Much more conventional than the A-side, but not really any less effective for it, this is mainly a showcase for Ms Gooch’s formidable voice; it’s a good, strong gospel workout, nothing more and nothing less. (5)
Impressively ambitious, if not necessarily something you’d come back to over and over again, this was a high note upon which to end Motown’s first flirtation with the gospel market. (5)
Even if it wasn’t a complex or clever song, at least He Lifted Me was still interesting; this is just a plain vanilla gospel workout, it sounds like literally a hundred other plain vanilla gospel workouts, and – unforgivably for a religious tract – it’s boring. (2)
After sixty-four secular sides, we finally find the first overtly religious Motown record. Gospel music may never have been likely to storm the charts, but – as Berry Gordy Jr. knew full well – it was always good for steady sales to customers, often older customers, who wouldn’t normally buy pop records, let alone go anywhere near a Henry Lumpkin or Barrett Strong. (5)
Motown Junkies 