Tag: 1960s

Big Brother + The Holding Company (feat. Janis Joplin) | Combination of the Two

“Cheap Thrills (1968) was the breakthrough album for Janis Joplin and Big Brother & The Holding Company,” (Daily Vault). “Topping the charts for eight weeks and spawning a top 20 single, this was the album that solidified the reputation that the band had spawned with their set at the Monterey Pop festival. It also marked the end of the band; not terribly long after the album’s release, Joplin left the band to pursue a solo career.

… Musically, (Big Brother co-founder, songwriter, and guitarist) Sam Andrew and crew had worked themselves into a tight musical unit by the time these tracks (some of which were recorded live at the Fillmore Auditorium) were cut. But on the other end of the spectrum, you can hear the strain on Joplin’s vocals … She had vocal power beyond many female blues singers; pity that she overused that power. ‘Piece of My Heart,’ the hit single from Cheap Thrills, remains a classic song that has lost little of its power over the course of three decades. Likewise, ‘Combination of the Two’ is an underrated classic that allows Joplin the fiery freedom to cut loose with her vocal abilities.”

After starting with an instrumental intro in A minor, “Combination of the Two” shifts up to B major for its first verse at 0:54. At 1:16, another verse falls into place, this time in G# major. 1:29 brings a whoa-only vocals section in E major which leads into a short chorus. At 2:00, we’ve returned to the B major verse; the sections repeat from there.

The Supremes | Who’s Lovin’ You

“The legacy of The Supremes is so firmly established today — from the group’s influence on fashion, to music, to Broadway musicals and films — that is seems impossible to imagine a time when it didn’t exist,” (Diana Ross Project). “From 1964 until the end of the decade, The Supremes would become the savior of American music, almost single-handedly defending a corner of the industry from the British Invasion while conquering the rest of the world through sell-out tours and hit singles.  The group’s astounding string of a dozen number one singles (racked up in just five years) is something modern pop acts still struggle to match, and those hits continue to win over audiences though appearances in movies, commercials, and through radio airplay and album reissues.

But success wasn’t overnight for Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard (and, in the beginning, Barbara Martin) … after signing with Motown Records, the group suffered through eight lackluster singles before finally striking gold with ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ in 1964.  The earliest of those singles were collected and released as Meet The Supremes in late 1962, an album that’s basically a patchwork of songs recorded during various sessions at the beginning of the decade … Perhaps the most recognizable song on Meet The Supremes, ‘Who’s Lovin’ You’ is a widely covered Smokey Robinson tune first recorded by The Miracles in 1960.  This was one of the earliest songs recorded by The Supremes at Motown; it had been placed on the b-side of the group’s second single, “Buttered Popcorn,” released in 1961 on Tamla (the single failed to chart) … it’s raw and imperfect, dominated by a high, ‘go-for-broke’ lead vocal by Diana Ross over a bluesy, oil-smudged track … Diana was still a high school student when the song was recorded.”

Built in F major overall, the tune shifts briefly to the relative D minor during its bridge (1:20 – 1:50) before returning to the original key.

Paul Mauriat | Love is Blue

“Love is Blue,” originally composed by Andre Popp and Pierre Cour, started off its life as Luxembourg’s entry in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest,” (Stereogum). Several versions charted over the years, “but the version of the song that really hit … was the one that French easy listening composer Paul Mauriat released the following year.”

MotD regular contributor JB calls Paul Mauriat’s “Love is Blue” (1968) “… a perfect encapsulation of the zeitgeist of the mid-60s. At the same time that the Rolling Stones were recording truly transgressive stuff like ‘Under My Thumb,’ there were still large and enthusiastic audiences for weekly variety shows like Lawrence Welk and The Grand Ole Opry. Mauriat’s arrangement manages to simultaneously include both a beautiful harpsichord melody and cheesy strings and horns.”

Starting in A minor, the tune’s progresses through two verses before reaching the chorus, which shifts to A major at 0:54 after a dynamic huge buildup previewing the major key at 0:51. The pattern continues from there.

Herman Griffin | True Love

“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!

The Winstons | Color Him Father

“In 1969 an interracial R&B group from Washington, DC posted their one and only Top 40 hit,” (45RuminationsPerMegabyte). “The song, ‘Color Him Father,’ is written from the point of view of a young man explaining the role his father has in their house. He sings of coming home from school, and how his father stresses the importance of education, and how the man he calls father helps his mother, and all of that. At first, it seems like just another cute song with simple lyrics (‘My mother loves him and I can tell/By the way she looks at him when he holds my little sister Nell’ isn’t the greatest rhyme ever written, but it works). After a quick bridge, the tone abruptly changes:

My real old man he got killed in the war
And she knows she and seven kids couldn’t have got very far
She said she thought that she could never love again
And then there he stood with that big wide grin
He married my mother and he took us in
And now we belong to the man with that big wide grin

Yep – this is a song about step-parenting, and it just got really, really dusty in here. The song went on to become a huge hit, making it to #7 on the pop chart, #2 on the R&B chart, and claiming the Grammy award for Best R&B song in 1969.”

After running in Ab major through several verses and choruses, a brief instrumental interlude (1:59) shifts us up to A major for another verse and chorus.

Lee + the Leopards | Trying to Make It

“Lee and the Leopards, like many Toledo groups, were swept up in the explosion of the Motown powered Detroit R&B/soul explosion of the early 1960s,” (DooWopBlogg). “The group started around 1961, and included Lee Moore as the namesake and lead singer, George Miller Ross, Prentiss Anderson, and James Porter … The group had brought some of their own songs, but (Motown’s founder) Berry Gordy wanted them to sing some of the in-house songs. The group went back to Toledo and they reworked one of the songs ‘Come Into My Palace.’ The group returned to Detroit a few days later and within a day, they had the song recorded at Motown.

… The record was a big hit on WOHO and WTOD in Toledo and also on Detroit stations. The group did some promotional shows with WTOD. The record was picked up by Laurie records because the Motown operation did not have a full scale national promotional system. The group recorded a second 45 at Fortune, and a final 45 for K-Lee label from Adrian, MI. For the last record, the group recorded their own song “The Gypsy Said” backed by a band called the Rivieres from Adrian. When the record came out, the label credited the Rivieres instead of Lee and the Leopards. Some of the copies had stickers for Lee and the Leopards. After the group ended, Prentiss Anderson spent many years backing up various Motown related groups.”

“Trying to Make It” (1962) is primarily a blues in G minor. But the tune’s midsection is a brief bridge (1:26 – 1:42) that’s mostly in G major.

Marvin Gaye + Tammi Terrell | Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

“Listen to this track by Motown titan and smooth as silk soul-pop provider Marvin Gaye, along with his vocal counterbalance, and no slouch in the soaring vocal department herself, Tammi Terrell,” (The Delete Bin). “It’s ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,’ a  single from writing partnership and real-life couple Ashford & Simpson. The song was a top twenty hit single in 1967, released on the Tamla label, a sister label of Motown, eventually appearing on the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell joint album United.

The song was thought of by its writers as being their golden ticket into the Motown stable, even turning down Dusty Springfield who wanted to record it herself. Ashford and Simpson held it back , and it was eventually offered as a duet to Marvin Gaye, and to Tammi Terrell who made it one of the most prominent songs of the Motown catalogue, and an important record of the whole decade. Later on, Diana Ross would record it when she split with the Supremes and went solo in 1970. It would be a number one hit, and become a signature tune for her.Yet, it’s the alchemy that the Gaye-Terrell version offers that makes this the definitive version of the song.

… Their collaboration yielded several hits of the classic Motown era, including ‘Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing,’ ‘You’re All I Need To Get By,’ and ‘Your Precious Love,’ also all Ashford & Simpson songs. They would record three albums together over the next two years, with this period being looked upon by many as one of the finest in Marvin Gaye’s career, with Terell contributing significantly to that success.

But, there was something very wrong. Terrell had suffered migraines for many years, and one night during a concert in Virginia, Terrell stumbled on stage and collapsed in Gaye’s arms … Later, it was discovered that she was suffering from malignant tumours in her brain.” No treatments were successful in the long term, and “Tammi Terrell died in March of 1970 at the young age of 24, the same year Diana Ross recorded her version of this song. Retrospectively, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ is an anthem to Terrell’s determination to succeed despite her cancer diagnosis … The song’s epic quality would attract cover versions from many. But, this original version is the one by which all others must be judged, including Diana Ross’, largely due to the sheer defiant vitality that Tammi Terrell brought to the performance. Marvin Gaye would of course continue to make his mark as one of the most gifted vocalists of his generation. But with Terrell gone, this vital phase of his career was at an end, with that combination of voices bursting with personality never to be repeated.”

Packing a complex arrangement and a true wall of sound into its spare 2.5-minute length, the track climbs to its bridge at 1:18, then shifts up from D major to Eb major at 1:37.

Debbie Dean | Itsy Bity Pity Love

“Debbie Dean, aka Reba Jeanette Smith, aka ‘Penny’ from Penny & The Ekos,” released “Itsy Bity Pity Love” in 1961 (Motown Junkies). “Motown had hoped to turn ‘Debbie’ – who differed from her labelmates in two ways seen as important at the time: by being in her early thirties, and by being white – into a major crossover star, but it never quite happened for her.

Ironically, the same month ‘Itsy Bity Pity Love’ came out, Motown also released their first massive commercial breakthrough, the Marvelettes’ unstoppable crossover hit ‘Please Mr. Postman,’ which teenage audiences both black and white couldn’t get enough of … Debbie gives it her all, giving a strong and charming performance, her white Southern accent (she was originally from Kentucky, and it really shows here) lending appropriate color to the song’s C&W stylings … but she’s simply not given enough to do.

The Country/pop tune moseys through several verses and choruses until an upward half-step shift at 2:00.