There isn’t any more after this, I’m afraid, and so it’s up to us to squeeze as much entertainment as possible from these last dregs. Which, it turns out, is actually quite a bit of entertainment, all things considered. (4)
Another super Motown record, in a year not exactly short of them, and it shows that Mary was still at the peak of her powers right up until she walked out of Hitsville for the last time. We’ll never know what might have been had she clocked back in again the next day. (8)
Crass and tacky in every possible sense, and Mary comes across as already too dignified for this sort of thing. (2)
For want of a better word, it’s sophisticated, in pretty much every sense. Mary, having come of age, delivers the first great single of her new career as one of America’s top stars – and nobody got to hear it for two years. (8)
Nowhere near as good as it could have been, nowhere near as good as it thinks it is, and (perhaps most importantly) nowhere near as good as its opening half-minute suggests it’s going to be. (4)
It’s just nice, which isn’t a crime, but which is a crying shame; the two voices go together so well, this really needs a big, soaring chorus, something to show both singers off to their very best. Somewhere in New York, Ashford and Simpson were taking note. (5)
Motown’s best ever B-side, and – even in light of the perfect pop precision of My Guy – quite possibly Mary Wells’ best ever record. A genuine masterpiece, and a fitting end to a bunch of brilliant careers. (10)
Perfect.
This is a record full of ideas for the future career of Mary Wells, none of them fully-realised yet, to the extent that it sounds like four or five different songs all smooshed together with no great care – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in itself. (6)
It’s still a fun, vital record which still sounds fresh and young today, and it shows a side of Mary Wells that audiences across America had forgotten she even had. (7)
Too slow to be a single, this is still one of the best records of Mary Wells’ all-too-brief tenure with Motown, and it gets better each time you listen to it. (9)
