Motown songs using the same backing track [[not necessarily hits).

[ivyfield]

Such as Jimmy Ruffin's Brokenhearted/Isley's Smile and Diana/Jean Supremes' Time & Love.

Can anyone out there enlighten me to more? Whether the lyric is completely different or it's the same old song with different vocalists. I know there's loads of 'em - just that now I'm 66 they don't all spring to mind.

Thanks in advance, and my apologies if this subject has been covered before.

Steve.

[reese]

The backing track for the Supremes' LITTLE BRIGHT STAR [from their Xmas album] was later used for Tammi Terrell's I CAN'T GO ON WITHOUT YOU.

[reese]

Such as Jimmy Ruffin's Brokenhearted/Isley's Smile and Diana/Jean Supremes' Time & Love.

Can anyone out there enlighten me to more? Whether the lyric is completely different or it's the same old song with different vocalists. I know there's loads of 'em - just that now I'm 66 they don't all spring to mind.

Thanks in advance, and my apologies if this subject has been covered before.

Steve.

In the case of TIME AND LOVE, Diana and Jean sang over the same backing track, using the same lyrics.

There are many other examples:

Marvin Gaye's HITCH HIKE. The same backing track was later used for Martha and the Vandellas' version.

Mary Wells' THE ONE WHO REALLY LOVES YOU. The same backing track was later used for the Marvelettes' version.

The Supremes and the Pips used the same backing track for THE NITTY GRITTY, but the Supremes' version went unreleased for years.

[sansradio]

The Supremes' and Martha & The Vandellas' "Time Changes Things" have nearly [if not totally] identical backing tracks as well.

[BayouMotownMan]

Whisper You Love Me Boy - Supremes, Mary Wells
He Holds His Own-Supremes, Mary Wells
Honey Boy-Supremes, Mary Wells
There's No Love Left-4 Tops, Isley Bros
Who Could Ever Doubt My Love-Supremes, Brenda Holloway, etc
I'm In Love-Vandellas, Velvelettes
[[We've Got) Honey Love-Vandellas, Velvelettes
Do You Love Me-Contours, Miracles
Mobile Lil-Vandellas, different lyrics by Shorty Long
Any Girl In Love-Supremes, Kim Weston
All I Do-Tammi, Brenda

There are more but these come to mind.

[Motown Eddie]

Motown Songs with the same backing track:
The Temptations' "I Got Heaven Right Here On Earth" & Undisputed Truth's "You Got The Love I Need"
The Marvelettes' & Gladys Knight & The Pips' "I Know Better".
Kim Weston's & Martha & The Vandellas' "Go Ahead And Laugh".

[Sotosound]

"All For You" by Earl Van Dyke, "Lucky Lucky Me" by Marvin Gaye, and also by Jimmy Ruffin.

"Put Yourself In My Place" by The Elgins and also by The Isley Brothers.

[lockhartgary]

Although unreleased, Levi Stubbs did a version of the Temptations "Just Another Lonely Night" with the backing vocals of the Temptations and the Andantes included.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMTY8GeyMMI

[Motown Eddie]

More Motown Songs with the same backing track:
Four Tops' & Marvin Gaye's "No Good Without You.
Frank Wilson's & Chris Clark's "Do I Love Her [Indeed I Do].
Kim Weston's "I'll Never See My Love Again" & "Do Like I Do".

[BayouMotownMan]

Oh, and Call On Me-4 Tops and Shorty Long

[Motown Eddie]

Mary Wells' & Brenda Holloway's "When I'm Gone" have the same backing track [with strings added for Brenda's version].

[Motown Eddie]

More songs with the same backing track:
The Temptations & Marvin Gaye [with Kim Weston], "That'll Be The Day".
Marvin Gaye [with Tammi Terrell] & Tammi Terrell [solo], "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" & "That's How It Is [Since You've Been Gone]".

[danman869]

Motown Songs with the same backing track:
The Temptations' "I Got Heaven Right Here On Earth" & Undisputed Truth's "You Got The Love I Need"
The Marvelettes' & Gladys Knight & The Pips' "I Know Better".
Kim Weston's & Martha & The Vandellas' "Go Ahead And Laugh".

Add Barbara McNair to the list of those besides The Marvelettes and Gladys Knight and The Pips who used the same track for their version of "I Know Better."

[BayouMotownMan]

More songs with the same backing track:
The Temptations & Marvin Gaye [with Kim Weston], "That'll Be The Day".
Marvin Gaye [with Tammi Terrell] & Tammi Terrell [solo], "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" & "That's How It Is [Since You've Been Gone]".

The Tammi Terrell songs aren't quite what we are talking about. The above and, in fact most of the You're All I Need lp featured Tammi solos where Gaye's voice was dubbed in to make it a duet. Same is true for some of the United and Easy tracks.

[144man]

Pretty Little Baby / Purple Snowflakes - Marvin Gaye

Baby A Go Go / Countin' On You Babe - Barbara McNair

[RanRan79]

Isn't Martha and the Vandellas' "Darling I Hum Our Song" and "A Tear For the Girl" the same track, added and minus musical augmentation?

[bob_olhsson]

FWIW, I can't remember seeing anybody ever reusing a backing track at Motown. What I did see was recordings made during the same session sounding very similar.

[reese]

Isn't Martha and the Vandellas' "Darling I Hum Our Song" and "A Tear For the Girl" the same track, added and minus musical augmentation?

They sound similar, but I don't think the tracks are identical.

[DJMoch]

Here's a weird one. The Supremes and Brenda Holloway's "It's Going All The Way [To True True Love]". They both have the same backing track, but despite having the same title, Brenda's version has entirely different lyrics. I ended up changing the title myself when I put them on my music player, to match the vocals in the revised lyrics: "Love You I Do".

Also, in a case of supreme [ha!] overkill, there have been 4 [!] versions of "I'm The Exception To The Rule" that share the same backing track with only subtle changes between them. The Supremes, Kim Weston, Brenda Holloway and The Velvelettes.

[TomatoTom123]

The Temptations' 1972 track "Smooth Sailing [[From Now On)" has the same instrumental backing as The Monitors' version of "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby".

Interestingly, The Tempts' song exists in stereo, while the Monitors' is just mono. So, I don’t know if it’s the exact same track simply reused, or a rerecorded version of it, but they sound pretty similar to me. :)

[144man]

Boomerang Love / Wrong Man, Right Touch - High Inergy

[rovereab]

Just A Little Love - Marvin Gaye & Four Tops
Dark Side Of The World - Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye
That'll Be The Day - Temptations & Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston
Give A Little Love - Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston & Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

[soulwally]

A track from the Jimmy Ruffin Anthology, I Know How To Love Her, has the same backing track as the Tempts' Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, but with the same lyrics as the Tempts' No Man Can Love Her Like I do, from the Wish It Would Rain album!

[Motown45]

Both versions of Camel Walk from 1962 - Saundra Mallett & The Vandellas, then LaBrenda Ben & The Beljeans - have the same backing track and, I think, the same backing vocalists.

Same with Come On Home in 1963 - the version on the B-side of Holland & Dozier's What Goes Up Must Come Down, and then the B-side of The Darnells' Too Hurt To Cry, Too Much In Love To Say Goodbye are identical except the latter has vocals singing the title while H&D's version is instrumental.

[RanRan79]

"Build Him Up" by Martha and the Vandellas and Kim Weston.

[Ed H]

He Who Picks a Rose - Jimmy Ruffin
Gotta Find a Way to Get You Back - Tammi Terrell
Such great dancing tracks
What's more, the great "Mosogotam" stitched them together.

[sansradio]

He Who Picks a Rose - Jimmy Ruffin
Gotta Find a Way to Get You Back - Tammi Terrell
Such great dancing tracks
What's more, the great "Mosogotam" stitched them together.

God rest his soul. He was a beloved member here. [Welcome to the Forum, BTW!]

[thommg]

According to the notes on the new Stoney & Meatloaf collection, Diana Ross used the same track that Bob Gaudio produced for Stoney on Stone Liberty. They do sound similar but different mixes and some different lyrics.

[Ed H]

OK - I'm stretching things a bit here as these were not Motown releases but we understand that the Funk Bros were moonlighting on this track.
[[Your Love keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson
[[Your Love keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher - Erma Franklin
Every time I listen I am never 100% sure its the same backing. Maybe it was remixed in some way and the vocals sound a little different. What do you think?

[mowest]

OK - I'm stretching things a bit here as these were not Motown releases but we understand that the Funk Bros were moonlighting on this track.
[[Your Love keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson
[[Your Love keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher - Erma Franklin
Every time I listen I am never 100% sure its the same backing. Maybe it was remixed in some way and the vocals sound a little different. What do you think?

Same backing track by the Funk Brothers, same background singing by the Andantes!

[Ed H]

Same backing track by the Funk Brothers, same background singing by the Andantes!

Yes, that's what I always thought. Thanks

[Ed H]

Brilliant song
Since I've Lost You - Jimmy Ruffin
Since I've Lost You - The Velvelettes
Oh those voices. Motown at its best. Possibly, not sure if the backing vocals are a little different. Brass drums and bass are identical.
ETA - Just had a listen and of course the backing vocals are different - JR lost his "girl" and CS her "boy"

[Ed H]

Other versions are available with different backing - all good, but check out The Undisputed Truth

[Roger Polhill]

God rest his soul. He was a beloved member here. [Welcome to the Forum, BTW!]
I enjoyed the mosogotam mixes too.Do you know where he obtained his material from as there are so many takes that are unreleased?

[Ed H]

It varied, but the "cleanest" cuts used the Motown Original Artist Karaoke series. I could hardly believe it when I heard of his passing.

[soren1974]

Diana Ross "It's My Place" [[from Everything Is Everything) and Barbara Randolph's "Another Day, Another Way" sounds like two different melodies written to [[more or less) the same backing track, although Diana's song is credited to Marcellino-Larson & Hal Davis while Barbara's is credited to Frank Wilson.

[TomatoTom123]

Diana Ross "It's My Place" [[from Everything Is Everything) and Barbara Randolph's "Another Day, Another Way" sounds like two different melodies written to [[more or less) the same backing track, although Diana's song is credited to Marcellino-Larson & Hal Davis while Barbara's is credited to Frank Wilson.

I’d always wondered why "Another Day, Another Way" sounded so familiar, even though it went unreleased for decades!! Now I know :D

[mjdestiny]

Label Me Love - J5 and Different Shades of Brown

[Ed H]

A track from the Jimmy Ruffin Anthology, I Know How To Love Her, has the same backing track as the Tempts' Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, but with the same lyrics as the Tempts' No Man Can Love Her Like I do, from the Wish It Would Rain album!

Yes, and interesting too, There are two consecutive tracks on the CD, The Ultimate Motown Collection [Disc 2],with the same backing track, the aforementioned I Know How To Love Her - Jimmy Ruffin and Too Busy Thinking About My Baby - also Jimmy Ruffin which also has some added strings.

[jsmith]

It's a real pity that Kevin Kiley has been thrown off SD, he'd have contributed to many threads in the thoughtful & knowledgeable way he always did in the past.

[ivyfield]

Do I Love You [[Indeed I Do) and Time And Love are prime examples of reusing a track. It happened several times. I've gone through all those listed above and it's clear the practice was frequent in the early/mid 60s.

[Ed H]

Mmmm - I'm not sure I'm getting that.:confused: