Mary Wells was, to many, the primary woman of Motown, and even when she’s largely remembered by a pop viewers for her “My Guy” anthem, she recorded many different nice sides for the label. One in all them, “You Beat Me To The Punch,” grew to become the Detroit native’s first R&B No.1 on September 22, 1962.
The observe was produced by Smokey Robinson and written by the good composer and frontman with Ron White. The music, with backing vocals by the Love-Tones, additionally went to No.9 on the pop chart, as Motown’s crossover powers grew stronger by the month. On the R&B survey, it had the excellence of ending Booker T & the MGs’ four-week tenure on the prime with the towering instrumental “Green Onions.”
13 prime tenners in a row
“You Beat Me To The Punch” adopted Wells’ No.2 soul and No.8 pop hit of only a few months earlier, “The One Who Really Loves You,” additionally written and produced by Robinson. One other No.1 was to return in “Two Lovers,” as Wells put collectively an impressive run by which her first 13 R&B chart entries all made the High 10. The final of these, 1964’s “Ain’t It The Truth,” was after she had made the ill-fated resolution to go away Motown for the twentieth Century label.
The lyrical affect of “Punch” was such that it impressed a solution file, as Vee-Jay’s “Duke of Earl” himself, Gene Chandler, exploited the theme for a High 30 R&B hit of his personal earlier than the top of the 12 months, “You Threw A Lucky Punch.” After that, the unique was recorded by varied different artists together with Motown’s personal Temptations, on 1965’s Temptations Sings Smokey album, and by Barbara McNair, in one other mid-60s model that wasn’t launched till 2003.
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