Motown Songwriters Spotlight: James Dean & William Weatherspoon Parade #1

[Philles/Motown Gary]

Dean & Weatherspoon! I love those guys. Their compositions and productions were among Motown's prettiest. My favorites are Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted", The Contours' "It's So Hard Being A Loser", and two tracks from The Marvelettes "In Full Bloom" album -- "Seeing Is Believing" and "Now Is The Time For Love".

[WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance]

Dean & Weatherspoon! I love those guys. Their compositions and productions were among Motown's prettiest. My favorites are Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted", The Contours' "It's So Hard Being A Loser", and two tracks from The Marvelettes "In Full Bloom" album -- "Seeing Is Believing" and "Now Is The Time For Love".

I love those two as well, especially "Now Is The Time For Love." The spoken intro, that first line; "Now is the time for love while the heart is young."
That is a killer line. It sounds like some sort of classic literary quote. And the way Dean and Weatherspoon have Katherine and Anne doing the response lines- we get to hear some good harmonizing as well on some of those parts, while The Andantes are giving us lots of fantastic atmospheric vocalizing on a different level. So good. And such a coincidence that you mention these two songs as they are both recent posts:

[WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance]

-- "Seeing Is Believing"

An absolutely gorgeous, beautiful masterpiece.

[144man]

Dean & Weatherspoon! I love those guys. Their compositions and productions were among Motown's prettiest. My favorites are Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted", The Contours' "It's So Hard Being A Loser", and two tracks from The Marvelettes "In Full Bloom" album -- "Seeing Is Believing" and "Now Is The Time For Love".

It's hard for me to listen to the Contours' "It's So Hard Being A Loser" without thinking how perfect it would have been for Jimmy Ruffin. Ian Levine missed a trick by not recording it on him when he had the chance.

Barbara McNair's "The Harder You Fall" and The Elgins' "That's The Night the Love Died" [both included in post#1] would also have suited Jimmy Ruffin's voice.

[Philles/Motown Gary]

It's hard for me to listen to the Contours' "It's So Hard Being A Loser" without thinking how perfect it would have been for Jimmy Ruffin. Ian Levine missed a trick by not recording it on him when he had the chance.

Barbara McNair's "The Harder You Fall" and The Elgins' "That's The Night the Love Died" [both included in post#1] would also have suited Jimmy Ruffin's voice.

I agree, 144man. Your examples of Dean & Weatherspoon tracks [[Barbra McNair and The Elgins) are excellent -- all of which Jimmy Ruffin would have shined on had he been given the chance. Just one more album past "The Groove Governor" LP might have included them. Unfortunately, we'll never know.