There's question that i've wondered about for years and haven't been able to find the answer to, that i'm hoping that maybe some one knows since Johnny Bristol has passed and this song originated at Motown.

We all know that his biggest success is of course Diana Ross' Someday We'll Be Together, which he sang backgrounds on. And his own hit of Hang On In There Baby for MGM in 1974. Well, at that time he also had a hit with "Love For A Reason" recorded by The Osmonds that hit number 1 in the UK and later by Boyzone. When the Osmonds had the hit, I did a little research on the song since i saw that the publishing was Jobete. Found that the copyright date was 1969 when he was still with Motown and working with Diana and others. But i have never found any indication that a Motown act did a release or a demo of this song!

Actually there are, at least, 2 versions of this song, because it was copyrighted 1969 and 1974. The 1974 version was because Olive Osmond, the Osmonds Mother called Johnny and asked him to make a few minor changes to the song because the new arrangements that H.B. Barnum had done were more pop and teen oriented and the song originally was more about the relationships of late 20's & 30 year olds. When Olive sent him the demo with the brother singing his original lyrics he could see what she meant and agreed to update the song. Johnny ended up putting a version on his MGM album "Hang On In There Baby", which is probably his original? or maybe even another update? Since the lyrics are different on Johnny's album.

So that is why i've tried to find out if there's a 1969 demo of this song, while he was at Motown? Does anyone know the early history of this song?

greg jones
los angeles, ca