Ah, I've just seen some of the spiel - 20 years is about right then. Yeah, The Rocket - that was Levine's concoction, it was the "Metropolitan Soul Club" and yrs truly was member 001
I don't know about this record, I see that Martin Barnfather (Soul Sam) posted about it and he is a very knowledgeable source, seems that it was a one-off acetate recorded for Motown by an unknown artist. "SoulWax" is the label it was pressed on by some enterprising soul to make a few quid, apparently they were going for about £50 on eBay.
I'll say that I think this is an absolute belter of a tune, and arguments might rage over who it is, so I'll put down what I know and people can make up their own minds..
In the 80's a Motown collector purchased a number of acetates and tapes that had been retrieved from the Woodward building in Detroit. The tracks on the tapes were by various artists and were what are known as 'safety copies' .. meaning you could listen to them but weren't able to move them on as they had 'bleeps' superimposed on the tracks at regular intervals throughout the songs. From what I know these were tapes that writers or producers could take home to listen to and had therefore left the 'security' of the tape library and studio. One of the songs on these multi-artist tapes was ' I Can't Stop This Feeling'. The tape was damaged on the intro but recovered in time before the main vocal started. A number of the long-time Motown collectors listened to it and the conclusion was that it must be a demo, probably by the writer or a random singer, as opposed to any known Motown artist. Someone gave a copy to Ian Levine. who was very excited by it. He 'repaired' the damage by doing a piano studio overdub and proclaimed that it was a Contours recording and he knew because he had worked with them and knew their voices up close and personal, so in his mind there was no doubt. That is hard to disagree with, but of the many Motown experts who listened to the track, only Ian believed it was the Contours.. Most of the experts other than Levine think its more likely that the writer is the singer ... A few believe it could be James or William Weatherspoon.. I have no idea who it is, but its a gem whoever recorded it..
Tremendous evidence sifting, NE. And all I did was browse a few songs on YouTube, selecting some on the basis of virtually no knowledge on my part. That said, I *know* what I like when I hear it, and a video contemporary to the song is even better, as I'm not subjected to some rather indifferent graphic design.
The poster ^ has included 'Detroit' into the group's title but I think what happened was that there was confusion with the UK folk group, The Spinners. Wiki tells me the USA group was also known as The Motown Spinners, as you say^, and The Detroit Spinners.
I thought I might indulge of my "other" passion for your entertainment
Feel free to post, but please do try and keep it soulful. No funk or ska please! I maintain an off-line list of all the tracks posted, if you would like a copy please feel free to fmail me.
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The Music Game
Jan 2025