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Soul S 35016 (B), October 1965
B-side of As Long As There Is L-O-V-E Love
(Written by Johnny Gilliam, Sylvester Potts and Norman Whitfield)
There’s an excellent story about Jimmy Ruffin in the liner notes for The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 5. The Contours were falling apart, and following a meeting of Motown’s top brass (to which he wasn’t invited), Jimmy was told – not asked, told – to become the group’s new lead singer. Ruffin made himself no friends by turning the “offer” down flat, even though A&R chief Mickey Stevenson warned Jimmy that he was making a mistake.
Which is interesting. As well as perhaps going some way to explaining why this was only Jimmy Ruffin’s third Motown 45 in a span of almost five years (and the theme of Jimmy being labelled “difficult” in the corridors of power at Hitsville is one we’ll revisit soon enough), it adds some extra spice to this B-side, co-written by the Contours’ Sylvester Potts. This, perhaps, is a glimpse into an alternate future, a taste of what audiences might have missed out on had we received a string of mid-Sixties singles from Jimmy Ruffin & The Contours.
It’s a tantalising glimpse, too, all told: this world we never really got to see is a world where Potts developed as a Motown writer, perhaps becoming Norman Whitfield’s palette-mixer in place of the great Barrett Strong; a world where Jimmy Ruffin developed his ever-stronger voice in a group context rather than cutting solo material. I don’t know how well Jimmy might have done as a frontman (even at his best, his voice was never what you’d call high-powered, it’s all about nuance and ebb and flow and frailty, a wounded man lost among the big notes), but what we can say for sure is that he’s comfortable singing songs like this.
Whitfield is careful not to overwhelm his singer, and so instead of a full-on aural assault, we get rippling blues guitar, muted horns, starkly exposed drums, minimalist female backing vocals. The effect is to ease Jimmy into the song, the listener tapping along; it’s all nice enough, but it feels a bit unadventurous, a bit rote.
The big chorus (and it really is big, much too big for the song) comes almost out of nowhere – leaping up the stave, How-Can-I-Say? stabbed out in staccato bursts – and it’s clumsily executed, tripping over itself a couple of times before shuffling off stage in an embarrassed rush. A stop-start mini-crescendo, it’s partnered up later on with a stop-start mini-fanfare of horns, and the impression it ends up leaving is a song that offers too little followed by too much, an uneven and somehow unsatisfying experience.
Still, there’s lots of promise too; the lyrics probably needed another draft before finding their way into Jimmy’s hands, but the trial metaphor in the last verse is a great touch (maybe it’s just the lawyer in me!), and the tune in that chorus is the germ of something special, completely wasted here. It just doesn’t sound like it’s quite finished, which is a pity.
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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Listening to this now. Okay, nothing spectacular. I’m not sure I could see Mr. Ruffin singing lead for the Contours.
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Why not? The Contours’ best recordings were made when they finally got some really good lead singers to replace gravel-throated, Billy Gordon (ex-Falcon, Joe Stubbs, and ex-Celebrity, Dennis Edwards). I’d rather hear Jimmy Ruffin lead that group than Billy Gordon, Joe Billingslea, Sylvester Potts or Billy Hoggs.
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Hi Robb… I can see your point. My thought was more in the line of thinking of JR as more of a solo singer rather than a lead singer. For some reason, to my ears at least, some singers sound better solo & some sound better with a group.
Of course, my point may be moot when we get to “Brokenhearted” because JR is backed up by a male chorus & sounds good. Oh well! Isn’t music fun?
On an unrelated topic, does it frustrate you when people assume “Motown” means any black music (Aretha, etc)? Of course, I love my friends/family & relationships are much more important than music… however, I was talking to a friend the other day & mentioned Aretha Franklin & he referred to her as a “Motown artist”. At least he knows that Motown is a record company. Some people think Motown is a style of music. Oh well… I’d be useless in a conversation about hockey or football or whatever! Have a great day!
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In 2009, the NME (Britain’s main music paper, now that the dearly missed Melody Maker has shuffled off to the pulp bin in the sky) asked a bunch of musicians and celebrities to name their favourite Motown artists as part of a Motown 50 tie-in. Caleb Followill from indie rock band Kings of Leon confidently named Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. Gaah.
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Can you imagine Jimmy Ruffin singing Do You Love Me?? Seriously, Jimmy Ruffin and the Contours?? What the HELL were they thinking?
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Well, the Contours had effectively ceased to exist at this point – what they had was a bankable name, a “group” on paper with no lead singer, and Jimmy was an unattached singer Motown had under contract. It makes a certain kind of sense; as Robb said, it’s less of a stretch to imagine Jimmy singing one of their later hits (something like It’s So Hard Being A Loser or Just A Little Misunderstanding).
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While it makes a certain kind of sense its still hard to fathom. Jiommy couldnt even dance well enough to be a Temptations. I’m sure the Contours would have worn him clean out. Jimmy doing a backover flip? Naaaaahh.
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