"You've Really Got a Hold on Me/Bring It on Home to Me"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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For Christmas, I got a two-disc set of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles that includes Recorded Live on Stage (for what it's worth, I wrote about a musical phrase in the vocal parts of a couple songs that are also in some Isley Brothers' songs).  That's the album that has the live recording of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" that the Zombies mention in the Zombie Heaven liner notes.  "Though the Beatles has recorded ["You've Really Got a Hold on Me"] for their second album the previous year, the Zombies based their arrangement of this classic Smokey Robinson tune on that from The Miracles Recorded Live On Stage."  To-day I listened to the second disc (the disc that Recorded Live on Stage is on), and then I compared the Miracles' version of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" with the Zombies'.

The first thing I noticed is that the Miracles retain the introduction.  The Zombies' version starts right at the beginning of the first verse.

I checked the keys, and the Miracles stay in C major (which is the key they recorded the studio version in), where the Zombies moved it to A major (the same key the Beatles did it in).

The title listed on the CD case is just "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," but the Miracles do go into Sam Cooke's "Bring It on Home to Me," just like the Zombies do in their version.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before when comparing the Zombies' version with the Miracles' studio version, but the Zombies' omit the second verse ("Baby, I don't want you, but I need you...").  There's also a small lyrical change that's specific to the Zombies' version (I'd noticed that it was different from the Miracles' studio version, but I didn't know if they were following the live version; they're not).  In the third verse, the Miracles have "Though I wanna split now / I can't quit now," but the Zombies flip it around a bit to "Ho ho ho, I wanna quit now / I just can't split now."  I'm still sort of surprised that they misheard "Though" as "Ho ho ho" since it's quite clear, even in the live version.