PART 573 



           KIM WESTON  - Take Me In Your Arms  (1965)
           MARVIN GAYE -   Ain't That Peculiar  (1965)
           STEVIE WONDER  -  Uptight ( Everything's Alright ) (1966)      
           DAVID RUFFIN   -  My Whole World Ended  (1969)

 

 
    "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" is a song written by the premier Motown songwriting/production team of the 1960s Holland–Dozier–Holland.  Eddie Holland of Holland-Dozier-Holland made the original recording of "Take Me in Your Arms" in 1964: the version was not released commercially until 2005. Holland-Dozier-Holland had Kim Weston record the song in 1965, her version was released that September. It peaked at #4 on the R&B chart in Billboard and #50 on the Hot 100.  In 1967, Holland-Dozier-Holland had the Isley Brothers remake the song: their version released in March 1968 reached #22 on the R&B chart.

     "Ain't That Peculiar" is a 1965 song recorded by  Marvin Gaye for the Tamla (Motown) label. The single was produced by Smokey Robinson, and written by Robinson, and fellow Miracles members Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, and Marv Tarplin. "Ain't That Peculiar" features Gaye, with The Andantes on backing vocals, singing about the torment of a painful relationship.  The single was Gaye's second U.S. million seller successfully duplicating its predecessor "I'll Be Doggone", from earlier in 1965 by topping Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart in the fall of 1965, peaking at #8 on the US Pop Singles chart. It became one of Gaye's signature 1960s recordings, and was his best-known solo hit before 1968's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine".

    "Uptight ( Everything's Alright )" is a 1966 hit single recorded by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label.  One of his most popular early singles, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" was the first Stevie Wonder hit single to be co-written by the artist. A notable success, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in early 1966, at the same time reaching the top of the Billboard R&B Singles chart for five weeks.  An accompanying album, Up-Tight, was rushed into production to capitalize on the single's success.  "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" continues to be popular on oldies radio. The single was a watershed in Wonder's career for several reasons. Aside from the number-one hit "Fingertips", only two of Wonder's singles had reached the Top 40 of Billboard's Pop Singles chart, ("Workout, Stevie Workout" reached #33 in late 1963 and "Hey Harmonica Man" reached #29 Pop in the Summer of 1964) and the fifteen-year-old artist was in danger of being let go. In addition, Wonder's voice had begun to change, and Motown CEO Berry Gordy was worried that he would no longer be a commercially viable artist.
 
    "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" is the solo debut single for former Temptations lead singer David Ruffin, released on Motown Records in early 1969 (see 1969 in music). The song was written by Harvey Fuqua, Johnny Bristol, Pam Sawyer, and James Roach, with its melody and intro based upon the classical music piece "Fruhlingslied" by Felix Mendelssohn. Fuqua and Bristol handled the recording's production.  Ruffin had been dismissed from the Temptations in June 1968 for what has been repeatedly deemed increasingly unprofessional behavior. The song was originally intended to be sung by the Temptations when Ruffin was still the group's front man, but when he finally agreed to a solo contract with Motown, the song was given to him