Come See About These

JEWELS IN THE CROWN, WITH A DIFFERENT SPARKLE

“I always say choosing songs is like when you go shopping for a dress. You can have a rack of 50 beautiful dresses, but when you start trying them on, some of them look better on you than others. Some of them are more flattering, some of them fit better. That’s the same way with song selection.”

The words are those of country singer/songwriter Martina McBride, spoken to The Tennessean about her 2014 album, Everlasting. But, you’re wondering, what is she doing here in West Grand Blog on the subject of song-picking?

Well, in McBride’s case, her Everlasting selections included “Come See About Me,” that Holland/Dozier/Holland-designed dress for success from the Supremes’ collection. Now she’s back at the Motown gown rack, although this time, the choice was more likely made by the Mavericks. Their new album is released today, November 1, and it includes a version of “Once Upon A Time,” the Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells piece of couture (I know, I know, time to ditch the dress thing) from 1964. The country/Tex-Mex/rockabilly quartet has recruited McBride to wear – sorry, to sing – it with them. Which, it must be said, they all do engagingly.

Some Motown makeovers are more flattering than others. By way of evidence, there’s a list of H/D/H covers in both the Hollands’ recently published Come and Get These Memories and in Lamont’s imminent autobiography, How Sweet It Is. We learn, for example, that “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” – the song, not the book – has been manhandled by the likes of Michael Bublé, Kenny Rogers, Michael McDonald, the Grateful Dead and James Taylor, while “Come See About Me” has been dressed up – or down, depending on your point of view – by Freda Payne, Barbara Mason, Nella Dodds, the Ikettes and Martha Reeves, as well as Martina McBride and actress Rita Wilson.

Now, the point of this West Grand edition is not to delve into the hundreds (if not thousands) of Motown remakes. There aren’t enough hours in the day for that. Rather, it’s to pick out a few of the more unusual or unexpected covers, such as “Once Upon A Time” – which until now has hardly been recorded by anyone else.

Neither has “Come And Get These Memories,” but when re-rendered by Bette Midler as a ballad for her 2014 album It’s The Girls!, the song acquired a melancholy missing from Martha & the Vandellas’ 1963 original. “You make it seem like I Renee Zellwegered them,” Midler laughed in the New York Daily News when It’s The Girls! was released. “The lyrics of the song are sad. And, you know me, I love those stark, sad songs.”

Actress/singer Lynda Carter, a/k/a “Wonder Woman” in the 1970s TV series of that name, took another Holland/Dozier/Holland diamond, “Stop! In The Name Of Love,” and down-paced it for her 2018 album, Red, Rock n’ Blues.

FROM TUSKEGEE TO THE WORLD

Soft-rock and country renditions of Motown copyrights are fairly common. Few are exceptional; some are truly dull. The practice increased after the record company’s publishing arm, Jobete Music, opened its own office in Nashville in 1985, and began pitching for covers. The work of Lionel Richie lent itself to this, of course, and then in 2012 the man himself upscaled the whole idea with his album, Tuskegee.

Do you need to hear “Endless Love” made interminable with Shania Twain, “Stuck On You” Scotch-taped with Darius Rucker, or “All Night Long (All Night) sung sans sleeping pills (or weed) with Jimmy Buffett? Perhaps not, although Tuskegee sold by the truckload in America. There were even tweaks to the album for other countries: you can find copies, if you must, with a version of “Angel” performed by Richie with, er, Pixie Lott.

Lionel’s earlier years with the Commodores inspired one or two oddities, including Faith No More’s surprisingly faithful – or ironic – treatment of “Easy” on their Angel Dust album in 1992. (As a single, it was a Top 3 hit in Britain.) There was also Rob Zombie’s rip-it-up of “Brick House,” reprised in 2003 with appearances by Richie and Trina. If you seek more metallic Motown, Vanilla Fudge’s “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” from 1967 is mandatory, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Higher Ground” (1989) and Nashville Pussy’s “First I Look At The Purse” (1998) are both worth a listen. The lyrics on the latter are virtually inaudible, but that was probably the point.

“Purse” was a Smokey Robinson co-write, from one of the most-covered song collections of the past 60 years – although too many Robinson remakes have been reverential. One with a different twist was Thelma Houston’s 2007 treatment of “Ain’t That Peculiar.”

A similar reverence, or lack of imagination, has been a curse of Stevie Wonder retreads, such as “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” when covered by Engelbert Humperdinck, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Shirley Bassey and Perry Como. At least Jack White’s performance of it with the Muppets had a sense of humour.

Another Wonder ballad, “All In Love Is Fair,” has been better served, including Barbra Streisand’s sensitive 1974 interpretation. That said, she stumbled the following year with H/D/H’s “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over)” on her Lazy Afternoon album. “It sounds like she’s roped in the Three Degrees,” commented Sunday Times writer Paul Sexton. “Not very funny, girl.”

STEVIE’S ‘BOOK’ KEEPS TALKING

Actually, it was Sexton who inspired this particular West Grand topic, by drawing my attention to Ella Fitzgerald’s unusual take of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” on her 1971 album, Things Ain’t What They Used To Be. “It’s kind of good, in a bizarre way,” said Sexton, correctly. (Returning the favour, I recommend his recent interview with Claudette Robinson.)

Several singers have devoted entire albums to the works of Wonder, including Nnenna Freelon and Macy Gray, the latter with an under-appreciated replication of Talking Book. Then there’s the late bandleader/composer Hugo Montenegro’s adventurous 1974 project, Hugo In Wonder-Land, which earned the approval of the man himself. “You have taken what I write, play and sing about to an even higher level of expression,” declared Stevie at the time.

Montenegro recruited blue-chip California session players, including Wilton Felder, Hal Blaine, Larry Carlton, Carol Kaye and Bobbye Hall, even as he admitted that tackling “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life,” “Living For The City” and “Superstition” was a challenge. “These hits were the most difficult songs to treat because they have such an identifying stamp on them.” Does the 45-year-old, synthesiser-centric album stand the test of time? You decide. Like much of the material mentioned here, Hugo In Wonder-Land is available on digital streaming services.

Stevie’s stamp did not deter others. Celine Dion’s attempt (on her A New Day, Live In Las Vegas album) at “I Wish” is worth referencing, if only to demonstrate how not to revive a Wonder classic. More intriguing is the version of “Superstition” on Rhapsody In Black, a 1979 album of (mostly) Motown hits played by the London Symphony Orchestra, with the Royal Choral Society. This really did take the Sound of Young America into new territory, in which “Standing In The Shadows Of Love” resembled Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony, and “Reach Out I’ll Be There” exploded with the sound of cannons – or perhaps timpani – during the climax.

Two thoughts came to mind while listening: whether Paul Riser, the classically-trained musician whose 1960s and ’70s Motown string arrangements were rhapsodies in themselves, was familiar with the LSO album, and whether members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra heard it. If any of them happen to be reading this, now’s their chance.

But to close, let’s return to recent renderings of Jobete jewels. One is H/D/H’s “Reflections” by English alt-rock band Swervedriver, who “laze it up in their trademark morosely majestic fashion,” according to blogger Dave Segal in The Stranger. “I love it when British rock groups cover Motown songs,” he wrote, singling out Japan (the band, not the nation), Soft Cell and the Slits. The Swervedriver track came out on vinyl for this year’s Record Store Day in the U.K., in case you missed it.

Then there’s another thespian stab at the Wonder catalogue: Adrian Lester, star of television’s Hustle and (opposite Tracee Ellis Ross, no less) Girlfriends, sings “I Wish” for the BBC’s “Children In Need” charity fundraising album, Got It Covered, released on this first day of November. “I’ve been listening to Stevie Wonder for as long as I can remember,” said Lester last week.

Just as long as Martina McBride has been shopping for dresses, perhaps.

Music notes: whether or not creators earn what they deserve from streaming platforms, the fact is that an extraordinary number of songs are digitally available for 24/7 listening – and that includes the thousands of Jobete copyrights. Why, even the New Christy Minstrels’ execrable On Tour Through Motortown is there, 51 years after first release. You can digitally find most of the remakes mentioned above, from Bette to Barbra, from Martina to Macy, from Nashville Pussy to Swervedriver. Even Jack and the Muppets…