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)
The ingredients all seem to be here for a raucous good-time All Stars jam, but the end result is oddly uninspiring.
Berry Gordy was vindicated again, the record both gaining plenty of new fans, and selling well; people bought it and people played it, and I find that heartening. Certainly I like this a lot more than I might once have expected to. (8)
…total, irredeemable garbage, the absolute worst of all Martin’s six sides for Motown, and a fitting note to end one of the most improbable careers in Motown history, as incongruous as anything from Irene Ryan, Albert Finney or the Abbey Tavern Singers. (1)
Just about Tony Martin’s best single for Motown. Which really isn’t saying very much. (2)
A success all round, then, leaving aside the nagging curiosity as to what might have happened with just a couple more days’ work: a fitting way to cap the best year so far in the Motown careers of both Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, now restored to their full powers. Roll on 1966. (8)
Genuinely excellent, the sort of thing that helps give Motown its good name. And it’s better than anything the Miracles have ever done in this mode until now, there’s no doubt about it. Excellent. Just not quite as excellent as some of the Miracles’ 1965 highlights. (8)
Not only do I like this less and less each time I play it, in fact, the more I listen, the less it seems to have anything to do with the A-side at all. So much for bright new débuts. (3)
Whatever the behind-the-scenes shenanigans, there’s no doubt in my mind that Gordy also felt he had a real talent on his hands. And he was right. (9)
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)
This is the longest gap we’ve had between posts on Motown Junkies since we started, and I thank you for …
