This is a cartoon relationship, a pick-me-up for lovers everywhere to keep the faith after the relentless emotional pummelling of the A-side, a riposte where for these three minutes, nothing can ever, will ever go wrong, and on with the kissing. Tomorrow can wait.
The music is designed and deployed to devastating effect, the vocal is as good as anything we’ve heard from Diana so far, the whole package is quite startling: this is the saddest-sounding outrageous pop stomper I’ve ever heard, and it’s a masterpiece. (10)
It sounds like somebody else’s idea of what the Supremes sound like, where that person has either got the wrong end of the stick, or doesn’t even like the Supremes. But it’s fascinating all the same. (3)
If it’s not exactly one I’m going to be rushing to play again, an uninspiring record built on a flawed and hokey premise, it’s still got its moments, and Diana Ross is responsible for them all. (4)
Maybe it’s unfair to give it a mark at all, never mind to consider it as part of the Supremes’ “real” recorded output in this most glorious of years for Motown’s top group. But here it is – and it’s so cacophonous, so ear-splittingly unlistenable, that no matter how good its intentions and how kind its heart, it ends up one of the worst Motown singles of all time. (1)
The fact that so much about it is slightly off-centre, the fact that it practically advertises up front that it’s not perfect? Well, that’s just about enough to make me think it really might be. Crafty blighters. (10)
They push their luck with each clambering step up the ladder, and still it doesn’t break, so they decide to push it again and stretch for the next one. And they carry it off each and every time, the song climbing forever to heaven. (10)
It may not be vintage Supremes (or vintage Spector, for that matter), and it’s certainly not the stuff of legend that might have been expected of the only official Motown/Spector collaboration, but, well, it’s the Supremes pretending to be the Crystals, and don’t pretend you weren’t curious to hear how that turned out. (6)
A genuinely thrilling album track, and that’s where it should have stayed. (6)
A brief oasis of calm and contemplation amid a sustained barrage of banging high-gloss pop tunes. Really rather lovely, and not at all unwelcome. (7)
The magic of Motown runs in the veins of Mother Dear, and it’s only a pity it didn’t seduce the decision-makers deeply enough; while it might not have topped the charts, it would have made a fine, fine single. (9)
