Here’s another found list, this one labeled Motown Memories. I like the fact that most of these songs are not the obvious choices.
I’m A Road Runner – Jr. Walker and the All Stars. #4 RB, #20 pop in 1966. I never owned any of his albums. Yet I remember what the cover of the album containing the song looked like. It appears on the various inner sleeves of the Supremes, Temptations, and Four Tops albums I owned.
Girl, Why You Want To Make Me Blue – the Temptations. #11 RB, #26 pop in 1964. The single just before My Girl.
Don’t Look Back – the Temptations. #15 pop, #83 RB in 1965. The B-side of My Baby.
Ask the Lonely – the Four Tops. #9 RB, #24 pop in 1965. this was covered by the Jackson Five.
I’ll Be Doggone – Marvin Gaye. #1 RB, #8 pop in 1965. His first soul #1. His first pop #1 would be I Heard It Through the Grapevine.
Beechwood 4-5789 – the Marvelettes. #7 RB, #17 pop in 1962. I’ve read that people with that real phone number were inconvenienced for months.
Too Many Fish in the Sea – the Marvelettes. #5 RB, #25 pop in 1965. I may have heard the Young Rascals version first.
Tracks of My Tears – the Miracles. #2 RB, #16 pop in 1965. Smokey Robinson!
I’m Gonna Make You Love Me – Diana Ross and the Supremes & the Temptations. #2 for three weeks RB, #2 for two weeks pop in 1969. It was kept out of the #1 spot by Marvin Gaye’s Grapevine.
Walk Away from Love – David Ruffin, #1 RB, #9 pop in 1976. A big hit from the former Temptation.
My Whole World Ended – David Ruffin, #2 RB, #9 pop in 1969.
And finally
Baby I’m for Real – the Originals. #1 for five weeks RB, #14 pop. Produced by Marvin Gaye.
That’s the end of the list, but I figure I’d add the massive hit, already mentioned twice.
I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye. #1 for seven weeks on both RB and pop. The Miracles version was famously rejected by Motown boss Berry Gordy.
But he allowed the iteration by Gladys Knight and the Pips to be released. It went #1 for six weeks RB, #2 for three weeks pop in 1966. It was kept out of the top pop spot by Daydream Believer by the Monkees, then Hello Goodbye by The Beatles.
I hope you enjoyed someone else’s Motown Memories. I know I did.
I don’t think a whole lot about hell. Well, not since I was growing up with the concept constantly slipped into every third sermon I heard.
Before Motown artists Martha and the Vandellas made it big, they sang background vocals on several of Marvin Gaye’s hits. Martha Reeves worked as a Motown secretary. They experienced major success in the first half of the 1960s with Dancing in the Streets and their signature hit, Heat Wave.
The odd thing about Super Freak by Rick James from 1981 is that I read ABOUT it a lot, but I didn’t actually HEAR it very often, due in part, I was led to believe, by its then-controversial subject matter. 