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Patrice Holloway -- Those DJ Shows (1965)
Patrice is the younger sister of Brenda Holloway. Like her big sister she was a child prodigy proficient on guitar, drums, cello, and violin. And like her big sister she composed music alone and as a collaborator with Brenda.
Patrice was invited to join Motown after her sister’s first hit. But she had only one single release on the VIP label and the rest of her output was shelved in the infamous “vault.”
Whenever Motown throws us crumbs from the “vault” I always run to purchase the collections quickly before they go OOP (out of print). This is one of those songs from one of my treasured CD collections, by Patrice, that certainly was chart worthy IMHO. You can tell it is a classic Smokey composition after the first few notes.
Patrice recorded this vocal January 1965: the song had previously been recorded by The Supremes. Neither version was released in that era. What do you think about it? I’d like to hear your opinion.
Patrice’s contract was terminated in 1965 but she went on to have a rich and varied musical career just as she did before Motown. She has been a solo act, a studio session singer, a composer, and even voiced the character “Valerie” when the comic book “Josie & The Pussycats” was brought to TV as a cartoon series.
Musically yours,
Updated post 9/28/09
Listen to Patrice Holloway, as the character Valerie, singing the theme song to the 1968-68 animated TV show “Josie and the Pussycats.” According to WIKI:
The show’s theme song, titled “Josie and the Pussycats”, was written by Hoyt Curtin, William Hanna (under the pseudonym “Denby Williams”), and Joseph Barbera (under the pseudonym “Joseph Roland”).
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The Elgins – How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (1966)
Marvin Gaye originally released the song in 1965 and had a chart buster on it in 1965. Of course to reap the benefits of Gaye’s success there were many covers of the song released to try for more hits on the track.
The Elgins made a great cover of HSIITBLBY — don’t you agree? Hard to believe that the following year (1967) this great group disbanded.
I had a post last year on the Motown versions of “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) ” made from 1964 – 1966. In it I mentioned there was one Motown cover of the song, by the Elgins, that I did not have a digital version of to share with you at the time.
I always keeps my promises (maybe latter than earlier) so here is the Elgins version and a poll so that you can finally select your favorite version of this awesome tune.
To refresh your memory here is the link to the original posting from 1/1/08 right here so that you can listen again to the other three versions before you vote.
I am so looking forward to seeing what the results of the poll will be so please vote.
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The Elgins – Darling Baby (1966) #4 R&B, #72 Pop
The Elgins came about from a merger of Motown/Tamla artists Saundra Mallett and The Downbeats.
It took three years before the group’s first single, “Darling Baby,” was released on the Motown/VIP label. With a little more promotion I am sure in would have been a national hit, but you know how Motown did things, hiring many, many great talented artists but only promoting a select few!
Amazingly, even without promotion “Darling Baby” made the top Pop 100. Just goes to show you that good music will find a way! Of course this was another great song composed by Holland, Dozier and Holland so it just had to be a hit — didn’t it?
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]The Spinners – It’s A Shame (1970) #4 R&B, #14 Pop The Spinners had some mild success while at Motown, with a few R&B hits, but it wasn’t until Stevie Wonder gave them this song (co-written by a barely 20 year old Stevie Wonder and Lee Garrett) that they [...]
[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1397162_qzp2k/elvelettes-NeedleInAHaystack.mp3] The Velvelettes – Needle in a Haystack (1964) #45 R&B, #45 Pop I vividly recall seeing the Blossoms perform this great song on Shindig. This is my first recollection of the song, but I knew it sounded like a Motown song. It wasn’t until many years later that I found out the the [...]
The original Motown single release of Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is” was in September 1964. The song, composed by Motown’s own Edward Holland, Jr., Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, went to #6 on the Pop Singles chart in January 1965, and #3 on Billboard’s Soul Singles chart. It was also released on the Marvin [...]
