Possibly the best song Berry Gordy ever wrote, and therefore fitting that it should appear on the label bearing his name. But huge credit is also due to both the band and to the group; it is, after all, what’s in the grooves that count(s). (10)
Not a particularly good record, all in all, and not suited to either the singer or the direction in which Motown was now firmly headed. (4)
There’s simply no reason to seek out and listen to this one, not when there’s a superior version of what is for all intents and purposes the exact same song already out there. (4)
Appealing in its way, but it’s more of an album track, or an intimate, contemplative number for live shows; it’s never a hit single. (5)
A sweet little song, but it’s really very slight, and by the time of its release Mary Wells had definitely already moved on to bigger things and better material. (6)
A disappointing waste of both a good song and a good vocalist, paired together wholly inappropriately and satisfying no-one. (3)
If the technology and Motown’s budget had allowed for an EP or a 12″ 45 single, this might have been one of the great early Motown treasures; instead, hacked peremptorily in half and parcelled into chunks too small to sate the appetite, it ends up little more than an unsatisfactory promo for an album you can’t now physically buy. (6)
You can almost hear dancehall audiences groaning Awwwww! as the fade slashes in; we were just getting into that, they’d have grumbled. It’s just too short, and divorced from its proper context (and two-thirds of its length), it doesn’t have the chance to make an impression. (6)
No, on the whole, it’s good. It is. It’s just not pants-wettingly good, and so it suffers by comparison to the original, which I love. Which is more my problem than the Marvelettes’, I know, but there we are. (6)
Contrary to initial misgivings – and compared to Woods’ previous sides, which had resulted in three musical abominations – this one is actually (whisper it) not too bad. (4)
Once again, it’s impossible to work out what kind of success its writer and producer Berry Gordy felt this record was going to have.
Motown Junkies 