“Herman Griffin was a dynamic live performer who would wow audiences with his outrageous physical dances; his jumps, splits, somersaults and back-flips not only captivated the crowds in the predominantly white clubs he played, but also caught the attention of Berry Gordy, who wrote a song for him in 1958 (‘I Need You’).” (Motown Junkies). “Gordy also provided an ‘in’ for Griffin to cut another single with Berry’s big sister Gwen’s label Anna Records in 1959 (at the time, a bigger and more successful label than Tamla or Motown), and finally produced and released this single on Tamla in 1960.
… Griffin turns in a likeable enough slice of late-Fifties rock ‘n’ roll, with some excellent guitar work courtesy of composer Don Davis, later Johnny Taylor’s intuitive producer at Stax and Columbia … The song is poorly produced – as happened with Smokey Robinson on the first version of the Miracles’ Shop Around, his delivery is too forceful and too loud for the primitive recording technology available in Hitsville Studio A to cope, causing massive amounts of hiss and distortion. Either that, or he was just far too close to the microphone. … Griffin would go on to record one more Motown single, Sleep (Little One), in 1962, spending two more years as part of the label’s live show setup … “
Starting in Bb major, the 1962 track shifts to the relative G minor for the bridge between 1:10 – 1:33. Then just like that, this early Motown-era miniature is over, with a total run time of only 2:13!
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