New Book for Soul and R&B Fans!
By Frank Mastropolo
An exciting new eBook, 100 Greatest Soul Songs: The Stories Behind Soul and R&B Music’s Biggest Hits, has just dropped on Amazon! It’s a fascinating compilation of behind-the-scenes tales from the artists and songwriters who produced the iconic tunes of soul’s golden era.
Music historian Frank Mastropolo will exclusively release on Reel Urban News excerpts from the new eBook. The first story is on the Four Tops’ smash hit “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”
100 Greatest Soul Songs: The Stories Behind Soul and R&B Music’s Biggest Hits is available on Amazon.
“I Can’t Help Myself” was a No. 1 pop and R&B hit in 1965 for Motown’s Four Tops: Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson, and Lawrence Payton. Stubbs performed lead vocals on the tune written and produced by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland. Dozier told Performing Songwriter that the song came together quickly.
“The song was started with a bass figure, with me sitting at the piano. It wasn’t slowed down, like the usual songs. The bass line was the whole song, at that tempo. When I said, ‘Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch,’ it was over with. We went right in and cut it.”
“The songs had to be fast because they were for teenagers,” Dozier explained in The Guardian, “otherwise it would have been more like something for your parents. The emotion was still there, it was just under cover of the optimism that you got from the up-tempo beat.”
Dozier’s inspiration goes back to his days as an 11-year-old who swept the floor of his grandmother’s home beauty shop. In a promotional video for his Reimagination album, Dozier explained, “I stayed with my grandmother when I was a kid. She owned her own home beauty shop, and when the women would come up the walkway to get their hair done, my grandfather would be pedaling around in the garden.
“He was a bit of a flirt and would say, ‘How you doin’, sugar pie? Good morning, honey bunch.’ He was one of those types of guys.
“My grandmother had a big bay window to the front of the house. She’d say, ‘Look at that old codger—he thinks I don’t see. I know what he’s doing.’ He was just flirting with his big smile. I’m sitting there on the porch watching this—I’m probably 11 or 12. I was like a sponge, soaking it up.
“Years later, at Motown, I’m sitting at the piano. I’d take these mind trips back to my childhood, and I’m trying to see what this piano part is telling me. Sure enough, there my grandfather is, pedaling in the garden. That memory comes to my mind’s eye, and I know where the song is supposed to go. I hear him saying, ‘Good morning, sugar pie. How you doin’, honey bunch?’ That’s what started it.”
Engineer Harold Taylor recalled in Rolling Stone that during the recording, “People were banging on the door of the studio; they were so ecstatic about what they heard.” When lead singer Levi Stubbs complained about the song, Brian Holland promised they could re-record it the next day. It never happened and take two of the song went to No. 1.
100 Greatest Soul Songs: The Stories Behind Soul and R&B Music’s Biggest Hits is available on Amazon.
