"My Baby Must Be A Magician" Performed By The Marvelettes (1968)

[audio http://boxstr.com/files/5205410_83rka/Marvelettes%20-%2021%20-%20My%20Baby%20Must%20Be%20A%20Magician.mp3] The Marvelettes – My Baby Must Be A Magician (1968) #8 R&B, #17 Pop

I just had to do one more Marvelettes cut for you all (and for me too) — this time a funky one! As soon as you hear the words you know it is a Smokey Robinson composition because  that man could turn a phrase like no other! The lyrics are simply stunning.

And the Funk Brothers music is some of their funkiest ever! Marv Tarplin’s guitar playing on the track is awesome.

Put this all together with the Marvelous Marvelettes vocals and you have one of Motown’s funkiest pop tunes ever!  No one could ever cover this cut, and to my knowledge this is one of the few Smokey cuts that , in fact, was not covered by every other Motown artist like most of them were.

Trivia:

• This followup to “When You’re Young and In Love” has Wanda Young Rogers singing lead since Gladys Horton had left the group. (Yes I know that Gladys is in the photo I used above, but I couldn’t find one without her) Wanda’s name change was due to her marriage to, her Motown label mate,  The Miracles’ Bobby Rogers.

• Of course I know that you can tell that is the Temptations’ Melvin Franklin doing the spoken word introduction. No one else at Motown had a bass like that! Heck, probably no  one in the state of Michigan had a voice like that (LOL)

My Baby Must Be A Magician Composed By Smokey Robinson

Spoken by Melvin Franklin:
You are under my power
It is the power of love

Wanda Young Rogers sings:
Eyes that hypnotize
And all it takes is just once glance
Just one look at him
Puts me in a lover’s trance

Now listen
No rabbits in his hand
No pigeons up his sleeve
But you better believe
When I prove he can do so much
My baby must be a magician cause he’s sure got the magic touch

Oh my morale was low
Then he appeared just like a genie
His love has the power
He’s my private great Houdini

No reading decks of cards
No cords that disappear
No special gear
Like Alladin’s lamp and such
But my baby must be a magician cause he’s sure got the magic touch

Whenever I’m feeling bad
My baby simply kisses me
And then Presto, Chango, Alakazam
I’m alright again oh yes I am
Yes I am alright

No mystic crystal ball
No long black flowing cape
But I can’t escape
From his tender loving touch
Oh my baby must be a magician cause he’s sure got the magic touch
Say my baby must be a magician cause he’s sure got the magic touch

I vividly recall playing this 45 rpm over and over again and singing to it – surely driving my grandmother bonkers!  But it was then, and is now, just one of those songs that gets stuck in your mind, body and soul and is hard to let go of. Don’t you think?

Musically Yours,

Related posts:

1. "When You're Young And In Love" Performed By The Marvelettes (1967)
2. "The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game" (1967 & 1968)
3. "Forever" (1963 & 1965)
4. “Fading Away” Performed by The Temptations (1966) & Bobby Taylor and The Vancouvers (1968)
5. "A Breath Taking Guy" Performed by The Supremes (1963)

Filed under: Girl Groups, Motown, My Baby Must Be A Magician, Pop/R&B, R&B/Motown, Sixties, Smokey Robinson, The Marvelettes