Flipping Motown’s Hits
HOT 100 HOSPITALITY FOR THE OTHER SIDE
“Dad, what’s a B side?”
Try explaining that to your children – or grandchildren – in a world of digital delivery and music streaming.
Now, owning vinyl may be cool for some of the older kids, but mostly when it’s in the form of albums, not singles. And often the coolness lies in the artwork, not the music. Who needs to actually play them? (“Dad, do you still have your old record player?”)
Back in the day, of course, checking out the B side of each new Motown 45 was important, as with any new music by your favourite artist. Occasionally, that flipside seemed better than the topside – or at least as fine.
Berry Gordy’s team was often artful about the B sides, choosing, say, a ballad if the A side was uptempo, or picking a track to illustrate an act’s versatility. Then there were the in-house favours, bestowed because a Jobete songwriter could earn substantial royalties from having the flipside of a hit.
And sometimes the B side also made the charts, activated by a sharp-eared disc jockey or a sagacious radio programmer. Once in a while, the flip even outplayed and outsold the A side. Remember “My Cherie Amour”?
So here’s the deal this week: a timely, chronological tabulation of the Motown flips which reached the Billboard Hot 100. Timely? Well, next month, it’ll be 60 years since Hitsville’s first B side did just that. The data below includes the title of each charted B side, its Hot 100 peak, and the date of that peak, plus a few other details. With luck, this survey covers all such titles – but please advise if any have been overlooked.
Now, it’s hardly surprising that it was the Miracles who scored the first Hot 100 Motown flipside, six months after “Shop Around” became their first Top 10 crossover hit. Of course, the latter’s B side (“Who’s Lovin’ You”) was said to have been the original plug side, but it didn’t chart in Billboard, and Smokey’s A-class advice from his mother soon captured the public’s imagination instead. Anyway, let’s get down to business…
THE MIRACLES “Broken Hearted” #97 (July 3, 1961)
The A side was “Mighty Good Lovin’,” which peaked at #51 on August 14 that year, but Billboard rival Cash Box called it correctly when reviewing the Tamla single in June: “Keep an eye on the intriguing string-filled shuffler, ‘Broken Hearted.’ It could be a double-header.” And it was, albeit a modest one. The flip was authored by Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy, and produced by the boss. Also, this was the first Tamla single to feature the globe logo on the label copy, all contained in a rather nifty picture sleeve.
MARY WELLS “Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right” #100 (March 23, 1963)
“Laughing Boy” was the A side, and it reached its #15 chart maximum on March 30. “Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right,” like Motown’s first flipped hit with the Miracles, was written by Smokey and BG, and since Mary had just collected three consecutive Top 10 hits on the Hot 100, the interest in anything new by her was to be expected. Before year’s end, a second Wells B side would perform even better (stay tuned).
THE MARVELETTES “Forever” #78 (June 1, 1963)
The A side was “Locking Up My Heart,” which peaked at #44 on May 4, 1963. Notably, that was the first hit for Holland/Dozier/Holland, while “Forever” was the work of Brian Holland, Freddie Gorman and Lamont Dozier, with Wanda Young singing lead. This endearing ballad was subsequently waxed by Marvin Gaye, Martha & the Vandellas, and Stevie Wonder. Philadelphia’s Orlons cut it, too, as did Carla Thomas, Brenda & the Tabulations, Barbara Mason, and Baby Washington & Don Gardner. The last of these even bubbled under the Hot 100 in 1973. A good song can last forever.
LITTLE STEVIE WONDER “Fingertips – Pt. 2” #1 (August 10, 1963)
The biggest B side in Motown history was pretty much ignored when first released underneath the mostly instrumental “part one” on May 5, 1963. As Berry Gordy realised the second part’s greater appeal, the flipped 45 was reissued 16 days later. With that, pop radio came to the party: at WAKR in Akron, Ohio, for example, the track was one of disc jockey Bob Lee’s two “picks to click” in the first week of June (the other was Richard Chamberlain’s “True Love,” which illustrates how “square” ’63 could also be). On the left coast, “Fingertips – Pt. 2” topped KZAM Seattle’s “Fantastic 40” before the end of the month. Soon enough, Joe Swift’s immortal “What key, what key?” was heard nationwide.
MARY WELLS “What’s Easy For Two Is So Hard For One” #29 (February 29, 1964)
The A side was “You Lost The Sweetest Boy,” which peaked at #22 on November 9, 1963 to become another impressive early hit penned by Holland/Dozier/Holland. “What’s Easy…” was a Smokey jewel, of course, and as argued in the always-impressive liner notes of The Complete Motown Singles series, none of the song’s covers (including those by the Temptations and the Marvelettes) “have come anywhere near capturing the magic exhibited by Mary on her penultimate Motown release.” This flipside peaked at #68 in early November, then dropped off the chart – only to return at the end of the year, and eventually reach the Top 30.
MARVIN GAYE “I’m Crazy ’Bout My Baby” #77 (November 2, 1963)
The A side was “Can I Get A Witness,” Gaye’s first smash sourced from Motown’s hottest new creative team, Holland/Dozier/Holland, and it topped out at #22 on the Hot 100 on December 28. Both sides attracted the attention of Britons: Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers recorded “I’m Crazy ’Bout My Baby,” while the Rolling Stones sought out “Witness” for their debut album. Those international royalties started flowing.
MARVIN GAYE & MARY WELLS “What’s The Matter With You Baby” #17 (July 4, 1964)
The A side was “Once Upon A Time,” co-written and produced by Motown’s A&R chief, Mickey Stevenson, and it peaked at #19 on June 6. That was two slots short of this flipside’s chart achievement – on Independence Day. By then, Mary Wells was asserting her own independence from Motown; she had recently turned 21 and decided, with the encouragement of husband Herman Griffin, to seek a richer record deal elsewhere. We all know how well that went. What was the matter with you, girl?
JR. WALKER & THE ALL STARS “Cleo’s Back” #43 (November 20, 1965)
The A side was “Shake And Fingerpop,” the band’s third consecutive Top 40 pop success, and it peaked at #29 on the Hot 100 of September 4, 1965. Their gutbucket R&B was evidently growing in popularity nationwide: “Cleo’s Back” (written by Jr. Walker’s guitarist, Willie Woods) clicked big with stations in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and Milwaukee, and even climbed to #1 on Billboard’s regional retail chart for New Orleans.
MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS “Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things)” #70 (January 22, 1966)
This H/D/H composition was initially earmarked for Kim Weston, but then the Vandellas were given the shot. Something similar happened to the A side: “You’ve Been In Love Too Long” was considered for Stevie Wonder, but the Vandellas got the release, which they took to #36 on the Hot 100 on September 18, 1965. The flip flowed up the charts as the new year dawned. Two decades later, Jean Carn recorded the song – shortly before she signed to Motown.
THE TEMPTATIONS “Don’t Look Back” #83 (January 15, 1966)
The A side was “My Baby,” which peaked at #13 on November 27, 1965, but “Don’t Look Back” – featuring the unforgettable lead of Paul Williams – is arguably the better-known song today. That’s due to more than 20 subsequent remakes, ranging from Bobby Womack and Al Green to Peter Tosh (yes, with Mick Jagger) and Youssou N’dour – not to mention Southside Johnny, Elvis Costello and, er, the Sugababes. Given that popularity, it won’t surprise you to be reminded that “Don’t Look Back” was written by Smokey Robinson, with fellow Miracle Ronnie White.
THE ELGINS “Darling Baby” #72 (May 7, 1966)
The Elgins burned bright but fast at Motown, earning back-to-back Top 10 hits on the R&B charts in 1966 with this track and “Heaven Must Have Sent You.” Both were the work of Holland/Dozier/Holland. The A side of “Darling Baby” was another H/D/H contender, “Put Yourself In My Place,” but it could only manage #92 on the Hot 100 on March 5 of ’66. Six years later, “Darling Baby” exerted its R&B chart charms by way of Jackie (“Precious, Precious”) Moore.
JR. WALKER & THE ALL STARS “Shoot Your Shot” #44 (August 12, 1967)
This was a flipside which fired its way onto the Hot 100 more than a year after first release. It was originally hitched to “(I’m A) Road Runner” when the latter became a Top 20 vehicle for Autry DeWalt & Co. on June 11, 1966. Twelve months later, Motown opted to reissue “Shoot Your Shot” as a topside, armed with enough ammunition to crack the Top 50 by August. The tune was written by Walker and his band’s drummer, James Graves, together with engineer Lawrence Horn – a man later at the heart of a real, non-metaphorical shooting, as outlined here.
STEVIE WONDER “Hey Love” #90 (May 27, 1967)
It didn’t take long for R&B radio outlets like WIGO (“Atlanta’s Music Guide”) and WBEE Chicago (“The Soul Sound”) to jump onto “Hey Love” when it came out as the coupling of “Travlin’ Man” in February 1967, then pop stations sampled its delights. Both sides were produced by Clarence Paul, a central figure in Wonder’s early artistic development. “I used to sing all the demos,” he told me once, “[and] I used to try to sing them real good so he’d have something to beat out.” In this case, mission accomplished, and “Hey Love” followed “Travlin’ Man” onto the Hot 100.
THE FOUR TOPS “I’ll Turn To Stone” #76 (August 12, 1967)
The titanic talent of the Tops meant that most of the attention was going to be on the, uh, topside of their singles – in this case, “7-Rooms Of Gloom,” which was as dark a lyric as any from Holland/Dozier/Holland. Even so, it peaked at #14 on the Hot 100 on June 17, 1967. The flipside, “I’ll Turn To Stone,” was rather more melodic, as well as being one of the first H/D/H songs where R. Dean Taylor also earned a writing credit. “Brian and Lamont would come up with the melody,” he told Blues & Soul in 1974, “and then I’d work on the lyric.”
MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL “If This World Were Mine” #68 (March 30, 1968)
The exuberant A side was “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You,” written by Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol and Vernon Bullock, and it peaked at #10 on January 20, 1968. By contrast, the tender “If This World Were Mine” was authored by Gaye. “[Marvin] and Harvey were the best of friends,” Bristol recalled in The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits. “The four of us were like a little family thing, people who liked each other, because Harvey and Marvin and myself were married into the same family.” That’s the Gordy gang, if you were wondering.
MARTHA REEVES & THE VANDELLAS “Forget Me Not” #93 (June 29, 1968)
Motown writer Sylvia Moy is usually associated with the mid ’60s renaissance of Stevie Wonder, but “Forget Me Not” remains one of her memorable songs for others. Authentic, too, since the Vietnam-era lyric was inspired by Moy’s brother Melvin, who served in that Asian war. The A side of this single, “I Promise To Wait My Love,” peaked at #62 on May 25, 1968, marking a chart slide for Reeves and her group from which they never really recovered. In Britain, though, the love endured: “Forget Me Not” became a #11 hit when reissued in its own right in 1971, and remains a favourite on boomer-targeted radio stations to this day.
STEVIE WONDER “My Cherie Amour” #4 (July 26, 1969)
And this is Sylvia Moy at her most accomplished, responsible for co-authoring Wonder’s fifth Top 5 hit of the ’60s with the musician himself and producer Hank Cosby. It went to market in January ’69 as the flipside of “I Don’t Know Why” (which peaked at #39 on March 22) but took on its own remarkable chart life by the summer. For the song, of course, it was only the beginning. Before that year’s end, it had been recorded by middle-of-the-roadsters Andy Williams, Al Martino and Tony Bennett. In subsequent decades, Engelbert Humperdinck, Quincy Jones, Frankie Valli, Donny Osmond, Rod Stewart and the Count Basie Orchestra have been among those smitten. “Amour” runs deep.
DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES “The Young Folks” #69 (August 23, 1969)
Brothers were at work on this modest, two-sided hit for Motown’s flagship act: Berry Gordy wrote and produced the A side, “No Matter What Sign You Are,” with Hank Cosby, while George Gordy co-wrote and produced “The Young Folks.” The result was Diana Ross & the Supremes’ first flipside hit on the Hot 100, peaking at soixante-neuf after the topside maxed out at #31 on June 28. The next year, the Jackson 5’s version of “The Young Folks” was the flipside of their chart-topping “ABC.”
SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES “Here I Go Again” #37 (October 18, 1969)
The earlier success of 1967’s “I Second That Emotion” ensured that its co-writer, Al Cleveland, would continue to work productively with Smokey Robinson. Thus, both this hit flip and its topside, “Doggone Right,” were penned with Cleveland, who bonded personally as well as professionally with Robinson, and sang backup for him on tour. Still, the single’s chart peaks were modest by Miracles measures, with “Doggone Right” topping out at #32 on July 26, 1969, three months before “Here I Go Again” followed in its Top 40 footsteps.
SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES “Darling Dear” #100 (May 2, 1970)
Logical if disappointing: Smokey Robinson’s new video series for AARP features the stories of his best-known songs, about which he’s reminisced so many times. No chance, then, that we’ll hear about his first Hot 100 hit of the 1970s, “Point It Out” (which reached its #37 peak on January 10, 1970) or its coupling, “Darling Dear,” which scraped into the last rung of the chart at the beginning of May. The latter song’s authors included George Gordy, who also produced the track, and spouse Rosemary. Keeping it in the family, so to speak.
MARVIN GAYE “Gonna Give Her All The Love I’ve Got” #67 (March 21, 1970)
Life was soon to change for Marvin Gaye, despite Motown’s wish to keep him on a familiar path. Both this flip and its topside, “How Can I Forget,” were co-written and produced by Norman Whitfield, who had previously cut “Gonna Give Her All The Love I’ve Got” with Jimmy Ruffin. Gaye’s update attracted believers at such R&B stalwarts as WDAS Philadelphia and WVON Chicago, as well as Top 40’s KYA San Francisco and WTIX New Orleans. The A side peaked at #41 on February 7, but it was as nothing compared to what Marvin was to experience the following year.
MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL “California Soul” #56 (May 16, 1970)
Tragedy tinged this single, released on March 16 that year – four days after Tammi Terrell’s death. The topside was “The Onion Song,” but regardless of Motown’s promotion priorities, radio spun both sides, and Billboard decided to list them together. However, it alternated the lead title on the Hot 100: “California Soul,” which was the creation of Nick Ashford (who recorded the song himself, pre-Motown) and Valerie Simpson, was listed first when it peaked at #56 on May 16. The following week, “The Onion Song” was shown as the topside as it reached its #50 peak.
STEVIE WONDER “Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer” #78 (July 3, 1971)
“We Can Work It Out,” this single’s plug side, grabbed all the attention from the get-go – as would any Beatles remake with this much funk and soul – and it swiftly rose to its #13 peak on the first day of May. By June, attention turned to the melancholy flip, a preview of material from Wonder’s Where I’m Coming From, and one of its nine songs written with his new wife, Syreeta. “Love that song,” the track’s arranger Paul Riser declared in the liner notes of The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 11A: 1971. “Stevie always took ’em to the limit. He was always fresh. He never conformed. He was always outside of the box.” Amen to that, Paul.
EDDIE KENDRICKS “It’s So Hard For Me To Say Good-Bye” #88 (June 12, 1971)
“Eddie really had to be produced,” producer Frank Wilson once explained about Kendricks’ first solo recordings, “especially when it came to convincing him about the lower register.” The singer might have been right about that: radio pretty much rejected the dramatic A side of this single, “This Used To Be The Home Of Johnnie Mae,” turning instead to its flip, also produced by Wilson. And although sales were ultimately modest, at least the record got the ex-Temptation onto the Hot 100. Two years later, he was to rule the roost there.
EDDIE KENDRICKS “Eddie’s Love” #77 (July 8, 1972)
Among Motown’s last recordings in Detroit in early ’72 were “Let Me Run Into Your Lovely Heart” and this coupling, “Eddie’s Love,” both written by Frank Wilson and Anita Poree. The plug track failed to impress at retail and radio, but programmers did buy into the flip – hey, it hit #1 on the Kentuckiana countdown of Top 40 WAKY Louisville – and helped it to hustle into the Hot 100. “Eddie was very good to work with,” said Wilson. “We basically were interested in taking him just a little bit more pop.”
As the 1970s advanced, Motown’s tally of flipside hits on the Hot 100 dwindled considerably, in large part because of more tightly-formatted programming at music radio and increased use of audience research to determine playlists. Today, radio still influences what tens of millions of listeners hear, but digital delivery has permanently altered the landscape – and the concept of a B side has been consigned to history. Hasn’t it, son?
Music notes: the latest West Grand playlist features the flipsides which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, as cited above. A second WGB playlist here offers a selection of (mostly) non-Motown remakes of those B side hits. The exceptions are songs not recorded beyond Hitsville: namely, Barrett Strong’s original of “Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right,” the Jackson 5’s versions of “The Young Folks” and “Darling Dear,” and the post-Ross Supremes’ take on “It’s So Hard For Me To Say Goodbye.”