Hands down, one of the greatest tunes in Motown history, but it had a checkered past. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles did it first but Berry Gordy vetoed that as a single, so it sat unreleased for almost two years and then only as an album cut. The Isley Brothers reportedly also took a crack at the song. Marvin Gaye finally got a turn with this version but Gordy also spiked that single, so it languished on an LP. Meanwhile, Gladys Knight and the Pips did a faster, funkier version and had a Top 5 record. Gordy finally relented on Marvin’s take after 18 months when DJ’s played it as an album cut; it then became the biggest single ever for Motown at the time with seven weeks @ #1. CCR did an 11 minute version on “Cosmo’s Factory” in 1970.
No comments:
Post a Comment