I am and always have been, as a big a Carolyn Crawford fan as there is. I LOVE this song. It's a "100" for me, and my second favourite by her [[far better than ANY Supremes' song). I love it, precisely because it's very different from the standard Motown Sound, just like Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" was different [[in tempo) from the standard Jazz tunes of its time, and yet all its other aspects were also extremely good to my taste. I think it was rejected for release by Quality Control for the same reason that Kim Weston's "A Little More Love" was. Both have such a different sound, that they are not going to be liked by "the masses", because they, like exotic foods, have to be appreciated slowly, like an "acquired taste". A certain percentage of the public and DJs, too, will LOVE such a song, to death, precisely BECAUSE it is different. And the best of such releases, like Sukiaki and Take Five, will catch on and become mega hits.
But Motown had a problem, in that the overall quality of their release was so very good, they were dominating the charts, so radio stations had to limit how many Motown records they could play at one time, or 90% of records played would have come from one company, and that would result in restraint of trade. Plus, the filthy-rich Majors wouldn't have been able to stand such a situation. So, Motown, having almost a sure hit with The Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, and a good shot with The Marvelettes, in 1965, were NOT going to gamble on an "acquired taste" possible "hit or miss" record, when they already had a problem getting all their "Motown formulaic" almost sure hits played. In 1963 and early 1964, when Carolyn got her 3 45s released, Motown wasn't yet dominating the Pop charts enough to have DJs refusing to play some of their would-be hits because of tremendously high chart domination like they had by 1965-67. Had this song been up for review in 1963, or early 1964, Carolyn would have had a much better chance to get it issued.
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