Hello, my friends, old and new! It's the weekend, which means it's time for our Motown countdown.
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| Martha and the Vandellas |
Position #145 is occupied by a classic: I Can't Get Next to You was the second of the Temptations' four number-one hits on the United States pop charts, and was also one of the best-selling singles the group released. Billboard ranked it as the #3 song for 1969. It was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong and produced by Whitfield.
The applause that starts the song, which is cut short by Dennis Edwards' spoken "Hold it, hold it, listen" line, was sampled in another Temptations song, Psychedelic Shack.
This is I Can't Get Next to You by The Temptations:
Al Green released his own version in 1971, which strips the composition of its fast pace and multi-lead vocals, and instead renders it as a slow-burning plea for love. Here it is:
... A month later, Savoy Brown released their own version, based on Green's arrangement:
The Osmonds released a version of the song on their 1974 album, Love Me for a Reason:
In 1995, Annie Lennox covered the song on her Medusa album, with a slight lyrical alteration to reflect her gender:
At #144 we find Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, a Canadian soul band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with their first and biggest hit, Does Your Mama Know About Me (1968). The song is about the worries of a young black man dating a white girl.
After the Jackson 5 signed to Motown in March 1969, Bobby Taylor became the group's first producer. He supervised the bulk of their first album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5, recording the Jacksons on a number of soul covers, including The Miracles' Who's Lovin' You.
Tommy Chong was a member of Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers before he became famous as a comedian. Does Your Mama Know About Me, a Tommy Chong co-composition, peaked at #29 on Billboard's Hot 100, at #5 on the US R&B chart, and at #44 in Canada. Here it is:
Diana Ross & The Supremes did a cover of this song for their 1968 album Love Child:
For the song at #143, we travel to 1982. Let It Whip was the Dazz Band's biggest hit, peaking at #1 on the US R&B chart for 5 non-consecutive weeks. The single also reached #2 on the Dance chart and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. It won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1983.
Co-written by producers Reggie Andrews and Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, Let It Whip features a percolating drum machine rhythm underneath live drums, and a Minimoog bassline underneath an electric bass guitar. Here it is:
The song was also covered by fictional a cappella group The Treblemakers in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect and is featured on the film's soundtrack:
At #142 we find the post-Diana Ross Supremes with their 1970 single, Stoned Love. Written by Kenny Thomas and Frank Wilson and produced by Wilson, it was the last Billboard Pop Top Ten hit for the group, peaking at #7, and their last Billboard #1 R&B hit as well, although the trio continued to score top ten hits in the UK well into 1972. This single and Up the Ladder to the Roof are the only top-ten Supremes singles to feature Jean Terrell on lead vocals instead of Diana Ross, who left the group in January 1970 to pursue a solo career. In the UK, it was the post-Ross Supremes' biggest hit, reaching #3 in the singles chart. The single spent six weeks in the UK top ten and five weeks in the US top ten.
A plea for love and peace similar to those recorded by Sly & the Family Stone in the late 1960s, the lyrics of Stoned Love were a plea for the people of the world to end conflict and animosity between each other, specifically the Vietnam War. Writer Kenny Thomas chose the term "stone love" to define the concept of an unchanging bond between one another. A slight variant of that phrase appeared two years later in The Stylistics' title I'm Stone in Love with You.
Many people saw the song as a coded reference to drug use, and many radio station owners were at first apprehensive to play the record. Motown founder Berry Gordy was also said to have hated the song, and label executive Barney Ales had to arrange for the RKO radio stations to agree to play Stoned Love before releasing the single. This is it:
At #141 is the second true classic for today. Heat Wave by Martha and the Vandellas (photo). Heat Wave is a 1963 song written by Holland, Dozier, and Holland. The single hit #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B chart - where it stayed for four weeks running - and peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Produced and composed with a gospel backbeat, jazz overtones, and doo-wop call-and-response vocals, Heat Wave was one of the first songs to exemplify the style of music later termed as the "Motown Sound". It also garnered the group's only Grammy Award nomination for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording for 1964, making the Vandellas the first Motown group ever to receive a Grammy Award nomination. Here it is:
The Who covered the song on their album A Quick One:
The Martha and the Vandellas version was featured in the 1970 film The Boys in the Band, in a scene in which several of the characters perform an impromptu line dance to the recording:
It was recorded and released as a single in September 1975, by Linda Ronstadt. Ronstadt's version of the song reached #5 on Billboard's Hot 100:
At #140 we find The Commodores and their hit Too Hot Ta Trot. Featured on the soundtrack to (and performed in) the movie, Thank God It's Friday, it first appeared on their 1977 live album, and it spent a week at number one on the R&B singles chart and peaked at #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1978. This is it:
This is the extended 12" version:
At #139 is yet another song by The Commodores called Lady (You Bring Me Up) (1981). It reached #8 on Billboard's Hot 100 and also peaked #5 on the US R&B Chart. It was a #1 hit in New Zealand.
Lady (You Bring Me Up) was written by Commodores member William King, his wife, Shirley, and Harold Hudson, a member of the Commodores' backing group, The Mean Machine. Lionel Richie sang the lead vocal, and it was one of the group's last big hits before he left the group for a solo career. Here it is:
At #138 is one of Motown's classiest acts, Smokey Robinson, with Being with You. The song was released as a single in 1981 and spent five weeks at #1 on the US R&B chart from March to early May 1981 and reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, behind Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes, his highest charting solo hit.
Casey Kasem had this to say about the song on his radio show, American Top 40:
"Now let me tell ya about a coincidental relationship between Smokey at #2 and Kim Carnes who's at #1 again this week. Kim's last hit was More Love, her remake of an old Smokey Robinson hit. Well, Smokey liked Kim's version so much that he wrote her another song, but when Smokey's producer heard the demo, he told Smokey, "You oughta record it yourself!", and that's the song we just heard in the #2 position. And how ironic it is that Smokey's recording of the song he'd written for Kim Carnes has been kept out of the #1 spot by a Kim Carnes hit for 3 weeks running."
The single peaked at #1 in the UK and New Zealand, #2 in France and Ireland, #5 in Canada, #7 in South Africa, and #14 in Australia. This is Being with You:
Very soon after Robinson's English single was released, Motown's subsidiary label Tamla released a Spanish version of the song under the title of Aqui Con Tigo:
Finally, for today, there are two songs tied for the #136 position. First, here is Edwin Starr. The follow-up to his huge #1 single, War (1970), was a song of similar construction titled Stop the War Now, which was a minor hit in its own right (#26 on the Hot 100, #5 on the R&B chart, and #33 in the UK). It was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong and produced by Whitfield:
Here's a reggae cover of the song by Lloyd Parks:
Also at #136 is There's A Ghost In My House by R. Dean Taylor. There's a Ghost in My House was written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, together with R. Dean Taylor. It was originally recorded by Taylor in 1966.
Produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, it was released as a single on the Motown subsidiary V.I.P. label in April 1967 but was not a hit. However, after it had become a popular dance song in Northern soul clubs in Britain, such as the Blackpool Mecca and Wigan Casino, R. Dean Taylor's record was reissued on EMI's Tamla Motown label and reached #3 on the UK chart in 1974. It's one of the songs that I really like. Here it is:
The Fall covered There's a Ghost in My House on their 1987 album The Frenz Experiment:
Now, let's continue with our statistics; strange things happened as far as countries were concerned: France and Greece had an especially poor showing, missing the weekly top 10 for the first time since I don't know when. Italy, Cyprus, and Spain also had a rather mediocre week, while Turkey continued its string of poor weeks. Of the major players, it was the English-speaking countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia) that carried the torch, as well as Germany, Brazil, and Russia. This gave the chance to shine to countries not usually found in the top 10, like Sweden, Ukraine, and Indonesia. Which is great - renewal is always welcome.
Here are this week's Top 10 countries:
1. the United States
2. the United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. Canada
5. Sweden
6. Australia
7. Brazil
8. Ukraine
9. Russia
10. Indonesia
Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Finland, France, FYR Of Macedonia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), the Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!
And here's the all-time Top 10:
1. the United States = 32.1%
2. France = 18.2%
3. the United Kingdom = 11.6%
4. Greece = 8.5%
5. Russia = 2.3%
6. Canada = 1.8%
7. Germany = 1.8%
8. Italy = 0.99%
9. Cyprus = 0.91%
10. Turkey = 0.75%
That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!
Interesting all the way.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot, dear Bob! I really appreciate your comment.
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