Bend A Little

[RanRan79]

Got this one on a bootleg many years ago. Didn't care for it. The official releases didn't change my mind either. "Bend A Little" made it onto quite a few lists in the fav vault material thread and I was a little surprised. I had to play it and try to listen with new ears. It really has been a very long time since I sat through it. Still not a fav of mine, but I appreciate it more now. Truth is that this is exactly how I'd want a Supremes dance song at that point to sound. It doesn't sound disco-y. It sounds radio friendly. And I love the harmony on the chorus. Don't know if I'll start playing it more or not, but glad that it has it's fans.

Thoughts?


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

[sup_fan]

this isn't one i listen to much. the harmonies are good but i think the track and melody just lacks excitement. I think Plant the Seed of Love is more interesting. But both pale in comparison to I Can Never Recover

[reese]

Since it seems to be somewhat of a fan favorite, I expected to like it more than I did. But for me, it is just ok. I don't find anything special about it. I prefer ROOM AT THE TOP. But I have to admit that besides songs like I'M GONNA LET MY HEART DO THE WALKING and LET YOURSELF GO, I'm not partial to that era. The vocals are great but the songs themselves aren't amongst my faves.

[RanRan79]

this isn't one i listen to much. the harmonies are good but i think the track and melody just lacks excitement. I think Plant the Seed of Love is more interesting. But both pale in comparison to I Can Never Recover

I love "Seed Of Love". "I Can Never Recover" is a great one, but it's a bit more disco IMO.

[RanRan79]

Since it seems to be somewhat of a fan favorite, I expected to like it more than I did. But for me, it is just ok. I don't find anything special about it. I prefer ROOM AT THE TOP. But I have to admit that besides songs like I'M GONNA LET MY HEART DO THE WALKING and LET YOURSELF GO, I'm not partial to that era. The vocals are great but the songs themselves aren't amongst my faves.

"Room At the Top" should've been a single. I'm with you though on the Scherrie years. Definitely my least favorite Supremes chapter, despite loving Scherrie's voice and the presence of some excellent stuff in the recording history.

[jim aka jtigre99]

For the times, Bend A Little would have been a good song for them to release as a single. It is catchy and has a decent hook. I certainly think it would have done better than Where Do We Go From Here. There were a number of songs left off of The Supremes that were better than what was put on. Can We Love Again was better than Where Is It I Belong. I Can Never Recover also would have been a good single. I do think He's My Man was the right choice but Bend A Little and I Can Never Recover would have been good singles, too.

[sup_fan]

HMM was released all the way back in the spring. and Where was in Sept or so. yet when the girls made their fall 75 tv appearances, they still only sang HMM. there are no known performances of Where on tv.

I would have thought they would have moved onto the next single. at least try to give it some promotional assistance

[luckyluckyme]

When I first heard Bend A Little, I thought that the Supremes were rocking a Doobie Brothers track. That guitar work sure reminded me of their style in the mid-70's. Only at 2:30 and onward, do the drumming and keyboard technique take me back to the disco era.

[rod_rick]

This is one of my favorite unreleased songs and why it didn't make it on the 1975 album beats me. Certainly better than This Is Why I Believe In You & Where Is It I Belong, Can We Love Again was another hidden gem. What were they thinking.

[Spreadinglove21]

HMM was released all the way back in the spring. and Where was in Sept or so. yet when the girls made their fall 75 tv appearances, they still only sang HMM. there are no known performances of Where on tv.

I would have thought they would have moved onto the next single. at least try to give it some promotional assistance

It's interesting that other than He's My Man, the other songs that they performed on TV to promote the album were all Mary leads [[Early Morning Love, This is Why I Believe in you, Where is it I Belong). And while I think in the end it would have made no impact on sales, a shame they didn't perform Where Do I go from here or It's All Been Said Before, Color My World Blue, or Can't stop a Girl in Love as they are better songs than those Mary leads that made the album.

As for Bend a Little, I wish that had made the album and been the second song in place of Early Morning Love [[which I don't care for and would have vaulted if I could jump into a time machine and go back to 1975 and be in the position at Motown to make such decisions!).

[sup_fan]

It's interesting that other than He's My Man, the other songs that they performed on TV to promote the album were all Mary leads [[Early Morning Love, This is Why I Believe in you, Where is it I Belong). And while I think in the end it would have made no impact on sales, a shame they didn't perform Where Do I go from here or It's All Been Said Before, Color My World Blue, or Can't stop a Girl in Love as they are better songs than those Mary leads that made the album.

As for Bend a Little, I wish that had made the album and been the second song in place of Early Morning Love [[which I don't care for and would have vaulted if I could jump into a time machine and go back to 1975 and be in the position at Motown to make such decisions!).

there's a radio promo audio floating around and they include HMM, Color and [[i think) Can't stop a girl. I completely agree with you that the selection of songs added to tv shows and the stage act were geared towards Mary. we've discussed the idea that many of us don't feel that Mary's voice was right for the hard hitting disco tracks like HMM and I'd put Early Morning in that list too.

out of all of the Sup 75 material [[released and unreleased) the Ivey Woodford content has lightyears better than anything else. they really should have handled the entire album. the Holland songs were ok - I Can Never Recover was their strongest but Where Do I Go is decent. just sort of generic IMO

I think had they really introduced Scherrie as lead singer, that might have helped. her voice was so exciting. and i think spotlighting Mary as a co-lead would have also been great. but make more of splash to show off this exciting new addition to the act. on the tv shows, they often did more than 1 song. great. so mary could have done You Turn Me Around or Can We Love again [[had it been released). plus it was exciting having the girls all do live bits - like All I Want.