This is a review of You Can't Hurry Love from August 27th, 1966

[Shilpot]

from famous British singles reviewer [[& major soul lover) Penny Valentine.

[Circa 1824]

I can still remember the name of my classmate who brought that single to school. I was so pleased that I never forgot her.

[BigAl]

The first time I saw the Supremes in concert and met them was the very next day, August 28, 1966, in Virginia Beach. "You Can't Hurry Love" was still climbing the charts and it hit #1 the very next week. To me, this was the very pinnacle of the original group's run.

[[Off-topic: Penny Valentine and Vicki Wickham [Nona Hendryx's partner] wrote the definitive bio of Dusty Springfield, Dancing with Demons.)

[sup_fan]

agreed - to me this is the epitome of the supremes. It's my "desert island" song. plus their sullivan performance is, IMO, one of their most iconic tv appearances ever.

[rovereab]

"Not an obvious Tamla sound" - that's totally wrong! It has all of the classic ingredients, driving bass, tambourine, guitar pluck on the drum beat and to top it all the magnificent performance of The Supremes!

One of my all time favourite songs.

[gman]

Agreed….this along with I'm Ready For Love & Reach Out I'll Be There epitomize the 66/67 sound. I don't like the 45 Mix of this [[or Nothing But Heartaches)....that blue cover 2 LP set had all the FAT sounding mixes I love so much and it was so perfectly sequinced.
YCHL was one of my fav songs til Phil covered it...the massive radio/jukebox overkill of that vers. even lowered my desire to hear the orig. as often as I used to play it.

[daviddesper]

I would have to agree with Big Al that this song was the pinnacle of the Supremes' career. For that matter, I have always considered 1966 as a whole to be the best year ever for Motown. Surely there were huge hits for many years to come but no other year saw as much sensational music crammed into the calendar as that one.

My biggest memory of You Can't Hurry Love is that of a teenage after-school hangout in my town. I suppose jukebox plays in those days were a nickel or maybe six for a quarter. Well every afternoon this one girl would play the song over and over again. I am sure there was no such thing as a repeat button so she had to just keep dropping the coins and hitting the same selection repeatedly. She could have probably paid for her college education with the money she spent on that song!

[BigAl]

I don't like the 45 Mix of this...

The AM radio/45 mix and the stereo mix are so radically dissimilar that they're almost like two different songs. If I had to choose, I would pick the more pared-down, intimate sound of the 45. The bigger, brassier, echo-y stereo mix is great for sure, for dancing and whatnot, but to me it lacks the warmth of the 45, which of course is what I heard first.

[Oxfordfrankford513]

I saw The Supremes around the same time period and I agree they were at the height of their career. I still vividly remember they opened the show with "Come See About Me" and wasted no time getting to "You Can't Hurry Love" as it was the 2nd or 3rd song they performed in the show.

I still remember how electrifying both songs were at this live show and I was absolutely captivated by Diana and Florence's stage presence. Mary was still a little shy.

I still remember the three of them moved to one microphone for the last verse of "Come See About Me", I thought Florence and Mary were going to squish poor Diana in the middle! "You Can't Hurry Love" was even better live, you could tell they loved the song just as much as the audience did.

[IMissFlo93]

YCHL has a great message for everyone instead of cheating men and love children the song is about you'll find your love one day it'll take time. Perfect for bachelors and bachelorettes!


HDH needed to do more positive hit songs for the girls........I guess Back in my arms again is a close contender.........

[bradsupremes]

It's surprising how little the song lasted in their live shows. For being such a big hit and a fan favorite, it was in their show for just over a year before it was gone by the end of 1967. I would have thought they would have kept the song in their act in some shape or form.

I always found it funny they were willing to swap the hit songs out, but kept the showtunes. If Gordy was smart, he would have created two live acts for the girls. One for the Vegas/nightclub setting with the showtunes and a second act similar to the Hollywood Bowl show with all the hits that they could have done for colleges, concert venues, etc.

[Motown Eddie]

Aside from the "not an obvious Tamla sound" quote, this review of "YCHL" is spot on and sums up all the things that we still love about this Supremes Classic. Thanks for sharing Shilpot!

[sup_fan]

It's surprising how little the song lasted in their live shows. For being such a big hit and a fan favorite, it was in their show for just over a year before it was gone by the end of 1967. I would have thought they would have kept the song in their act in some shape or form.

I always found it funny they were willing to swap the hit songs out, but kept the showtunes. If Gordy was smart, he would have created two live acts for the girls. One for the Vegas/nightclub setting with the showtunes and a second act similar to the Hollywood Bowl show with all the hits that they could have done for colleges, concert venues, etc.

agreed. although i guess they "sort" of did that. the Hollywood Bowl show where Cindy subbed for Flo certainly contains more hits and full-length versions of the hits than what they performed in supper clubs. So maybe they actually did have a few versions but the only audios we have is the Copa-ish clubs.

the TOTT album kept 4 of the most recent hits in the show in [[roughly) full length versions. and then there was the 4 songs in the hits medley. Maybe once they had Happening and Hangin On in the show, they just decided to use those as the "loud raucous" songs in their stage joke of "a sweet lovely West Side story ballad..." And Happening utilized the tambourines. so that routine was taken too.

[marv2]

from famous British singles reviewer [[& major soul lover) Penny Valentine.

Wow, this stuff is really old. Where did you find it?

[kenneth]

It really is the quintessential Supremes record.

Another in a similar arrangement was the Temptations' "All I Need." Both these songs and the others mentioned such as "I'm Ready for Love" had so much urgency and immediacy. Great, great talent behind these artists. You kind of think such great songs would be a hit on anyone, but who really knows?

[BigAl]

HDH got on a roll with that intro and consistent rhythm on "You Can't Hurry Love," and "I'm Ready for Love." Then Eddie went and teamed up with Frank Wilson and R. Dean Taylor and did the same with "All I Need." Dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-da-dum-dum. All were superlative numbers but the latter two harked back so obviously to YCHL and thus ended up sounding derivative although otherwise the songs bore no resemblace.

[rovereab]

Marvin's Baby I'm Glad That Things Worked Out So Well has a similar immediacy I think.

[kenneth]

Marvin's Baby I'm Glad That Things Worked Out So Well has a similar immediacy I think.

Where can that one be heard?

[copley]

Where can that one be heard?

Right here :)


https://youtu.be/K2og0A5nm1M

[kenneth]

Thanks copley!