Raising a Glass to 45/7

RE-OPENING THAT MOTOWN JEWEL BOX

In recent weeks, Smokey Robinson has been touting the 45th anniversary of “Cruisin’.” And why not? Released on August 10, 1979, it became the biggest hit of his solo career up to that point, seven years after quitting the Miracles.

      Justice was served in another respect: Robinson had created the song with Marv Tarplin, the Georgia-born guitar genius who had been at his right hand for almost 20 years. Their other collaborations included “The Tracks Of My Tears,” “Going To A Go-Go” and “Ain’t That Peculiar.”

      “Marv’s music was slow and seductive, a grinding groove with a bluesy base,” Robinson wrote in his autobiography, “loping and light and irresistible as a warm woman’s smile.”

      “Cruisin’” sailed to the summit of the Cash Box pop charts and into the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the opening weeks of 1980. It also gave Robinson the perfect vehicle with which to return to the road, criss-crossing the U.S. that spring. He “not merely sang but caressed the ballads which are his forte,” wrote the reviewer of the tour’s opening gig in Pittsburgh, “doing warm things to both them and his audience.”

      Still, “Cruisin’” is far from the only 45 worth celebrating from 45 years ago. In fact, there’s a delightful jewel box to be re-opened, glistening with gems by Diana Ross, Teena Marie, Bonnie Pointer, Stevie Wonder, Billy Preston & Syreeta and more. Some of the background stories are worth revisiting, too.

      Plus, there’s a sparkler of an unusual type, uniting four of Motown’s superstars in tribute to the patriarch of the family, Berry Gordy Sr. “Pops, We Love You” was originally intended to be played at a summertime party to mark the elder Gordy’s 90th birthday on July 10, 1978. California-based Motown songwriters Pam Sawyer and Marilyn McLeod put it together over a weekend and rushed a demo – with McLeod singing – to Detroit, where the event was to be held.

      The party took place at the Detroit Plaza Hotel, attended by Pops’ eight children, dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and many from Motown – not least Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, who each sang a verse of “Pops, We Love You.” Later, Pam Sawyer told Yardena Arar of the Associated Press, “He loved it, which was gratifying.”

A MOMENT AT THE FUNERAL

      Gordy Sr. was also happy to allow the song to be recreated and recorded for commercial purposes by the Motown quartet. “We said we’d like to give it to everybody’s father,” recalled Marilyn McLeod, “maybe we could have a father’s day song. And he said, ‘Go ahead!’ So that transition came about, with his permission.” Sadly, Pops died (on November 21, 1978) before its release, although the recording was played at his funeral.

      The single charted moderately in early 1979, and was also made available in a 12-inch disco version and as a seven-inch 45 on red, heart-shaped vinyl. This was followed by an album containing both versions of the song, coupled with other, appropriate tracks, including Gaye’s “God Is Love,” Robinson’s “Mother’s Son” and Tata Vega’s “Come In Heaven (Earth Is Calling).”

      Two of those who honoured Pops had new studio albums of their own in the spring of ’79: Smokey Robinson’s Where There’s Smoke (from which “Cruisin’” came) and Diana Ross’ The Boss. The latter – arguably one of the singer’s finer albums, if not the finest – was entirely written and produced by Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson. Its May release was preceded by a single of the dynamic title track, which also spun off a 12-inch disco remix.

      Ross recorded The Boss at Sigma Sound in New York City, where Ashford and Simpson lived, and it was another sign of her move away from Los Angeles, and of her determination to be independent, personally and professionally. “Diana had some things she wanted to say in a particular way,” Simpson told Call Her Miss Ross author J. Randy Taraborrelli. On the Billboard Hot 100, “The Boss” proved to be her first Top 20 hit in three years; the album ranked equally well.

      Another of 1979’s superlative Motown singles was initially conceived as a Diana Ross duet – with Rick James. He claimed in his autobiography that Berry Gordy had asked him to produce Diana, which was likely because of the impact of James’ debut album for the company, Come Get It! By this recollection, he quickly wrote “I’m A Sucker For Your Love” for the pair of them to sing. “She heard and loved it,” said James. “The plan was to do the album quickly.”

      Then, it seems, Gordy decided that Buffalo’s punk-funkster should produce three or four tracks with Ross, rather than an entire album. This was not to James’ liking, and – somewhat offended – he opted instead to write and produce for newcomer Teena Marie. “I’m A Sucker For Your Love” became her first Motown single as a duet with James, and a Top 10 smash on the R&B charts that summer. (Curiously, it couldn’t cross to pop.)

      Thus, it stands as one more 1979 seven-inch worth remembering 45 years later.

THE RHYTHM AND THE BEAT

      So does Bonnie Pointer’s “Heaven Must Have Sent You,” in whichever version of her two remakes of the Holland/Dozier/Holland song appeals the most. Her two remakes? The first appeared in late ’78 on the singer’s Motown debut album, which was produced by Jeffrey Bowen and Berry Gordy, yet most of the attention at that stage was given to “Free Me From My Freedom/Tie Me To A Tree (Handcuff Me),” a provocative song which spent time in the R&B Top 10. In March 1979, the record company lifted “Heaven Must Have Sent You” as a regular single – but when it was re-imagined to exploit the then-prevalent disco market, things got lively.

      Pointer said she was inspired to deliver “Heaven” differently after hearing “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People. “That gave me the idea to sing it like that,” she told blogger Alan Mercer in 2013. “That’s where we got the rhythm and the beat. So I called up Berry Gordy and told him that’s what we had to do. I didn’t know I was going to scat. That was impromptu. I just did it in the moment out of inspiration. Aretha’s sister Carolyn Franklin sang background for me on the song.”

      Pointer’s second edition of “Heaven Must Have Sent You” (complete with McKinley Jackson’s striking string arrangement) became Motown’s first digitally-recorded release, produced on 3M multi-track gear at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. “Motown isn’t really promoting the disc as an audiophile release,” reported Billboard, “yet a more impressive digital demo track would be hard to find.” It was made available as a 12-inch single (at $4.98, the equivalent of more than $20 today) in June ’79, with the original analogue version on the flipside. The upshot was a No. 11 hit on the Hot 100, and Pointer’s biggest solo success.

      Naturally, the music industry’s evolution to digital appealed to another Motown star. Always tuned in to new technology, Stevie Wonder recorded and edited his Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants on Sony digital equipment. He had written and finished the score by December 1978 for the film’s Academy Award qualifying run, but subsequently chose to add material to the Motown 2LP set issued the following October.

      “I think it is a better album than it was then,” he told the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Hilburn. “You want to leave people enough room to use their imagination when they listen to an album, but you need to give them clues to keep them on certain paths…clues to what you are thinking.”

      But trade, consumer and critical reaction to Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants proved disappointing, although it did briefly reach the Top 5 of the Billboard charts and earn a Grammy nomination for best original score for a movie or TV special. Arguably, the project’s highlight was the lead single, “Send One Your Love,” a quintessential Wonder ballad that also touched the Top 5 just before Christmas. Goldmine writer Richard Challen called it the project’s lifeline, “a callback to the Wonder of old amidst a twenty-track sprawl of baffling, challenging music.” He added, “It’s the musical equivalent of gossamer; listening to the song on repeat feels like mainlining pure sunshine.”

GOD IS LOVE

      Wonder’s former wife, Syreeta Wright, had a bit part in Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants as lyricist for (and vocalist on) “Come Back As A Flower,” but more substantially, she followed that by recording “With You I’m Born Again” with fellow Motown act, Billy Preston. It, too, was for a movie, starting life in the soundtrack of a 1979 Columbia Pictures comedy, Fast Break. Berry Gordy had heard about the film late the previous year, and contacted former Motown executive Suzanne de Passe, who by then had moved into talent management; Preston and Wright were early recruits. De Passe arranged a meeting for her two clients with composer David Shire and lyricist Carol Connors.

      That January, the movie’s imminent release meant that everyone had to hustle to create and record the soundtrack within 48 hours. Once completed, there was more time to recut material for the soundtrack album, which was to be issued by Motown. For “With You I’m Born Again,” Connors told Billboard that “I heard the melody and I went crazy. But it was a melody looking for a lyric. The idea was where do I find a concept for this melody?” Eventually, she did. “When we saw the movie, we understood it was a romantic song,” Preston said. “But, I think of it as religious because God is love, so it all inter-relates.”

      Motown issued the Fast Break soundtrack album in March, with a single of Preston & Syreeta’s “Go For It” out in April. It made no impression, much like the film, but by November, “With You I’m Born Again” was selected as a single and began to accrue airplay. By year’s end, it had charted, and by the spring of 1980, it peaked inside the Top 5 of national best-seller lists.

      Of course, the seven hits cited above were but a few of the 40-plus singles sent to market by Motown during 1979. Several of those not highlighted here were big sellers, too, such as the Commodores’ “Still” and “Sail On.” Others were commercial disappointments, including Mary Wilson’s solo debut, “Red Hot,” and Scherrie Payne & Susaye Greene’s “Leaving Me Was The Best Thing You’ve Ever Done.” A couple of Marvin Gaye singles also under-performed (“A Funky Space Reincarnation,” “Ego Tripping Out”), the first from the previous year’s Here, My Dear, the second in isolation.

      Not forgetting Smokey Robinson’s first 45 of ’79. It was a disco treatment of “Get Ready,” originally a hit for the Temptations. Upon hearing the album where it was installed, Berry Gordy was in no doubt. “Your disco thing, Smoke, is cookin’,” he said. “That’s the track.”

      Even the boss can be wrong.

Anniversary notes: here’s a playlist of the seven superlative singles celebrated above. No more need be said. It’s what’s in the grooves that counts.