Mo-Town Song Question???

Subject: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 09:13 AM

Well, well, well...

With very little advance notice, I am going to be a "Guest Judge" on Page County's "Quest for Stars" this Saturday night and been requested to do 1 or 2 songs before the competition... Yeah, I could just go in and do a couple blues songs but I was thinkin', "Hey, why not do one or two Mo-Town songs???"

Problem is that I'm having trouble remembering "62 thru '64 when MoTown was at it's height...

So, what were yer favorite MoTown songs???

To further complicate things the P-Vine and I are leaving for three days startin' tomorrow but I'll take me a geetar and hopefull be able to check in at motel pudders from time to time...

Thanks ahead of time for any help...

Bobert

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Peace
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 09:19 AM

Don't know about the years, Bobert. (The list is from Wikipedia.)

Motown 1's Intro (0:04)
"Please Mr. Postman" - The Marvelettes (2:29)
"(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave" - Martha and the Vandellas (2:44)
"My Guy" - Mary Wells (2:53)
"My Girl" - The Temptations (2:56)
"Where Did Our Love Go" - The Supremes (2:41)
"Stop! In the Name of Love" - The Supremes (2:59)
"Shotgun" - Jr. Walker & the All-Stars (2:57)
"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" - Four Tops (2:45)
"Uptight (Everything's Alright)" - Stevie Wonder (2:54)
"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" - The Temptations (2:33)
"Reach Out I'll Be There" - Four Tops (3:00)
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (2:15)
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" - Marvin Gaye (3:15)
"I Want You Back" - The Jackson 5 (3:00)
"War" - Edwin Starr (3:21)
"The Tears of a Clown" - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (3:01)
"What's Going On" - Marvin Gaye (3:52)
"Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye (4:02)
"Love Machine" (Part 1)" - The Miracles (2:59)
"Don't Leave Me This Way" - Thelma Houston (3:40)
"Three Times a Lady" - The Commodores (3:38)
"Endless Love" - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie (4:26)
"Rhythm of the Night" - DeBarge (3:55)
"I'll Make Love to You" - Boyz II Men (3:57)
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - Michael McDonald (2:48)

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Peace
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 09:22 AM

Here ya go.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 10:28 AM

Bobert,

Perhaps you could learn "Fingertips Part II".

I can just picture it in my mind.

Big RiB

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: leftydee
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 10:31 AM

Do Smokey Robinson's "OOOH, Baby, Baby". It make the women swoon.

Motown Lefty

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: glueman
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 10:36 AM

Ain't no Mountain and Heatwave are both sublime. The Sound, as you know, was based on jazz musicians slumming it to a big square beat with some secular gospel. Tricky to pull of on a guitar but fantastic trying.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 11:28 AM

Most if not all Motown hits involved vocal harmonies (difficult for a solo singer) as well as instrumentation a bit more complicated than anything easily produced on a single acoustic guitar.

Still in all, there are plenty of great songs from that source, and many of them can be adapted to solo performance.

That list of Number Ones from Wikipedia does not seem to include any Smokey Robinson, with or without The Miracles. I guess none of those great records rose above Number Two or Three. I'm kinda partial to their very first record, from 1960, Shop Around. I've been working on a blues-ish key-of-E arrangement of that one, on and off for the last few months.

Marvin Gaye's How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) is very adaptable to solo acoustic-guitar-and-vocal performance, as we know from the example of James Taylor.

Speaking of Marvin, I'm sure you'd be glad to convey the message of What's Going On, or indeed just about any song from the "What's Going On" album.

And of course, you can never go wrong singing My Girl.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 11:32 AM

And of course Tim Hardin's 'If I were a carpenter' made famous by The Four Tops. Dead easy to play on acoustic guitar cos that's how it was originally sung!

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 11:41 AM

PS, To Lefty:

I'd love to be able to sing Oooh Baby Baby, and in fact am able to do so occasionally, but I can't be confident that the desired sounds will come out of my mouth on any given occasion.

I remember singing it especially well on one occasion, as part of a crowd of thousands singing along with Smokey at the N.O. Jazz Festival a few years ago. All falsetto, all the way through. Everyone seemed able to hit all those high notes just about perfectly ~ Smokey himself was visibly impressed, said he'd never heard anything like it, and declared New Orleans to be the audience-participation capital of the world.

There must be some kind of group psychology or "mass hysteria" factor that elevates people's musical abilities in certain circumstances like that. I remember a similar experience at an Al Green appearance, same event, different year. White college boys, among other unlikely participants, were doing an impeccable job singing stuff like Love and Happiness. You had to be there.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Barry Finn
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 12:16 PM

I was 18 the 1st time I ever performer on stage. I had a soft light piano accompanyment. The 2 songs I did, both by the Temptations were
"I Wish It Would Rain" & "The Way You Do The Things To Do". (I din't see either on the above lists).
Still love that music. We had a station back in the 60' & 70's that played nothing but MoTown, "WILD".

A few yrs ago my daughter & I went to a free concert along the Chales River (Boston) to hear Smoky Robinson, he was as good if not better than he was way back when, what a show, what a singer & what a performer.

Barry

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: fat B****rd
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 12:47 PM

Ya can't go wrong with Smokie Robinson. "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "Shop Around" and "The Tracks Of My Tears". Have a good gig anyway. fB.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 12:58 PM

Is "If I Were a Carpenter" really MoTown... I thought it was done by Bobby Darin... I used to do that song the way he did it way back, ahhhh 30 years ago...

"Shop Around" is another one that I think I could do witout much sweat...

I guess that "Mustang Sallie" ain't MoTown 'cause I can do that one right now...

I loved "My Girl" but it needs two voices or someone with more erange than me...

"Heatwave": ain't that more surfin' song???

So far I like "Shop Arounf" though its gonna be tough with just one voice... There's some high stuff in there that could hurt...

Keep 'um comin'...

B~

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 12:59 PM

Cross posted... "You Really Got A Hold on Me"???? Hmmmmmmmm??? That's a definate maybe...

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: fat B****rd
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 01:00 PM

Bobert, Certainly no disrespect to him, but Georgie Fame used to sing "Shop Around" and it was fine.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Nick
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 01:12 PM

Stretching the years to rather later but still all Motown I think

(Sitting on the) Dock of the Bay I think is Motown and that can definitely be done on a solo guitar (and is a wonderful song) and is great to sing

Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) I reckon would work on a guitar

My Girl definitely does

River Deep Mountain High
Nutbush City Limits

My Cherie Amour
Superstition
Sunshine of My Life

I could go on...

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Nick
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 01:14 PM

Oh I think that Al Green's Let Stay Together was released at some point on Motown and that's great fun to play on a guitar and sing

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: M.Ted
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 01:43 PM

Sometimes, people forget that the old rock standard, "Money", was the first Motown hit, and it's a great guitar song. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is fun to play, as well. And both "My Girl" and "Tears of a Clown" have nice guitar licks that you can work into a nice arrangement. "You Keep Me Hanging On" has a lot of room in it, if you want that kind of thing.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 01:46 PM

Smokey Robinson for sure - Tears of a clown or tracks of my tears can be done accousticaly. Phil Hare (On at Swinton next Monday!) does a wonderful job of Stevie Wonders Superstition. But what about going really radical? Not many people believe me when I tell them but R Dean Taylor recorded both Gotta see Jane and Indiana Wants me for Motown. If you widen the scope a bit and include the Atlantic label there is loads of soul that can get the easy treatment as well.

Good luck whatever you do.

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Big Mick
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 02:28 PM

Motown, not Mo-Town. I have been in the old studio many times. It is a museum now. Grew up with this stuff, and my wife used to go to the dances downtown and out at the Roostertail and dance to these folks as they were coming up. Little Stevie Wonder is who she always loves to remember.

I think you have more than enough suggestions, and there are plenty of good ones. If it were me, it would be "I Wish It Would Rain". I think your voice and style could do some neat things with that.

OK Class. Quiz for you. Who is the first white band to be signed by Motown?

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 02:52 PM

Pedant alert: Otis Redding and Al Green were/are both Memphis soul artists, not Detroit/Motowners. They recorded on the Stax/Volt and Hi labels, respectively, never for Motown.

There are similarities between the "Motown sound" and the Memphis approach to soul music, and the two hit-factories enjoyed their heydays at about the same time, but there are distinctions, and people actually involved in one scene or the other were generally quite vocal about their identity and loyalty. Motown was much more self-conscious about "crossing over" from the R&B/"race records" market to the mainstream, to the point of hiring choreographers, drilling their groups to perform dance steps, and even booking them in Las Vegas. The Memphis gang was less concerned with showmanship, concentrating more exclusively on the music.

Another difference is that the Stax/Volt house band were appropriately credited and became well-known as individuals: Al Jackson, Duck Dunn, Steve Cropper and Booker T. Jones (aka "Booker T and the MGs"), plus the Memphis horns and sometimes members of the (younger) Bar-Kays. The studio musicians working for Berry Gordy were at least as talented and arguably more accomplished ~ they played on more hit records than Elvis, the Beatles, the Stones, and the Beach Boys combined ~ but they were "kept down," never credited, and generally misused and underpaid. (See the film/DVD Standing in the Shadows of Motown)

The Atlantic label took over distribution for Stax at one point, so their soul-music focus was Memphis-oriented, not Motown. (Also, long before either Motown or Stax came into existence, Atlantic was recording the Genius of Soul himself, Brother Ray Charles, from Georgia by way of Seatlle, New Orleans, New York, LA, etc., a truly national srtist but one without particularly close ties to either the Memphis or Detroit soul-music-recording scenes.

Berry Gordy, Motown founder, got his start as a songwriter, largely for fellow Detroiter Jackie Wilson ~ Reet Petite!, most notably. That was long before he started his record label, of course.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: M.Ted
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 04:00 PM

I meant "Tracks of My Tears" when I said "Tears of a Clown", thank you for diplomatically correcting me, Dave Polshaw.

I think the first white group signed to Motown, at least the first white band signed to Motown that had a big hit, were "The Sunliners"--at least when they signed, they were The Sunliners, after that, they were "Rare Earth"--


To reinforce PG's point, Jamie Jamerson, who was bass player on many (but not all) Motown hits, and was the man who basically invented electric bass technique, said that he was payed a flat rate of $250 a week as a Motown studio musician, no matter how many sessions he played, and he was forbidden to take any other work. I don't have the union pay scales from the time, but my guess is that the LA studio bass players, like Carole Kaye, were getting that or more per session.

Rather than allow songwriters to continue to collect large royalties from BMI for Motown hits that they'd written, around 1970, Gordy decided to put them on salary, and credit the songs to "The Corporation", so he could collect they royalties himself.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 05:00 PM

Wow 'bout Wilson Pickett, P-gattor...

Motown 'er Stax???

Thanks fir that suggetion, Mick... You got words and any tabs for "I Wish it Would Rain"... Or just words 'cause I'll end up Bobertfiein' anything I pick...

"Tracks of My Tears" is a tad too weepy fir me, M-Tedster...

I still never got anyone to say if "Mustang Sallie" was considered Motown...

BTW, folks I do have some history with Detroit... My mom was born there and gre up there, my dad worked for Ford Motor Company and I spent two nigths in jail there in the 60's so I reckon that's 'nuff claim to be able to sing a motown song...

B~

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Severn
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 05:13 PM

The Temptations' "Don't Look Back"

If David Lindley can convert it into reggae, you can convert it to your needs.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 05:19 PM

"Tears of a Clown" is easily confused with "Tracks of My Tears" ~ both Smokey, both on the same subject, with the same sentiment.

"Tracks" was written and recorded years earlier, and I prefer it, perhaps only because of how young and impressionable I was when I first heard it. "Clown" is a more elaborate instrumental production, more "modern," and ceratinly an excellent track as well. Each to his own taste...

Oh, and one other thing about the Stax-vs-Motown differences.

As I mentioned above, Motown management made it a point of company policy to market their (black) artists to a "mainstream" (white) public. Stax/Volt did not make the same overt effort ~ but their core group of studio musicians was more thoroughly racially integrated. I suppose they were able to assume that music made by blacks and whites together could easily enough be sold to the black and white public.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: irishenglish
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 05:24 PM

Anything by the Temps, but Ain't Too Proud To Beg is just about perfect. Break down the first 3 seconds or so and you have-lead vocal, cymbals, piano, harmony vocals all come in distinctly, before the song even goes anywhere! Not motown, but anyone here know Jimmy Castor? He was a friend of my dad.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 05:27 PM

Wilson Pickett was an "Atlantic" artist as was Aretha Franklin, which leads me to ask - how in the hell did Aretha get out of Detroit without signing with Motown? What a coup for Atlantic.

You've got a whole bunch of good selections already submitted but I'll add a few more,...eh,...some more difficult than others:

I'll Be Dog-gone - Marvin Gaye
Hitch-hike - Marvin Gaye
You Can't Hurry Love - Supremes (nice cover by Phil Collins, too)
Get Ready - Temptations (nice cover by Rare Earth, too)
Take Me In Your Arms - Isley Brothers (great Doobie cover)
This Old Heart Of Mine - Isley Brothers (simply classic)

...and finally, just for the hell of it you may consider a tribute song to Motown and do Rod Stewart's, "The Motown Song" - ...bring over some of your old Motown records, we'll put the speakers in the window and we'll go, on the roof and listen to the Miracles echo through the alley down below... Cheers from an old folkie who does some Motown and lives in Hockeytown South. Good Luck!

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 05:44 PM

Danged, TexGuest, I'd plum forgotten "I'll Be Dog Gone"... What a great song...

BTW, folks... I spent the summer of '64 at Surf City, N.J. and both the Temptations and the Supremes came to Atlantic City Music Hall and I got to see them both in one night... No bands... Just lip syncin' but it was a hoot... Never forget that night...

B~

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: M.Ted
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 05:59 PM

"This Old Heart of Mine" is a favorite of mine, so, I second that--

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 06:20 PM

Wilson Pickett was a Stax (Memphis) artist, and that's where he recorded "Mustang Sally."

Atlantic Records has a pretty complicated history. They became associated with Memphis soul after signing a business agreement to dustribute Stax/Volt recordings nationally ~ S/V was smallish and "regional" at the time and needed the distribution.

Atlantic also had a (separate) connection with the studio at Muscle Shoals, AL, where there was a great house band in residence, Southern white guys (or mostly white, anyway) playing in a decidedly African-American style. Aretha made some of her greatest recordings with that crew, who were connected neither to Motown nor to Stax in Memphis.

After expounding at length about Memphis-vs-Detroit soul, I went back to read Bobert's opening post and realized that, for his purposes, there's no need to make that distiction at all. I'm sure he meant that pop-soul hits from the mid-60s would go over well his upcoming engagement, and he'd probably be just as happy to perform a Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding or Sam & Dave number as a Smokey Robinson or Four Tops or Temptations song.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 06:34 PM

You know me, P-Gator... I got Memphis runnin' in my blood... Otis and Wilson got the groove...

B~

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 06:47 AM

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 06:48 AM

Whoops - Slippy fingers! Forgot to add - Not Motown but I am sure anyone would forgive you if you did anything by my favourite soul artist - Sam Cooke!

D.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Mr Happy
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 06:52 AM

I regularly do 'My Girl' loosely based on Otis Reddings version, its one of those songs almost everyone knows & IMOP is a true folk song, like many others of the genre

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 09:42 AM

Sam Cooke could well be considered the first soul artist, or one of the very first, anyway. Soul is not much more or less than secularized African-American Gospel music, and Sam was among the first Gospel stars to "cross over" from Black Gospel to mainsteam pop. Along with Ray Charles (who grew up singing in church, but was never a professional adult Gospel artist), he established "soul" as a pop-music subgenre even before the world "soul" was coined to describe it, and long before those music-factory studios emerged in Memphis and Detroit.

Mr Happy, you and I (and Bobert too, I'm sure) are in perfect agreement over what constitutes "true folk" music in our world today. My criteria is this: when faced with the task of entertaining a group of folks you don't really know, simply members of the general public, what songs do you know they'd recognize and enjoy, and perhaps even sing along with? There's your contemporary real-world folk "canon."

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: fat B****rd
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 10:47 AM

Slight thread drift. The Stax Story is on BBC 4 (UK) on Friday July 25th followed by a 1967 Stax tour film.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 12:14 PM

I always thought it was the Sunliners, who became Rare Earth that were the first white act. But I was informed that in the very early '60's there was an act called "The Valadiers".

I will look around for an arrangement of "I Wish It Would Rain" for you Bobert. I monkied with it once upon a time years ago.

Mick

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: M.Ted
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 03:57 PM

Got me on that one, Mick--it turns out that they're still around, and, through the miracle of YouTube, you can hear why they were a Motown act--What's Wrong with Me, Baby?

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 06:09 PM

I need to rent "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" again to give another listen to those wonderful underpaid and underrecognized Funk Brothers.

Interspersed among the interviews and archival footage are a few recent performances, featuring current-day singers fronting a terrific group of surviving Motown studio players at a reunion concert. I wish I could remember which young singer did which songs. Gerald Levert (who has since passed away, at far too young an age) impressed the hell out of me, whichever Motown classic he sang, but the big highlight for me, a brilliant performance that I did not expect, came from Joan Osborne. I'm failing to remember that title, as well, but I know that it was a highly dramatic composition and arrangement, delivered about as powerfully as anyone would ever want.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 06:54 AM

Hey Poppagator. She sang "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted".

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 07:03 AM

Oops ! Joan Osborne sang "Heatwave" in the studio but performed the above mentioned Ruffin song with the band at Montreal Jazz Festivel. My fault, somebody didn't return my DVD of SITSOM and it's high time I replaced it.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 07:06 AM

If it's all wrong, forgive me. Bobert, 'scuse drift. I hope these suggestions are beneficial.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: GUEST,DV
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 07:16 AM

If you are looking at doing Sam Cooke, how about "You Send Me", or if you really wanna rock it, do "Shake, Rattle and Roll" or (even more fun, IMO) "Twistin' the Night Away".

Or if you wanna do some white dude Detroit stuff, there is always Del Shannon. If he was good enough to open for Ike and Tina...

Or Mitch Ryder. "Little Latin Lupe Lu" is a great one.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: glueman
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 07:28 AM

PoppaGator's folk definition will do for me. Other favourites were Major Lance on OKeh records and Bob and Earl on Class and Marc.
Another fan of This Old Heart of Mine. Was it the template for up-tempo dance floor stompers? Older (wiser) heads will know.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 12:17 PM

Yeah, I vote for "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?", as sung by Joan Osborne (ironically, but deal with it...) in that great movie Standing In The Shadows... Great chord changes, very sophisticated, and such a terrific melody that a singer can really cut loose.

If I was doing two songs for such an event, and wanted to try the soul thang, I would go with "Brokenhearted" and "A change is gonna come". Both have enough meat that a single voice and guitar can deliver plenty.

W-O

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 12:24 PM

'Abraham, Martin and John' has been done sucesfully at our club as well. I know it's not strictly Motown but Marvin Gaye did what I believe was the best ever cover of it.

D.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Mr Happy
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:06 AM

............don't think I'm brave enuff to attempt Marvin's other biggy: 'Sexual Healing!'

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: PoppaGator
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 01:20 PM

I thought of "Sexual Healing" as soon as Marvin Gaye was first mentioned in this thread, but restrained myself from mentioning it...

Mention of Major Lance prompts memories of "Monkey Time," which in turn reminds me of the even more wonderful "Mickey's Monkey." Wasn't that one of Smokey's?

(The same mention also made me think of ~ for some odd reason ~ King Floyd, and his great single "Groove Me.")

More Sam Cooke songs worth a mention: "Wonderful World (Don't Know Much About History)," "Twistin' the Night Away," and a current favorite of mine, his final Gospel recording with the Soul Stirrers, "Hem of His Garment."

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: fat B****rd
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 02:49 PM

Sam Cooke ? Bring It On Home.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: glueman
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 03:15 PM

As chance would have it I was playing Monkey Time the other night. In fact the evening's listening consisted of Major Lance, a Staples Singers album called Soul Folk in action (to give the taxonomists apoplexy), Ashes and Diamonds by June Tabor and this superb guitar lick which brings us back to the OP.

Subject: RE: Mo-Town Song Question???
From: Barry Finn
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 03:22 PM

Sam Cooke's "Cupid"

Barry