Treat me Right John Henry = any information on this song?

[Coppelia-Birdsong]

This is probably one of my favourite Supremes tracks of all time, first time I heard it I fell in love with it. I think of it as being almost like a feminine Beatles song, there is a very distinct Beatles-like quality that is very hard to truly capture, but I think Diana killed it when she caught that quality and turned it from a masculine one into a feminine one.

I read somewhere that this was a song Diana picked out for herself to sing and record, and while I was sad that yet another one of my favourite Supremes songs was lacking Mary, Cindy AND Flo and was a Supremes song in name only, I feel like it helped me... understand Diana a bit more as an artist, what directions she was interested in going in, what she wanted to explore.

Any information on the song, like whether its the Andantes or Mary and Cindy, who wrote the lyrics, and anything else would be greatly appreciated. I cannot find anything about this song online for love or money. I think if it had been recorded earlier in the Supremes career, it would have made a perfect addition to the Bit of Liverpool album: I honestly feel like this song does a MUCH better job of capturing the essence of a Beatles song then a lot of their straight up covers of Beatles songs do.

[mysterysinger]

DFTMC is a great resource on line [[Don't Forget The Motor City).

It shows ...

[[Treat Me Nice) John Henry [[William Robinson) published Jobete 15-Jan-68

alt title: John Henry

The Supremes; recorded Hitsville-GW, completed 27-Dec-67 ; produced by Al Cleveland, Smokey Robinson

Apr-86; LP [[Stereo): Motown 5381 25th Anniversary
Oct-86; CD [[Mono): Motown MOTD 6193 25th Anniversary

[Coppelia-Birdsong]

1968 definitly rules out Florence as a backing singer. Thank you! I think it sounds like the Andantes but I am not really sure.

I wonder who the inspiration for John Henry was, when I sing the song to myself, I have a huge crush on a boy called Greg, so I sing it as "Gregory" or "Mr Gregory" rather then John Henry. Kind of spoils the lines "His mama named Henrietta daddy named John" but you can't have it all.