694. The Temptations: “Get Ready”
If white radio wasn’t ready for this in 1966, it’s their loss, because now it’s 2020 and I am so very ready for this today. It sounds fantastic. (10)
If white radio wasn’t ready for this in 1966, it’s their loss, because now it’s 2020 and I am so very ready for this today. It sounds fantastic. (10)
This should have been the A-side; this should have been the way the Miracles approached My Girl Has Gone. Should, should, should. What it is, though, is another excellent Temptations single. We won’t be meeting them again for six months; Don’t Look Back is good enough to make that temporary parting hurt. (8)
Is it a worthy follow-up to either My Girl or My Guy? You’d have to say no. Is it a worthy continuation of the recent glorious string of Temptations singles? Again, surely the answer would be no. But for all of that, is it a bad record? Of course it isn’t. (5)
Absolutely fine as far as pleasingly diverting B-sides go. It’s just the widespread admiration that baffles me. Would I jump up to turn it off? Of course not. Would I pick it out as some sort of highlight? Not in a million years. (5)
The Temptations cover themselves in glory here. This is the sound of a group absolutely on top of their game; the true follow-up to My Girl, and – unexpectedly – very nearly as good. (9)
Pretty much the very definition of Temptations album filler, a pleasant but largely pointless retouching of a song that didn’t have anything wrong with it in the first place. (5)
Too much of a glorious mess to have been a huge hit on original release, but it’s both insanely ambitious and impressively executed, and it adds up to yet another excellent side in this magnificent run. (8)
There’s no getting away from the fact it’s a relic, an artefact from an already distant past. Plus, nice though it is, who on earth was flipping this single over in the first place? (5)
If My Girl isn’t in your fifty top Motown tunes, I fear nothing can be done for you. (10)
The whole thing is just a chore to listen to, a massive comedown after the rush of the A-side. (2)
A big, brassy, bouncy irresistible rush of a pop song. Whisper it, it’s actually better than The Way You Do The Things You Do. (9)