“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 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.
“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, 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.
” … A real rocker wouldn’t be caught dead with his picture in magazines like Teen Beat, and it goes without saying that a band can’t be anything like The Archies,” (Spectropop) “A cartoon studio group with its own Saturday-morning TV show is just about as uncool an image as you could ever want. So it comes as no surprise that rock critics have been trashing Archies records for 30 years now.
Wouldn’t they be surprised, though, if they ever took the time to really listen to Archies records? They’d discover that this ‘bubblegum’ band cut more than a few great songs. Between September of 1968 and September of 1971, The Archies gave Saturday-morning TV its best rock ‘n’ roll since the animated Beatles crashed the kiddie airwaves three years earlier. Adults never realized how good it was . . . or so it seemed, until a song called ‘Sugar, Sugar’ was released, and rocketed into the stratosphere.”
Another track by this fictitious yet also real band was “Time for Love” (1968). Anyone who’s heard the smash hit “Sugar, Sugar” will recognize the lead vocal (Ron Dante) and the band’s distinctive overall sound. The first key change, up a minor third, hits at 0:14 — the first of many packed into the track’s compact 2.25-minute runtime! Many thanks to our regular contributor, Julianna A. from Brazil, for this delightful submission — her ninth in total for MotD.
Sometimes the greatest creators regret their creations: Think of Dr. Frankenstein and his wretched monster. A similar fate has befallen Paul Simon with his song “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”. The song originally appeared on the 1966 Simon and Garfunkel album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, featuring Dave Brubeck Quartet members Joe Morello on drums and Eugene Wright on bass.
But the song has worn out its welcome in Simon’s mind; he regards it as “cringey”. These days, he plays the song as a penance if he makes a mistake during a performance. He mentioned his newfound loathing of the song during a 2017 performance with Stephen Colbert, and again in 2024 during a New York event with Colbert. You can hear Simon and Colbert sing a fractured version of the song together below.
Harper’s Bizarre was a sunshine pop band from California whose most famous alumnus is Ted Templeman, who went on to produce hit records by The Doobie Brothers and Van Halen. Leon Russell arranged and played piano on the cover version here, which features studio stalwarts Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, and Jim Gordon.
The 1967 Harper’s Bizarre version offers an upward modulation at 1:51. Is the mod groovy or cringey — or is it more about the band’s stiff version of swing? You decide!
“If there was a Mount Rushmore for songwriters, the poetic Smokey Robinson would be permanently etched in stone alongside the illustrious likes of Lennon–McCartney, Bob Dylan and all the key standards composers,” (ChicagoConcertReviews). “The Temptations’ ‘My Girl,’ Mary Wells’ ‘My Guy,’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’ are a just a few of the more than 4,000 credits, in addition to fellow timeless tunes ‘You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me,’ ‘The Tracks of My Tears,’ ‘Ooo Baby Baby,’ ‘I Second That Emotion’ and ‘The Tears of a Clown” while fronting The Miracles throughout the 1960s and early ‘70s.”
Robinson on his early career: “‘We were the first group at Motown when Berry [Gordy] started Motown. We were there before he even started Motown, so it was just the beginning, man. A lot of energy going on. A lot of young people coming by to audition, to be signed up, hustle and bustle, and music.'”
Sticking to the preferred radio airplay runtime of that era — three minutes or less (2:58) — “Broken Hearted,” a non-single track from the Miracles sophomore album Cookin’ With the Miracles (1961), shifts up a half-step at 1:54.
“Any album (Shut Down, Vol. 2, 1964) that can begin with five minutes of material on par with ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ and ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ is going to be worth something (JohnMcFerrinMusicReviews) … The second half starts on a pretty high note with the band’s cover of ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love?’ (which would be a pretty trite choice if the song didn’t fit the band’s vocal talents so well), and ‘Keep an Eye on Summer’ at least sounds like a classic Beach Boys ballad (even if it’s not striking enough to rank as one of the band’s best).
… The best thing that ever happened to the band was for this album to not do especially well on the charts; while it wasn’t exactly a commercial dud, it struggled enough to creep up the charts for the band to realize that they were already on the verge of becoming an anachronism, and it helped make clear that the band needed to change some things.”
“Keep an Eye on Summer” begins in F# major, shifts to Bb major at 1:06, lands back in F# at 1:33, and then powers through an intense a cappella half-step key change up to G for the outro.
“‘Easy To Be Hard’ appeared in the stage musical Hair (1968). It became a smash American Top 40 hit in its own right,” (Last.FM). “It was played frequently by Top 40 radio stations well into the summer of ’69. The track spoke to the milieu of the late ’60s: Social consciousness and social injustice. For that reason, young America embraced it.” From Sleepless Critic’s review: “Before cell phones, the internet, and alternate forms of digital communication invited people to text and talk on a computer screen as an alternative to seeing someone in person, Hair highlights the value of in person camaraderie, especially when things seem to be falling apart. Set in war-torn 1968 and focusing on a tribe of hippies that could possibly be drafted, emotionally and physically holding onto each other helps them cope in a world gone mad.”
The tune was written by Galt MacDermot, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni and was first released by Suzannah Evans, Linda Compton, Paul Jabara and the company of the musical Hair in October 1967 (SecondHandSongs). It was then released as a single by Three Dog Night in July 1969.
Starting with a vamp alternating between a conflicting C major and A major, the tune eventually settles into D major partway through the verse. At 1:33, the chorus begins in G major, shifting to A major at 1:44. The verse returns and the pattern continues from there, until the final chord shifts unexpectedly to B minor.
“Stevie Wonder turned 18 years old during 1968. Since the age of 12 he had been producing hits and had become one of the most commercially successful artists for the Motown label,” (Seattle Post Intelligencer). “Motown was known for the control of its artists and their output. Wonder, however, was beginning to establish his own identity and take control of his career. His contract with the label was coming to an end and Motown desperately wanted to sign him to a new one and so began giving him leeway in the producing and recording of his albums.
Wonder co-wrote or wrote eight of the 12 tracks on For Once In My Life, plus took production credit for the first time … It was one of the four compositions credited to other songwriters that became the album’s title track and biggest hit. Ron Miller and Orlando Murden wrote ‘For Once In My Life’ for the label and not specifically for Wonder. His version, however, would become the definitive one. Artists such as The Temptations and Tony Bennett would record the song in a ballad style. Wonder would change it into an exuberant, up-tempo, and soulful classic. It reached #2 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and #1 on the Rhythm and Blues chart.”
“Wonder and his producer, Hank Cosby … sped it up, gave it a string arrangement, complete with an animated piccolo motif, and turned it into his biggest hit to date, kept from the US #1 spot only by his fellow Motowner, Marvin Gaye,” (Yahoo). “Wonder’s probable lack of enthusiasm at singing someone else’s song is concealed by his exuberant performance.” The grand scale of the tune’s arrangement, coupled with Stevie’s overflowing energy, would never hint at its short run time of only 2:49. But with apparently astounding precision, the tune’s half-step key change is situated at almost exactly the half-way mark (1:25).
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