Originally Posted by
benross
I think that Berry Gordy knew from the get-go that He's Seventeen and Those DJ Shows would not do well over the long term. They may have been fine for girls of 16 or 17, but if the group went on for a few years, as he thought they could, the group would have seemed silly singing about being in school or liking a boy a little bit older.
Buttered Popcorn also seemed okay, sort of, for a young girl, but it would have not been all that appreciated, probably, by the Copa crowd. Still, Berry wrote this one, so maybe he let it go, realizing it would not go very far and the girls would not have to sing it for the next decade, by which point they would be in their mid- to late-20s.
Your Heart Belongs To Me was age appropriate but also could be applicable to an older girl -- that is, a young woman -- and I think Berry wanted songs with durability for this group and for Mary Wells, as evidenced in part by some of her Vintage Stock material.
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