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Mel-o-dy 101 (B), July 1962
B-side of This Is Our Night
(Written by Robert Williams, Juan Wingard, Andre Williams and Charles Holman)
The B-side to little-remembered doo-woppers the Creations’ only Mel-o-dy Records release, this is pretty obscure as far as the Motown catalogue goes.
This is more dated doo-wop fare, much slower and more gentle than the barrelling R&B-tinged pop stylings of the A-side, and it’s really rather pretty, with its genteel duet of piano and guitar leading to a quite beautiful intro.
Rather pretty, that is, until twenty seconds in, when the Creations come lumbering onto the scene to ruin their own record, off-key and out of tune with both the instruments and each other. These are unforgivably bad backing vocals; the lead vocal is slightly better, but still nothing to write home about, loud, wavering and uneven. The sum of these parts is a cacophonous, dismal dirge which must have given Quality Control second thoughts – even by 1962 standards – about greenlighting its release at all.
In the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 2, Andre Williams (who seems likely to have produced this, though no producer’s name is actually credited on the label) says this was intended to be a tribute to the Five Satins. If I was in the Five Satins, I’d be mightily offended, because the “harmonies” on this sound just dreadful.
Beneath all the vocal howling, it’s difficult to tell whether there might be a good song buried in here somewhere. A shame, because the intro is really rather sweet, but I can’t see myself ever listening to this again.
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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| The Creations “This Is Our Night” |
Saundra Mallett & The Vandellas “Camel Walk” |
Motown Junkies 
Andre Williams produced ALL The Creations’ cuts at Motown. And, with TWO different Williams’ credited on writing the songs, I have to wonder if Andre wasn’t the groups’ manager and didn’t have a brother or cousin in the group. I suspect that he brought them to Motown.
We have had discussions about this group on SDF. Most of the people who were around Detroit when this record was made (including deceased industry stalwart, Ron Murphy), thought that THIS Creations group was made up of local Detroiters, and had no relation in any way to any other Creations group with a released record (The Jamie group, Meridian group, etc).
Andre is still alive. I’m surprised no one has asked him about this question. Someone should, before it is too late.
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Thanks Robb, as always! Huh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know there was a debate (both sets of “Creations” sounded pretty similar to me, but I wasn’t looking for differences), but it’s a bit strange that they didn’t ask Andre when compiling TCMS 2, because he comments on a number of records in the liner notes, including this one (hence the Five Satins comment).
Andre Williams is not only still alive, but still performing live (there are videos of him on stage on Youtube from, like, a month ago), and shows no sign of slowing down just yet – long may he continue. Hopefully someone will pin him down some time and ask him about these guys!
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What can I say? I love this tune. I would rate it at least an 8 out of 10. Interesting to read your comments, though. Amazing how two people can have a completely different perspective on the same piece of music.
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🙂 Indeed, and I always love reading comments from people that completely disagree with me. Do feel free to elaborate on why you like this one so much!
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I disagree, wholeheartedly with your rating of 1/10. Although I think it’s a “messy” sounding cut, I’d still give it a 5. I do like the Motown Doowop of The Equadors, Satintones, Versatones, Serenaders, Sammy Turner, and The Creations flip of this record.
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