Jimi, I LOVE Barry White's Love Unlimited, and I've always loved "It May Be Winter Outside [[But In My Heart It's Spring)" -- especially the underground extended version. It's hard to believe that, after all these years, I never recognized the striking similarity between it and The Supremes' "Everything Is Good About You." Barry White was a Motown fan for sure, as demonstrated in his own version of the Four Tops' "Standing In The Shadows Of Love".
I'm surprised HDH/Motown didn't sue Barry White for basically ripping off "Everything Is Good About You."
Yeah indeed, but went after the writers of 'Build Me Up Buttercup' instead!
I've come across many songs from other labels written an issued during the 60s that sounded much more like complete rip offs of Motown tunes [[that's why the whole BMUB thing has always puzzled me), yet it seems Motown/Jobete never tried to sue them for the likeness!
Here's a couple that are very much rip offs, or at least in part!.
First up, Vernon Garrett's 'If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time'
Cheers
Paul
Last edited by bradburger; 02-21-2015 at 07:41 PM.
And the Intentions 'Dancing Fast, Dancing Slow'.
Recognise the melody?
Cheers
Paul
Function at the Junction by Shorty Long:
I am in agreement from the moment I heard "It Must Be Winter" on the Love Unlimited's 2nd album. Especially since "Everything is Good About You" was a popular "B-side"[["My World is Empty Without You") that even ended up on The Supremes first Greatest Hits.
i understand that Barry was a fan of Motown. But that song seemed real close to plagiarism.
I still can't believe that I never detected the similarity between the two songs until now. I guess it's because Gene Page's beautiful music arrangement made the Barry White production sound so fresh and current at the time. It struck me as a completely new tune.
The first time I heard "Winter," I ran right out and bought it. It sounded very Hitsville but not quite. Kind of lacked a depth of sound. I never equated it with "Everything's Good," but now that it's been mentioned of course I can hear plenty of similarities, even if there's not enough similarity to call it a direct rip-off. Thus, when I saw it was on the Mustang label [[of which I had never heard) that didn't surprise me. I had not heard of either writer at that time but thought perhaps it might have been a Jobete song, which of course it wasn't. I especially liked the fact that the flip side [["Winter Again") was simply the same track stripped of Felice's vocals, which presaged the early days of disco when instrumentals of the songs were manually inserted between verses and choruses by club DJs with two 45s and two turntables, and later of course the practice was expanded to the studio and used all the time. In that regard, Barry was a bit ahead of his time.
The original version of "It May Be Winter Outside" by Felice Taylor of 1967 resembles the Supremes even more. Felice Taylor also sang the original version of "Under the Influence of Love" -- later a hit by Love Unlimited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8D9_QZzARY
Barry had his fingers all over Motown sound on these tracks especially the Diana Ross rip off on i FEEL LOVE COMIN'ON excellent stuff,cheers.
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