Soul and Motown soundalikes

[vcq]

I know some these have been mentioned before, like the Isley Brothers' " This Old Heart of Mine" and The Impressions' "Can't Satisfy ." [[Hover over the song titles for the YouTube links)

I was recently listening to the awesome Philadelphia International Classics: Tom Moulton Remixes, and was struck by the similarities between Robert Upchurch's "The Devil Made Me Do It" from 1973 and Isaac Hayes' "Do Your Thing" from 1971 and the basslines in the O'Jays' "Money" and Archie Bell and the Drells' "Let's Groove" [[check out the bassline starting at 2:02).

What other soul soundalikes come to mind?

[Ngroove]

Barry White's "It May Be Winter Outside [[But In My Heart It's Spring). Perhaps the late sixties Felice Taylor recording was relatively obscure, but come the seventies' Love Unlimited - heard White & co. had to do some payments to H-D-H for the song, due to its near-soundalike to the Supremes' "Everthing Is Good About You".

[bradburger]

Vernon Garrett's 'If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time'.

Borrowed heavily the riff from 'I Can't Help Myself'.

Always puzzled me why Jobete didn't sue for that one, yet they went after the writers of 'Build Me Up Buttercup', which to me never really sounded like a copy of 'I'll Turn To Stone', as claimed!

Cheers

Paul

[arrr&bee]

How about[open the door to your heart-darrell banks]of course legend has it that motown musicians played on that session[now with all the money that berry was paying-wink-wink you don't think they would do that do you[hehe]...the great[deon jackson-the reason why,sounds like he recorded it at[hitsville].

[robb_k]

How about[open the door to your heart-darrell banks]of course legend has it that motown musicians played on that session[now with all the money that berry was paying-wink-wink you don't think they would do that do you[hehe]...the great[deon jackson-the reason why,sounds like he recorded it at[hitsville].

These quotes are not surprising at all. Why do you think '60s Detroit Soul is so heavily loved and collected? Motown used ALMOST ALL the good Detroit instrumental session players during that time [[therefore, almost all Detroit Soul music recording sessions used "Motown" musicians. You can hear specific players on many [[if not most) of the '60s Detroit Soul recordings.

First of all, VERT FEW of Motown's musicians had exclusive contracts with Motown. So, they were fully legally and morally able to work on those sessions for "rival" Detroit labels whenever they wished. It was only James Jamerson, Robert White, Joe Messina, Benny Benjamin, Pistol Allen, Uriel Jones, Eal Van Dyke, Eddie Willis, and. perhaps a couple others that had exclusive contracts AFTER some were caught by Gordy, moonlighting for Ed Wingate's Golden World Records near the end of 1964 or in early 1965. Even after that, MOST of the salaried "Funk Brothers" moonlighted anyway, with ed Wingate and LeBaron Taylor[[Solid Hitbound Productions) and other Detroit label owners paying their [[moonlighting) fines, charged them by Berry Gordy.

So, MOST Detroit Soul music recording sessions in the 1960s likely had at least a few Motown musicians used in their recordings. THAT's why so many of them sound a lot like Motown recordings. Incidentally, Motown's Snakepit was hired out to rival Detroit Soul label owners for recording their sessions into early 1964 [[until the 24-hour a day Motown in-house recording session schedule started).

Golden World/Ric Tic/Wingate, Revilot/Solid Hit/Groovesville, Thelma/Ge Ge, Correc-Tone/Son Bert/Hit, Ollie McLaughlin's labels, James Hendrix/Lou Beatty labels, Mike Hanks' labels, Magic City, Dave Hamilton's labels, Robert West's labels, Diamond Jim Riley's labels, Harry Balk's labels' Detroit recording sessions, Sidra/Drew, Jack Ashford's Pied Piper Productions and most of the other Detroit labels used mostly musicians that also recorded for Motown.

You can clearly hear James Jamerson, Benny Benjamin, Pistol Allen, Uriel Jones, Joe Hunter, Mike Terry, Don Davis [[yes, he worked for Motown, too), Herbie Williams and others on those Non-Motown cuts. One of the large differences between those and Motown cuts made in The Snakepit is due to the difference in room acoustics. The Golden World Studios recording room sounded different. Of course, that became Motown's "Studio B" in late 1966. Many of the other Non-Motown cuts were made at United Sound Studios, Correc-Tone, Mike Hanks' "Pigpen", and other, local Detroit Studios, whose acoustics and equipment could not reproduce "The Motown Sound".

On "Open The Door To Your Heart" , probably 85-90% of the musicians were either working for Motown at the time, or had previously. The same is probably true for Deon Jackson's recordings, at least starting in 1965.

[daddyacey]

Barry White's "It May Be Winter Outside [[But In My Heart It's Spring). Perhaps the late sixties Felice Taylor recording was relatively obscure, but come the seventies' Love Unlimited - heard White & co. had to do some payments to H-D-H for the song, due to its near-soundalike to the Supremes' "Everthing Is Good About You".

Indeed , In Barry White's book he stated he was very much influenced by HDH's arrangements and overall sound and it shows. More so as an embellishment rather than copying.