Author Topic: The Album (Read 5467 times)

Silly Wasnt I · « **on:** February 22, 2020, 04:15:43 am »

Even though the Elgins are one of the best groups interpreting HDH songs, their sole Motown album is not perfect.

Saundra Edwards is a stunningly good singer and almost all the tracks featuring her as lead singer are perfect. The exception is the dated It's Gonna Be Hard Times - an olde recording composed and produced by Berry Gordy himself. It just doesn't compare to the other Saundra-led songs.

Norman McLean takes the lead on a pair of Holland-Dozier produced cover versions, When A Man Loves A Woman and 634-5789. Both are OK but, IMHO, sit uncomfortably beside the Saundra-led vocals.

Other cover versions, Good Lovin' and In The Midnight Hour, are also Holland-Dozier produced but this time it is Saundra who takes the lead and this fits in well with the rest of the Elgins songs.

Apart from the ancient Berry Gordy track, the only track not produced by Holland-Dozier is No Time For Tears. This is an Eddie Holland co-composition with Norman Whitfield and Norman produced the song. IMHO, this is perfection.

That leaves six HDH compositions, produced by the Holland-Dozier team and these are all gems.

If only the Norman McLean leads and the old Berry Gordy composition had been left off - and replaced by HDH songs - this would have been a perfect album.

Are these the best versions of these songs?;

SWI

Roger · « **Reply #1 on:** February 22, 2020, 05:14:31 am »

Well then SWI …

It only goes to show that there is no accounting for taste.

I really like "There's Gonna Be Hard Times", I prefer the versions of "How Sweet It Is" by Marvin Gaye and Junior Walker to the one on this LP and I prefer the version of "No Time For Tears" by The Marvelettes to that by The Elgins (basically because it has Wanderful Wander doing the vocals as they use the same basic backing track).

Roger

Mikep5 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 23, 2020, 02:02:28 pm »

Roger, I agree with you on its gonna be hard times. I was just playing it yesterday. It has really grown on me. It is a bit dated , but the kind of early Motown I can get into. Its so blusey and infectious. How sweet it is , I like her version Marvin& Jr"s. The only version I dont like is James Taylors.

Spookey · « **Reply #3 on:** March 14, 2020, 05:01:00 pm »

The Elgins surely had it, the Motown Sound. My favorite "I Understand My Man," and "Put Yourself In My Place."

humboldt · « **Reply #4 on:** March 15, 2020, 07:18:30 am »

'Put Yourself in my Place' is a classic.

Mikep5 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 15, 2020, 02:23:57 pm »

That's the first time that I'v seen them perform. I don't recall them on any teen shows in the US.
They recorded the best version of Put yourself in my place.
It was either a B side or lp filler over here as well. It's one of those Motown fillers that deserved to be a A side.

Roger · « **Reply #6 on:** March 15, 2020, 03:05:33 pm »

Quote from: Mikep5 on March 15, 2020, 02:23:57 pm

That's the first time that I'v seen them perform. I don't recall them on any teen shows in the US.
They recorded the best version of Put yourself in my place.
It was either a B side or lp filler over here as well. It's one of those Motown fillers that deserved to be a A side.

Actually "Put Yourself In My Place" was originally the "A" side of "Darling Baby" Mikep5 …

https://www.45cat.com/record/vip25029

It charted on Billboard's Hot-100 as well for four weeks, reaching the dizzy heights of #92, but it was "Darling Baby" that looks to have got the R&B action and the record was flipped.

Here in the UK "Put Yourself In My Place" was issued as an "A" side on three occasions, in 1966 when it was out in The US, in 1968 and then in late 1971, as the follow up to the highly charting "Heaven Must Have Sent You", when it finally charted and made in to #28, the first two UK releases had "Darling Baby" as the "B" side but the release that charted had "Gonna Be Hard Times" (best not mention this to SWI

.

Funnily, the Isley Brothers version of the song had made it as high as #13 in The UK during the "reissue-mania" of 1969, so in a sense The Elgins lost out.

Roger

Mikep5 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 15, 2020, 07:24:23 pm »

Idont recall it getting any airplay here back in the day. I first discovered it as a filler on a Supremes lp. The Elgins version when I flipped the 45 over. By the way that Elgins lp Darling Baby went out of print here pretty quickly. That lp and Gladys Knight & Pips Everybody needs love lp were nearly impossibe to find in the record shops a year or so after their release. They became instant collectors items for years going forward. At least in Chicago as far as I know.

Roger · « **Reply #8 on:** March 16, 2020, 07:37:06 am »

Mikep5 ….

Joel Whitburn's Billboard Chart books have "Put Yourself In My Place" debuting on the Hot 100 on 19th Feb 1966, with "Darling Baby" debuting on their R&B Chart the same week, the record having been released as a VIP 45 on the final day of 1965.

"Darling Baby" is listed on the BB R&B listing for 13 weeks, peaking at #4, with "Put Yourself In My Place" nowhere to be seen.

On BB's Hot-100 "Put Yourself In My Place" is listed for 4 weeks, reaching #92, before "Darling Baby" is listed for 8 weeks, commencing on 19th March 1966 and peaking at #72.

So it looks to me that R&B Radio ignored "Put Yourself In My Place" and started playing "Darling Baby" soon after the record was released … whether "Put Yourself In My Place" got much US airplay is anyone's guess at the moment but I can imagine that if you were listening to radio in Chicago you would probably only have heard "Darling Baby".

Roger

Mikep5 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 01, 2020, 08:49:01 pm »

I came back to this post on the Elgin's Darling baby lp, as
one more comment and thought came to my mind.
Norman Mclean' s tracks do seem out of place here as they are almost the total opposite of Sandra Edward's style and voice. Also he leans more towards hard core R&B where Sandra is more pop& r&b. That is the catagory of HDH sound to me.On the other hand, his covers of it's a man's world, when a man loves a woman and 634-5789 are actually pretty good. I think they'd fit better on a solo set by him. I also could've seen him doing a duet lp with Hattie Littles. I think it would've been perfect.

Paul Nixon · « **Reply #10 on:** April 02, 2020, 12:38:33 pm »

My opinbion is that considering it is a hotch potch of lead singers different groups and solo singers it's a pretty good LP. Because I never knew any of that when I was a kid and bought the LP I just grew into the album not thinking anything other than it was the Elgins. I find it more difficult now accepting YVA as lead singer, not that she's not a great singer it just doesn't seem right after all these years.

Silly Wasnt I · « **Reply #11 on:** April 03, 2020, 05:41:47 am »

I'm with you, Paul - always loved this album. In the US, it was released in October 1966 and we in the UK didn't get it until September 1968. One wonders why there was that long delay. Presumably, Saundra had left the group by the time of the UK release, so it seems odd that the LP wasn't revised to include It's Been A Long Long Time.

Was always bothered that no photo of the group was on the LP cover.

SWI

humboldt · « **Reply #12 on:** April 05, 2020, 07:15:36 pm »

For me Saundra Mallett Edwards was the sound of the Elgins! Nothing and no one else came close.

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