Really not very good at all, a stark example of what happens when you try to squeeze a big-voiced R&B star vocalist into a pop framework cut to someone else’s measurements – but that’s not to overlook the fact the song itself isn’t very good either. (2)
Enough to suggest Carolyn could have been a major talent. Even if that’s a stretch, it’s certainly plausible she might have become another Brenda Holloway, Barbara McNair – or Tammi Terrell. In the absence of that alternate-universe career, this will have to do, and it’s not half bad. (7)
For want of a better word, it’s sophisticated, in pretty much every sense. Mary, having come of age, delivers the first great single of her new career as one of America’s top stars – and nobody got to hear it for two years. (8)
Probably the Marvelettes’ best single in two years, even if I’m not sure quite how it managed to be so (and I’m not convinced they did either). Still, it’s hard to argue with results like these. (8)
Plenty of fun as far as it goes, but that only really lasts for as long as it’s playing – you wouldn’t dig it out on purpose for repeated listening, and it fades from the memory literally ten seconds after it’s done. (4)
Not even the most die-hard Miracles fan would say this was the big-ticket hit single to return them to the top, but it’s a lovely, warm-hearted record, impossible to dislike. A minor work in the Miracles canon, for sure, but a really enjoyable one all the same. (8)
Despite some rough edges, there’s plenty to like and enjoy here – it just doesn’t feel like the next step for this group, or indeed like any kind of step from The Way You Do The Things You Do at all. (6)
Perfect.
Motown’s musical standards had risen dramatically in the 18 months or so since this was first cut, and by those increasingly rarefied and demanding standards, this rough-edged R&B scribble just wasn’t up to scratch any more. (4)
Not bad, per se, but absolutely nothing special. (4)
Beautiful and intriguing, and those are the last words I’d expected to be using to describe a long-forgotten Bobby Breen B-side. (7)
Motown Junkies 