Motown Treasures

One of special Motown fav's Why it was not a hit I'll never understand! Got a lot of play on the UK pirate stations.

One of special Motown fav's Why it was not a hit I'll never understand! Got a lot of play on the UK pirate stations.

One of my all time favourite Motown tunes as well John.

I think that UK EMI/Tamla-Motown missed a trick by delaying its release for almost a year to January '68 (the US release was in February '67).

Maybe the best time to release it would have been in June/July '67, when big UK hits by The Marvelettes and Gladys Knight showed that the average British "Pop" fan could appreciate Motown's less frantic output?

Funnily, the final Radio London Fab 40 in August '67 listed three cover versions of the song, by Truly Smith, New Formula and Bill Kenwright, but that was a very strange chart compiled in the knowledge that the station was about to be forced off the air .....



The "B" side gave a taste of what Marvin Gaye was to produce a few years later ...



Roger

I always liked Truly Smith's version and think that she was an underrated singer. I believe that she became a teacher & later a head mistress.




As for Bill Kenwright's version, well he should have stuck to being Gordon Clegg!

Well, I suppose that Truly's version was the closest in feel to Chris Clark's original.

As for Bill Kenwright, he probably dreamt that he was following in the footsteps of Peter Noone and Davy Jones (of Hermans Hermits and The Monkees respectively in case anyone is wondering) who also started off treading the cobblestones in "Coronation Street".  Unfortunately his record wasn't too inspiring.

The New Formula version was more in a Pop/Rock style ,,,



Roger

Yes it would be good to go back 'there' again! I'm sure we all have that special time.