The eight in a series of soul classics that have fallen through the floorboards
The pleasure and pain of love is one of soul music’s most enduring themes. Holland-Dozier-Holland knew it best when they wrote The Miracles’ I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying (“Gather round me swingers and friends/Help me forget my hurt and tears/About the only girl I ever loved/The only one I’m thinking of”) and The Isley Brothers’ This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You): “Always with half a kiss you remind me of what I miss/Though I try to control myself/Like a fool I start grinnin' cause my head starts spinning”.
It’s no secret that Motown’s Sound Of Young America inspired thousands of young Americans to create their own soul music, the cream of which became the heartbeat of the Northern Soul movement. The Tempos’ Sad Sad Memories, a pulsating, bittersweet torment of love and loss, probably wouldn’t exist without This Old Heart Of Mine, but it’s every bit as good as The Isley Brothers’ classic.
The old Northern crowd go for The Tempos’ Countdown (Here I Come) over Sad Sad Memories but I reckon that’s only because it’s faster, not because it’s better...
1 comment:
Countdown is a particular favourite of mine, I prefer the sound of it to Sad Sad Memories, plus it's got that great string riff. Yes, it is faster but those strings do it for me!
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