How about: if Motown used / was allowed to use "The Real Thing"

[Ngroove]

"The Real Thing": an early, pre-Motown Nickolas Ashford - Valerie Simpson penning with Jo Armstead. I'd honestly would call it a "standard", for being done by Betty Everett, The Chiffons, Tina Britt, and Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown, always a fun, snappy, near Motown-esque listen every time, my favorite version the Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown. And obviously, a popularly enough covered number, as back then in the sixties, every act sang just about every song that was popular, such as Marvin Gaye covering "Groovin'" and Stevie Wonder covering "Respect".

But yet, under the "Ashford / Simpson" part of the credits, I could not find the song on any of the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell albums. Has the song been done by any Motown acts on albums I have not heard yet, can it be done by any of Motown's acts, or was it the case of the song more being under the ownership of Jo Armstead, than Ashford & Simpson, once they hitted Motown?

[snakepit]

Always a popular tune in the early days of thr Northern Soul scene especially the Tina Britt version. A great tune .
A&S wrote some good stuff in New York with Jo Armstead.

[Motown Eddie]

"The Real Thing": an early, pre-Motown Nickolas Ashford - Valerie Simpson penning with Jo Armstead. I'd honestly would call it a "standard", for being done by Betty Everett, The Chiffons, Tina Britt, and Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown, always a fun, snappy, near Motown-esque listen every time, my favorite version the Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown. And obviously, a popularly enough covered number, as back then in the sixties, every act sang just about every song that was popular, such as Marvin Gaye covering "Groovin'" and Stevie Wonder covering "Respect".

But yet, under the "Ashford / Simpson" part of the credits, I could not find the song on any of the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell albums. Has the song been done by any Motown acts on albums I have not heard yet, can it be done by any of Motown's acts, or was it the case of the song more being under the ownership of Jo Armstead, than Ashford & Simpson, once they hitted Motown?

Good question NGroove. I don't know of any versions of "The Real Thing" being recorded by any of the Motown acts. Of course, the song is natural fit for either Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell [[or Tammi solo).

[reese]

Chuck and Maxine actually recorded THE REAL THING, and then used the same backing track for another A, A, & S composition, BABY TAKE ME.

Re any Motown versions, I don't know of any. I'm sure if Nick and Val wanted to produce another version, they could have, as long as the publishing company agreed. Another composition from their Scepter days, I'LL SETTLE FOR YOU, ended up on Diana's SURRENDER album. And later, another A, A, &S composition, SILLY WASN'T I, ended up on Valerie's second solo album, as well as being released as a single.

[thommg]

Am I the only one who thinks this should have been a Martha & The Vandellas song? It seems right up their alley.

[144man]

Am I the only one who thinks this should have been a Martha & The Vandellas song? It seems right up their alley.

I was just about to say that myself.

[BigAl]

That song is a real chestnut all right. The first version I ever heard was by The Chiffons in 1965. It had a lot of “Heat Wave” licks and was pretty good, considering. It got only minimal airplay. [[I only heard it once.) I didn’t even realize it was The Chiffons the first time I heard it until the radio Dj identified it after it played. Sylvia Peterson was on lead rather than Judy Craig and that was what threw me off. I looked for it in vain and it wasn’t until decades later that I discovered it was an alternate B-side to “Nobody Knows What’s Goin’ On In My Mind but Me” [[also led by Sylvia). I found the latter 45, but it had another older song as the B-side. Later, I found Betty Everett’s version in a cutout bin and got the idea that the DJ was mistaken, since the two sounded so much alike. I then heard it as “Baby Take Me” on a Chuck/Maxine album but still have never heard their other version with the original title, and today was the first time I’d ever heard Tina Britt’s. It’s a bit stronger, in my opinion, than the others, and really does sound like “Son of of Heat Wave.” Because of that, I suppose, had it been recorded by a Hitsville act, it would probably have gone to Martha, but it’s so very derivative of “Heat Wave” that it would probably not have fared any better than “Live Wire” [[another “Heat Wave” knockoff). In any case, it wasn’t a Jobete song and that might have precluded any Hitsville artists recording it at that time.

[BigAl]

Here's Betty's version:

[Ngroove]

Yes, "The Real Thing" does sound much too similiar to something Martha Reeves & the Vandellas would spin, 1963 - 1966-ish, along like Candy & The Kisses' "The 81".

The first version I've heard was the Tina Britt version, followed by Chiffons, Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown, then recently learned it was originally Betty Everett's. But my favorite was Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown's, from my ACE / Kent twofer of their albums CD. Along with probably obviously "Baby Take Me" recorded in the session that same day, I love their playful, harmonious, enthusiastically extremely quite almost sincerely convincingly like couple, along with the background vocals and instrumental atmosphere that sounds like a party.