Go or More Hits. Although WDOLG contains my all-time favorite song “Come See About Me,” I have to say that More Hits was my favorite of the two. Of all of the Supremes’ albums. It was, as they say, of a piece. Not a concept album, but a cohesive one. A collection of songs that were expertly crafted. And we Supremes fans are picky, even obsessive, about how the product is packaged. One look at the cover art is enough to make any fan of the group giddy. Yeah, it was a golden moment for the group, one they and Motown and the fans took advantage of fully. Wonderful year, 1965.
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Robert said:
Wow Dave, I just realized that Side 2 pretty much tells a story, albeit one that’s picked up in the middle… A girl trying to get her man to be romantic with her, then longing for him after obviously being rejected by him, then defending him to the world, then defending herself against lies, then casting him off after losing faith in him, and then finally, falling “…in love again.” Amazing.
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Joe said:
American readers of a certain age might notice that the “Morse code” figure in this song is rhythmically identical to the main instrumental motif in the theme song from “Green Acres,” a television situation comedy series that had debuted in the month prior to the release of this record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umS3XM3xAPk
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Robert said:
Yes! That’s it! I knew it sounded familiar but could never place it. Thank you!
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ExGuyParis said:
LOL! You are so right. I never made that assocaition… but now I’ll never be able to listen to WCEDML without thinking of Oliver, Lisa, Mr. Haney, and Arnold Ziffel!
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Mike C. said:
Wonderful. Vic Mizzy. He also wrote the theme song to the 60s TV show The Adams Family. Amazingly, his melodies are entrenched forever in my brain!! How could they not be? Not unlike H-D-H! An available, wonderful Vic Mizzy song is sung by Maria Muldaur — “Choo ‘N Gum”. Check it out!
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Mike C. said:
Who Could Ever Doubt My Love.
This is an easy listen for me after “I Hear A Symphony”. I cannot speak to what the record sounded like to virgin ears. But I have bought all the versions on cd that I can get of “I Hear A Symphony”
The right channel of the stereo version IHAS is tough. Too loud. Too distorted. To IN YOUR FACE— then I listen to the mono version. Um huh. Yep. In your face… but… it sounds better. It doesn’t hurt my ears. I CAN turn it up.
Who could ever doubt my love? I love Motown. I love the Supremes. I love this “record making mentality”. I love the homespun-ness. This won’t be the last time you hear from me about the “homespun”. Isn’t that what makes this music sOOooooo exciting? Even today? Even today – you can spin it and say –“Whoaaahhhh… this sounds great”. Or how ‘bout … hey….(just simply)… listen to this……
Oh… these strings have far more umphhh to them than do “I Hear A Symphony strings”. These strings are being used to connect…..not impress… there is a push and a pull… the phrases….major minor…. From “C” to an “A minor 7”…. or better yet…. from F sharp minor to D sharp minor. Let’s be soulful… in a key the string players can still play… and play the black keys. Over…. Under. Over. Under.
Stop! Right here. In the name of love…..Diana Ross has yet to be a black key singer. Many of her songs are sung in the key of “c”.
Let’s start from the very beginning. A very good place to start…..
At first…..
Oh… dear…/ What can the matter be?
Doe Ahh Deer Ahh …..Duh….
Who? Could ever doubt? My love is warmer than the….
Warmest sunshine,
Mike C.
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david h said:
More Hits was my third Supremes album and it is not my all time favorite, that one is tie for WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO/SING HDH,….but I degress, when I finally got MH, this track stood out for me right away. it is a highlight from the album and think it is one of their best album cuts. thanks for a great review
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DaVinci N said:
After discovering this blog last year (considering myself an Afro-American Motown aficionado) I waited patiently for the proper moment to repsond to what I consider the ULTIMATE blogging experience. Understand, I’m what they consder “old school” and I don’t do this sort of thing, but I’m compelled to respond to what I consider – one of the finest moments in the Motown catalogue of classic recordings. I discovered “Who Could Ever Doubt My Love” on the “More Hits” LP in deep south (Donaldsonville, GA to be exact) in the summer of 1967 at three years of age. Yes, I was only 3 when I heard it first, and I’ve grooved to it into my 49th year on planet earth!
My formal introduction to this group’s product was indeed an LP experience – the consummate 2 record collection of sorts “Diana Ross and the Supremes Greatest Hits” were the very first vinyl patters that graced our household”s first stereo hi-fi console. I was compelled immediately by the voices, the grooves and the LP’s graphics all of which inspired me to my current position in Creative Direction … but as Nixon would say I digress. The More Hits LP happened to be in my Uncle’s record collection, so I played it during my South GA visit, and immediately recognized familiar recordings and was enlightened by “newer” selections considered “MORE” hits.
This jam would have fit perfectly on the greatest hit collection. I am glad it did not. Discovering “Who Could Ever Doubt My Love” on More Hits simply opened Pandora’s Box for me to the plethora of Supremes jewels.
Nixon, you were and are spot on with your critique of this song. It is perfect it’s imperfection (what a dichotomy)! It is my personal favorite from More Hits (the album) and just the right compliment to IHAS (the single).
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Joe said:
“Kind of like how Pink Floyd’s “Vegetable Man” quotes the “Car 54 Where Are You?” theme, although probably not as intentional.”
I disagree about the appropriation of the “Green Acres” motif not being intentional. I suspect that the thought process was similar to what occurred when the melody of “Canadian Sunset” was “borrowed” for the intro to “My Guy”: These records were made for the youth market of their time and meant to be ephemeral, with probably little thought or consideration for how (or if) they would be remembered and discussed fifty years later. If using a lick here or there from an “adult” pop record or a TV show theme would help flesh out a song and get it to market quicker, well, who would be the wiser?
It just seems like too much of a coincidence to me that H-D-H would have independently stumbled upon the identical rhythm so soon after the television premiere of “Green Acres,” a rhythm that, to my ears at least, sounds somewhat forced in the context of “Who Could Ever Doubt My Love.”
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Joe said:
Obviously the comment above was intended as a reply to Seacow, not DaVinci N; evidently I clicked the wrong “Reply” link!
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Robert said:
More Hits was released two months before Green Acres premiered. Unless HDH were involved in the production of Green Acres, I don’t think they would have known about the theme before its premiere.
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Joe said:
Thanks; that had escaped my notice! I was basing my impression on the release date of the single. That changes things. Perhaps Vic Mizzy lifted the rhythm from the Supremes record for his TV theme! My overarching point was that there was more separation in those days between teenage pop culture and “mainstream” entertainment, with greater likelihood that a theft like this, regardless of who stole from whom, could go unnoticed.
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Dave L said:
I remember the blue cover, two-disc Greatest Hits coming out at the tail end of August 1967, just as I was about to start eighth grade. It seemed to have a dual purpose of putting a period on the Florence-era Supremes and then earnestly trying to obliterate her name. Fans know that many of the montage shots used for the next one, Reflections crudely cut Florence’s face out of pictures when she was still with the group. Subsequent Supremes albums rarely had any liner notes at all, and those that did never mentioned Florence again till long after the group’s official breakup in 1977. The edict seemed to be “forget her, and we’ll help you.”
Three or four years ago on eBay I finally scored a mono copy of the 1967 Greatest Hits, and they had only existed for maybe the first six months after the set was released. The phasing out of popular albums in both mono and stereo had begun in the summer of ’67 with the price of mono versions being raised to equal that of stereo (before that, mono copies had always been a buck cheaper.) By the spring of ’68, mono copies of new albums were not happening at all in retail versions, only an odd DJ copy here and there, and even those were no longer pressed after 1968. Motown’s 45s stayed largely mono till about 1972.
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Seacow said:
Now when I hear this song in my head, it just switches to the “Green Acres” theme at the end of every chorus and then back again! Kind of like how Pink Floyd’s “Vegetable Man” quotes the “Car 54 Where Are You?” theme, although probably not as intentional.
8/10 for me, and definitely the song from side two of “More Hits” that has grown on me the most (“I’m In Love Again” being the favorite of those six). H-D-H’s greatest talent may be their uncanny ability to maintain interest and excitement even with what seems to be on the surface simple repetition. So many of their (and the Supremes’) best songs have been structured by simply repeating a 4 bar riff or an just one verse without an obvious contrasting chorus or bridge (the A-side of this record being yet another example). H-D-H’s standard verse-chorus tunes usually offer little surprise or innovation in their structure. Which isn’t a fault against them – when you’re one of the hottest writing and producing team in pop music, you can’t have every song be an experiment – sometimes you just gotta stick to the tried and true formulas. In “Who Could Ever Doubt My Love,” they vary the standard chorus-verse form by altering the length of the chorus each time. After hearing the title sung only once after between the first and second verses, that’s what’s expected to happen between the second and third. By singing it twice instead, it sets the listener up to expect not a third verse, but just a fade out/vamp on the title. This must have happened to me the first dozen or so times I heard this song! Instead, it just sets up a greater anticipation for that incredible third verse, with the fourth chorus being the one that vamps and fades. I’m so glad third choruses don’t vamp and fade always.
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Mickey The Twistin' Playboy said:
It’s hard to criticize anything off of More Hits. Since the release on CD I’ve grown to love it more than when I was a kid. This song too.. 8/10.
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Joe said:
“Maxine Powell, who ran Motown’s Artist Development unit…”
The sad news has been reported of Ms. Powell’s death on Monday, October 14, at age 98: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/14/maxine-powell-dead-motown-records_n_4098921.html?ir=Entertainment
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John Plant said:
I’ve been away visiting family in Montreal, so I missed the deluge of brilliant comment inspired by this song – which I hardly remember! I just wanted to salute Rhine Ruder’s stimulating list of tens, some of which I heartily concur with – and others I’ve not yet encountered. And also the lively and luminous comments of Damecia, which weave their way through this proliferating commentary like a golden thread. And all the other enlivening and inspiring commentary by this rapidly growing community. Hurrah!
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Damecia said:
Your commentary was definitely missed. Thanx for the lovely shoutout lol.
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bogart4017 said:
Loved the song but this is another one the Isleys covered and clobbered. I really dug the way Ronnie changed it around but singing directly to his lover instead of to the audience.
“….After i’ve been so good to you, forsaking all others, giving my love to you….”
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benjaminblue said:
This song has a definite country & western feel. Had this been a single pulled from The Supremes Sing Country, Western & Pop (and had the banjo song been removed from that album) there would be less temptation to dismiss that entire album, which had plenty of good moments. For instance, Tears In Vain is terrific, as is Funny How Time Slips Away, and The Supremes’ version of Sunset is vastly superior to Stevie Wonder’s.
But I love having the song on More Hits; all the songs there — except (I’m So Glad) Heartaches Don’t Last Always — are revelations.
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