Supremes & Nella Dodds Come See About Me

[jobeterob]

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‎Andy Dawn‎ to Diana Ross - The Ultimate Fans

20 hrs ·

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I am reading Billboard's book of number 1's interesting fact regarding The Supremes "Come See About Me". It was rushed released as a single and may have never been intended for release until a 14 year old girl by the name of Nella Dodds released her version. Both debut on the hot 100 the same week. Nella Dodds' version entered at 74 and The Supremes version entered at 66 four weeks later the Supremes' version went to number 1 for two weeks and Nella Dodds' version left the charts after 2 weeks this is Nella Dodds' version of "Come See About Me"
.youtube.com/watch?v=wwhsp_QWX2I

[jobeterob]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwhsp_QWX2I

Try that!

[jobeterob]

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20 hrs ·

.

I am reading Billboard's book of number 1's interesting fact regarding The Supremes "Come See About Me". It was rushed released as a single and may have never been intended for release until a 14 year old girl by the name of Nella Dodds released her version. Both debut on the hot 100 the same week. Nella Dodds' version entered at 74 and The Supremes version entered at 66 four weeks later the Supremes' version went to number 1 for two weeks and Nella Dodds' version left the charts after 2 weeks this is Nella Dodds' version of "Come See About Me"

[jobeterob]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=858Cu5TCiE4

[antceleb12]

This happened quite frequently during the sixties. In fact, the reason why the Crystals' "He's a Rebel" is actually Darlene Love and not the Crystals is because although Spector got the song, Vicki Carr also recorded the song and was on her way to release it, so Spector rush-recorded the song with the Blossoms while the Crystals were on tour...

[milven]

And it happened in the seventies when Diana's Love Hangover was an LP cut. Then the Fifth Dimension picked up on the buzz coming from the clubs over Diana's album track. They went into the studio and recorded their version hoping to have a hit a single. When Berry heard about this, he rush released Diana's version even though she had just released a single weeks before. [[I forget what it was) Both versions debuted on the chart but the 5th D's stalled and Diana's continued to number one.

[Methuselah2]

I know this happens--but how is it possible? For outside recording artists at that time, didn't they have to go through Motown and Jobete Publishing to obtain permission to record a Motown song? I'd really like to know how these non-Motown artists' versions suddenly appeared. Thanks.

[jobeterob]

I don't think you need permission; you just have to pay royalties to the publishing company and the writers.

[Methuselah2]

Wouldn't that still require being arranged in advance of the non-Motown recording's release, thereby notifying Motown and Jobete of what was about to occur? Are you also saying that Motown cannot say no?

[jobeterob]

Someone else on here will know the details I think ~ if they are still looking in and interested in this.

But no, I don't think you need consent or anything. You just have to pay the royalties. Hence Lesley Gore and the Crystals [[or whoever it was) doing It's My Party at the same time, Lesley Gore and the 5th Dimension sparring over Wedding Bell Blues etc.

I don't think Diana Ross got any consent to do I Will Survive either. This would be why Aretha Franklin has gotten a little pissed when the lesser divas [[in her mind) cover her songs.

I might be wrong.

[Methuselah2]

Interesting, Jobeterob. If that turns out to be right, it never occurred to me that it was so 'open season' on songs. I've always thought music was much more proprietary to the companies and publishers associated with it.

[milven]

...I don't think Diana Ross got any consent to do I Will Survive either. This would be why Aretha Franklin has gotten a little pissed when the lesser divas [[in her mind) cover her songs.

I might be wrong.

For real! Aretha doesn't like anyone to cover her songs? So many of her hits were cover songs - Respect, It's My Turn, I Say A Little Prayer, Bridge Over Troubled Waters and more.

But I like her cover songs. She makes them her own and usually are completely different than the original. So she shouldn't get pissed if someone wants to do her song.

But I am off topic. Sorry 'bout that.

[roger]

I know this happens--but how is it possible? For outside recording artists at that time, didn't they have to go through Motown and Jobete Publishing to obtain permission to record a Motown song? I'd really like to know how these non-Motown artists' versions suddenly appeared. Thanks.
I thought the rule is that once a song is "published" [[i.e. released) it is perfectly O.K. for anyone to do a version, as long as the songwriters are properly identified and any royalties go to the correct people. Prior to this the songwriters/publishers can veto a release if they disapprove.

With "Come See About Me" it was first released as a track on the "Where Did Our Love Go" LP at the end of August 1964, which was prior to "Baby Love" being released as a single. Nella Dodds version of the song seems to have been recorded in Late September/Early October 1964 after Motown chose to release "Baby Love" as the follow-up to "Where Did Our Love Go".

Roger

[jobeterob]

That makes some sense but it wouldn't fully explain the rush to get a version of Its My Party by Lesley Gore out there prior to one coming from the Crystals. Or maybe they had the publishers consent if it was prior to any release.

[roger]

That makes some sense but it wouldn't fully explain the rush to get a version of Its My Party by Lesley Gore out there prior to one coming from the Crystals. Or maybe they had the publishers consent if it was prior to any release.
According to this obituary of LESLEY GORE there never was a version of "it's My Party" recorded by THE CRYSTALS. It seems that Quincy Jones had already recorded it on her and somehow Phil Spector got to hear it and expressed an interest in doing a version on his girls, but this was scuppered when Quincy Jones pressed up some demo copies of the song and sent them out to radio stations and the Leslie Gore version became an instant airplay hit.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ob...-10056462.html

I would imagine that the songwriters of "It's My Party" had been hawking the song around and were pleased that anyone was showing interest.

The difference with Motown songs would have been that they had their own in-house publishing company, so they would have been able to veto any release of one of their songs if they had not yet published it themselves.

Apparently when THE BEATLES "Revolver" LP was released in Britain there were a large number of singles released on the same day that were cover-versions of tracks on the LP. Presumably a number of musicians and producers had got to hear "Revolver" prior to its release and wanted a piece of the action, but they were unable to release their recordings in advance as the lovable mop-tops had vetoed the idea.

Roger

[Methuselah2]

Interesting info, Roger. Thanks. In reference specifically to COME SEE ABOUT ME, what you've said would certainly seem to be what occurred and prompted the rush-release of The Supremes' version. I guess once music has been released, it really has been released not only to buyers but to anyone who wants to record it. Hard for me to imagine that Motown/HDH/Jobete didn't have more control.

[jobeterob]

Good job Roger.

[supremester]

Come See About Me was always going to be a single, in fact, HDH had it set to follow WDOLG, but BG said, "Are you NUTS??????????" and sent out Baby Love with the new intro. The publisher then contacted Jobete and informed them of Nella's use of their song and, with Baby Love #1, Motown rushed out promo copies of Come See About Me to stifle hers. I always thought Nella cost Baby Love and 5th and perhaps, 6th week at #1 - which just a few years ago Lamont commented on with the same thought.

[westgrandboulevard]

It's my understanding that Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson were with Dusty Springfield [[New York? 1966?) and played 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' to her. Alternatively, Dusty was given an opportunity to hear the song, in some other way.

Although I think the song was not written with her in mind, Dusty wanted very much to record it.

I'm unsure if Ashford and Simpson had, at that time, signed a contract with Motown, but it seems that they wanted Motown to have the song, and therefore it was not available to her.

Once it was registered by Jobete publishing, it then became the property of Motown, and was duly recorded by Tammi Terrell on January 11th, 1967, at Golden World studio. On February 1st 1967, either Marvin Gaye's vocals were then dubbed onto Tammi's earlier recording - or, Tammi went back into the Golden World studio with Marvin that day, and they recorded the song as a duet.

Once the Marvin & Tammi version was released to the general public [[as a US 45, on April 20th 1967), it seems that Dusty was then free to release her own version.

I'm not entirely sure that Dusty ever did record her own version, although she did perform it on television as a duet, first with Engelbert Humperdinck, and later with Michael Ball.

[jobeterob]

Come See About Me was always going to be a single, in fact, HDH had it set to follow WDOLG, but BG said, "Are you NUTS??????????" and sent out Baby Love with the new intro. The publisher then contacted Jobete and informed them of Nella's use of their song and, with Baby Love #1, Motown rushed out promo copies of Come See About Me to stifle hers. I always thought Nella cost Baby Love and 5th and perhaps, 6th week at #1 - which just a few years ago Lamont commented on with the same thought.

But, Jobete is/was the publisher. So who would have been contacted?

[robb_k]

Once the Marvin & Tammi version was released to the general public [[as a US 45, on April 20th 1967), it seems that Dusty was then free to release her own version.

I'm not entirely sure that Dusty ever did record her own version, although she did perform it on television as a duet, first with Engelbert Humperdinck, and later with Michael Ball.
10554
I'm pretty sure that Dusty Springfield recorded that song and it was on one of her LPs. Not sure if I saw it on a UK or US LP.

[144man]

That makes some sense but it wouldn't fully explain the rush to get a version of Its My Party by Lesley Gore out there prior to one coming from the Crystals. Or maybe they had the publishers consent if it was prior to any release.

They might have wanted to avoid potential competition from the Helen Shapiro version.

[marybrewster]

Q: You ended up writing all the key hits for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Did you request to work with them?

A: Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol were producing Marvin and Tammi, and they asked us for material. We sent them 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough.' It's funny because Dusty Springfield had just come to town and wanted to meet with us for material. We played that song for her but wouldn't give it to her, because we wanted to hold that back. We felt like that could be our entree to Motown. Nick called it the "golden egg."


http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-17/entertainment/ct-ent-1117-valerie-simpson-20111117_1_ashford-and-simpson-gaye-terrell-gaye-and-tammi-terrell

[sansradio]

Wonderful interview, Mary! Thanks.

[jobeterob]

Good research Mary!