SUPREMES ON CBS!

Artist: THE SUPREMES; Title: WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO; Label: CBS; Format: 7"; 
Cat. No.: 1475; Year: 1964; Country: GERMANY.

Carrying on the euro theme from the previous post - thought this would be a good to highlight as well. The Supremes on German CBS no less!

 The A Side gives you the classic HDH penned and produced "Where Did Our Love Go".  Whilst the flip side offers up "He Means The Wold To Me" which is a decent enough tune - thought not really in the same league as the A Side, and sounds like it would've been better handled by Florence Ballard rather than Ms Ross who'd effectively established herself as the group's lead singer by this point.

 
So what's the reason is that is on CBS as opposed to EMI's Stateside's imprint?  As far as I can tell the reason's probably the following:- Motown stuff in the UK (at least) had being issued by Oriel (up till 1963 before the license passed to EMI) and that CBS subsequent bought the label. And in the process giving themselves an outlet and pressing plant in the process - as opposed to being licensed via Philips/Fontana.  And that the Oriel/CBS licensing deal was still in existence in Europe and that Stateside wasn't at the time (1964) licensed for use in Europe.

FRENCH FOUR TOPS

Artist: FOUR TOPS; Title: IF A WERE A CARPENTER; Label: TAMLA MOTOWN; Format: 7"; Cat. No.: FT 125; Year: 1968; Country: FRANCE

Carrying on with a French theme on today's post - focusing on this 1968 offering from the Four Tops.  And by the way you can tell roughly when this is from (if you didn't know exactly) - as up to 1967 the preferred format for gallic 45's tends to be the 4 track EP (you do get 2 track singles but generally these tend to be jukebox issues - although there are exceptions to that rule!).  After '67 as EP's faded in popularity and the focus shifted to the UK/US standard format of on  2 tracks per side - either that or you bought the LP.

Back to the music - the A Side is a rather excellent version of Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter".  This could have so easily been a disaster - but thankfully when the song's in the hands of a singer of the calibre of Levi Stubbs then you know you can't go wrong.  Something that can't be said for the Tempations 'In A Mellow Mood' set from the same period where it did do so badly.

The flip side gives you the sublime "Baby I Need Your Loving" - which has to be one of the group's finest moments ever!  Penned by the Holland brothers and Lamont Dozier this is one of those that encapsulates and defines what Motown did best! Listen and enjoy!  Can't really say much more than that

!

SMOKEY SLOW BURNING SOUL

Artist: ANNA KING; Title: IF SOMEBODY TOLD YOU; Label: SMASH; Format: 7"; 
Cat. No.: S-1858; Year: 1963; Country: US.

Starting off 2014 with this 1963 release from Anna King - who was at the time part of the James Brown band/revue - coming as she did as a replacement for  Tammy Montgomery (aka Tammi Terrell).  The A Side "If Somebody Told You" is a great slow smoking soul number, written and produced by JB, and credited as 'Jim Jam' on the label. (Possibly due to copyright - as he also recorded only instrumentals for Smash within about a year of the release of this material when he was in dispute with his normal label King.)

The flip side is cover of the Holland-Dozier-Holland/Martha & the Vandellas tune "Come Get These Memories" which like the A Side is well worth a listen.  Both side and the subsequent duet with Bobby Byrd appear on the parent 'Back To Soul' LP.

What other info I've managed to find on her comes mainly from AllMusic's site - so many thanks to them for the following info.  After leaving James Brown she then recorded some stuff for End in 1965, then worked with Duke Ellington's band before joining the Brockington Choral Ensemble