♫ You Really Got A Hold On Me ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I didn’t think I would do a music post tonight, since the cat, Tiger Lily, broke my @#$% headphones earlier!  She somehow managed to get tangled in the wire that goes from the phones to my laptop and snapped the headphones right in two!  But then, I figured out that they still work … they just won’t sit on my head, so I have to hold each ear piece up to the respective ears, but in a pinch … whatever works, right?  I haven’t played this one for a few years, and … well, what’s not to love about Smokey Robinson, right?  Now, two additions to my previous posts of this song.  The first is one that my friend Michael Seidel sent me last time I played it … it is Bonnie Bramlett singing this song on “Roseanne” in 1988 and boy can she belt out a tune!  The second addition is The Zombies’ version of the song, because rawgod requested it.  And on that note …

Tonight’s song is either going to take you back … way back … else leave you scratching your head and saying, ‘huh?’  Go back, if you can, to 1962.  I was eleven … how old were you?  In ’62, the Beatles, the Stones, and the Turtles weren’t yet around, and the sound of the day, at least for most of us, was Motown.  And there was none better than Smokey Robinson and his Miracles.

Smokey wrote and produced this one that was released in November 1962 under the Motown Tamla label.  It zoomed to #1 on Billboard’s R&B chart in the U.S.  It has been featured in at least 12 films and a television special,  Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.  

Smokey Robinson said he was thinking about Sam Cooke’s Bring it on Home to Me (another great one, in my book) when he got the idea for this song.  Cooke’s song finds the singer apologizing to his girl after casting her off, promising to treat her right if she comes back. You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me is the same sentiment but with the roles reversed: the girl mistreats the guy, but he loves her unconditionally.  Gender equality, even in the ’60s.

The Beatles recorded this in 1963 and performed it in their last movie, Let It Be. The Beatles were the first big British band to come to America and admit they were influenced by black music. Robinson admired this admission, and felt they helped black artists by covering their songs.

The quality of this video isn’t the best, but hey … it was 1962 … YouTube and digital photography hadn’t even been invented yet.  There are more recent versions, but I felt this one had the most authenticity.  And now I give you …

You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me
The Miracles

I don’t like you, but I love you,
Seems that I’m always thinking of you.
Oh, oh, oh, you treat me badly,
I love you madly, you really got a hold on me.
You really got a hold on me, baby,
I don’t want you, but I need you,
Don’t want to kiss you, but I need you.
Oh, oh, oh, you do me wrong now,
My love is strong now you really got a hold on me.

You really got a hold on me, baby,
I love you and all I want you to do is just hold me,
Hold me, hold me, hold me.

I want to leave you, don’t want to stay here
Don’t want to spend another day here.
Oh, oh, oh, I want to split now, I can’t Baby,
I love you and all I want you to do is just hold me,
Hold me, hold me, hold me.
You really got a hold on me.
You really got a hold on me.
You really got a hold on me.
You really got a hold on me.
You really got a hold on me.

Songwriters: William Robinson Jr.
You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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43 thoughts on “♫ You Really Got A Hold On Me ♫ (Redux)”

    • Just … let me pick up … my jaw off of the … floor. YOU didn’t know that was a Smokey Robinson original? YOU, the walking encyclopedia of all things pertaining to music??? I’m stunned! Yeah, I think a few others probably prefer the Beatles version, but you know me and Motown … 😊

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      • Nope. To me that was always a Beatles song. I’d have been 9 when Smokey’s version came out, and in those days we didn’t have a good pop music station on the radio and Motown hadn’t really taken off here. That might be hard for an American to get, but it just wasn’t the biggest thing in music here. Arguably it never was: many chart successes but we had a lot of our own whose records we bought too.

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          • Don’t get me wrong. It was very popular here, and the label had loads of hit records. Their Motown Chartbusters compilation albums were huge sellers. I just don’t think it ever became as revered here as it was over there. Maybe I’m wrong, though. The fact that I can only remember buying a couple of their releases may be clouding my view!

            Liked by 1 person

  5. I did not know that smokie robinson was the first one to do this song, I had always assumed it eas the Beatles. I was probably in another life in 1962, if you believe in things like past lives and stuff like that. I didn’t land on this planet until 1966, I’m an alien, but that probably wouldn’t surprise you.
    By the way, I hit the follow button for the blog just so I could get the posts I’d like to respond to automatically but it must not have worked because I didn’t get the good people post or this one in my email.
    Hope you’re having a good day and don’t reprimand poor kitty too much, they can’t help thinking that everything is a toy to play with, well, except my cat, she just lays in the windowsill, she’s so lazy.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Wow … I am shocked, for your knowledge of all things pertaining to music is much greater than mine! But, then this is before your time, so maybe not so surprising. You’re just a young dude! Heh heh … there are days that you being an alien wouldn’t surprise me, but other days it would.

      That’s strange that you didn’t get the good people or music posts in your inbox … another reader, Pete, often has that problem, but none others that I know of. Let me know if that keeps happening, okay?

      Oh I know … I actually apologized to the kitty for yelling and calling her … um … a name! We’re back on speaking terms now! And I have a new set of headphones coming later today, so all is well and peace once again reigns. How old is your cat, Scott?

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  7. In 1962 I was 18, voted for the first time and finally convinced my parents I was old enough to drive myself to work! We didn’t get to listen to that much music on the radio then because my dad preferred the real classics — Beethoven, Brahms and Bach, along with Strauss, Mozart and Chopin. I still have a love of those classics, although when the folk music hit on the radio I knew all of the old ones, based on the songs that came over from the British Isles and settled in the eastern mountains, way up in the hollers. Then along came Dylon, Baez, Collins and all of the more modern folk singers with some great classics of their own. Those are the ones I listen to most today. I did grow to love Lionel Ritchy, tolerated the Beetles while loving some of their music but when the hard rock and rapping came around I shut off the radio and haven’t really listened to it since then.

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    • You mean you didn’t lie awake in bed at night listening to Wolfman Jack on your transistor radio? Ahhhh … how well I remember those days! I have always loved the Motown Sound and some of the others you mention, but like you, when the hard rock and ‘acid rock’ came around, I tuned out. Not for me, thank you!

      Liked by 1 person

      • WE didn’t have transistor radios until we could save enough money from our pay checks to buy them; It took me two years because when I started working my parents decided that since I lived at home I should pay them rent. Only me. None of the others were ever charged rent, but I’m the one Mother didn’t want and she never missed a chance to tell me that. I think it was payback for teaching my older brother to walk and talk when I was 9 months old. But at the same time when I looked at apartments she threw herself across the bed wailing that I didn’t love her any more. Sje would have loved Trump

        Liked by 1 person

        • Ahhhh … my parents were similar in that when I turned 13, they told me I needed to get a job and give them half my pay! However, there were Christmases and birthdays for such things as transistor radios, books, etc. Your mom sounds like she might have had some … er, issues?

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  8. I was ten, this one I knew by heart because my eleven year old sister played it a million times.
    Found this when looking for my imagination. It’s the opposite of love and I like the flooring. Might make a post?

    Liked by 3 people

    • As I watched this video, I was so confused … I kept saying, “That is NOT Elton John!” But it said it was. I searched for another version and got the same thing. So, I went to SongFacts and Wikipedia and found the answer … that is Robert Downey, Jr., lipsynching the song! Yes, quite possibly it might make a post in a day or two! Thanks, Richard!

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Thank you fotr playing the Zombies version, Jill, I just wish the audio was better. I know it is often the way with live performances, but while it’s great to see the band, the studio version is just so much better. I thank you for all three.
    Colin Blunstone, lead singer for the Zombies, probably appreciates you playing this younger version of the boys in the band. They didn’t look quite like this when I saw them circa 2004 in Fort MacLeod, Alberta at the Empress Theatre, which is older than the Zombies. (Fort MacLeod was where the Academy Award-winning movie Brokeback Mountain was filmed.)

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