Marvin Gaye- It Don't Take Much To Keep Me

[huntergettingcaptured]

Fantastic track from the M.P.G. album, "It Don't Take Much To Keep Me." Written by H-D-H. I'd like to know how others feel about this track. I love it, but for me there was always something about it that sounded, maybe not so much "warmed over" as dubbed over. There are some H-D-H songs that came out after the trio left Motown, and some of them always sounded to me as if other producers may have taken the original rhythm tracks that weren't necessarily completed and then finished them with newly recorded dubs, like drums or fuzz-guitar, etc. The only fuzz guitar I can recall on an H-D-H track is R. Dean Taylor's "Don't Fool Around." But that song has a very crisp, clean, fat sound to the drums and overall the mix is very '67 and bright.

The Don't Forget The Motor City site lists "It Don't Take Much To Keep Me" as being completed in '67 but has a sort of "muddled" drum sound and the tambourines are pretty much buried in the mix- not at all like a typical H-D-H production or anything that came out of Motown around '67 [[but the Andantes are in FULL glory here!)

Am I the only one who had these thoughts about the song? Maybe I'm overthinking it and should just "Let It Be!"

https://youtu.be/NUE2wB2Gtes

[theboyfromxtown]

I love the track but with hindsight, I wonder why they didn't include Lonely Lover as well.

[snakepit]

Love it...side 2 of mpg has a few great tracks on it.

[Philles/Motown Gary]

I love it, too. And you're right, huntergettingcaptured-- as per usual, The Andantes' harmonies shine on this one!

[TomatoTom123]

Never heard this one before, hunter... and I love it! :)

And yes, there is a fuzzy guitar part that is quite prominent... I would say that's typical of late '60s Motown but not really H-D-H [[at Motown)?

Also, does that make this song one of the last songs H-D-H produced while with Motown [[on their first tenure)?

[huntergettingcaptured]

Never heard this one before, hunter... and I love it! :)

And yes, there is a fuzzy guitar part that is quite prominent... I would say that's typical of late '60s Motown but not really H-D-H [[at Motown)?

Also, does that make this song one of the last songs H-D-H produced while with Motown [[on their first tenure)?

I think there could be a REALLY great thread on the subject of the last H-D-H productions. Even though this was completed in '67, there is something in the sound that dates it as late-60's Motown, so that's why I wonder if some overdubbing was done with the track. Then, with the release of a lot of vaulted material, things keep popping up, like the Four Tops' version of "Lonely Lover." That one too always made me wonder if H-D-H completed the production or did other producers go in and finish it. If H-D-H did the version we hear, it [[along with "You Keep Running Away") kind of gives a glimpse of what direction the trio was going in after the "BIG" sound of "Reach Out," "Standing In The Shadows Of Love" and "Seven Rooms Of Gloom." After all, how could you top those?