685. Martha & the Vandellas: “My Baby Loves Me”
I find it hard to put into words just what it is she does, but she does it here better than ever before. (9)
I find it hard to put into words just what it is she does, but she does it here better than ever before. (9)
The blaring horn riffs, sax and trumpet trying to blaze right out of the speakers, and the belting drum track: those are excellent. They deserved to be used on a better record than this. (3)
It’s hard to see this as anything other than filler, both on the album and on this single – once again, I doubt many fans have this at the top of their lists of Miracles favourites – but at least it’s very pretty filler. (5)
They were never going to be the Supremes, but instead, here they take possession of something new, something more dangerous and exciting and grown-up: from here on in, this is the Vandellas’ home turf, and they occupy it with panache. And with a super-catchy chorus to boot. (8)
Strangely, considering this isn’t brilliant – and that it could easily have been recorded a year before by someone else without anyone batting an eyelid – Your Cheating Ways perhaps offered unwitting fans more of a clue to the Marvelettes’ future sound than first realised. (6)
I can’t necessarily imagine anyone picking it out as one of their all-time favourites (though no doubt there’ll be some in the comments section!), but there’s really very little wrong with it; for me it just doesn’t go quite far enough, doesn’t scrape the sky in the way it keeps threatening. Still, on a good day, there’s little to touch it. (7)
It’s the very definition of a Golden Age, when even the supposed second-string acts can turn in a record as amazing as this at any time, without warning. Motown must have wondered where all these guys were coming from. (9)
Once more, this is nowhere near as horrific as it might have been, Mr. B bringing a level of class to proceedings which makes it all go down smooth. Truth be told, I’ve ended up becoming rather fond of it. (6)
This may be many things, but it’s certainly not another half-assed attempt at a late-career revival for a washed-up has-been; Mr B. can still bring it. (4)
It feels effortless, like so many of the very best Motown records do; the Marvelettes were growing up alongside Motown itself, and it’s reassuring to find they were still able to mix it right at the forefront, to match whatever their peers were doing. (8)
A bitter, lonely stalk of a song, all the better for Levi Stubbs to climb right to the top. (7)