Classic rock, pop, and soul songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s
Classic rock, pop, and soul songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s
Today’s classic Motown song of the day is my favorite Motown tune, period, and I know it’s probably one of yours, too. I’m talking about “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” sung by the inimitable Levi Stubbs and the Four Tops. Released in April of 1965, this tune topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and Billboard’s…
Today’s classic Motown song of the day is perhaps the most well-known and most fondly remembered of them all, “My Girl” by the Temptations. Released on Motown’s Gordy label in late December of 1964, it rose all the way to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles charts. “My Girl” was arguably the biggest…
Today’s classic Motown song of the day comes from the label’s most successful act, the Supremes. “You Can’t Hurry Love” was released in July of 1966 and went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for two weeks. It was their seventh #1 hit to that point, with more to come. “You Can’t Hurry…
Today’s classic Motown song of the day is “Heat Wave,” which was a hit twice—for Martha and the Vandellas in 1963 and a little over a decade later for Linda Ronstadt. We’ll focus on the original version first, since this is Motown week at the Classic Song of the Day blog. Martha and the Vandellas recorded “Heat Wave” on June…
Today’s classic song of the day is “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes. It was one of the first big Motown hits, released in August of 1961 on the Tamla label. It went all the way to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard’s Hot R&B Sides charts. If you’ve been following this blog you might have noticed…
Today’s little-known classic soul song of the day is “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” originally released by Frank Wilson and most recently covered by the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen. Frank Wilson was a songwriter and producer for Motown Records in the ’60s and ’70s. In 1965 he was recruited, along with a handful of others, by Berry Gordy…
Continuing with our look at some of the top hits from the spring and early summer of 1970, today’s classic 1970 song of the day is “Hey There Lonely Girl” by Eddie Holman. The single was released the last week of December of 1969 and hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 21, 1970. “Hey There Lonely Girl”…
Today’s classic song of the day is “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” by Jackie DeShannon. It’s a timeless, universal message that resonates as much today as it did when it was first released in 1969. Jackie DeShannon wrote (along with Jimmy Holiday and Randy Myers) and recorded “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” two years after the…
Today’s classic song of the day packs a true emotional punch. I’m talking about “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” originally a hit for Motown artist Jimmy Ruffin in the 1960s, then a hit for Brit singer Paul Young in the 1990s, but perhaps performed best by Joan Osborne with Motown’s Funk Brothers in 2002. It’s such a perfect song that…