Mary Wells: "Operator"

(Written by Smokey Robinson)

It struck me, while listening to this song a little while ago that one day in the not-too-distant future the same fate befall Marvelettes ' Please that the postman – focus on communication and Romance oikut Twentieth Century song simply cease to be common sense, because the technology have made progress with the terminology has become time-barred.What is the "postman", Grandma? what is the "operator"?

I am too young to remember the time when the phone was such a thing – operator does not, in the sense that Mary song about here is anyway. I mean, I'm not as dense, so you can make what happens in the context of: Mary indicates the first day of the telephone operator, which tries to call her and her boyfriend, and then submits that, in the absence of the operator, because the call is not going smoothly (they will not be able to draw up what he says-he says that his love is true? He says that his love was my? Had he says, he was coming home? Say to her, if she had?– and is not interrupted; he then receive is cut, and the request must be switched). But it is no longer I linked to, or at least not in the same way, such as Mary's listeners have concluded in 1962, in the light of the experience.

Now it is possible to give us information about a song – Mary's relationship with the purely from his anxious with the operator and the unilateral conversation unheard of, and we will never hear the exchange between Mary and the son, in fact, which is quite a clever trick to a single word. Instead, the Villain's Monologue leaves it Mary to show what happens by giving him to express his insecurities, such as the call must beset in the event of technical problems: it should not take this amount of time …Is unfair to me Wait any longer …What is the hold-up, please? Does he not change?.The lines are not fantastic, but it is enough to diluted device – except that you may want to try I might, I cannot get into headspace, if someone has the telephone company should be approved, listening to day, and during, interjecting its own private sort romantic discussion, and so the whole thing seems a bit artificial.

Perhaps a little better with Mary's regulatory requirements could empathise, if this may strike more chord. It is, this really does not do anything for me-lyrics do not, in particular, huononäköiset (such as the A-side, Smokey displays is to turn off the day, in order to maintain a certain image on a believably-flowing dialogue), the song does not serve the lyrics well (although it is quite good slightly towards the end, when the two together – Put him on the line promisingly, put him on the line, I want him in line – just before all fades), and it is not particularly good sound either.

Mary spend most of his time stuck uncharacteristically high register that really does not make his voice many civil societies; You will see that it is his, but some of his recent performance of lead alongside the amazing (and not least-A-half, two Lovers, where his vocal is significantly better than the rather as a matter of routine, the song is the demand of his right to), this is a real disappointment. Is the moments, One Who Really Loves You If Mary's voice anxiety is palpable, if you have your own seat to the left, of course, how much is in danger, because Mary against the edge of his connection to keep alive. His work on this in the same breath, do not deserve to be mentioned;He can also be ringing tones can be used to complain about the billing error.

The band did not help matters either seemingly bored Smokey Robinson, yet midtempo calypso number but save any clever scheduling tricks and interesting things had to be kept on the holding, with changes from the previous Robinson Wells. They responded by eliminating the performance according to the numbers;guitarist is the only one that looks really can be enjoy yourself, because the whole thing enlivened, some only in the event of an unintentional comedy guitar slide "BOINGG!" sounds at the end of a few verses – think of the Marvelettes ' my Baby Must Be A face, with the exception of the empty lyrics to justify such tomfoolery). Love-sounds, which in some excellent backing vocals, you Beat Me to the punch, are flat and cleaning, some nasty conflicts lead vocal, backing vocals and the band between 1 and 2: 46: 20, which really should be doing with another should take.Musically – and I am talking to the performance and song of infrastructure – the whole thing, even in-progress displays .for more than glorified demo.

The idea that it might have taken far too quick lick – music almost jaunty, insubstantial seems to weaken the emotional power that the song may have had slowed down, even in the quarter and half of the speed referred to in the song. [1] [2] Brenda Holloway in 1965, this time A-side, as slower, slinkier order, which was closer to the trade mark – but even if a little better, even when one is too fast and thin to me, so perhaps the performance and the arrangement is not a real problem. I am currently in the process of being spoiled, thinking perhaps the Scott Walker Time operator (slow down than fixing the Monologue is accompanied by its Narrator than human company Speaking Clock shows loneliness man crush) that this song is rivalled, if it would have been some real feeling there, but it is all just too small and it does not make any effect at all.No, I did anyway.

Probably the weakest record Mary Wells was still provide for Motown Records, and not one to dwell in the land.Of course, he had already done enough to really spectacular records that the fans could views unsatisfying blip.

VERDICT

* * * * * * * * * *
3/10

(Had MY say, now it's your turn. agree? disagree? leave a comment at the bottom of the Dissent or Thumbs. recommended!)

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Mary Wells - First Lady of Motown

	Mary Wells - First Lady of Motown Wells came to Motown with the intention of getting a song to Jackie Wilson, but Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. had other ideas. Instead, Gordy brought her into the studio to record her composition, "Bye Bye Baby." In subsequent releases, songwriter William "Smokey" Robinson emphasized her sultry side. Wells was Motown's first star and toured with the Beatles. Although she left the company at age 21 to pursue a career at 20th Century Fox, Mary Wells never surpassed her output at Motown. She died in 1992. Featured song: "You Beat Me to the Punch" by William "Smokey" Robinson.	From:metromonthly Views:65449 148ratings
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Mary Wells: "two Lovers"

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(Written by Smokey Robinson)

The third of Mary Wells’ trio of big hits written and produced by Smokey Robinson in 1962 (following on from The One Who Really Loves You and You Beat Me To The Punch), this is also for my money the weakest of the bunch.

The partnership between Mary and Smokey was Motown’s first really successful pairing up of a great performer with a great writer/producer; both parties flourished under the arrangement, and the results weren’t just measured in hit records for Mary. Throughout 1962, Robinson used his work with Wells to define and refine a clearly-identifiable “Motown Sound”, a midtempo, calypso-influenced style which most of the label’s roster ended up flirting with, resulting in hits of varying magnitude for both Smokey’s own group the Miracles (the sumptuous I’ll Try Something New) and lesser lights at the time like the Supremes (Your Heart Belongs To Me).

The best examples, though, were the aforementioned first two hit singles Smokey wrote for Mary Wells in 1962; two excellent records, so excellent that they perhaps masked the fact that all this midtempo, calypso-tinged stuff was leading Motown down a musical dead end. The public didn’t yet care – like its predecessor, Two Lovers landed in the pop Top Ten and topped the R&B charts – but things were already moving on at Motown, and this is pretty much the last good record that could be squeezed out from what was becoming a stale formula.

I’m being unduly harsh (just for a change, I know). This is a good record – I thought I’d best make that clear right now for anyone who’s not already skipped ahead to see the mark I’ve given it. It’s just that there are two things wrong with it for me; there’s an all-pervading atmosphere of treading water, and there are two almost-identical, consideraby better Mary Wells records already available to compare it to. Once you’ve made The One Who Really Loves You and You Beat Me To The Punch, where else is there to go? Without changing direction, the only way is down. Those two are magnificent pop records; this is an entertaining, beautifully-sung sketch that sounds as though it was assembled out of various offcuts from those two records.

So, musically, this one doesn’t really do much that those two hadn’t already done; of the smattering of new elements, the brassy horns are a plus, but the weird “popcorn” percussion (a noise that sounds like two coconut halves being knocked together) is a minus, so they cancel each other out. Really, the whole thing is little more than a retread of Mary’s first two big hits of the year, and so whilst it sounds good and all, musically it’s not doing anything new, nothing that we haven’t already heard.

But it’s a Mary Wells single, which means there’s still plenty to like. Mary gives another excellent performance, her smoky, smouldering voice sounding better than ever, growing more confident with each successive single. She’s getting very good as an actress, too; it’s testament to her charisma and charm (both of which radiate off this record with an almost visible brightness) that even though she’s being made to sing some of Smokey Robinson’s clunkiest lyrics, she manages to keep things convincing.

Ah yes, the lyrics. Right. Other than Mary’s vocal, the record’s big selling point is its twist ending; I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so anyone who (for whatever baffling reason) is reading this without having listened to the song first should go and do that immediately.

Okay, are they all gone? Excellent. The conceit of the song is that Mary explains how she has Two lovers, and I ain’t ashamed / Two lovers, and I love them both the same, a scandalous admission which must have caused a few white radio jocks to suck in their breath in the prudish climate of 1962. She describes the character traits of her two lovers in turn: one is gentle and kind, while the other treats me bad / Makes me sad / Makes me cry, but still she loves them both equally. At the end, though, we find out that they’re actually the same person. Zing!

The way this is phrased in the song:

“Darling, well
Don’t you know that I can tell
Whenever I look at you
That you think that I’m untrue
‘Cos I say that I love two
But I really, really do
‘Cos you’re a split personality
And, in reality…
Both of them are you”

- has led a number of reviewers to take the phrase “split personality” quite literally, suggesting Mary’s boyfriend really does have a mental health problem that causes him to think he’s two different people, or something like that. I’ve never subscribed to this view – I think the song is meant to be Mary pointing out, gently, to her man that he sometimes acts like such a complete arse that it’s almost as if he’s a different person. (In fact, I think if the song really were meant to be taken literally, it would lose a lot of its charm – it would be a slightly tacky comedy number, and you never want to reduce Mary Wells to that.)

No, it’s a nice enough idea in principle – my problem with it is that it’s so clunky, uncharacteristically so for a wordsmith as skilful Smokey Robinson. It’s not clear until the “big reveal” just who Mary is addressing this information to, or why; and even when we do find out, it’s still poorly written. Like another bafflingly highly-regarded Smokey Robinson clunker, What’s So Good About Goodbye?, the initial “Oh, that’s clever!” of the thin central conceit seems to have blinded people to some very ordinary writing. Look at those lines up there; beautifully sung they may be, but as dialogue, they’re just terrible. Smokey’s trying to catch a fairly complicated sentiment in a few very short lines, but it’s not easy to paraphrase something like “I can tell from your face that this whole “two lovers” business has shocked you, but don’t worry; I’m just employing a narrative device because I want to make it clear how your love for me seems to blow hot and cold” in a way that can be parsed quickly by pop listeners over the course of ten seconds. Still, if you had to put your money on anyone to carry it off, it would probably be Smokey Robinson – but he doesn’t manage it, and instead he ends up saddling Mary with a lumbering amateur theatrical monologue that doesn’t really stand up to close scrutiny.

That’s the rub, I suppose – there just isn’t enough here to reward repeat listens, especially after the “shock” of the twist ending has been revealed. It’s a nice enough tune, but it’s so heavily reminiscent of the two better ones Mary Wells had already cut in 1962 that it seems almost perverse to come to this one rather than one of those.

But Mary, though. Mary, Mary, Mary. I could listen to her all day; she’s so seductive and charming that she almost makes Smokey’s dialogue work, and frankly I’d never turn down the chance of more Mary Wells. But I’m really finding it tough to even try and review this record in isolation – I mean, what would I think of this if I’d never heard The One Who Really Loves You or You Beat Me To The Punch? I’d probably end up rating it a lot higher, I guess, because it shares a lot of what was good about those records, without really adding anything to the mix – but then it’s difficult to say for sure, because I can’t forget those songs, and furthermore those are both eternal, written around universal themes, whereas this one’s based on surprising the listener with a conceit that only works the first time around, and that’s a flaw I can’t write off completely for the sake of isolation.

It’s good, but at the same time it’s not as good as some almost identical Mary Wells records I’ve already reviewed. That’s it.

Aargh. Tell you what. Ignore me, and go and listen to this record, which is a perfectly good Mary Wells single, perhaps even a “typical” Mary Wells single, and see what you think. Me, I think it’s extremely disappointing without ever being noticeably bad, and so this seems like a fair enough mark to me. Your mileage may vary.

VERDICT

* * * * * * * * * *
7 / 10

(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)

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