Originally Posted by
WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance
It was bone chilling when I first heard it as a 15 year old. It was odd and astonishingly plodding, sounding like a funeral dirge. The rest of the album played but I could not get that dratted thing out of my head. I didn't hate it but it was hard to fit it into my idea of Motown. In the end, I kept going back to it a lot. Inside a couple days I found I liked this slice of Motown Gothic.
For one thing, the snail's pace of the tune gives Diana plenty of room to practically luxuriate over words and phrasing, as if she were really exploring all the interpretive possibilities. That's something I love about Diana- when she was given the right song at a relaxed tempo, she could linger over syllables, making a pop single sound like jazz.
The otherworldly- sounding backing by Mary, Flo and Lamont are absolutely necessary here. It's just the right compliment for the music and Diana. Contrast and compare the Gladys Knight & The Pips' version sung over the same track; theirs is good but to me, something is lost. Diana and the Sups nailed it. I only wish they would have added the strings we heard on the expanded edition version.
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