The Motown Top 250 Countdown (#230-226) & This Week's Statistics

Hello, my friends, old and new! The summer is fully upon us - and I hope that you're enjoying it. Before going for a swim, let's get on with our countdown...

At #230 we find one of Motown's biggest superstars, Diana Ross & the Supremes. The song in question is I'm Livin' in Shame (1969), inspired by the plot of Douglas Sirk's 1959 film Imitation of Life. The Clan composed I'm Livin' in Shame as a sequel to the Supremes' number-one hit single, Love Child. The song explores the quest of the 'love child' to shun both her impoverished childhood and her mother and pass herself off to her friends and new husband as the daughter of a rich family. The woman's mother ends up dying without ever seeing her daughter as an adult, or ever meeting her two-year-old grandson, to the child's regret and chagrin.

The girl group debuted the single live on Sunday, January 5, 1969, on The Ed Sullivan Show, peaking at number 10 on the American pop chart and at 14 on the UK pop chart in late winter and early spring of 1969. The recorded release is without the backing vocals of Mary Wilson or Cindy Birdsong (as with many singles released under this group's billing, session singers The Andantes appear on the record). Here it is:

This is a country version of the song by Pamela Sawyer:

At #229 are the gigantic Temptations and their song Beauty Is Only Skin Deep (1966), which peaked at #3 on the US Hot 100, at #1 on the US R&B chart, and at #18 in the UK. Composer 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.

After Whitfield's previous production for the Temptations, Ain't Too Proud to Beg, hit number-one on the Billboard R&B singles chart, he prepared Beauty Is Only Skin Deep as a showcase for lead singer David Ruffin and the Temptations. It was chosen as a single by Billie Jean Brown, head of Motown's quality control department. The group appealed the decision to Motown head Berry Gordy, who preferred it to the group's choice. The record proved much more successful than the group members expected. The song never appeared on a regular Temptations studio LP but was featured on the group's first Greatest Hits album.

This has better audio quality, but no video:

This is Jimmy Ruffin's version:

This is The Miracles' version:

At #228 we find the Beatles. No, the Beatles were never a part of Motown, but Stevie Wonder certainly was. In fact, if we take into consideration his complete Motown output, I can argue that he was their most valuable asset. Born May 13, 1950, as Stevland Hardaway Judkins, the child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century loved the Beatles. His version of We Can Work It Out was his love letter to them. Paul was quoted as saying that it was his favorite cover.

The song was released as a single in 1971, peaking at #3 on the US R&B chart, at #13 on the Hot 100, and at #27 in the UK:

Here is Stevie singing the song live at the White House, 2010:

... And this is the Beatles' original version:

At #227 is another great act, Gladys Knight & the Pips. Daddy Could Swear, I Declare, was their last Motown single before moving to Buddah Records and even greater success. The song was co-written by Johnny Bristol, Gladys Knight, and Gladys' older brother, Merald 'Buba' Knight, a member of the Pips. The song peaked at #2 on the US R&B chart and #19 on the Hot 100:

This is the song, preceded by an interview of the group. Gladys really owns the interview:

Finally for today, at #226, is yet another giant of Motown, Marvin Gaye, with the song Trouble Man, the theme song to the film of the same name. The 1972 film stars Robert Hooks as "Mr. T.", a hard-edged private detective who tends to take justice into his own hands.

The smooth song was written by Marvin himself and was a bigger hit than the film: it peaked at #4 on the US R&B chart and #7 on the Hot 100:

This is a live version of the song in Atlanta, Ga, 1974:

Now, let's continue with last week's statistics; the weekly number of visits were almost double of what they were last week, which makes this week the best of the last six. Barbra Streisand did extremely well and last week's Motown story also did well. The other Diva stories also continue to attract good traffic, as does the Beatles Countdown that is currently being discovered by a very active and interesting Facebook group called The Beatles Universe. Definitely worth checking out.

As far as countries are concerned, the United States, Greece, Australia, and Mexico were the week's winning countries, while France, Turkey, and Cyprus suffered minor losses. The other major players kept their percentages more or less stable.

Let me also remark that by now this blog has been visited by every single European country except for minuscule San Marino. The other continent that is doing extremely well is South America - the only countries that haven't visited are the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. You would expect North America to be up there too, but there are 8 small North American islands that never visited the blog. Only 4 countries never visited from Asia, North Korea, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, and British Indian Ocean Territory. There are 27 small islands from Oceania that never visited, while Africa has 17 countries, large and (mainly) small that never visited.

Here are this week's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. Greece

3. the United Kingdom

4. Canada

5. Australia

6. France

7. Mexico

8. Germany

9. Brazil

10. Cyprus

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Argentina, Aruba, Austria, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Greenland, Guam, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 29.0%

2. France = 22.3%

3. the United Kingdom = 12.9%

4. Greece = 6.8%

5. Russia = 2.5%

6. Germany = 1.8%

7. Canada = 1.6%

8. Italy = 1.2%

9. Turkey = 0.93%

10. Cyprus = 0.86%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!