Why didn't Motown release All I Do Is Think About You as an official single?

[Motown Queen]

Mind boggling to me because this song has hit written all over it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqbvX_sYoN0&feature=kp

[mowsville]

considering some of the awful stuff that was released it makes you wonder why a cracking song like this was overlooked...I would really like to know the reasoning behind it.

[soulwally]

I couldn't agree more with you both. I bet poor Clarence Paul was fizzing not to get it through Quality Control, and not on the Irresistible album either.

[RossHolloway]

Brenda Holloway also does a version cut around the same time as this, and with it being co-written by Stevie Wonder I wonder if he also recorded a version from this era.

[Motown Queen]

considering some of the awful stuff that was released it makes you wonder why a cracking song like this was overlooked...I would really like to know the reasoning behind it.Right! It was a lot of duds released on the label, so it makes no sense why Berry didn't feel this was suitable to be released.

[Motown Queen]

I couldn't agree more with you both. I bet poor Clarence Paul was fizzing not to get it through Quality Control, and not on the Irresistible album either.

Clarence is definitely underrated as a producer/ songwriter. If I recall, I remember reading Motown blackballed him from the company because he was holding secret meetings so the writers/producers could get more pay. So maybe that's why this song was shelved?

[Motown Queen]

Brenda Holloway also does a version cut around the same time as this, and with it being co-written by Stevie Wonder I wonder if he also recorded a version from this era.
I heard Brenda's version and it's good, but something is missing. It would be interesting if Stevie did record a 60's version. I read that he wasn't pleased with the 80's version he released.

[marybrewster]

This is my favorite version:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eNIoXxQVZ4

No offense to the Tammi fans, but her version is missing something. Perhaps too raw? Too slow? It almost seems unfinished to my ears.

[thommg]

I'm surprised it went unreleased and didn't make the Irresistible album. I would have preferred this over Hold Me, Oh My Darling. I find myself humming this on occasion and think it could have scored as a single.

[theboyfromxtown]

Brenda Holloway also does a version cut around the same time as this, and with it being co-written by Stevie Wonder I wonder if he also recorded a version from this era.

Doesn't seem to be one in the Detroit years. Only Tammi , then Kim and finally Brenda

[mowsville]

Kim???????

[soulster]

Mind boggling to me because this song has hit written all over it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqbvX_sYoN0&feature=kp I don't know, but the sound of that mix, or video, is awful! It's strident and hurt my ears.

[bradsupremes]

Kim???????

Yep, Kim Weston recorded a version. The question is whether her vocals were kept or erased.

[Roger Polhill]

Kim???????
Yes me too! It certainly hasn`t been released and I thought that all of her sides apart from some torch songs had been. I`m excited about the the possibility of another Kim track.

[Motown Queen]

Motown didn't do a good job picking out her singles. Hold me sounds like a filler track.


I'm surprised it went unreleased and didn't make the Irresistible album. I would have preferred this over Hold Me, Oh My Darling. I find myself humming this on occasion and think it could have scored as a single.

[Motown Queen]

Yep, Kim Weston recorded a version. The question is whether her vocals were kept or erased.
I would love to hear that!

[kenneth]

Tammi's version is the most achingly beautiful song she ever recorded, in my opinion. Love that "throb" in her voice which she used to such great effect on this and in most of her more famous duets with Marvin.

[robb_k]

considering some of the awful stuff that was released it makes you wonder why a cracking song like this was overlooked...I would really like to know the reasoning behind it.
8155
Yes! Why was "I Comma Zimba Zio" by Abdullah released and Tammi's best recording NOT???? I'll never understand that. Not to mention "Suspicion" by The Originals, and "A Tear from A Woman's Eye" by The Temptations, and "Crying In The Night" by The Monitors, and all those great Velvelettes' cuts, etc. etc. etc.

[Zantellor]

In Bettye Lavette's autobiography she tells why Clarence Paul was black balled.Gordy;s ex wife Raynoma and Clarence Paul were
partying and Gordy came in and found them naked,

[mowsville]

Robb...I was gonna post almost the exact same as you...another of the great "Motown Mysteries"..for all the right decisions that Berry/Motown made in releasing tracks theres an awful lot of wrong decisions made too...an awful lot.

[lakedistrictlad1]

...And this track was even overlooked when they came to use old tracks for Marvin to duet with on the 'Easy' album.

For me this is one of the greatest classic Motown tracks to get away. What a waste [[at the time).

[Motown Queen]

In Bettye Lavette's autobiography she tells why Clarence Paul was black balled.Gordy;s ex wife Raynoma and Clarence Paul were
partying and Gordy came in and found them naked,
Yep! I read that too.

[rovereab]

...And this track was even overlooked when they came to use old tracks for Marvin to duet with on the 'Easy' album.

For me this is one of the greatest classic Motown tracks to get away. What a waste [[at the time).

I guess the song has a very mid-60s Motown sound to it which might have been deemed as unsuitable for an album in 1969 - however, if they could have isolated Tammi's vocal and created a new backing track with Marvin's voice.....

[supremester]

It's a great track and Tammi is amazing on it, but radio wouldn't touch it after My Guy - it's just too early Motown sounding to get on the radio with Mrs Brown, Yesterday, YCHL etc. They probably added her vocal to an aging track and the fidelity is awful. I'll play it, though.


Mind boggling to me because this song has hit written all over it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqbvX_sYoN0&feature=kp

[Motown Queen]

It's a great track and Tammi is amazing on it, but radio wouldn't touch it after My Guy - it's just too early Motown sounding to get on the radio with Mrs Brown, Yesterday, YCHL etc. They probably added her vocal to an aging track and the fidelity is awful. I'll play it, though.
Hmmm, you think? I don't know, I think it could've got some radio action. I mean Jimmy Mack and Tears Of A Clown were recorded earlier than they were released and still became hits.

[supremester]

They were but Tears of a Clown has a very very strong hook that helped it cover it's wrinkles. Jimmy Mack was mixed so heavy that the beat gave it more of a classic sound and let's face it, another year and it might not have been played at all. It came out just on the cusp of the very end of that sound being acceptable. All I do sounds so dated - that I just doubt any station always looking for the next big sound, would have added it. Plus, she was unknown until '67. I think in '64 it might have hit. She was so good, I wish we had more on her.

[motony]

maybe Bille Jean Brown didn't like it [[she had earlier nixed Jimmy Mack).Mr. Gordy might not have ever heard it.

[motony]

ofcourse Motown did not promote any solo female singer after Mary Wells left the co.until Diana went solo in 1970. They only promoted Tammi as a duet partner not as a solo artist.

[144man]

I guess the song has a very mid-60s Motown sound to it which might have been deemed as unsuitable for an album in 1969 - however, if they could have isolated Tammi's vocal and created a new backing track with Marvin's voice.....

How strange that the consensus is that it sounded dated! When I first heard it, I thought it was ahead of its time.

[Motown Queen]

How strange that the consensus is that it sounded dated! When I first heard it, I thought it was ahead of its time.
I must say I agree. I pretty much thought everyone liked that song, guess not.

[supremester]

I just checked with my in-house Tammi Terrell expert and he doesn't even like the song....... I was shocked because it's so Motown-y..... [[maybe he's still hacked at going to see Marvin & Tammi and getting Marvin & Barbara Randolph.)

[marv2]

Mind boggling to me because this song has hit written all over it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqbvX_sYoN0&feature=kp

I liked Tammi's take on the song from the first time I heard it, although I think Stevie has the best version of the song. Why Motown never released it? We will never know, but Tammi's solo career really wasn't promoted that much at Motown.

[marv2]

ofcourse Motown did not promote any solo female singer after Mary Wells left the co.until Diana went solo in 1970. They only promoted Tammi as a duet partner not as a solo artist.

This is very true, no matter how talented a female singer was. That was to Motown's detriment!

[midnightman]

Motown recorded like a million songs in the '60s, a lot got left in the archival bin because Berry had at that point gave some of his bigger artists more attention than the upstarts that joined the label in the mid-period. Brenda Holloway also recorded a version that wasn't released.

[midnightman]

This is my favorite version:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eNIoXxQVZ4

No offense to the Tammi fans, but her version is missing something. Perhaps too raw? Too slow? It almost seems unfinished to my ears.

You think Tammi's version was a demo? I don't know, unlike the songs that succeeded it [[Stevie's famous 1980 version and the cover version of Stevie's version above), there wasn't much singing in the chorus but it sounded finished to me?