"Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music" - So Good They Made It Twice, Twice!

[mysterysinger]

I hadn't appreciated that Top Dog had been absorbed into Motown.

From WIKIPEDIA

"Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music" is a 1967 song co-written by Richard Drapkin and Marty Coleman. In 1968 it was assigned to Artie Fields' Top Dog label in Detroit and issued as a 45 by rhythm and blues singer Joe Towns [[Top Dog 105).

When Top Dog was bought and then absorbed into the Motown stable the song was reissued with production duties from Clay McMurray as two singles for The Spinners, initially as the B-side of "It's a Shame" on Motown's V.I.P. Records.[1]

Three years later it appeared as a reworked single for the main Motown label itself. The later release was to cash in on the success of The Spinners since signing for Atlantic Records [[and leaving Motown) over a year prior. The song's narrator tells his love that there's no need for them to argue and fight due to how strong their love is when they're together. Two versions of this song were released, both of which were led by one of the group's front man Bobby Smith, with very notable changes.

The first Spinners version was more soulful, and featured the group's former front man G.C. Cameron with a lead part on the bridge; this version also appears on their second album, 2nd Time Around. The second version [[released in April, 1973) was more conventional and commercial, remixed with additional adjusted instrumentation so it would sound more like the group's hits on the Atlantic label. Upon the song's re-release, "Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music", would hit #91 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts[2] making it the group's last Motown single to chart [[and their only Motown song to chart after they left the label). This second version was released on a "Best of the Spinners" LP by Motown the same year.

The song would also be covered by The Supremes twice, both as a duet with The Four Tops and [[by themselves) as a track for their album New Ways but Love Stays.

Personnel
Lead vocals by Bobby Smith and G.C. Cameron [[1st version only)
Background vocals by Bobby Smith, G.C. Cameron, Pervis Jackson, Henry Fambrough and Billy Henderson
Additional Background vocals by The Andantes: Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps
Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers

[mysterysinger]

DFTMC doesn't make a point of the different Spinners versions, nor does it mention the 45 by Joe Towns which it might have done with it being a Jobete song.

From DFTMC

Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music [[Richard Drapkin-Marty Coleman) published Jobete 30-Oct-69

G.C. Cameron; recording details unknown
[pressing date unknown] [acetate]; 45 [[M): Jobete

The Spinners; recorded Hitsville-GW, completed 17-Apr-70 ; produced by Clay McMurray ; arranged by Wade Marcus

11-Jun-70; 45 [[M): V.I.P. 25057 B [reissued on Motown 1235]
Oct-70; LP [[S): V.I.P. VS405 2nd Time Around
Apr-73; 45: Motown M 1235F A [previously on VIP 25057]
Apr-73; LP [[S): Motown M769L The Best Of The Spinners
25-Aug-94; CD [[S): Spectrum 550 408 2 Sweet Soul Music [UK]
11-Jul-95; CD [[S): Polydor POCT-1922 2nd Time Around [Japan]
09-Jul-01; CD [[S): Spectrum 544 434 2 The Essential Collection [UK]
30-Jun-06; CD [[M): Reader's Digest RDCD 5251-3 The Ultimate Motown Collection - Male Groups
27-Jun-08; CD [[M): Hip-O Select B0011056-02 The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 10 1970

The Supremes; recorded Hitsville-GW, completed 16-May-70 ; produced by Frank Wilson

15-Sep-70; LP [[S): Motown MS720 New Ways But Love Stays
29-Oct-02; CD: Motown 064 127 2 The 70s Anthology [album version]
01-Dec-06; CD [[S): Hip-O Select B0005938-02 This Is The Story

The Supremes & Four Tops; recorded Hitsville-GW, completed 18-May-70 ; produced by Duke Browner ; arranged by Wade Marcus

Sep-70; LP [[S): Motown MS717 The Magnificent 7
05-Nov-70; 45 [[M): Motown M 1173 B
27-Jun-08; CD [[M): Hip-O Select B0011056-02 The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 10 1970
14-Aug-09; CD [[S): Hip-O Select B0013119-02 Magnificent - The Complete Studio Duets
02-Apr-13; CD [[M): Hip-O Select B0017484-02 50th Anniversary: The Singles Collection 1964-1972

[mysterysinger]

And the Joe Towns version is a good one.

[paul_nixon]

Shame TCMS didn't go beyond its finish date as the 2nd version is from 1973 [[which I think also puts it beyond the remit of DFTMC). I am now wondering - the later version has 'From the LP the Best Of The Spinners' on its label - so did they use the later one on that CD and TCMS carries the first version. The shame is the second issue does not carry a DM number although from paperwork I think I can see what it is and it's likely to be a stereo version.

[paul_nixon]

So further investigation - Sweet Soul Music - Karusell, The Best Of The Spinners and The Dteroit Spinners Essential all use the 2nd version while you'll find the forst [[quite rightly) on the Ace CD - The Spinners While The City Sleeps

[sup_fan]

the Supremes only version is magnificent. Jean is such as talent and this song should have been a single. After Up the Ladder, I would have done a single edit of Loving Country, then released Together and THEN release Stone Love. Together is great but after a masterpiece like Stoned Love, I think it wouldn't have hit as hard. needed to go prior.

[mysterysinger]

Shame TCMS didn't go beyond its finish date as the 2nd version is from 1973 [[which I think also puts it beyond the remit of DFTMC). I am now wondering - the later version has 'From the LP the Best Of The Spinners' on its label - so did they use the later one on that CD and TCMS carries the first version. The shame is the second issue does not carry a DM number although from paperwork I think I can see what it is and it's likely to be a stereo version.

DFTMC does list the 1973 release but makes no distinction between the 2 versions [[see 2nd post above). I think it would help if it did maybe [[but who's going to tell Keith now?). I use that resource so much it's untrue.

Your analysis of which version appears where is correct too - plus

1st Version
11-Jul-95; CD [[S): Polydor POCT-1922 2nd Time Around [Japan]

2nd Version [[and it's stereo not mono as stated)
30-Jun-06; CD [[M): Reader's Digest RDCD 5251-3 The Ultimate Motown Collection - Male Groups

Of course, in the UK, we didn't get "Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music" as the b-side to "It's A Shame". We got a re-released "Sweet Thing" [[yay). We did, however have it as a single twice - TMG766 in 1971 credited to The Motown Spinners [[b/w "Truly Yours") and then in 1973 on TMG871 in stereo and credited to Detroit Spinners [[b/w "Bad, Bad Weather"). I guess these correspond to the first and 2nd versions respectively.

I love Bobby Smith's vocals anyway, but my preference is for the first version which is more beefy and has the benefit of GC Cameron's fantastic vocal as well. In the later version, GCs vocal is replaced by a musical passage [[which is rather beautiful). Version 1 runs at over 3 minutes [[around 3:09) whereas Version 2 runs at just over 2:50 [[around 2:52)

[BayouMotownMan]

the Supremes only version is magnificent. Jean is such as talent and this song should have been a single. After Up the Ladder, I would have done a single edit of Loving Country, then released Together and THEN release Stone Love. Together is great but after a masterpiece like Stoned Love, I think it wouldn't have hit as hard. needed to go prior.

I can not agree more. I assumed Together would follow Stoned Love as a single. Jean's glorious vamping at the beginning and that high note she hits still gives me chills

[sup_fan]

I can not agree more. I assumed Together would follow Stoned Love as a single. Jean's glorious vamping at the beginning and that high note she hits still gives me chills

oh yes! when she hits that high note in the intro!! my only complaint is Frank Wilson should have mixed it even louder in the mix lol whenever i'm driving and she's about to hit it, i crank it up so it just reverberates! lol

i've always wondered though if Together would have been a successful single post-SL. Stoned Love is such a masterpiece that i think releasing Together as the follow up would have been anticlimactic. which is why maybe holding SL to be release 4 [[which would push it into early 71) and Together being released in the fall 70 release. they were working on Nathan Jones which was so different and groundbreaking and new that it would hold it's own as the follow up. or hold the duets and issue River Deep. while not groundbreaking, it is at least something different and the Levi and Jean are a phenomenal pairing

[Boogiedown]

Jean certainly starts it off on the right foot. But it's never good when the intro is the very best part. And good gawd lyrics with yet another reference to weather!!

and men ....the Supremes sure go on about men... fussin' and fightin' and always trying to make a hopeless situation work
If you're going to sing a song about TOGETHER we can make such sweet sweet music , this would be your chance as the new improved Supremes to prove it.

This is a song the three of them could have each taken leads to joyfully celebrate their togetherness [with a rewrite of course eliminating the angle of the hard-to-get-along-with lover.]