Back In My Arms Again [[Live At The Copa, New York/1965)

[marv2]

My favorite cut from this classic album:

[BigAl]

How different people's assessments can be! To me, this was an absolute desecration of an almost flawless song. Askey's Vegas-styled versions of the HDH hits always appalled me. The speeded-up tempos and brassy, schmaltzy arrangements always set my teeth on edge. I had no problem with his using arrangements like that on the pop standards in the act, as that would be expected, especially in a venue like the Copa, when the Supremes were being actively crossed over, but I felt that the arrangements used on the hits should have been more faithful to the recordings. Granted, it wouldn't have been possible to duplicate them exactly outside of the studio and without the presence of Funk Brothers, but the magic of those songs was just lost entirely when the HDH arrangements were tampered with so grossly. This was not peculiar to The Supremes of course. In live performance, as far back as the first Motortown Revues, most of the Hitsville acts had to perform their hits to speeded-up, brassy arrangements which in no way resembled the recordings.

[luke]

I often feel that way too when songs speeded up but not here. Their magic and a real fun spirit comes through loud and clear. The uptempo seems to make it sassier and more fun to me.