Starting things off, The Temptations with "I Can't Get Next to You!" 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY8_zZTi3-M
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Starting things off, The Temptations with "I Can't Get Next to You!" 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY8_zZTi3-M
American Bandstand 1967 - Top 10 - The Happening, The Supremes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO4LX6_p2MU
American Bandstand 1966 -Spotlight Dance- Don’t Mess With Bill, The Marvelettes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGN-PG1cTIE
American Bandstand 1964 - Baby Don’t You Do It, Marvin Gaye!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7zNqlkGMt0
American Bandstand 1965 - Baby I Need Your Loving, The Four Tops!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzVt8NBoGL4
Great stuff Marv!! I was always thought the Happening was a challenge to dance to but some of those kids got it!
American Bandstand 1964 - Can You Do It by the Contours!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL2h59y6dlE
The clips from 1964 were from when the show was still in Philadelphia.
What can I say: most of those kids couldn’t find a beat if it slapped them upside their heads lol.
Brenda Holloway "I'll Always Love You" - 1965!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30HmJSDvkG0
I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Gladys Knight & The Pips - 1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hxOluG_hEI
Attachment 14249
I'm truly glad to find that Dick Clark proclaimed that Brenda had the most fantastic singing voice that he had ever heard. That's something on the plus side for him, considering there was a lot about him that I didn't like.
I had not listened to this song much back in the day, however, revisiting it this morning through this YouTube video brings up something rather interesting to this music nerd. This song uses the same instrumental phrase over and over AND it does it wonderfully. I was trying to recall other Motown songs that use the same pattern over and over, and I can't really think of any. [[The closest I came to was "Love is Like an Itching"...which we know eventually resolves itself). Immediately, as many of the Motown fans can do, I was able to discern that it was a H-D-H production.
Ha, ha! I noticed the same thing about this song. It what I call a "Bulldozer Song" because it makes me think of this big, heavy bulldozer that just rolls on and on and on, mowing down everything in its tracks. I once hooked up my speakers a certain way and was able to get a fairly clean instrumental from the stereo recording and then the song gets very interesting.
There is a part before the 2nd verse [[1:08) where the music plays a bit before Marvin starts singing. The guitar chording changes just a bit before he gets to the "Girl l I tried to do my best" part. When I listened to the instrumental I had made, I found you could easily have started the 2nd verse a bar earlier and still ended up finishing the whole stanza before the "breakdown" part where it's just the drums, handclaps and bongos. This probably sounds nuts but it's just something that always has tickled me about this song and the way it's structured with its repeating non-stop pattern.
Stevie Wonder's "Uptight" is another Motown song that is basically one repeating riff over and over. The Supreme's "I Hear A Symphony" is another. The use of ascending key changes is what gives that song a simultaneous resolution and razor's edge of ever-increasing excitement.
Interesting about bringing up "I Hear a Symphony" with its continuous musical riff over and over. It's one of those songs where I, myself, would find it difficult to remember all of the lyrics because all of the phrases sound alike [[with the except of the key changes). The background voices constantly singing "I hear a symphony, ooo, baby, baby) wouldn't add to the cue me in as to what verse I was on. Great catch, WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance.
I know EXACTLY what you mean about getting lost on this song and I've had the same thought. If I had to sing that song, there is no real benchmark to figure out where you're supposed to be. I actually just thought of a couple other H-D-H songs where a singer could easily lose his or her place: Chris Clark's "It Must Be Love" and The Elgins' "Darling Baby." "Those are two more "Bulldozer" songs that give the singer absolutely no indication of where you're supposed to be if you happen to forget a lyric. I often wondered if Saundra Mallet found it hard to sing "Darling Baby" live. Like you said, the lyrics and phrases are all very interchangeable.
American Bandstand 1967 - April Fool! - Bernadette, The Four Tops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf5UrHXqLOE
American Bandstand 1969 - I Was Made To Love Her, Stevie Wonder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA-0QfqypmI
It Takes Two, Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston
Airdate: Feb. 11, 1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDDRG30xIsc
1969 – Spotlight Dance – Angie Girl, Stevie Wonder
Airdate: Sept. 13, 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb-AoaPplVk
When I saw the gals in March of '67, Diane actually lost her place in the lyrics of "I Hear A Symphony," and kept going around and around the same chorus until she eventually just threw up her arms and wailed "SYYYYYM-PHONY." Flo and Mary followed suit to finally end the song, but the band was stumped and sort of just trailed off. I suspect hardly anyone else in the audience even noticed this. It was then that I realized I wouldn't be able to sing that song through from beginning to end without having it playing at the same time. Very tough lyrics.
Am I correct in remembering In and Out of Love being used as that year's song for the Bandstand dance contest? If so, it is surprising since In and Out of Love is not really a great dance song. One wonders if money passed under the table to the decision makers at Bandstand??
Seeing these clips from American Bandstand surely brought back found memories. I still remember the Saturday afternoon back in '64 when I first heard The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go" on the show.
And yet another song from Hitsville's Heyday that used one repeating riff is Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her". Producer Henry Cosby's recollection of the song [[from the notes off TCMS-67) is that the song was "just four bars" and "we played those four bars over & over" [[even stating that "this was the beginning of Disco").
Marvin Gaye - Too Busy Thinking About My Baby 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrErCGJm3yI
The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back - January 1970
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GifYwVOGjI
Fun, nostalgic videos! Another "bulldozer" track from Motown was Martha Reeves & The Vandellas' "Show Me The Way". The same two chords over and over from beginning to end, yet thanks to Martha's and the girls' vocals, not one dull moment throughout!
Gladys Knight & the Pips -The Nitty Gritty -1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY4ut7xuocI
And the performance that went before that interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qcuRIvQnxo
Not sure who styled Martha's hair here, nor who selected their 'unique' gowns, but, other than that, great performance, Sharpmoves. It's the first time I've seen The Vandellas' choreography with "My Baby Loves Me". As always, it was spot on! Thanks for sharing.