‘A Sweeter Song Than the Birds in the Trees’
THE TEMPTATIONS TAKE IT TO THE TOP
It was just a couple of weeks ago that Billboard published its list of the 500 “best pop songs” of the past 65 years, to celebrate the latest anniversary of the trade magazine’s Hot 100 chart, first introduced in 1958.
“There’s been relatively little attempt to properly canonize modern pop’s greatest works and practitioners,” declared the Billboard feature’s introduction, while noting that in this instance, the top 500 were chosen by its own editorial team. And so, there was “My Girl” by the Temptations, placed – as it should be – high in the tabulation. At No. 3, to be precise.
But, hey, who needs any such canonization to return to the topic of one of Motown’s most enduring, exemplary hits? And no, there’ll be no mention here of the song’s many subsequent versions – standing in the shadow of the Temptations – by the New Christy Minstrels, the Rolling Stones, Barry Manilow, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Phil Collins, the 82nd Airborne Division All-American Chorus and hundreds of others…
Gordy 7038, as released on December 21, 1964
Instead, this revisit will recall some of the circumstances of the record’s creation and its creators, a mere 59 years ago.
Music aside for a moment, there is a timeless image associated with “My Girl,” capturing the occasion when a bathrobe-clad Smokey Robinson tutored the Tempts on the lyrics and lines of a new composition he thought could be a hit for them. This was one of several photographs taken backstage at New York’s Apollo Theater by Hit Parader journalist Don Paulsen, when the Miracles and the Temptations were playing the venue for a week in October 1964, with a line-up which also included Garnet Mimms, the Vibrations and Irma Thomas. (The Miracles were the headliners.)
Perched prominently on a shelf by a mirror, David Ruffin is seen holding a cigarette in one hand and what is likely a lyric sheet in the other, as the song’s writer explains his objectives and hopes to the Temptations, who are reflected in that mirror. (Unseen in this signature shot is Robinson’s colleague in the Miracles, Ronnie White, co-author of “My Girl,” but he actually was present.)
Robinson had brought with him to the Apollo a small tape reel – the Scotch-branded box is visible in the photo, at his feet – and a portable playback machine. This he used for the group to hear the basic instrumental track of “My Girl,” cut with the Funk Brothers on September 25 at Motown. “He taught us to sing the parts as he heard them and [to] perfect those intricate harmonies,” remembered Otis Williams in his autobiography, Temptations.
It was some weeks earlier — in August — that Robinson, for the first time, had seen and heard the Temptations with Ruffin as a lead voice, after he was recruited to replace Elbridge “Al” Bryant; the location was Detroit’s 20 Grand nightclub. He witnessed the new recruit being given a then-rare spotlight to sing the Drifters’ “Under The Boardwalk” and his own 1961 solo side, “Action Speaks Louder Than Words,” that night. The Motown vice president was, according to Otis Williams, “astounded.”
‘THE MELODY JUST CAME’
Thus motivated by Ruffin’s “gruff, tough baritone voice,” Robinson shaped “My Girl” specifically for the Temptations. “I figured that if he sang something sweet and sincere, the contrast would connect with girls who listened to the radio and bought records,” Robinson later told journalist Marc Myers. “To bring that out, I imagined a pulsating, heartbeat tempo. I already had the key and chord changes in mind. The melody just came.”
The “My Girl” moment, photographed by Don Paulsen, signed by Smokey, Otis and Paul Riser, hanging in the office of Universal Music’s Harry Weinger
After the Apollo woodshedding, Robinson took the Tempts into the Motown studio on November 10. “We recorded our vocals over a basic track,” observed Otis Williams, “so what we heard was basically bass, drums and guitar.” In other words, the alchemy of James Jamerson, Benny Benjamin and Robert White, respectively.
“It might be the simplest bass part that Jamerson ever played, and one of the most iconic – particularly the three-note motif in the intro: four repetitions of G–C–C,” says Allan Slutsky, the musician’s biographer and the architect of the Standing In The Shadows Of Motown movie. “I think he consciously kept things simple to allow Robert White’s signature guitar then to shine through.
“As for Robert, that thumbnail on his picking played an indispensable role in the sonic tone on that theme – which was played on a big-bodied Gibson L5, an instrument Robert favoured because his idol, Wes Montgomery, played the same thing.”
For the drum track, Slutsky is “pretty sure” that it was Benjamin’s work. “The track is loaded with his signature drum fill, signalling the end of phrases and the beginning of new ones: tight snare roll, two individual snare hits, and then the tom.”
But what lifts “My Girl” to greater heights instrumentally may just be the strings and horns arrangement by a 21-year-old Paul Riser, who was relatively new at Motown, having begun there as a session trombonist circa 1962. Initially, there were doubts about the track: according to Otis Williams, the group didn’t feel anything special about it until they heard the strings.
“I think what happened got ‘My Girl’ to the point where they didn’t quite know what to do with it,” said Riser during a Motown 50 podcast interview. “According to the Temptations, they really didn’t like the song.” Then Robinson brought it to Riser, “to see if I could do something to take it to another level.”
THE BIG ONE, DELIVERED
That’s evidently what the strings achieved. “With my jazz background, I would just listen to the rhythm and get a feel for it,” Riser told me when interviewed for The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but just what was natural – and it worked. My classical training helped because it kept me in a protective framework, but it was a matter of a learning process. I learned how my strings and the horns were to fit and make this thing better, not to add on just for the sake of it, but really to make it work.”
Motown’s vice president at the turntable
Finally, David, Eddie, Paul, Melvin and Otis were sold. “We listened in the studio as Smokey added ‘the sweetening,’ ” Williams wrote in Temptations, “and by the time he was finished with the mix, it was the most gorgeous, magical love song I’d ever heard. There was no question in our minds that we had the big one here.”
When Robinson brought the completed version into Motown’s weekly Quality Control meeting, there were one or two doubters. Business affairs executive Ralph Seltzer, for one, wasn’t sure that it was strong enough, but the man whose team had to promote the record to radio, Barney Ales, was certain. This was a hit, and he wanted to get going.
Released on December 21, 1964, “My Girl” swiftly earned its place on the airwaves. Dearborn’s WKNR and New York’s WMCA were among early believers, and others piled in before January was even halfway through. The first radio station to rank the record at No. 1? It appears to have been R&B-formatted WSID-FM in Baltimore, Maryland, home of the so-called 300-pound King of Soul, Paul “Fat Daddy” Johnson.
Two months later, the rest of the nation fell into line, and Smokey Robinson pocketed his $1,000 bonus for creating a Number One pop hit – Motown’s third on the Billboard Hot 100. Moreover, “My Girl” was the first Number One on Billboard’s reinstated R&B charts in January 1965, where it ruled for six weeks.
You could say that’s when the canonization began.
Music notes: naturally, there’s a West Grand playlist to accompany the tale above, and you can find it here. It includes an early live performance of “My Girl” by the Temptations, taped just days after the single was released, as well as the stunning a capella mix offered in the group’s 1994 boxed set, Emperors of Soul. In the U.K., the original was not a major hit when issued in 1965, and Otis Redding’s cover (included in this playlist) travelled to chart heights instead. You can hear Otis and one or two other versions of interest, including songwriter Smokey Robinson’s own remake in 2014. Enjoy.