Kim Weston- ask any avid Motown fan, the ones REALLY additcted to the label’s music, about Kim Weston and I’ll make a bet that 100% of them will tell you Motown REALLY dropped the ball on a phenomenal talent…
Here is an alternate version of perhaps Kim’s best-known song for the company (at least, best-known to the public in general.)
Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While) was a firestorm that came from the forever-astonishing team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Eddie Holland actually put his vocals down first. Notes from the Kim Weston Motown Anthology state that the song was slated for Martha and the Vandellas. The song was then assigned to Kim, and Motown’s studio A caught fire and disintigrated.
How the studio didn’t burn to the ground as this woman lit fire to the already-burning H-D-H track is a mystery. The commercial version certainly was a firecracker but this alternate version recently released… fire alarms will sound, walls will crumble, speakers will explode, you’ll be turned into ashes.
I don’t know, maybe Kim decided to just give it hell, maybe H-D-H wanted one more take and Kim was tired and decided if they wanted one more take, then she would give them something they’d never forget. Whatever factored into this take, Kim takes the vocals to asonishingly explosive heights and hits notes that must have brought down any and all aircraft flying in the vicinity of Hitsville U.S.A. Notice too her lightning-fast phrasing going into the choruses (almost like those triple-time raps hip hop artists pull of so easily today.)
People must have really been paying attention to this song because the Doobie Brothers did a cover of the song that accomplished the fantastic feat of sounding thouroughly like a Doobie Brothers original and yet keeping a lot of that fantastic, classic Motown Sound at the same time.
Kim Weston was a woman who was able to shift gears easily between the Motown Sound and ballads and standards. Wonderfully, there have been recent releases on cd to showcase all of her amazing recordings as well as the ones that were kept in the vaults. Here is just one of those tracks that were kept behind, so enjoy and keep the fire extinguisher nearby!
Duration : 0:3:1
[youtube KOEwslR4o6Y]
April 3rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
thank you pajo! …
thank you pajo! more to come…
April 3rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
i love it tomovox!
i love it tomovox!