Song #94 is "Brick House" by the Commodores, from 1977. These guys started as a straight funk band like Kool And The Gang did, doing lots of instrumentals and ensemble singing before Lionel Richie took them off in a more pop direction. It was top 5 on both the Black chart and the Pop chert on Billboard.

In 1977, the Commodores were in the studio recording when there was a problem with the equipment. While the equipment was being repaired and replaced, the group took a break. Ronald LaPread, the group's bass player, began jamming. Bit by bit the rest of the band joined in until they came up with a track and bass line. Upon returning, James Carmichael, the Commodores' producer, heard and recognized that this could be a song worth recording. He asked everyone to see if they could use the riff to come up with a song. Taking the tapes home, William King played them for his wife, Shirley Hanna-King. While he slept, she was inspired to write lyrics for the riff, modifying the expression "built like a brick shithouse" for the song.

The following day King sang the lyrics to "Brick House" to the band, allowing them to think he had written it. They loved it and decided that drummer Walter "Clyde" Orange had the funky voice to sing lead vocals, (as opposed to Lionel Richie, who usually sang lead), and the song went on the new album.

It took several years before the other members of the group discovered that it was actually Shirley Hanna-King who had written the lyrics, and although she was not originally credited, the band has publicly acknowledged her as the song's writer.




Song #93 is up now. Back to "Girl Group" territory with this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ5RKG2FqGo

We heard song #93, "Too Many Fish In The Sea," by the Marvelettes, from 1964. It was the group's first top 40 pop hit in almost a year reaching number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also got to #5 on the Cash Box R&B chart (Billboard had no R&B chart then). The song was one of the first hit singles written by Norman Whitfield and was also written by Eddie Holland. "Too Many Fish..." was also Whitfield's first produced single.

This single is the only one where group members Georgeanna Tillman and Katherine Anderson had a lead on the A-side. This is also the final A-side appearance for Tillman, who would leave the group in very early 1965, before they recorded their next single, "I'll Keep Holding On," due to her illnesses.

Here's part of the MOTOWN JUNKIES review:

The Marvelettes: “Too Many Fish In The Sea”
Tamla T 54105 (A), October 1964

With this, the Marvelettes’ eleventh single, Motown begins a remarkable late-year surge, with hit after hit from the company’s top-drawer acts. Barring an upcoming run of bum sides in November (which, as we’ll see, is more a case of the label shoving out a bunch of unwanted material in one lump, rather than any kind of real trend), Motown closed out 1964 with a flourish.

Where do the Marvelettes figure in all of this? Their place as the company’s top girl group was long gone, with first the Vandellas and then the Supremes waving as they climbed past them on the Motown ladder. The hits had started to dry up, too, each new Marvelettes release greeted with muted enthusiasm, the girls clocking up worthy but hardly spectacular chart performances. And to top it all off, this song remains most famous because the group chose to record it rather than Where Did Our Love Go, thus inadvertently handing the Supremes their big break.

All was not well behind the scenes, either, Wyanetta (Juanita) Cowart having already left, Georgeanna Tillman about to follow suit, reducing a one-time six-piece behemoth to a stripped-down trio. Gladys Horton, the group’s founder and lead singer from day one, here provides the last lead vocal she’ll ever contribute to a Marvelettes A-side; from now on, the lead voice on Marvelettes singles will be the ever-improving Wanda Young.

Did the company care about any of this? The Marvelettes didn’t have a studio album release between 1963’s The Marvelous Marvelettes and 1967’s The Marvelettes, universally known as the “Pink Album” due to its vividly-coloured cover. Sessions for a mooted LP in 1964 – which is where this recording comes from – eventually came to nothing on the album front. Between that and the general lack of enthusiasm Motown now showed for its first great group, this means that their material cut from 1964 to 1966 (which wasn’t really collected anywhere until the two box set volumes of their complete albums, Forever and Forever More) ends up in a kind of no man’s land, even when there were more than enough great cuts in the vault to issue a killer album somewhere in there.

Yet through it all, damn it, these are the Marvelettes, and from here on in, in the face of near-indifference from Motown – but buoyed by the support of Smokey Robinson, who’d go on to become their champion and strongest writer – they’d spend the rest of the Sixties quietly churning out great material. Of the fourteen* Marvelettes singles left to be covered here on Motown Junkies, there’s not a bad one in the bunch, and some of them are considerably better than that. They were never forgotten, people still knew their names, but they should have been superstars. Well, if that recognition has to come in hindsight, so be it: let the drive to reappreciate the mid- and late-career Marvelettes begin right here.

This absolutely isn’t the sound of a defeated group. Indeed, it’s arugably the most confident thing they’ve given us yet. A kind of muscular sass pervades this, helped by the barrelling backing track, which we haven’t really seen on Marvelettes records in the past; they’d done plenty of feisty, forceful numbers, but this is a different kind of thing, tempering anger with defiant foot-stamping. Confident is the word.

It’s a song of confidence, of course. The lyric cleverly turns the old maxim for the recently-dumped (“don’t worry, there’s plenty of fish in the sea”) into a defiant kiss-off (“There’s too many fish in the sea to waste time on losers like him“), and it’s internalised, Gladys’ narrator moving almost imperceptibly from dishing out advice to reaffirming her own independence, implying she too has just been screwed over.

But it’s not just lyrical: this is a different confidence. The Supremes cultivated a kind of vulnerability, even as they rode HDH’s bulletproof 4/4 backing tracks; the Vandellas were loud and proud, hard-edged in places, sure, but also dignified, and even at their most defiant (Come And Get These Memories) Martha Reeves’ narrator still sounded like she needed to draw confidence from the song and the listeners, not the other way around. This, though, is a complete wake-up call, the Marvelettes still approachable, game for a laugh, treating teenage romance as a throwaway fling rather than a big drama, certainly not a matter of life and death. Hey, you, snap out of it! Put down your tissues, stop cradling your diary, and go out and dance!

That it ends up the best Motown wash-that-man-right-outta-my-hair anthem since Come And Get These Memories is kind of a title won by default, but it does illustrate a new role for the Marvelettes, a space they could have occupied as part of an all-conquering triumvirate of exceptional Motown girl groups. In fact, they’d soon move in an altogether different direction than sassy, finger-snapping R&B-pop, best encapuslated by both the contents and title of their 1968 album Sophisticated Soul, but it’s interesting to see them try this out here all the same.

It’s a good song, and whilst it’s clearly not as good a song as Where Did Our Love Go, it’s almost certainly a better fit for the Marvelettes. They’d almost certainly not have had as much fun, or success, with that one, even if it did end up handing a rival group the initiative forever.

But this is a whole different kettle of, well, fish. There are some great moments to be treasured here, not least that intro, a descending blast of horns leading to bongos and bass behind Gladys’ spoken mission statement:

Look here girls, take this advice, and remember ALWAYS in life…

…feeding into a super verse melody, capped by the repetition of We’ve all got to cry sometime / I said, sigh sometime / Pull yourself together / No use cryin’ forever. Gladys and the girls have never sounded as good as they do here; they’re growing up, and given that this is an advice song aimed at teenage relationships (even quoting the narrator’s mother at one point!) I can’t decide whether that’s especially appropriate or especially ironic. There’s even a great classic girl group rundown with each Marvelette getting their own moment solo on the mic –

I said there’s short ones…
tall ones…
fine ones…
kind ones

– which doesn’t exactly work, or make the record better or anything, but which is fun and humanises the girls so that this male listener isn’t unduly offended when Gladys throws out lines like If the fish isn’t on your line / Bait your hook and keep on tryin’.

The biggest surprise about this, though, is that the band track is so dynamic. A super performance, illuminated by growling, angry horns culminating in another splendid solo Motown sax break, it’s the sort of thing that, in years past, might have threatened to overwhelm the Marvelettes on their own record – it’s no surprise it was later prepped as an instrumental single credited to the band, with the girls’ vocals scraped off – but instead Gladys more than holds her own. All of which means we should appreciate this for what it is, rather than the lost opportunity it supposedly represents; a Supremes’ version of this would probably have been terrible.

I don’t like the tune as well as some of the other Marvelettes tracks we’ve seen, or many of the ones we’ve yet to see, which is the only reason this isn’t going any higher: there’s really nothing wrong with it at all. Probably the best-sounding Marvelettes single to date, certainly the most “grown up”, and – again – excellent.

MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
8/10

=============================================================================================


Next up is #92, and it's from an act we have not heard from yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31bu6GLbyc4

"Heaven Must Have Sent You" by the Elgins checks in at #92 on the countdown. From 1996, it reached the top 10 on the Billboard Soul chart, but only #50 on their Pop chart. The song was written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, and was an even bigger hit when Bonnie Pointer did it in 1979. We'll see if that version shows up later on the countdown. Popular on the Northern soul scene in the UK, the Elgins record was reissued in by Tamla Motown in 1971, and reached #3 on the UK Singles chart.




Song #91 is next. From 1965:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSgqO7LIFL8

We just heard song #91 on the countdown. A classic ballad from the Tall, Talented, Temptations. It's "Since I Lost My Baby" from 1965. Written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Pete Moore and produced by Robinson, the song was a top 20 pop single on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, on which it peaked at number 17. On Billboard's R&B singles chart, "Since I Lost My Baby" peaked at number four.

Longing and melancholy, "Since I Lost My Baby" tells a story about the pain of losing a lover. Temptations lead singer David Ruffin, portrays the song's narrator, bass singer Melvin Franklin is also heard out front after each of Ruffin's first two lines on the first verse. It was Ruffin's third straight lead on a Temptations single.

MOTOWN JUNKIES Review:

The Temptations: “Since I Lost My Baby”
Gordy G 7043 (A), June 1965

“It’s hard not to get carried away,” I said last time we met the Temptations, “…to fall into a routine of rhapsody greeting each and every new side.”

But these are the Temptations, and when they’re serving up a fourth straight magnificent single – one of the most astonishing runs any Motown act has yet strung together – well, what else is a boy to do?

Smokey Robinson, by now firmly in charge of the Temptations’ musical development despite increasingly loud competition from within the compnay, was Motown’s most adept recycler. It wasn’t uncommon for Smokey to revise his old songs – refine concepts that didn’t quite work, spin and twist them into new and improved shapes, show everyone what he now realised he should have done the first time, and what he’d have done differently, given a chance at a do-over.

His work with the Temptations – or at least, as we meet them here – is different. Rather than trying to improve on the last record, Smokey had set the bar so impossibly high with My Girl – one of the most perfectly-crafted of all Motown singles – that the challenge with the Temptations was to recapture some of that same magic, while simultaneously being seen to break new ground.

He’d managed it well enough with It’s Growing alright – but as attempts to re-bottle lightning go, Since I Lost My Baby is on a whole different level. Here, Smokey takes on so many of the familiar tropes from My Girl, both musical and lyrical, and turns them on their head, turns them against each other. Not for the first time, we’re left with what I’ve previously called a “mirror sequel”; this, effectively, is My Girl: The Sad Version.

Let’s start with the negatives, as the record itself does: the intro to Since I Lost My Baby is a clunker, its heavy, stabbing scraped strings crashing, gracelessly, into the track and threatening to bowl over another beautifully understated Robert White guitar part. Throughout the track, the strings are out of control, fighting both with the Tempts and with the tune itself for supremacy, to the point where I’d love to hear a mix of this with the strings stripped off altogether. So many excellent Motown singles rely on a well-judged contribution from string section as the icing on the cake, the thing which pushes them over the top to greatness, but – other than a couple of brief moments at the very end when they play a very pretty ascending flourish, complementing the vocals rather than competing with them – the strings are the absolute worst thing about this one.

The Temptations' magnificent third album, 'The Temptin' Temptations', with this song proudly emblazoned across the cover in big letters.

But that’s literally the only thing where I can find fault with this record; everything else about it is gold. Turning the base ingredients of My Girl into a melancholy, moping breakup song is a bold move, but Smokey knew what he was doing, his complex recipe as sound as ever. Perhaps taking a cue from the Holland-Dozier-Holland team’s recent work with the Supremes (where the dichotomy between the upbeat pop paradise of the music and the plunging despair of the lyrics was played up to great effect), here Smokey marries one of the most gorgeous, lounging, sun-kissed tunes he’s ever written with what must surely be one of the most depressing mainstream Motown lyrics of all time.

Like My Girl, this song is full of weather; just as in My Girl, the narrator is impervious to the forces of nature, the outside world unable to break the spell his girl has cast. But here, the theme is no longer the walking-on-air superconfidence of My Girl, but rather an impenetrable, all-consuming dolour that renders him unable to enjoy anything that’s going on around him, almost verging on the suicidal. On daytime radio.

That’s some achievement, right there.

What stops it becoming unbelievably miserable is the constant reminders that things really aren’t as bad as they seem, which is done in such a way that… Well, it’s just very clever indeed.

Some of it is lyrical. David Ruffin, in another wonderful lead vocal performance, begins the song playing a man who’s almost determined not to take this well; drowning in self-pity, moping and mooching, he nonetheless spends much of the song listing all the great things that are going on around him (the very first line is Sun is shining, there’s plenty of light), in an attempt to underline just how depressed he is. But you can’t keep insisting “the world is a beautiful place, but it can’t cheer me up!” forever, and by the middle of the song, the exercise has helped him (briefly) put his romantic problems in perspective, resulting in him rousing himself, talking about how he’s going to fix this mess, getting up from his bed to sing from the balcony. Even after he climbs back under the duvet to insist that “Determination is fading fast / Inspiration is a thing of the past”, we know he hasn’t really given up. You can’t sing “Can’t see how my hope’s gonna last” if you’ve already lost all hope; and where there’s hope, the light at the end of the tunnel beckons.

Some of it is musical, a stunning multi-part harmony to rival the one from My Girl giving this an air of magnificence. No matter how depressed you might be, when all five Temptations chime in unison on the chorus, with absolutely breathtaking timing, well, your heart couldn’t fail to be warmed by it. But the super-tight harmonies play another role here, too.

In Britain, this song was featured on a four-track EP with picture sleeve.Strangely, if this was a solo record, things might get too heavy, but the Temptations – still, at this point, a tight-knit gang of surrogate brothers – harmonise so beautifully that Ruffin’s narrator never comes across as completely alone; we know he’s got his mates to look after him (Melvin Franklin chimes in within a few bars of the start, providing another impossibly resonant bass vocal – Oh, yeah – in call-and-response style), and so when he explicitly calls for help in the middle eight, well, we’re not as worried for him as we might have been; we know that help is on its way.

Oh, the middle eight. Zounds. A(nother) reminder that we’re dealing with a Smokey Robinson lyric, four Temptations trading lines with David, as a chant builds like a towering wave before finally crashing down into a gorgeous harmony bed for David to freestyle his exclamation.

Next time I’ll be kinder…
Won’t you please help me find her?
Someone just remind her
Of this love she left behind her
Til I find her, I’ll be trying her
Every day I’m more inclined to
Find her
Inclined to
Find her
Inclined to find my baby!
(Been lookin’ everywhere!)
Baby
(Baby! I really, really care!)

It’s magnificent.

By this point, Motown must have seemed intimidating to their competitors; to have unearthed so many great acts, written so many great songs, and now to pull off something like this, perhaps the most ambitious thing the label had yet turned its hand to, it’s positively unfair. You almost get the feeling they threw in that ghastly string part, the only thing that stops this one joining the ranks of the 10/10 club, just to make everyone else feel better.

But final credit has to go to the Temptations themselves, who 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.

MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
9/10


RANK-BALLOTS-POINTS-TITLE-ARTIST
091 - 05-223 - Since I Lost My Baby - Temptations
092 - 07-221 - Heaven Must Have Sent You - Elgins
093 - 07-221 - Too Many Fish In The Sea - Marvelettes
094 - 06-215 - Brick House - Commodores
095 - 04-215 - Distant Lover - Marvin Gaye
096 - 05-214 - Beechwood 4-5789 - The Marvelettes
097 - 05-212 - Psychedelic Shack - Temptations
098 - 07-210 - Going to a Go-Go - Miracles
099 - 06-210 - It Takes Two - Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston
100 - 05-207 - You Haven't Done Nothin' - Stevie Wonder
101 - 05-204 - When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes - Supremes
102 - 04-203 - Strange I Know - Marvelettes
103 - 06-200 - Someday We'll Be Together - Supremes
104 - 03-196 - Envious - Linda Griner
105 - 06-194 - Pastime Paradise - Stevie Wonder
106 - 05-191 - Trouble Man - Marvin Gaye
107 - 04-191 - I'll Try Something New - Miracles
108 - 04-190 - What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) - Jr. Walker & The All-Stars
109 - 06-189 - Mickey's Monkey - Miracles
110 - 06-189 - Pride And Joy - Marvin Gaye
111 - 05-187 - The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage - Miracles
112 - 05-186 - It's A Shame - Spinners
113 - 05-185 - The Bells - Originals
114 - 06-184 - I Want You - Marvin Gaye
115 - 07-180 - He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' - Velvelettes
116 - 04-180 - Forever - Marvelettes
117 - 05-169 - Love Child - Supremes
118 - 04-168 - Funny - Contours
119 - 06-165 - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Marvin Gaye
120 - 05-161 - Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart - Supremes
121 - 04-161 - Way Over There - Miracles
122 - 03-161 - Who's Lovin' You - Jackson 5
123 - 04-157 - Stubborn Kind of Fellow - Marvin Gaye
124 - 06-156 - Standing In The Shadows of Love - Four Tops
125 - 04-156 - Walk Away Renee - Four Tops
126 - 05-155 - Easy- Commodores
127 - 05-155 - Don't Look Back - Temptations
128 - 03-154 - Function at the Junction - Shorty Long
129 - 05-149 - If I Were Your Woman - Gladys Knight & Pips
130 - 05-147 - Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
131 - 04-142 - Playboy - Marvelettes
132 - 04-142 - You'll Lose A Precious Love - Temptations
133 - 04-142 - Master Blaster (Jammin’) - Stevie Wonder
134 - 05-139 - You're A Wonderful One - Marvin Gaye
135 - 04-139 - Friendship Train - Gladys Knight & Pips
136 - 04-136 - I Hear A Symphony - Supremes
137 - 03-136 - The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game - Marvelettes
138 - 03-135 - Paradise - Temptations
139 - 05-134 - (I'm A) Road Runner - Jr. Walker & The All-Stars
140 - 05-131 - Quicksand - Martha & The Vandellas
141 - 03-131 - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Supremes and Temptations
142 - 03-131 - Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) - Stevie Wonder
143 - 02-130 - You’re My Desire – Equadors
144 - 02-128 - Walk Away From Love - David Ruffin
145 - 02-125 - A Favor For a Girl - Brenda Holloway
146 - 03-124 - I'll Turn To Stone - Four Tops
147 - 03-124 - Hello - Lionel Richie
148 - 04-123 - Too Busy Thinking About My Baby - Marvin Gaye
149 - 03-123 - Would I Love You - Miracles
150 - 04-119 - Seven Rooms of Gloom - Four Tops
151 - 03-117 - A Fork In The Road - Miracles
152 - 05-115 - You Are the Sunshine of My Life - Stevie Wonder
153 - 04-115 - I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) - Stevie Wonder
154 - 03-114 - Reflections - Supremes
155 - 02-114 - Square Biz - Teena Marie
156 - 04-113 - Two Lovers - Mary Wells
157 - 03-111 - The Only One I Love - Miracles
=============================================================================================


Time now for song #90. Go Stevie, Go Stevie, Go Stevie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBFXXDuTP4o

Song #90 is "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder, from 1976. It's the second of 4 songs to make the countdown from the "Songs In The Key of Life" album. Written and produced by Wonder, the song focuses on his childhood from the 1950s into the early 1960s. The single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and soul singles chart.





Song #89 was in the top 10 on my ballot. Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PU1PEA8S6M

Song #89 is the Temptations classic from 1966, "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep." Written by Norman Whitfield and Eddie Holland, and produced by Whitfield, the song was a number three pop hit and a number one R&B hit in the United States. It was also a hit in the United Kingdom, making it to #18 on the UK Singles Chart in late 1966. The song never appeared on a regular Temptations studio LP, but was featured on the group's 1966 first Greatest Hits album.

Norman Whitfield recorded the song's instrumental track in 1964, two years before he got together with Eddie Holland to have lyrics written for the song. Several artists recorded "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep" before the Temptations, including David Ruffin's older brother Jimmy Ruffin, and The Miracles, who were actually the first to record it in 1964, but their version was not released as a single. It was later included on their 1966 Away We a Go-Go album. Here is the first version of the song:





Song #88 is up now. I'm surprised by how many people I know who really dislike this record. But I am not one of them. This was #3 on my ballot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORQn9eRbpac

Song #88 is "Get Ready" by Rare Earth. It is the only song in the top 100 by a White artist. The song "Get Ready" was originally done by the Temptations in 1966. It was written by Smokey Robinson. The Rare Earth record did reach #20 on the Billboard Black chart, and also peaked at #4 on their Pop chart. Rare Earth was the first big hit-making act signed by Motown that consisted only of white members. Motown actually named their Rare Earth label after the band. The main personnel in the group were Gil Bridges, saxophone, flute, vocals; Peter Hoorelbeke (aka Peter Rivera), lead vocals, drums; John Parrish (aka John Persh), bass guitar, trombone, vocals; Rod Richards (born Rod Cox), guitar, vocals; and Kenny James (born Ken Folcik), keyboards. The group's recording style was hard-driving. In late 1969 Edward "Eddie" Guzman (congas and assorted percussive instruments) was added to the group.





Song #87 is next. It is the oldest record to appear on the countdown so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snjNxr1QDR4

Song #87 is the oldest record on the list. "Bad Girl" by the Miracles was the first record on the Motown label, from around May of 1959. It was the leased to Chess and was reviewed in Billboard as a new release on Chess in July 1959. There was a also a big ad in Billboard a bit earlier in July. A mint original copy of the Motown 45 goes for upwards of $500 these days.

Although The Miracles had charted regionally and on the R&B charts with several earlier songs, including "Got a Job", "I Cry", "I Need a Change", and "(You Can) Depend on Me", "Bad Girl" was their first national chart hit, reaching #93 on the Billboard Hot 100. Written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records' President and Founder Berry Gordy, "Bad Girl" is a sad, remorseful ballad about a young woman, whom Robinson, as the narrator, says "was so good at the start", but who later in the song "is breaking my heart". It is in the popular doo-wop style, as several of The Miracles' songs were during the late 1950s. The record's success, coupled with the distributor's failure to pay Gordy and The Miracles properly for its sales, prompted Robinson to urge Gordy to "go national" with it, meaning that Motown should do its own national distribution of its songs, and eliminate the middleman, to ensure that all money from sales of its records would go directly to the label.

On the Motown/Universal DVD Smokey Robinson and The Miracles: The Definitive Performances 1963-1987, Robinson and fellow Miracles Bobby Rogers and Pete Moore commented that the song's success allowed the group to tour nationally for the first time, and to play New York's legendary Apollo Theatre during the Ray Charles Show. The group was not ready for the appearance: it lacked performance experience and failed to produce professional big band arrangements to the satisfaction of theatre manager Honi Coles. Ray Charles intervened, took the group under his wing, and, with his band, created arrangements for their songs. Charles was one of the first to help them on their climb to eventual success.


RANK-BALLOTS-POINTS-TITLE-ARTIST
087 - 04-229 - Bad Girl - Miracles
088 - 04-226 - Get Ready - Rare Earth
089 - 07-225 - Beauty Is Only Skin Deep - Temptations
090 - 06-224 - I Wish - Stevie Wonder
091 - 05-223 - Since I Lost My Baby - Temptations
092 - 07-221 - Heaven Must Have Sent You - Elgins
093 - 07-221 - Too Many Fish In The Sea - Marvelettes
094 - 06-215 - Brick House - Commodores
095 - 04-215 - Distant Lover - Marvin Gaye
096 - 05-214 - Beechwood 4-5789 - The Marvelettes
097 - 05-212 - Psychedelic Shack - Temptations
098 - 07-210 - Going to a Go-Go - Miracles
099 - 06-210 - It Takes Two - Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston
100 - 05-207 - You Haven't Done Nothin' - Stevie Wonder
101 - 05-204 - When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes - Supremes
102 - 04-203 - Strange I Know - Marvelettes
103 - 06-200 - Someday We'll Be Together - Supremes
104 - 03-196 - Envious - Linda Griner
105 - 06-194 - Pastime Paradise - Stevie Wonder
106 - 05-191 - Trouble Man - Marvin Gaye
107 - 04-191 - I'll Try Something New - Miracles
108 - 04-190 - What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) - Jr. Walker & The All-Stars
109 - 06-189 - Mickey's Monkey - Miracles
110 - 06-189 - Pride And Joy - Marvin Gaye
111 - 05-187 - The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage - Miracles
112 - 05-186 - It's A Shame - Spinners
113 - 05-185 - The Bells - Originals
114 - 06-184 - I Want You - Marvin Gaye
115 - 07-180 - He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' - Velvelettes
116 - 04-180 - Forever - Marvelettes
117 - 05-169 - Love Child - Supremes
118 - 04-168 - Funny - Contours
119 - 06-165 - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Marvin Gaye
120 - 05-161 - Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart - Supremes
121 - 04-161 - Way Over There - Miracles
122 - 03-161 - Who's Lovin' You - Jackson 5
123 - 04-157 - Stubborn Kind of Fellow - Marvin Gaye
124 - 06-156 - Standing In The Shadows of Love - Four Tops
125 - 04-156 - Walk Away Renee - Four Tops
126 - 05-155 - Easy- Commodores
127 - 05-155 - Don't Look Back - Temptations
128 - 03-154 - Function at the Junction - Shorty Long
129 - 05-149 - If I Were Your Woman - Gladys Knight & Pips
130 - 05-147 - Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
131 - 04-142 - Playboy - Marvelettes
132 - 04-142 - You'll Lose A Precious Love - Temptations
133 - 04-142 - Master Blaster (Jammin’) - Stevie Wonder
134 - 05-139 - You're A Wonderful One - Marvin Gaye
135 - 04-139 - Friendship Train - Gladys Knight & Pips
136 - 04-136 - I Hear A Symphony - Supremes
137 - 03-136 - The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game - Marvelettes
138 - 03-135 - Paradise - Temptations
139 - 05-134 - (I'm A) Road Runner - Jr. Walker & The All-Stars
140 - 05-131 - Quicksand - Martha & The Vandellas
141 - 03-131 - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Supremes and Temptations
142 - 03-131 - Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) - Stevie Wonder
143 - 02-130 - You’re My Desire – Equadors
144 - 02-128 - Walk Away From Love - David Ruffin
145 - 02-125 - A Favor For a Girl - Brenda Holloway
146 - 03-124 - I'll Turn To Stone - Four Tops
147 - 03-124 - Hello - Lionel Richie
148 - 04-123 - Too Busy Thinking About My Baby - Marvin Gaye
149 - 03-123 - Would I Love You - Miracles
150 - 04-119 - Seven Rooms of Gloom - Four Tops
151 - 03-117 - A Fork In The Road - Miracles
152 - 05-115 - You Are the Sunshine of My Life - Stevie Wonder
153 - 04-115 - I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) - Stevie Wonder
154 - 03-114 - Reflections - Supremes
155 - 02-114 - Square Biz - Teena Marie
156 - 04-113 - Two Lovers - Mary Wells
157 - 03-111 - The Only One I Love - Miracles
===========================================================================


Song #86 is up now. It's the first song on the countdown that was listed on 8 or more ballots. Get your thumbs out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmClweWITZQ

Song #86 is "Hitch Hike" By Marvin Gaye in 1962. This one reached #12 on the Billboard R&B chart and peaked at #30 Pop, as Marvin was headed towards the mainstream. Another song Gaye co-wrote (this time with Clarence Paul and William "Mickey" Stevenson), this time instead of confessing to being stubborn, the singer is now hitchhiking on the look out for his girl, whom he feels has run so far that he has to travel "around the world" thinking of places she could have found herself at including St. Louis, "Chicago City Limits" and "L.A."

Again, like "Stubborn", Martha and the Vandellas accompanied Gaye on this song. Artists including The Sonics, The Rolling Stones, The Mothers of Invention and Alice Cooper recorded versions of this song during their early years. The Velvet Underground's song "There She Goes Again" is based on "Hitch Hike", as is the guitar intro to The Smiths' "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" (Johnny Marr specifically credits The Rolling Stones' version as the inspiration). Another song which is likely based on "Hitch Hike" is "You Can't Do That" by The Beatles, especially the use of cowbell and congas and the pronounced stops at the end of each verse.

The MOTOWN JUNKIES review is incredibly brief, for him :-)

Marvin Gaye: “Hitch Hike”
Tamla T 54075 (A), December 1962

Marvin Gaye had had a breakthrough (in more ways than one) with his previous single, the immortal Stubborn Kind Of Fellow, which had both landed Gaye on the charts (#46 pop and the R&B Top Ten) and pushed him firmly away from the jazz-club crooning of his dreams and into the R&B sphere. The die was cast; Marvin’s path was clear, and it only remained for him to try and capitalise on his own success with another hit record. No pressure, then.

For the follow-up, Marvin again co-wrote the song, along with his producer Mickey Stevenson and another Motown producer, Clarence Paul. It’s in a similar bag to Stubborn Kind Of Fellow, Marvin again turning to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas to perform backing vocals, with a similar tempo, driving beat and some more jazz flute courtesy of Thomas “Beans” Bowles; but Hitch Hike is rougher and tougher than its predecessor, more raw and less enduring.

It did its job commercially; this was Marvin Gaye’s first Top 30 pop hit, and it played an important role in his transformation into an R&B star by giving him something to dance to on stage. A whole signature “hitch hike” dance routine was developed to go along with the song (Marvin taking his cues dance-wise from Chubby Checker’s contemporary hit Popeye (The Hitchhiker), according to the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 2), a significant step forward for the live presence of a man who felt “shaking his ass” was undignified, beneath him, an affront to his artistic integrity. But it’s also Marvin’s least interesting single to date.

I don’t mean “worst” – no, it’s actually very good, the stabbing horn attacks, the Vandellas’ shrill interjections, Beans’ flute solo bit, the way the band fills the white space in the song to keep it chugging along without a pause, the verse-ending sort-of-chorus (Marvin almost screaming himself hoarse, I’ve got to find that girl / If I have to hitch hike round the world!), they’re all great.

No, I just mean that this is the first Marvin Gaye single about which I can’t write thousands of words explaining where it fits in with Marvin’s musical development, the first one that doesn’t really advance us – musically – any further along the path to What’s Going On. The lyrics, some forgettable fluff about Marvin hitch-hiking his way across the country chasing some girl (we never find out why she’s worth the trouble, or indeed anything about her at all), were apparently tossed off as a last-minute thing after the band track was already cut, and it shows. Marvin’s performance, whilst still raw-throated and unrefined, is a definite step backward from Stubborn Kind Of Fellow. Ultimately, I think it suffers because it’s just not as good a song, or a record, as its predecessor; playing the two back to back, regardless of the order, it’s Stubborn… you’ll be singing afterwards.

Still, it’s fun enough on its own merits – there’s plenty to enjoy here – and it certainly did its job. I’d just be surprised if this was anyone’s favourite Marvin Gaye record.

MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
6/10

In Britain, Stateside Records featured this as one of the four selections on the multi-artist 'R&B Chartmakers' EP.




Song #85 is up now. Marvin Gaye again, but a VASTLY different sound from 15 years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayyy-03ITDg

Song #85 is "Got To Give It Up" by Marvin Gaye, from 1977. This was a big favorite of a good friend of mine, the late George Lavatelli. The record was HUGE, staying at #1 on the Billboard Black chart for 5 weeks and also hitting #1 on their Pop chart, The Hot 100. Written by Gaye and produced by Art Stewart as a response to a request from Gaye's record label that he perform disco music, it was released in March of 1977.

Throughout 1976, Marvin Gaye's popularity was still at a high in America and abroad, but the singer struggled throughout the year due to pending lawsuits from former bandmates. Divorce court proceedings between Gaye and first wife Anna Gordy had put a strain on him. Financial difficulties almost led to imprisonment for the singer when Gordy accused him of failing to pay child support payments for their only child, son Marvin Pentz Gaye III.

To relieve Gaye from his debt, his European concert promoter Jeffrey Kruger booked the singer on a lengthy European tour. Gaye began the tour in the United Kingdom where he had a strong fan base dating back to his early career in the 1960s, making his first stop in the country since 1964. His performances there were given rave reviews. One of the shows, filmed at London's Palladium, was recorded for a live album, later released as Live at the London Palladium, in the spring of 1977. Around the same time, Gaye's label Motown tried to get the artist to record in the current sound of the times, disco music. Gaye criticized the music, claiming it lacked substance and vowed against recording in the genre. His label mate Diana Ross had recorded her first disco song, "Love Hangover". The song's producer Hal Davis debated over giving that song to either Ross or Gaye. After working over the song, he went with Ross, and it became her fourth solo number one hit. Motown struggled to get Gaye in the studio as Gaye focused on work on an album (which would later be released as Here, My Dear, dedicated to Gaye's troubled first marriage). After months of holding off from recording anything resembling disco, the singer set upon writing a song parodying a disco setting.

The first recording session for "Got to Give It Up", originally titled "Dancing Lady", was on December 13, 1976. Influenced by the Johnnie Taylor hit, "Disco Lady", Gaye was inspired to create his answer song to Taylor's hit. To help set up a "disco" atmosphere, Gaye hired Motown producer and engineer Art Stewart to oversee the song's production. Gaye and Stewart brought in several musicians and Gaye's friends, his brother Frankie and girlfriend Janis Hunter, to Gaye's recording studio complex, Marvin's Room. From December 14 to 17, 1976, Gaye performed the lead vocal track, instrumentation (which included Gaye, Fernando Harkness, Johnny McGhee, Frankie Beverly and Bugsy Wilcox and Funk Brother member Jack Ashford) and background vocals. In the song, Gaye added background vocals from his brother and his girlfriend. During the second half of the song, the song introduces vocal layered doo-wop styled scatting from Gaye and produced a funk-influenced vamp. Fernando Harkness performs a tenor saxophone solo in the second half of the song.

Gaye recorded his vocals on the first date of sessions, adding instrumentation on the following day, and then adding other effects in the latter two days, mixing it by January 1977. Influenced by the vocal chatter on his previous hit, "What's Going On", Gaye decided to create a party scene outside the recording studio where different voices are heard either greeting each other or partying. Gaye is also heard on the track greeting people and laughing while mingling in with the crowd. During the bridge, Gaye is heard yelling, "Say Don! Hey man, I didn't know you was in here!" The "Don" was later confirmed as Soul Train host Don Cornelius, who was one of Gaye's close friends. Gaye overlapped the party sounds over and over, making a loop. In the second half of the song, Gaye sings mainly the initial title, "dancing lady" over and over while a saxophone is playing a solo. All the background vocals on the second part of the song were from Gaye himself. Gaye also plays percussion, bass keyboards and RMI synthesisers in the final fade of the song. In the second half, he can be heard playing on a glass bottle halfway filled with grapefruit juice. L.T.D. guitarist Johnny McGhee added guitar. McGhee and Frankie Beverly were the only non-bandmates featured on the song playing instruments. Beverly also added assorted percussion.

The 2013 hit single "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and song co-writer T.I. was the subject of a lawsuit for allegedly copying "Got to Give It Up". Thicke originally told the public both he and Pharrell were in the recording studio and suddenly Thicke told Pharrell "Damn, we should make something like that, something with that groove" and they wrote the song in less than an hour. However, Thicke later claimed this was all a lie and the song was entirely written by Pharrell. Thicke stated "I was high on Vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio." On March 10, 2015, a federal jury found "Blurred Lines" infringed on "Got to Give It Up" and awarded nearly $7.4 million to Gaye's children. Jurors found against Pharrell and Thicke, but held harmless the record company and T.I. While damages were reduced to $5.3 million, the jury's decision was held up on appeal. As an additional remedy, Gaye was credited as a songwriter for "Blurred Lines". This in turn affected "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody of "Blurred Lines", "Word Crimes", where Gaye also has been added as a songwriter.

Judge for yourself:






Song #84 is up now. It's from 1971 and comes from an act that we have not heard from yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXSHRJYxTQ

Song #84 is "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by The Undisputed Truth," from 1971. The song was written by Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield. It was done first by the Temptations with a 12 minute version on the "Sky's The Limit" album. The plan was to edit it into a single for a summer 1971 release, but Eddie Kendricks was leaving the group so that plan was scrapped. Instead they did a very different arrangement of the song with The Undisputed Truth. The record became just as big of a pop chart hit (#3) as it was a soul chart hit (#2).





We Move down now to song #83. This one is for DEM. It's one of her favorites. This will be bittersweet for her, as she'll be glad that it made the Top 100, but unhappy with it not finishing higher than #83.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-es4Q8AJaU

Song #83 is "I Wish It Would Rain" by the Temptations from 1967. The single reached #1 for 3 weeks on the Billboard Soul chart, and it peaked at #4 Pop. The song is one of the most melancholy in the Temptations repertoire, with lead singer David Ruffin delivering, in a pained voice, the story of a heartbroken man who wants to hide his sorrow. His woman has just left him, and he wishes that it would start raining, to hide the tears falling down his face because "a man ain't supposed to cry". Accompanying Ruffin's mourning vocal are the vocals of his bandmates (Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and Otis Williams) alongside the subdued instrumentation of The Funk Brothers studio band, and, courtesy of Whitfield, sound effects depicting the "sunshine and blue skies", with the sound of chirping seagulls, and the sound of thunder and rain described in the song. Producer Norman Whitfield devised much of the musical structure of the song, with former Motown artist Barrett Strong composing the song's signature piano intro on a piano with only ten working keys. Motown staff writer Rodger Penzabene provided the song's lyrics.

More so than a number of other Motown songs, there is real sentiment and pain behind the song's words. Lyricist Penzabene had just found out his wife was cheating on him with another man. Unable to deal with the pain and unable to stop loving his wife, Penzabene expressed his pain in the lyrics of this song and its follow-up on the Temptations' release schedule, "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)". The distraught Penzabene committed suicide on New Year's Eve 1967, a week after the single's release.


RANK-BALLOTS-POINTS-TITLE-ARTIST
083 - 06-240 - I Wish It Would Rain - Temptations
084 - 08-238 - Smiling Faces Sometimes – Undisputed Truth
085 - 05-238 - Got To Give It Up - Marvin Gaye
086 - 08-235 - Hitch Hike - Marvin Gaye
087 - 04-229 - Bad Girl - Miracles
088 - 04-226 - Get Ready - Rare Earth
089 - 07-225 - Beauty Is Only Skin Deep - Temptations
090 - 06-224 - I Wish - Stevie Wonder
091 - 05-223 - Since I Lost My Baby - Temptations
092 - 07-221 - Heaven Must Have Sent You - Elgins
093 - 07-221 - Too Many Fish In The Sea - Marvelettes
094 - 06-215 - Brick House - Commodores
095 - 04-215 - Distant Lover - Marvin Gaye
096 - 05-214 - Beechwood 4-5789 - The Marvelettes
097 - 05-212 - Psychedelic Shack - Temptations
098 - 07-210 - Going to a Go-Go - Miracles
099 - 06-210 - It Takes Two - Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston
100 - 05-207 - You Haven't Done Nothin' - Stevie Wonder
101 - 05-204 - When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes - Supremes
102 - 04-203 - Strange I Know - Marvelettes
103 - 06-200 - Someday We'll Be Together - Supremes
104 - 03-196 - Envious - Linda Griner
105 - 06-194 - Pastime Paradise - Stevie Wonder
106 - 05-191 - Trouble Man - Marvin Gaye
107 - 04-191 - I'll Try Something New - Miracles
108 - 04-190 - What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) - Jr. Walker & The All-Stars
109 - 06-189 - Mickey's Monkey - Miracles
110 - 06-189 - Pride And Joy - Marvin Gaye
111 - 05-187 - The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage - Miracles
112 - 05-186 - It's A Shame - Spinners
113 - 05-185 - The Bells - Originals
114 - 06-184 - I Want You - Marvin Gaye
115 - 07-180 - He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' - Velvelettes
116 - 04-180 - Forever - Marvelettes
117 - 05-169 - Love Child - Supremes
118 - 04-168 - Funny - Contours
119 - 06-165 - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) - Marvin Gaye
120 - 05-161 - Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart - Supremes
121 - 04-161 - Way Over There - Miracles
122 - 03-161 - Who's Lovin' You - Jackson 5
123 - 04-157 - Stubborn Kind of Fellow - Marvin Gaye
124 - 06-156 - Standing In The Shadows of Love - Four Tops
125 - 04-156 - Walk Away Renee - Four Tops
126 - 05-155 - Easy- Commodores
127 - 05-155 - Don't Look Back - Temptations
128 - 03-154 - Function at the Junction - Shorty Long
129 - 05-149 - If I Were Your Woman - Gladys Knight & Pips
130 - 05-147 - Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
131 - 04-142 - Playboy - Marvelettes
132 - 04-142 - You'll Lose A Precious Love - Temptations
133 - 04-142 - Master Blaster (Jammin’) - Stevie Wonder
134 - 05-139 - You're A Wonderful One - Marvin Gaye
135 - 04-139 - Friendship Train - Gladys Knight & Pips
136 - 04-136 - I Hear A Symphony - Supremes
137 - 03-136 - The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game - Marvelettes
138 - 03-135 - Paradise - Temptations
139 - 05-134 - (I'm A) Road Runner - Jr. Walker & The All-Stars
140 - 05-131 - Quicksand - Martha & The Vandellas
141 - 03-131 - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Supremes and Temptations
142 - 03-131 - Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) - Stevie Wonder
143 - 02-130 - You’re My Desire – Equadors
144 - 02-128 - Walk Away From Love - David Ruffin
145 - 02-125 - A Favor For a Girl - Brenda Holloway
146 - 03-124 - I'll Turn To Stone - Four Tops
147 - 03-124 - Hello - Lionel Richie
148 - 04-123 - Too Busy Thinking About My Baby - Marvin Gaye
149 - 03-123 - Would I Love You - Miracles
150 - 04-119 - Seven Rooms of Gloom - Four Tops
151 - 03-117 - A Fork In The Road - Miracles
152 - 05-115 - You Are the Sunshine of My Life - Stevie Wonder
153 - 04-115 - I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) - Stevie Wonder
154 - 03-114 - Reflections - Supremes
155 - 02-114 - Square Biz - Teena Marie
156 - 04-113 - Two Lovers - Mary Wells
157 - 03-111 - The Only One I Love - Miracles
========================================================================================


Song #82 is up now. We go from a very sad song #83 to a very happy song #82.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLjv0-ec-eU

Song #82 is "You're All I Need To Get By" by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, from 1968. This was a MONSTER hit on the Billboard Soul chart, staying at #1 for 5 weeks, while also peaking at #7 Pop. It got to #19 in the UK.

Written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, it became one of the few Motown recordings of the 1960s that was not recorded with the familiar "Motown sound". Instead, "You're All I Need to Get By" had a more soulful and gospel-oriented theme surrounding it, that was influenced by the writers, who also sing background vocals on the recording, sharing vocals in a church choir in New York City. Marvin and Tammi recorded the song at Hitsville. Ashford & Simpson later stated how the session was hard as Terrell was recovering from surgery on the malignant brain tumor that would ultimately cause her death less than three years after they recorded the song.

During moments in the recording, Gaye can be heard encouraging Terrell to sing her verses, ad-libbing come on Tammi several times. A year later, Gaye was performing this song with Stax vocalist Carla Thomas at the Apollo Theater, when Terrell, who was seated in the front row in her wheelchair, began singing along, prompting Gaye to leave the stage and sing the song with Terrell, who was offered a microphone. It would be Terrell's final performance before her death in March 1970. The song was played during Terrell's funeral while Gaye gave a brief, tearful eulogy.





Song #81 is up now. We head to 1965:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_iTnrXVH38

We just heard song #80, "I'll Be Doggone" by Marvin Gaye, from 1965. It became his first million-selling record and his first number-one single on the R&B chart, staying there for two weeks, and was the first song Gaye recorded with Smokey Robinson as one of the songwriters of the record. The song was co-written by Robinson's fellow Miracles members Pete Moore and Marv Tarplin.The Miracles also sang background on this recording,along with Motown's long-standing female back-up group, The Andantes,and Miracle Marv Tarplin played lead guitar. "I'll Be Doggone" gave Marvin his third top-ten pop hit, where it peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100.

Our friend at MOTOWN JUNKIES only gives this one a 5/10. Here's the link if you'd like to read his extensive review.
https://motownjunkies.co.uk/2012/11/17/550/

The song was included on the "Moods of Marvin Gaye" album.




The countdown rolls on. Time to break into the top 80. This is #80.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbYcte4ZEgQ

The #80 song is "I'm Coming Out" from Diana Ross, in 1980. The single went to #5 on the Billboard Pop chart, and was #1 on the Disco chart. The song was written by and produced by Chic members Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, and released in August 22, 1980 as the second single from Ross' self-titled tenth album "Diana." In 1979, Ross commissioned Chic founders Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards to create material for a new album after taking her daughters to see the band in concert, following the success of Ross's final Ashford & Simpson-composed and produced LP, The Boss. Rodgers got the idea for "I'm Coming Out" after noticing three different drag queens dressed as Diana Ross at a New York club called the GG Barnum Room. The lyrics hold an additional meaning to Ross, as she was leaving Motown Records and "coming out" from under Berry Gordy's thumb. According to the BBC4 documentary "How to Make It in the Music Business", Ross loved the record until she put it in front of Frankie Crocker, who pointed out that 'I'm Coming Out' is what homosexuals use to announce their homosexuality; she ran back to the studio in tears and demanded to know why Rodgers wanted to ruin her career.

The distinctive sound of "I'm Coming Out" and its resulting popularity has led to Ross's song often being sampled, most notably by Stevie J, who sampled the song for rapper The Notorious B.I.G.'s 1997 song "Mo Money Mo Problems."






Time to break into the 70s on the countdown. This is song #79:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0lScUClOP0