Motown – onetruekev

With Nothing Else Occupying My Head

There has been a lot going on recently. A trip to Madrid has been well documented. So have the flurry of home games for Crawley. It has been a long time since it was started in January, but the bathroom is still not finished. OK it is useable, but there is still the bathroom cupboard and flexible mirror to go, and until they are done then the final tidy up can’t be. There are all kinds of things in unexpected places in the house, the front and back gardens, and until last weekend the loft.

After getting back from Madrid there were also a whole host of events with WORDfest. I was on stage for two of them. The Write Way Live at Ifield Barn theatre, where I read one of childhood memory pieces called “Cake.” The next night was the quiz, and someone came up as I was putting out a few nibbles on our team’s table to ask where the cakes were. Live interactive tales of Crawley in the old Ask building followed, and then on the Saturday there was the Crawley Creative Writing Group’s session for which I’d produced the books, then in the evening it was the Mother Tongue event where I read a poem in Gaelic (mangled might be a more appropriate description). And comedy night. It’s been busy.

I have been reading certain things and making up in my head what they actually said. Three weeks into using the toothpaste I can see it is called Oracare and not Oral Care as I’d read / assumed. Now all I can think of is someone having to look after Rita Ora.

Another example of this phenomena came when a leaflet came through the door for the local elections. It was from Labour for their candidate Bob Noyce. It took several attempts to get the name correct as I kept reading it as Bob Nonce, definitely not a voter friendly name.

And I spent years misreading a supplier’s name at work before I finally got their name correct. The company supplies the vast array of flexible benefits on offer alongside our payroll. And therefore, I always assumed their name was a mash up and called them Beneflex for at least ten years before it finally sank in there is no L in their name and they are actually Benefex. Personally, I think they missed a trick.

On to destroy it yourself. It is nearly two years since the kitchen was done. Not long after it was completed, I attempted to put a towel rail up on the wall behind the kitchen door. I made a mess, and one side came off the wall. So, it was removed with a view to fixing it later. Instead, last week a different rail was bought and on Saturday I got round to putting it up. I got two holes drilled in the wall without making them massive, got the plasplugs in OK, had one side fully screwed in tightly, and had the other side screwed in three quarters of the way only for the top quarter of the screw to snap off. I thought I would unscrew the first side and move it along a couple of inches. Only for the thread to disintegrate and make unscrewing it impossible. I could get it out of the wall. I’m still in a strop about the effing wall and its utter dislike of me and distain for me when it knows I hate DIY and I’m bad at it.

Anyway, a friend came round, managed to get the new rail off the wall and have securely fixed the original rail to the wall. But there is now a new blind to fit in the living room, and the thought of it is giving me the fear.

I was a bit meh all weekend. Part of which is the unrelenting horror show that I know work is going to be, and part of it is the destroy it yourself piece, as it makes me feel like a worthless / useless piece of excrement.

Helen suggested putting some music on and wanted a suggestion of a record to play. So, after umming and aahing I went old school. Not in a rave or rap view, but picking something from my teens when I first got really into Motown. Back in the eighties I had a set of cassettes. Motown Hits of Gold, volumes one to eight. I have the record box set now, which in addition to the eight originals had a disc nine of ‘future hits.’

I haven’t played any of these since the eighties, but I nominated volume seven side one, as it was one of the cassettes I played to death in my Walkman. It is amazing what memories it brought back. So much so I wrote a piece just about that album.

And both the music and the writing takes my mind off it all.

Tamla Motown Number Ones

2019 marks the 60^th anniversary of the Motown record label. In my own celebration of that fact I’m going to have a look at the number ones it has had on the UK single charts, and number ones related to the label over the years.

In the US, Berry Gordy started out with the Motown label, and added Tamla and Gordy to them in quick succession. Over the years there have been numerous labels associated with the Motown family as they branched out into all forms of music.

In the UK, there wasn’t the ability to issue on an American label in the late 1950’s and Early 1960’s and so records from the Motown labels, which fell under the Jobete Music publishing house were released on a number of different labels over here, starting out on London American, then Fontana, Oriole and Stateside before the Tamla Motown label started out releasing UK records in late 1965.

Therefore Motown’s first UK number one single wasn’t even releases on Tamla Motown, but rather on Stateside.

The Supremes – Baby Love b/w Ask Any Girl. Stateside catalogue number SS350. Reached number one on 19^th November 1964 and was number one for two weeks. The group had had its first major hit with “Where Did Our Love Go” a couple of months before after having had the nickname of the “No-Hit Supremes” prior to that. This changed all that, and it wasn’t long after that Berry Gordy’s favourite got head billing and they became Diana Ross and the Supremes, and the animosity within the group started. It was another sublime piece of song writing by Motown’s main in-house writing and production team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland. It finally did get a Tamla Motown release in the mid-seventies on TMG915 and in the anniversary re-releases on TMG1044.

The Four Tops – Reach Out (I’ll Be There) b/w Until You Love Someone – TMG579. The first actual number one on the Tamla Motown label came nearly two years after Baby Love. This was another song from the Holland – Dozier – Holland production line and reached number one on the 27^th October 1966 staying there for three weeks. It saw a couple of re-releases, on TMG1049, and in 1988 on the back of its use in a Right Guard advert a remixed version on ZB41943 (using the RCA numbering format imposed on the label when they were taken over in the mid 1980’s) and a 12” release on ZB41944.

Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine b/w I Need Somebody – TMG686. One of the most famous Motown songs, it was written by Barrett Strong (who had had the first Motown single release ever with “Money (That’s What I Want)”) and Norman Whitfield. It had originally been recorded by The Miracles, before Marvin Gaye, but both versions were vetoed as single releases by the label boss Berry Gordy. It was first released by Gladys Knight & The Pips as a more up-tempo release in 1967. After appearing on Marvin Gaye’s album there was pressure from radio stations to have this version released as a single. Showing Gordy didn’t know everything. It got to number one on 26^th March 1969, staying there for three weeks. It got to be on five different re-releases, TMG923, TMG987, TMG1045, ZB40701/2 and ZB40961/2 with the latter two both having 12” releases.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – The Tears Of A Clown – TMG745. There were two different versions of the single released with different B-sides, one with You Must Be Love and the other with Who’s Gonna Take The Blame? Written by Motown producer Hank Cosby and Stevie Wonder as an instrumental for the Motown Christmas party, Smokey Robinson added lyrics. Got to number one after an office staffer in London lobbied for it to be released as a single on 12^th September 1970, staying top for a single week. Reissued on TMG1048 as a double A side with Tracks Of My Tears.

Diana Ross – I’m Still Waiting b/w Reach Out I’ll Be There – TMG 781. Diana Ross’ second single release wasn’t going to be a single release in the UK until Tony Blackburn kept playing the album track on Radio 1 and persuaded the label to release it as a single. It got to number one on 21^st August 1971 and was top for four weeks. It was written by Deke Richards (who would later go on to be part of what was known as The Corporation, a Motown song writing collective who wrote most of the Jackson 5’s and Michael Jackson’s early single releases.) Rereleased on TMG1041 and remixed in 1990 on ZB43781 and a 12” release on ZB43782.

The Commodores – Three Times A Lady b/w Can’t You Tease Me – TMG1113. Written by Lionel Richie, this got to number one on the 19^th August 1978 and stayed there for five weeks. Berry Gordy had dropped the Tamla part of the label name by this point, and so this was the first UK number one as the Motown label. The Commodores had started out as a funk band more along the lines of Kool & The Gang or Earth, Wind & Fire, but moved to a more sedate sound with Richie taking over more of the song writing duties, such as this. He would break away with a solo career in the early eighties, but the rest of the band carried on without him.

Smokey Robinson – Being With You b/w What’s In Your Life For Me? – TMG1223. Having gone solo in the seventies, Robinson wrote most of his own music for his long solo career, this included. It hit number one on the 13^th June 1981, staying at number one for two weeks, only to be knocked off number one by another Motown song.

Michael Jackson – One Day In Your Life b/w With A Child’s Heart – TMG946 and TMG976. Originally a non-charting single from 1975, this song, written by Sam Brown III and Renee Armand, was rereleased in 1981 on the original label numbers on the back of Jackson’s success with his Off The Wall album. It hit number one on the 27^th June 1981, taking over from Being With You, and being the only instance of a Motown single taking over from another Motown single at the top of the charts.

Charlene – I’ve Never Been To Me b/w Somewhere In My Life – TMG1260. Written by Ron Miller, Don Costa and label boss Berry Gordy, this had been a US single release only in 1977. It was rereleased in 1982 after finding traction on a Tampa radio station. They had to track Charlene down as she had left the music industry, and found her married and living in Ilford, Essex. It hit number one on the 26^th June 1982 staying there for a single week.

Lionel Richie – Hello b/w All Night Long (All Night) Instrumental – TMG1330 (including 12” and cassette single releases). Self-penned third release off his Can’t Slow Down album, it’s the one with the very creepy video and the clay head of some random that is supposed to be the singer. It got to number one on the 24^th March 1984 and stayed there for six weeks.

Stevie Wonder – I Just Called To Say I Love You b/w Instrumental – TMG 1349 (including 12” and cassette single releases) and ZB42605/6. It got to number one on the 8^th September 1984 and stayed there for six weeks. Of all the tracks this musical maestro wrote and released, this sickly sweet release from The Woman in Red soundtrack was Wonder’s only UK solo number one hit. I’ll touch upon his other number ones later. Just to show how strange the UK charts can be, his next release was a duet with Michael Jackson – still doing big business with the Thriller album – called Get It. It wasn’t a brilliant track but was decent enough, yet the combined star power could only get it to reach number 37.

Boyz II Men – End Of The Road b/w Instrumental – TMG1411 (including 12”, cassette single and CD single releases) and 860064-7. The final Motown UK number one single was written by the hot RnB writers and producers of the time, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Daryl Simmons for the soundtrack of the film Boomerang. It got to number one on the 31^st October 1992 and stayed there for three weeks overlapping the dates twenty eight years earlier of Baby Love.

So only twelve (or eleven if you’re being pedantic) Motown number one singles in the UK, but if you look at the related stuff, then there is a whole host of other stuff.

There have been a number of cover versions of Motown songs that have hit number one in the UK. The first of which was Brian Poole & The Tremeloes with Do You Love Me a cover of The Contours 1962 release on Oriole (CBA1763) which hit number one on 10^th October 1963 for three weeks. The original was famously on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

In the eighties there were a few, on the 15^th January 1983, Phil Collins hit number one for two weeks with his cover of The Supremes You Can’t Hurry Love (TMG575), then the same year on the 23^rd July, Paul Young hit number one for three weeks with his cover of Marvin Gaye’s Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home) (B-side to Too Busy Thinking About My Baby on TMG705). On the 7^th September 1985 on the back of the successful duet at Live Aid, David Bowie & Mick Jagger got to number one for four weeks with a cover of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas’ Dancing In The Street (Stateside SS345). The following year on the 13^th September, The Communards got to number one for four weeks with Don’t Leave Me This Way. Although this was originally released by Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes on Philadelphia International, this version was more in keeping with the Thelma Houston disco tempo version (TMG1060). The Christmas number one that year was The Housemartins who spent one week at number one with a cover of Caravan Of Love, Originally by the Isley Brothers, but after they had left Motown for Epic in the early seventies. Another Isley Brothers song – Twist And Shout originally released on the Anna record label that Berry Gordy had a stake in before signing them to Motown was covered by Chaka Demus & Pliers in a number one from the 8^th January 1994 for two weeks.

Then there are those Motown artists that had number ones elsewhere. I said I would come back to Stevie Wonder. Prior to I Just Called To Say I Love You he had only hit the UK number one spot on a duet with Paul McCartney. Ebony and Ivory had been released on Paul McCartney’s label – Parlophone – and it hit number one on 24^th April 1982 for three weeks. Then in the year after I Just Called To Say I Love You he hit number one three times without his name being on the label or cover. He played harmonica on Chaka Khan’s I Feel For You which hit number one on 16^th November 1984 for three weeks and The Eurythmics’ There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) which hit number one on the 27^th July 1985 for a week. In between the two he was one of the featured artists on USA For Africa’s charity single We Are The World along with Diana Ross, various Jacksons and co-writers Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, it hit number one on the 20^th April 1985 for two weeks. Then in 1995 Coolio feat LV sampled the music and most of the lyrics for the chorus of Gangsta’s Paradise from his album track Pastime Paradise. It got to number one on the 28^th October 1995 for two weeks.

Michael Jackson was so much more successful once he departed from Motown. He had seven further number ones, one with the Jacksons, a duet and five solo numbers.

25^th June 1977 for six weeks – The Jacksons – Show You The Way To Go.

5^th March 1983 for one week – Billie Jean.

15^th August 1987 for two weeks – I Just Can’t Stop Loving You – Duet with Siedah Garrett.

23^rd November 1991 for two weeks – Black Or White.

9^th September 1995 for two weeks – You Are Not Alone.

9^th December 1995 for six weeks – Earth Song.

And finally 3^rd May 1997 for a week – Blood On The Dancefloor.

Diana Ross had a solo number one with the Bee Gees penned Chain Reaction which reached number one on the 8^th March 1986 staying there for three weeks. Future Motown solo artist Billy Preston was known as the fifth Beatle for some time (one of many to be called that) and was credited on their number one Get Back which hit number one on the 23^rd April 1969 staying there for six weeks. Johnny Gill was a member of New Edition before becoming a solo artist on Motown, and was part of their hit Candy Girl which got to number one on the 28^th May 1983 for a week.

Writers that departed the Motown label also got a look in. The golden writing and production trio of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland split with Motown in 1970 and former their own Invictus label. Their first major hit was Freda Payne’s Band of Gold which replaced Tears of a Clown at number one on the 19^th September 1970 and stayed there for six weeks.

So with all that lot it brings up thirty five number ones delivered or inspired by Motown, that topped the chart for a total of two years. Not bad for a label started in the equivalent of a semi-detached house in a Detroit suburb in 1959.

Impromptu Soul Night

When I had dropped Helen and Jackie off at their friends just after seven, Jackie had jokingly said “pick us up after midnight”.

It was just after one when I did pick them up, as usual I was still awake, and being in I wasn’t drinking. Well not until we got back home and an impromptu soul session started. That started after lots of laughter instead of sympathy after Jackie stacked it on the slippy patio whilst playing with Charlie. The next half hour was a mixture between her shouting at the dog saying it was all his fault her shoulder was hurting, mixed in with playing with the dog.

After some time of this alternating, Jackie asked for The Snake, by Al Wilson, which prompted the usual discussion of ‘have you seen the clips where Trump reads the lyrics of the song out during speeches’, and the fact he draws parables between the snake in the song and immigrants in the USA. There are numerous YouTube clips of it. The man is barking mad.

From that single single came nearly an hour’s blast of soul and Motown singles, helped along by large tumblers of some imitation Bailey’s Irish Cream and ice. Just what the neighbours needed at two in the morning.

Even if I say so myself, there was a good playlist following The Snake.

Joe Tex – Under Your Powerful Love,

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – The Night,

Frank Wilson – Do I Love You (Indeed I do), which was being put on the record player seconds before the request came for it.

R. Dean Taylor – There’s a Ghost in My House.

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas – Third Finger, Left Hand and I Can’t Dance To That Music You’re Playing (which led to talk of Betty Boo).

Gladys Knight & The Pips – I Heard It Thru’ The Grapevine

Edwin Starr – Back Street,

The Velvelettes – Needle in a Haystack, and He Was Really Saying Something (and yes Bananarama were mentioned)

The Miracles – Love Machine,

Back to Edwin Starr – 25 Miles,

The Contours – Do You Love Me,

Before finishing with Motown’s first ever release sixty years ago – Barrett Strong – Money (That’s What I Want) and discussion on who covered it in the early eighties. (Late seventies and it was the Flying Lizards)

During the run of records the disco balls were dusted off and given a spin for the first time in years. Poor old Charlie looked most bemused at the fact there were people up and making noise, and sitting on his sofa during his quiet night time sojourn.

And despite the fact that we all didn’t go to bed until nearly three, Nathan still managed to time getting home to exactly ten minutes after we’d all gone to bed. The search for the camera continues.