Hump Day Hit 1/25/17

I bet you think I forgot about Music Monday this week, and you’d be half right in that I practically slept through Monday after an early start to the day. So this week, let’s have a #HumpDayHit! The week can be long and arduous, so as we head downhill to the weekend we look at a song lamenting how hard it can be out there. The Spinners are an outstanding group who found a way to capture that wonderful Philly sound after they moved to Atlantic Records following a six year run with Motown. They had an array of hits with Atlantic. A wonderful time period where the songs were on point and Philippé Wynne was at his peak as one of the primary leads. In “Games People Play” however, he only provides background as Bobby Smith and Pervis Jackson give us that tired feeling of the daily grind the world throws at us. Evette Benton joins in to segue us into the chorus. All of it, including a wonderful piano break, adds up to another million seller for the group, and a top 5 hit on the pop charts. 

Music Monday Follow-Up 1/17/17

Follow up to yesterday's #MusicMonday. I love me a good crossover, and so did Motown, having quite a few acts team up for various albums. The Four Tops teamed up with The Supremes—post Diana at this point—for three different albums in two years, with the super-pairing (and 1st album) being referred to as "The Magnificent Seven". Quite fitting as they did some pretty good work covering "River Deep, Mountain High" and yesterday's selection, "Without the One You Love"; with "Without the One You Love" seeing a more typical funk production of the label at the time. Glad they kept the strings. It allows the lifting feeling of the original to remain here.

Music Monday 1/16/17

After starting off #MusicMonday with two female artists, let’s switch to four men! The Four Tops were an amazing group from Motown’s classic era, lead by the outstanding, late Levi Stubbs. They had a litany of hits over the course of their time with Motown, which ended for the first time in 1972 when the label moved to Los Angeles. This isn’t one of those hits. “Without the One You Love (Life’s Not Worth While)”, released in 1964, only peaked at #43, but the emotion they pack in it is present aplenty. As a follow up to their previous hit “Baby I Need Your Loving”, it continues along the lines of expressing how important the subject’s love is to the group. It’s a simple song with so much to give; with the echo sound, strings, and use of session vocalists The Andantes giving this a heavenly, rising feeling. And with the superb Levi Stubbs giving it his all as he always did, you can hear the emotion pouring out, even if to a melodramatic effect. So much so, that I just can’t help but sing along. While there isn’t much to the song, I wish it ran longer that its 2:47 runtime. A wonderful listen.