“It’s a Shame” (The Spinners)

Today’s classic soul song of the day is “It’s a Shame” by the Spinners. It was their last recording for Motown’s V.I.P. subsidiary and their only Motown hit before they moved over to Atlantic Records and had a bevy of hits there, including “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love?,” “One of a Kind (Love Affair),” “Mighty Love,” “Then Came You” (with Dionne Warwick), “Games People Play,” “The Rubberband Man,” “Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me Girl,” and “Cupid/I’ve Loved You for a Long Time.” But “It’s a Shame” was the group’s only hit for Motown, where they’d been languishing since Berry Gordy signed them way back in 1963.

“It’s a Shame” was released during the summer of 1970 and rose to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart. It was written by Stevie Wonder, Lee Garrett, and Syreeta Wright, and produced by young Mr. Wonder—which is where the real story lies.

In 1970 Stevie Wonder was all of 20 years old and itching to prove himself as a real musician, not just “Little Stevie Wonder.” He co-wrote this song and brought it to his friend G.C. Cameron, the lead singer for the Spinners. He knew the Spinners were unhappy at and felt kind of ignored by Motown, and he offered this one up as a favor. He also proposed it as kind of a trial to show Berry Gordy and the other Motown powers that be that he had the chops to do his own producing. Gordy figured he didn’t have anything to lose, as the Spinners were kind of minor leaguers at the label, so he gave his okay.

On January 27, 1970, Stevie brought the Funk Brothers into the Snakepit (Motown’s main studio) to record the instrumental tracks for the song. The background was laid down on an 8-track recorder, of which only six tracks were used, as follows:

track 1 – empty
track 2 – tambourine
track 3 – guitar
track 4 – drums (accents)
track 5 – guitar
track 6 – empty
track 7 – drums
track 8 – bass

On April 6, the instrumental tracks were bounced to tracks 9-16 on a 16-track recorder and the Spinners laid down their vocals, also in the Snakepit. On this new recording G.C. Cameron’s lead vocals were on track 4, background vocals were recorded in pairs on tracks 1 and 5 and tracks 2 and 3 (marked as “use for mono”). Track 6 was left empty, and horns were overdubbed on tracks 7 and 8 at Golden World Studio (also in Detroit and known as Motown Studio B ) on April 29.

The studio musicians included Dennis Coffey and Robert White on that wonderful guitar duet intro (and throughout the song), Jack Ashford on tambourine, and the legendary James Jamerson on bass. There were no keyboards on the track. The horns were arranged by Paul Riser

The identity of the drummer(s) is in question. Pistol Allen is listed in one place, and both Pistol and Uriel Jones are listed in another — which makes sense given the second track for “drums (accents).” However, some people (including lead singer G.C. Cameron) swear up and down that Stevie Wonder himself played drums, and to my ears it kind of sounds like a Stevie part. Perhaps Stevie overdubbed the second drum track, or maybe he just had a heavy hand in showing Pistol (and maybe Uriel) what he wanted to hear. Even Bob Olhsson, who was the recording engineer for the vocal session, originally said he thought it was Stevie on drums but then changed his mind. As with many classic Motown recordings, we’ll probably never know for sure.

What we do know is that G.C. Cameron’s vocals were recorded, amazingly, in a single take. Here’s what Bob Olhsson said about the session:

“That vocal session was a high point of my career. The lead vocal would have been one take except that Stevie had asked GC to stop before the tag. We punched in the tag and then just sat there dumbfounded wondering what to do next. This, by the way, was Stevie Wonder’s very first production. What a beginning!”

I agree with Mr. Olhsson. This was a phenomenal performance and recording, both from G.C. Cameron and all the musicians involved. Stevie’s signature is all over the thing, from the tune itself to the instrumental arrangement to the production. He showed the Motown brass what he could do, almost single-handedly, and that led to Stevie’s signing a new contract with the label that gave him a ton of creative freedom (and some higher royalties) and resulted in a string of classic albums that has not been equaled in the business —Music of My Mind (1972), Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974), and the truly epic Songs in the Key of Life (1976). In my mind, it all started with Stevie’s work on this record, which stands on its own as a superb piece of music.