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Motown M 1084 (A), October 1965
b/w Darling, I Hum Our Song
(Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland Jr.)
Tamla Motown TMG 542 (A), November 1965
b/w Darling, I Hum Our Song
(Released in the UK under license through EMI/Tamla Motown)
There’s a certain cruelty in putting this straight after the Headliners’ slightly dismal We Call It Fun and Voodoo Plan, two records cut by a bunch of earnest but ultimately plodding white rockers. Listening to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 5, when Something About You first struck up its bluesy, thumping 4/4 guitar intro, I briefly thought this was going to be the Headliners again. What’s more surprising is how long I let the record play before I came to realise (a) I was wrong, and (b) it’s actually the Four Tops.
What we have here is a Four Tops single that doesn’t really sound all that much like a Four Tops single. Of course, Levi Stubbs’ voice eventually conquers all, as it invariably always does, and it ends up being pretty good – but it’s probably the scruffiest Tops single since their arrival at Motown, based on the flimsiest structure. It’s the band that ends up pushing this forward, those unstoppable bass drums beating out the tempo and daring Levi and the boys (and the girls) to try and keep up. (They don’t exactly manage it – I’ve heard this song dozens of times now and I’m still not entirely sure what the second word is – but it’s a credible effort all the same.)
It’s just unusual that the Four Tops are kind of dispensable on this, something we’ve never been able to say before – even on Without The One You Love, a much worse record than Something About You for my money, the Tops were needed to make the record. Here, this could really have been given to anybody in Motown’s stable with the same kind of results, and while on the one hand that says the hitherto largely faultless Holland-Dozier-Holland team had turned in a universal song, it’s also an indicator that it doesn’t play to the strengths of anyone in particular, doesn’t invite anyone to tap into that seam of artist/song/producer team-up magic that marks out the best Motown singles. And, indeed, I think it’s fair to say nobody has really managed to make this their own; the Four Tops don’t.
I wonder how much my views have been coloured by Debbie Dean’s later version as found on A Cellarful of Motown 3. It’s not that Dean’s record is particularly brilliant or anything, it’s got Deke Richards’ late-60s MOR fingerprints all over it for better or worse – but the song seems to fit her better: her voice, her personality and the (frankly) less soulful backing are all more natural. Which, I suppose, is the problem – when a Four Tops song’s key ingredients all seem to be more at home on a Debbie Dean record, perhaps it wasn’t the best choice of material for one of Motown’s greatest groups.
Still, they are one of Motown’s greatest groups, and Levi Stubbs does his best to remind us we’re listening to a Four Tops single (and it’s easy to forget, especially when Levi’s not centre stage), a gentle reminder that we’re not in the company of mere mortals. But he’s the only real reason to stick around, his gruff, shouty performance calling to mind the heights he’ll be scaling in a few months’ time, only ever loosely anchored to the pumping 4/4 track (which, actually, now that I come to think about it, sounds an awful lot like the Supremes’ Back In My Arms Again shorn of the pounding piano part). He’s magnetic in his guttural exhortations, magnetic enough to lift this above the level of competent album filler. Albeit not all that far above.
It’s a strange experience, this. At no point is it ever in danger of being a bad record, it’s not even a forgettable one – it’s just oddly lifeless, almost more like a pastiche of a Motown 45 than the genuine article. For sure it’s the first time the Four Tops have been wasted, the first time their angelic blend with the Andantes’ female backing vocals goes unnoticed; the first time I’ve had to say that, hand on heart, that could be anybody singing behind Levi there. And yet, the band track is rippingly good, and Levi acquits himself in fine fashion, a magnetic performance on a song that probably worked better on paper than in the studio.
What to make of it? It’s pretty good, I guess, and yet I’ve never warmed to it, never thrilled to it, never breathlessly gone straight back to the beginning to play it again. It’s good enough, and maybe that’s the problem – I’ve gotten so used to expecting the extraordinary from these people (the Tops, the Andantes, HDH, everyone) that “good enough” somehow isn’t good enough.
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 Four Tops? Click for more.)
The Headliners “Voodoo Plan” |
The Four Tops “Darling, I Hum Our Song” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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Rhine Ruder said:
oh how i love this rockin’ tops hit! it rolls along at full speed with levi piloting the the tune in his usual commanding manner. how did h-d-h manage to become famous for their more syrupy tunes when they really know how rock. if i forgot to include this in my original list of tens, i am adding it here and now.
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jyx95k said:
I’m glad someone else agrees with me, I’ve never warmed to this track and it’s one of the few Four Tops false steps. Compared with what went before, and a lot of what came after, it’s nondescript and instant passable on.
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BILLY RICHARDSON said:
This is one of my fave 4 Tops records and I will always love it. I also love “without the one you love” which I also found in a 50 cents pile of 45s a year after it came out. The 4 Tops have always been my fave male group at Motown totally eclipsing the Tempts in my book frankly because of HDH and Levi. They were simply astonishing.
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Dave L said:
The least successful of the three singles that formed the spine of Second Album is nevertheless my favorite.
“Something About You” is about as sexually charged a record as Gordy would have let out the door in October 1965. It’s not at all in the words, but it is in the urgency of the instrumentation and Levi’s delivery. Maybe it is in the lyrics too, because Levi makes it plain he’s powerless over his desire: do me anyway you wanna, when you wanna, I’ll keep loving you just the same….
The record kicks ass, it kicks my ass, and I love it today as much as when it was new.
For years now, “Something About You” has been linked in my mind with the next Martha & the Vandellas classic in line. Surely the woman glistening with physical and spiritual contentment, promising never to give her baby no trouble and answer as quickly as he calls, had to be preceded by a ready and sexually eager man, swearing to work hard, never complain, and devotedly always return if he can only have her. In my imagination, Levi’s fellow meets Martha’s lady, and the two live happily ever after.
An unbudgeable nine in my book.
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Howard Carver said:
I thoroughly agree with Dave L. Something About You would definitely be at least an 8 or 9 in my book because it grabs my attention from the get go and I can never get enough of that strong sax throughout its production.
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Ron Leonard said:
“Darling, Dumpling, if I had you to call my very own”
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Rhine Ruder said:
best opening line!
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John Winstanley said:
The opening line is “Darling, darling, If I could have you to call my very own”.
Just listened to the Debbie Dean version and the second word is definately “Darling”.
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MotownFan1962 said:
Levi says “Darling, dumpling” in the Four Tops’ version.
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144man said:
Sounds like “dumpling” to me as well.
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Ron Leonard said:
Yes, I agree a great opening lyric, followed by, “I’d work my fingers to the bone..I’d never roam..to you I’d always come home” I’m doing this from memory because this song, when I heard it on the radio for the first time in late 1965, it really came out of the radio..Yes, beginning with that guitar riff..This song “Something About You” moves right along..Arrangement, arrangement, arrangement!! 1965 was the height of the Motown Sound…For me, personally this is an 8 or 9 and this is because I was here and listening when it came out and I could NOT get enough of this sound..It was different than anything else out on the radio..Holland Dozier Holland and The Four Tops is still timeless listening today!
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CH Brighton said:
At the time, this was extremely popular in the clubs. It was great to dance to and created an atmosphere where one imagined oneself in some cool Detroit R&B cellar. At the time I would have certainly have given Something About You a high score. It was of its time, but not a classic.
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Lord Baltimore said:
I tend to agree with CH Brighton; In it’s time as the “next” single it has an energy that certainly sustained it for a period, but over the years it would be on the lower end of my Top Ten Four Tops’ singles. That Funk Brothers track is combustible, though. I’ll give it an 8.
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Seacow said:
I would love to hear what Martha and the Vandellas could have done with this song. Sounds like it could have been a more proper follow-up to “Nowhere To Run.” Still love the Tops’ version, definitely one of the hardest-rocking hits Motown had in ’65, and almost never fails to make me want to get up and dance a bit. The key change from Bb in the verses to Eb in the choruses recalls the song that put the Tops on the map in the first place; not a terribly overt recycling of an earlier hit (i.e. their two previous singles), but not an unwelcome reminder of where they’ve came from either. An eight for me.
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MotownFan1962 said:
I can imagine Martha and the Vandellas doing this song. Heck, The Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye, Junior Walker, The Contours, The Velvelettes, they could all do this. Even the Supremes could do this. As our intelligent host said, it’s a universal tune. But, like you, I really love the Tops’ version and even if all these people did their own versions, I probably would still love the Tops’ version the best.
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Robb Klein said:
It’s a very ordinary Motown HDH song, and a very ordinary Four Tops effort. That makes it very nice tolisten to, but not great. I’d give it 7 (which, to me, is a good score).
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144man said:
I have to agree. Very ordinary indeed.
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Nick in Pasadena said:
It’s amazing to call this fantastic disc “ordinary,” but that’s often how I think of it as well. Coming after “I Can’t Help Myself” and “It’s the Same Old Song,” it just didn’t stack up for me. Nevertheless, listened to on its own and not comparing it to those other two, it is brilliant. If this was the only hit the Tops ever had, they would have made their mark.
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Mark V said:
Maybe this record is a paring down of the familiar elements of the last couple of Four Tops singles in an effort to freshen up the mix, and the pleasures of it include a straightforwardness that lead up to “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” I love how all of the strands suddenly start to overlap just as the record fades out.
i’ll always listen to this with pure enjoyment while many times I’ll hear “Reach Out” with a mixture of detachment and admiration.
10 out of 10.
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MichaelS said:
Not as good as “I Can’t Help Myself” or “It’s The Same Old Song” but it possesses a certain “muscularity” (similar, perhaps, to Dave L’s “urgency”) which puts it in the “8” category for me.
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Landini said:
Wow! i really love this song. I may technically like it better than “Help Myself” or “Same old Song”. Definitely a dancer. As I have said, I tend to like the 4 Tops more offbeat records more than the “normal classics” (though those are all fine records). Cheers to all!
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treborij said:
You rarely miss the mark but I think you have with this one. The intro is incredible and has an almost Middle-Eastern feel. When the saxes come in they almost sound like some strange dissonant North African type horns. Levi’s singing is brilliant (as always) and he sounds like he means it. It’s almost as if the other Tops and Andantes are standing out of the way and letting him just got for it. Love this song. And it should have been a bigger hit than it was. It’s an 8 or 9 for me.
Oh and I agree with Rhine, it is one of the best opening lines.
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MichaelS said:
Here’s an “extended” version of “Something About You” done by our friend up in P-town: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX5Nz6B2vyI
Enjoy!
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djdave said:
thank you nice for a jam I love!
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Rupert Kinnard said:
That track was killer!!!!!!!
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bogart4017 said:
This record is more well-liked now than when it was first released and i can’t figure out why. At one point they took it out of their stage show but suddenly in the 80’s it was restored. I do remember this being more of a party record than a radio record like most Tops tunes.
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djdave said:
do not get the critics of this jam
great lyrics
typical great tops vocols
hot line dance rhythm
great sax break
c’mon clear the ear wax
this is hotwax!!
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The Nixon Administration said:
Thanks djdave!
Is it “typical great Tops vocals” though? I mean, Levi sounds amazing, but compared to the wonderful, amazing delights of the Tops and Andantes on previous Tops records, on this track Duke, Obie and Lawrence might as well be the guys who’ve come to deliver the pizzas or fix the sink, accidentally wandering into the studio.
I do love the phrase “clear the ear wax, this is hotwax” and intend to use it more in conversation from now on.
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The Nixon Administration said:
Okay, so I’ve been away – partly because I’ve been unwell, but also because there is some big news brewing.
First of all, as you may or may not know, I co-host a weekly soul radio show on Saturday mornings, which features a regular slot called “Discovering Motown” where I play 3 or 4 songs from that week in Motown history. This week’s instalment features this song among others (if you want to hear me talking a little bit more about it!) – it’s available for 7 days, and my Motown feature starts at 1hr 7mins on this link (the whole show is good though!)
http://soundcloud.com/soulfulsaturday/
Now, onto the bigger news. From the New Year, I’ll no longer be co-hosting a weekly soul radio show on Saturday mornings, because the station has asked me to instead do a fortnightly 2 hour Motown show on Sunday afternoon instead. It’s a big opportunity, I’ve got complete control over the playlist – permission to go deep into the catalogue, rare stuff and obscure names to go along with the big hits, and all the trivia and discussion that’s kind of what I do – essentially, it’ll be Motown Junkies on the radio.
I’m very excited about this. More details as and when I have them (I’m still putting together the overall package) – I’ve set up a Facebook page for the show and will be trying to drum up interest, requests and other participation as we get nearer to the launch.
http://www.facebook.com/discoveringmotown/
The show will be available live online via TuneIn Radio, and then available to listen again, so I hope some of our regular readers will drop in!
I know there are lots of Motown radio shows available online already, and so I aim to make it worth your while tuning in to mine.
And now, back to the blog!
Steve
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Ken said:
Great news! Motown music and the perfect host to present it. The program’s bound to be sensational.
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treborij said:
Congrats Nixon. I’ve only heard a few of the current show but have enjoyed it when I listen. (I discovered a Sammy Ward track that was incredible through one of those shows. Wound up buying the Blue Evolution collection because of that.) I hope you’ll be able to archive these newer shows. I’m looking forward to hearing them.
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bogart4017 said:
“Blue Evolution Collection”? Whats that?
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The Nixon Administration said:
It is this:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/motowns-blue-evolution-mw0000183997
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bogart4017 said:
Thanx for the info….i’m all over it.
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The Nixon Administration said:
First one-hour Xmas special (“Motown Ladies”) now available for listening… it’s a bit rough around the edges (I’ve never been my own producer before and so I was concentrating too hard on pressing the right buttons, and not enough on what I was saying…) and since it’s being played at all hours of the day, it’s aimed at general listeners rather than deep Motown fans, but hopefully it gives people an idea of what to expect from the proper show:
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lastpolarbear said:
“Darling, something, if I could tell you to call my very own. I work my fingers to the bone……”!
Bad audio in this clip. I enjoy the Baritone saxophone.
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Kevin Moore said:
Partially off-topic, but can anyone provide a link to a list of Motown singles ranked by either total sales or chart position? We’ve recently hit a rash of songs that I’d never heard, but that I love as much as the ones I’ve known since they came out. I’m trying to get a sense of why some songs made it to my 8-year old ears and others didn’t. This one, for example very much did.
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144man said:
“Hard driving and with a droning riff supplied by rasping saxes and the slightly rasping voice of Levi taking lead, this is a winner all the way. Compulsive and catchy it will become a classic in time. 5/5
“A former classic is revived for the flip. Both Eddie Holland and Martha have recorded this number on singles, and they are all good as it is such a fantastic song, and it is just a question of whom you prefer as to which version you’ll like the best. 5/5
“A double-sided gasser.”
[Dave Godin, Hitsville USA 10, 1965]
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