A Quintet in California
SOULFUL RESPONDING ON SUNSET
When each new year reports for duty, music writers inevitably salute the most memorable long-players that were released a half-century earlier.
“These classic 1973 albums turn 50 in 2023,” declared Britain’s NME within the first few sunrises of January. There followed the list, including titles by Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Black Sabbath, Wings, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and – of course – Stevie Wonder (Innervisions) and Marvin Gaye (Let’s Get It On).
Perhaps surprisingly, Diana Ross (Touch Me In The Morning) was also included. The album “showed new strings to her bow,” judged the unnamed NME writer, “including the balladry of the title track. It was also the record that would set her on the path to diva-hood, and influencing some of pop’s most powerful female voices to come.”
In the Motown canon, there are other 1973 albums of significance – not that NME (or, indeed, most other media compilers of such lists) would dig deep enough. From a commercial perspective, Diana & Marvin deserved to be cited, especially because it chart-performed better in Britain (No. 6 peak) than at home (No. 26). But the album lacked critical kudos, compounded by the two singers’ apparent lack of empathy, including Ross’ disapproval of Gaye’s smoking habits in the studio.
So what about other Motown releases of the day?
This was the company’s first full calendar year headquartered in Los Angeles, with all the implications of deserting Detroit. During the opening weeks of ’73, there was excitement permeating its Sunset Boulevard HQ – but that owed much to the prospect of Diana Ross earning an acting Oscar for Lady Sings The Blues. The nominations were to be announced on February 12, the winners six weeks later.
Adding to the anticipation? The fact that, during Oscar nominations week, the Lady soundtrack album was Top 10 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. So was Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book – at No. 3, no less – while another five of the previous year’s releases occupied the Top 100. A lot for Motown’s 1973 output to match or exceed, evidently.
So here – leaving aside Wonder, Ross and Gaye – are West Grand Blog’s nominations for the year’s significant albums, in order of release. Spoiler alert: the choices are entirely subjective.
February 21: Gladys Knight & the Pips, Neither One Of Us (Soul 737). Yes, I know, they were gone (although, technically, the group’s contract with Buddah Records did not take effect until March 23, 1973). But this album sustained their reputation for exceptional performances on disc, not only with the title track, but also with the likes of “Daddy Could Swear, I Declare” (co-written by Knight, even) and “This Child Needs Its Father.”
There were more producers at work (six, compared to three on their previous studio album) and yet the outcome was no less of a Knight-time union. She later claimed that Motown had lost its focus as R&B was enjoying “a huge surge in crossover popularity,” but that didn’t stop “Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)” earning the quartet their first Grammy. Moreover, the album went Top 10 on the pop charts – a peak they had never previously achieved. A bittersweet goodbye, indeed.
April 18: Willie Hutch, The Mack (Motown 766). Although mostly instrumental for the soundtrack of a “blaxploitation” movie made in the wake of Shaft, this set emphasised Hutch’s skill and versatility. He composed, arranged and produced the entire score, while also playing (guitar) and singing on it. Plus, the lead-off track, “Brother’s Gonna Work It Out,” yielded his first-ever hit single as a vocalist.
At the same time, Hutch became an essential player in the making of Smokey Robinson’s first solo album, and was also hitting hit the road as a performer, opening for the Temptations and Ike & Tina Turner. That said, Motown preferred him as a writer/producer. “One of Berry’s philosophies,” Hutch once told In The Basement, “was that writers should keep writing and producers should keep producing. Because singers were a dime a dozen.”
May 18: Eddie Kendricks, Eddie Kendricks (Tamla 327). His crystal falsetto was the light of the Temptations, but it took Kendricks two years to find a commercial balance on his own. “Having sung with a group for all those years,” producer/songwriter Frank Wilson told me, “Eddie [as a solo artist] really had to be produced – especially when it came to convincing him about the lower register.”
Yet Wilson’s confidence in the singer was affirmed in every respect by “Keep On Truckin’,” an eight-minute, progressive Motown masterpiece of the 1970s and a Hot 100 chart-topper. Another album highpoint – and its first 45 – was “Darling Come Back Home.” That was seen by the producer as an out-of-the-box smash, before “Keep On Truckin’ ” was even considered. “But,” he admitted, “I guess somehow we lost it in the mix.” The follow-up more than compensated.
June 19: Smokey Robinson, Smokey (Tamla 328). “A very special thanks to Willie Hutch for contributing to this album his fantastic talents as a record producer.” Such was Robinson’s gratitude, expressed on the LP liners. “Suzanne de Passe had suggested that maybe he should try working with other producers,” Hutch said when interviewed for The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits. The pair cut two tracks together – “and then Smokey called me back and said, ‘Willie, I want you to do the whole album.’ ”
The result was an underrated jewel, glistening with at least three of Robinson’s finest solo outings: “Just My Soul Responding,” “Sweet Harmony” and “Baby Come Close.” The first of these was distinctive because of XIT member Tom Bee’s Indian chant, but remains relevant to this day because of its socio-political lyric. “Sweet Harmony” was an engaging tribute to Robinson’s time with the Miracles (“You were the prelude for the song the village minstrels play”), and “Baby Come Close” was the album’s first Top 40 hit. “I cut most of the tracks,” said Willie Hutch, “and just gave them to Smokey and he put the vocals on.” It was that simple? Sure.
September 12: Gloria Jones, Share My Love (Motown 790). The least commercially successful of these 1973 must-have albums also boasts one of the more unlikely backstories. Best-known at Motown as a songwriter (“If I Were Your Woman,” “Just Seven Numbers”), Jones was inspired to return to recording after a visit to Britain showed that her pre-Motown work – notably, Northern Soul classics “Heartbeat” and “Tainted Love” – was revered there.
Share My Love displayed an unusual stylistic mix – part rock, part soul – which was not the Motown norm, even though the Norm(an) Whitfield vibe was evident on the title track, and his preferred arranger, Paul Riser, worked on the project. “I was searching to understand my purpose,” Jones told A. Scott Galloway for the liner notes of a CD reissue of the album in 2009, “and was so pleased Mr. Gordy allowed me to explore new ideas after so many years of rejection.”
In the event, it was Neither One Of Us from the above quintet which sold the most, although Eddie Kendricks briefly claimed a Top 20 berth on the pop charts. It took Smokey Robinson another seven albums before he achieved that, while Willie Hutch and Gloria Jones never did.
So it was Motown’s superstars who solidified the bottom line during that first full year on the coast. In addition to Neither One Of Us, the 1973 releases which went Top 10 on the main Billboard album chart were Touch Me In The Morning, Innervisions, Let’s Get It On and the Temptations’ Masterpiece. Given that all four of those acts were signed more than ten years earlier, Hitsville in Hollywood clearly needed to work on breaking new talent.