As for the Supremes' song, I remember loving it upon first listen. For me it's a perfect song. The band has a nice thing going on. Diana's delivery is spot on. She has to do a balancing act of settling into the bouncy tempo while keeping her tone from sounding too happy with those lyrics. She does a great job of keeping an even tone between sadness that things have played out like they have, but resolved to closing this chapter of her life.
Flo and Mary are on fire. I know it's been discussed a few times that some listeners hear three voices in the background, and Bayou has said he believes it's Eddie Holland. I don't hear three voices, but I wasn't there so I can't say for sure.
I wonder if anyone has thought that the potential third voice could be Diana? It's said that she would sing backup until the group were well into their early hits time frame. I've always believed Diana sings with Flo and Mary on "A Breath Taking Guy".
Anyway, great song. I don't think it had any chance at a single release, but it is wild that it didn't make the WDOLG album. I think the album is great as is. Perfect example of the whole girl group scene at the time. However, it is interesting that the album is made up of 1963 recordings, the three number ones and "Ask Any Girl" being the exceptions. Meanwhile their other 1964 recordings up to then were mostly vaulted for decades. There was a noticeable shift in sound at Motown from 1963 to 1964 and if you keep that in mind, some of those 1963 cuts on WDOLG already sound rather out of date. Anyway, I would have voted "no" for a single, but "yes" for an album cut. Definitely one of my all time fav Supremes cuts.
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