Today’s classic song of the day was the B-side to an A-side by the Temptations. The A-side was a minor hit but the B-side proved longer-lasting.
The song is “The Girl’s Alright with Me” and it was the B-side to “I’ll Be in Trouble.” Honestly, I don’t remember the A-side, which supposedly hit #33 on the Billboard Hot 100, a real disappointment for the group at the time. “The Girl’s Alright with Me” did chart on its own, but only reached #102 on the chart. (Which, if you know your math, isn’t actually in the Hot 100.) Both sides of the single were released in April of 1964, just a few months after the better-performing “The Way You Do the Things You Do.”
“The Girl’s Alright with Me” was written by the unusual team of Eddie Holland and Norman Whitfield. That’s an unusual team because Eddie Holland was part of the Holland-Dozier-Holland combine that created most of the Temptations’ mid-60s hits (after Smokey Robinson’s run with the group), while Norman Whitfield was known, along with Barrett Strong, for the more psychedelic soul sound of the late-60s/early-70s Temptations. It was unusual but not unheard of for Eddie Holland to partner with anybody else other than his brother Brian and Lamont Dozier, although he did write a handful of tunes with Norman Whitfield, including “Beauty is Only Skin Deep” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” This was early in Norman’s career, before he partnered with Barrett Strong, and things were more fluid back then than we might remember, anyway.
Eddie Kendricks sang lead on this one and Norman Whitfield produced. The Funk Brothers provided the lively instrumental backing.
