Valentine’s Day is fast approaching….
This is one of those songs I wish I’d written. Bob Dylan was right to call Smokey Robinson the best poet in America (or whatever it was he said). Anyway. Killer tune. I love the original, and I’m a big fan of the Beatles Motown-aping cover (on ‘With The Beatles’), but these 2 versions for me are the best there are.
Way back when Michael Jackson was getting regular beatings from his Dad rather than the World’s media, he and his brothers were knocking out 3 minute pop classics before breakfast. Their version of YRGAHOM is so good it makes me dance on my tiptoes. It could rouse your Granny off her death bed and send her back to the bingo with a wee spring in her zimmer. Get it here, and prepare to dance your useless butt off.
In contrast, the Zombies look like they’ve never danced the mashed potato in their lives, but who cares when they were one hell of a brilliant r’n’b band. Note – that’s r’n’b as in rhythm ‘n’ blues, not Usher. This version was recorded in one take and includes elements of Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring It On Home To Me’, which Led Zeppelin would later rip off to great effect and pass off as their own song (but that’s a whole other blog site somewhere). The Zombies version is every bit as soulful as the Jackson 5’s, a bit less funky maybe, but a whole lot more swinging. Which makes me think, wouldn’t it be great if Frank Sinatra did a version of it? Maybe he did. I’ll google that later. In the meantime, get down with the Zombies here. You can also find it on ‘Begin Here’, the Zombies debut album from 1965, or on the warts and all excellent box set ‘Zombie Heaven’.
Plain Or Pan 