Get Ready

Cover version of the month #121
Ella Fitzgerald and Ash cover The Temptations

Released on Motown Records in 1966, The Temptations Get Ready, written by Smokey Robinson, is a sub 3-minute gem, with horns, bass, strings and drums creating a driving energetic riff from the off. 

I never met a girl that makes me feel the way that you do (you're alright)

The relentless bassline is the engine for the song, with Eddie Kendriks taking lead vocals, instead of David Ruffin. Kendricks soaring falsetto is exceptional, soaring effortlessly above the collision of brass, strings and the driving beat.

There is an urgency to the song, exemplified by the title and the kiss off hook in the chorus get ready, cause here I come. The lift into the chorus is sublime. Get Ready is the sound of young America at its most vibrant, sounding full of confidence ... unstoppable.

And I'm bringing you a love that's true

So get ready, so get ready

I'm gonna try to make you love me too

So get ready, so get ready

Cause here I come, I'm on my way

Fast forward three years and Ella Fitzgerald is recording a rip roaring version at Olympic Studios in London for her 1969 album Ella. It's an absolute revelation! Driven by Brian Bennett on drums, this is a sweat soaked funk jazz romp, with Fitzgerald sounding like she is having the time of her life. The Temptations original has urgency, but Fitzgerald really does ramp it up a notch or two.

The backing vocals are glorious, understated in the mix, still leaving plenty of room for Fitzgerald - as if she was gonna have it any other way! Her vocal performance is fantastic, fire-y and fierce. The horns help to anchor everything. The riff is just played with a little extra oomph. It's a glorious cover version.

Ash - Goldfinger 

Get Ready was a b-side

Fast forward again, this time almost 30-years and Ash, a trio of teenagers from Northern Ireland, are making a name for themselves with a string of singles. Goldfinger, in April 1996, was the final single to be released, leading to 1977, their debut album, the following month. One of the b-sides was Get Ready - previously released as a limited fan-club 7-inch.

Ash’s version of Get Ready sounds exactly like what it is: three mates in a sweaty studio with Tim Wheeler's fuzzed guitar cranked up to eleven. It's delicious raw garage rock/pop. You can't mess with a melody or riff as strong as the ones Smokey Robinson created. So Ash just put their own spin of teenage exuberance on it. Fuzz, distortion, crashing beats and Tim Wheeler's glorious bubblegum pop delivery. Punk pop perfection.

I am currently in love with this song, particularly the Ella Fitzgerald version, which prompted this blog. Somewhere in my loft is the CD single by Ash. While researching, I also discovered a 21-minute + cover version from 1968 by a band called Rare Earth. It's ... OK ... not as cool as a 20-minute version could be. It begins with a lazy jam before they head into the song, then off on a bass heavy jam to begin with. The beat and bass are probably ripe to be sampled. Organ kicks in and away they go. It's too long for me. Give me the Creedence take on I Heard It Through The Grapevine any day of the week. Rare Earth also released an edited single version, under 3-minutes long. 

The Temptations original and both the Ella Fitzgerald and Ash versions are added to my Everything Flows Cool Cover Versions playlist on Spotify which also features all of the songs listed below. Search for the title or CLICK HERE

Previous covers of the month blogs

1. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 

2. Going Back To My Roots

3. Nirvana play The Vaselines

4. Slip Inside This House

5. Top 10 covers by Teenage Fanclub

6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

7. Time For Livin' 

8. Sound and Vision 

9. All Along The Watchtower

10. I Am The Walrus 

11. Guiding Star

12. You’ll Never Walk Alone

13. Hurt

14. This Guy's In Love With You

15. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine

16. California Soul

18. Wonder wall 

19. Dancing In The Dark

20. Always On My Mind

21. Ceremony

22. Heroes

23. Different Drum

24. Wild Horses

25. Respect

26. Mr Tambourine Man

27. I Heard It Through The Grapevine

28. Superstar

29. Twist and Shout

30. Purple Rain

31. Baker Street

32. Not Fade Away

33. Stop Your Sobbing

34. I Don't Want To Grow Up

35. Serious Drugs

36. Dancing With Myself

37. How Does It Feel To Feel?

38. Love Buzz

39. ABBA-esque
40. Jumpin' Jack Flash

41. Discoland

42. Varshons 2 by The Lemonheads

43. The Langley Schools Music Project
44. Witchi Tai To
45. Our Lips Are Sealed
46. Sunshine Of Your Love
47. Here Comes The Sun
48. I Think We're Alone Now
49. Don't Let Me Down 
50. It's Oh So Quiet
51. Alcoholiday 
52. Summer Holiday
53. Who Do You Think You Are?
54. Head On
55. Nothing Compares 2 U

56. Hey Jude

57. Seven Days Too Long

58. L.O.V.E Love

59. Into Your Arms

60. Heart Of Glass

61. Take Me To The River

62. We Can Work It Out 

63. Talking In My Sleep

64. Lola

65. Lost In Music

66. My Little Red Book

67. Isn't It A Pity

68. Walk On By

69. Walk Away Renee

70. Tainted Love

71. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

72. Listen The Snow Is Falling

73. Mrs Robinson

74. He's Gonna Step On You Again

75. In My Life

76. Caravan Of Love

77. The Only Way Is Up

78. Dancin' Round & Round

79. With A Little Help From My Friends

80. Killing Me Softly

81. Ain't No Mountain High Enough

82. Drop

83. Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay

84. Sympathy For The Devil

85. I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor

86. Love Will Tear Us Apart

87. Indian Rope Man + bonus Strawberry Fields Forever + This Wheels On Fire

88. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You

89. Love The One You're With

90. Cum On Feel The Noize

91. Addicted To Love

92. Valerie

93. Ride On Time

94. Let's Dance

95. It Must Be Love

96. I Fought The Law

97. For What It's Worth

98. Do Your Thing

99. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

100. Don't Leave Me This Way

101. Shout!

102. God Only Knows

103. The Last Time

104. Bridge Over Troubled Water

105. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

106. Louie Louie

107. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

108-110. I'm A Loser, Yesterday and Beware of Darkness 

111. So You Say You Lost Your Baby

112. Kelly Watch The Stars

113. Association

114. Some Velvet Morning

115. If I Had A Boat

116. Vapour Trail

117. Femme Fatale

118. You've Got A Friend

119 & 120. Jolene & I Will Always Love You 

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Cover version of the month #27

Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Slits

cover I Heard It Through The Grapevine

I Heard It Through The Grapevine is one of the most famous and loved songs ever to be released by the legendary Motown Records.

3 of their biggest stars recorded and released the song between September 1967 and October 1968; beginning with Gladys Knight and the Pips. The song became an instant hit, reaching number 2 in the charts and deservedly so.

Everything about the song is exceptional - the story of hearing of a lost love, the groove, the beat, the organ.....

The Gladys Knight and the Pips version has a stunning vocal - Gladys talking directly to her lost love and telling of how she is just about to lose her mind, pleading for him to listen.

Losing you would end my life you see

Because you mean that much to me

The song was originally recorded by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Smokey has/had an incredible voice but for me this version doesn't capture the hurt that the song portrays.

The song was then recorded by Marvin Gaye in the Spring of 1967 but wasn't deemed a single so it was sidetracked on to his In The Groove album.

It was only after the Gladys Knight version became a hit that DJ's also began playing the Marvin version on radio, so Motown put it out as a single and it reached number 1.

The Marvin Gaye version is the definitive version. He captures the song in a way that Gladys Knight (who had to change the lyrics ever so slightly) and Smokey Robinson don't. He lives it, or he lived it, you hear it in his voice. It is sensational, rising at all the right moments, hitting notes others can only dream of. Check this incredible a cappella version. His band get the groove and they play it with an edge that the song deserves and demands.

Gaye may have recorded the definitive version, but my own personal favourite is the mind-blowing 11-minutes and 11 seconds version by Creedence Clearwater Revival that I discovered in my teens on their Chronicle Volume 1 (best of) album.

It really did blow my mind; the way the band lock into a groove, John Fogerty has the soulful voice to deliver the song, the guitars and the way they head off on a 8-minute jam that takes the song into previously unexplored territory. Gaye's version ends at 3-minutes and 12 seconds, just as the Creedence version really gets going with an explosive guitar solo.

Fogerty comes back in for a chorus and then the guitar is really unleashed, all the time backed by a rhythm section as tight and funky as they come.

The drums are outstanding throughout - from 5-minutes on they are let loose with the guitar with just the bass and rhythm guitar keeping the groove. I recall hearing this for the first time and then playing it to one of my best friends (remember this Reddy?) to marvel at it together. 

Doug Clifford on drums may well deliver my favourite drums ever on this version of a Motown classic. He ups it at 6 minutes and 48 seconds and then just keeps it going, hammering his symbols, making up fills, sounding like he is having the time of his life.

Fogerty joins in and at 8-minutes and 20 seconds he finds a brilliant playful riff and his sensational band keep on going. Fogerty then comes out of that groove and slows it down slightly at 9-minutes and 9 seconds, his band still lost in the magical groove they have found.

The rhythm groove is allowed some breathing space, I like to imagine Fogerty just standing back and enjoying the groove. The song is faded out - how long did it go on for?! Is there a longer recording?!

Many other artists have recorded I Heard It Through The Grapevine. The Slits version, below, captures the song in the heady days of punk and has an explosive raw quality to it.

However it is the Creedence version that grabbed me - and it still does. Hope you enjoy.

A list with links to previous cover versions of the month is noted below.

Previous covers of the month

1. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 

2. Going Back To My Roots

3. Nirvana play The Vaselines

4. Slip Inside This House

5. Top 10 covers by Teenage Fanclub

6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

7. Time For Livin' 

8. Sound and Vision 

9. All Along The Watchtower

10. I Am The Walrus 

11. Guiding Star

12. You’ll Never Walk Alone

13. Hurt
14. This Guy's In Love With You

15. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine
16. California Soul
18. Wonder wall 
19. Dancing In The Dark
20. Always On My Mind
21. Ceremony
22. Heroes
23. Different Drum
24. Wild Horses

25. Respect
26. Mr Tambourine Man

Never Ending Mixtape Part 3

The Never Ending Mixtape continues with another eclectic selection of tunes - very soul focused this month; Ritchie Havens, The Supremes, Marvin and Tammi, Bobby Womack and more.

Check out the Never Ending Mixtape on Spotify, it kicked off with Big Star and The Velvet Underground in October 2016.

A little description/memories on the tunes added this month is posted below. Enjoy.

Going Back To My Roots - Ritchie Havens
An all-time fave that I always play when I DJ. The house piano kicks the groove in from the off.

I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
Outrageous, pure, joyful soul pop. And that bass line. Jackson's youthful vocal is sensational.

Looking For You - Garnett Mimms
Genius songwriting and performance. Heartfelt northern soul. Read my blog on it HERE

Girls - Major Lance
I love the feel of the music and the glorious vocals.

Superstition - Stevie Wonder
The beat, the funky clarinet riff, the bass and Wonder combine to create something wonderful. Check out DJ Spinna's Wonder of Stevie album series for some stunning Stevie covers.

Ain't No Mountain High - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
One of the first records I got from my Mum's old collection was a Marvin and Tammi duets album. Her name Sheila was written in pencil on the top right hand corner. I still have it. The album introduced me to what I consider to be some of the greatest love songs of all-time. Does it get any better than this?

Tracks Of My Tears - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
What was that question I just asked? Another Motown gem, an absolutely perfect song in terms of lyrics, music, production, structure and performance.

It's Time To Break Down - The Supremes
Post Diana Ross, The Supremes were led by Jean Terrell. I discovered this song via a St Etienne compilation album. Bob Stanley and Pete Wigs have exceptional taste and knowledge. This is a slow burning classic. What a groove and what a vocal, when it builds to the conclusion it is incredible.

I'll never be free from wanting you

My heart is your prisoner 

(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson
Dancing around the legendary Barrowland Ballroom to this song at the annual Barraloadasoul event is a memory I will treasure forever. Looking around and seeing a room full of people smiling, singing, arms aloft and dancing - it doesn't get any better.


My Love Is Your Love (Forever) - The Isley Brothers
Another soul tune I discovered via a St Etienne compilation. This one was called The Trip and it was aptly named. A 2 CD set took the listener on a trip through a wide range of pop, soul, groove and psychedelic music. This is stunning.

Love Ain't Something You Can Get For Free - Bobby Womack
Oh yeah. I was lucky to catch Bobby Womack live in Glasgow just a few months before he passed away. Although he was clearly fragile his voice was powerful and soulful. This is probably my favourite song of his.

Grazing In The Grass (Andrew Weatherall edit/dub) - Dexy's
A band that just keep giving. Kevin Rowland is an exceptional artist, his voice is improving with the years and he has such a clear vision about what he wants to achieve with every single project. This extended edit by Andy Weatherall comes from their Let The Record Show .... album that will feature in my end of year review.