It sure sounds like Stevie Wonder playing drums on "It's A Shame" by the Spinners...

Richard Allen and Uriel Jones are credited on the drums....

 

...Produced by Stevie Wonder, Arranged by Paul Riser, Strings Recorded by Bob Olhsson, Recorded at Motown Studio B (Golden World)...

Besides Pistol and Jones, Dennis Coffey and Robert White are on guitar, and the great James Jamerson is on bass...

 

I bet Mr. Morris told them how to play the beat though!

 

It doesn't sound like Stevie's style to me. It's Pistol Allen.

Stevie did play drums on Jermaine Jackson's brilliant 1980 hit "Let's Get Serious". It was also produced by Stevie. (I just had to get mention of that song on these forums.)

 

Anytime I want to explain what I love most about Motown, "It's a Shame" is the first thing I play. I love the guitar hook, the fluid groove, the horns, the background vocal patterns...everything about it screams great soul from Detroit. Even though it is not from the peak 1965-1966 period, I think "It's a Shame" is one of the best examples of Motown in a lot of ways.

 

Steve, V.I.P. label # 25057

mud-

 

Although Stevie didn't play on It's A Shame, I am sure he did play on a lot of things he did produce or had a hand it writing. Apparently he was the only person who could handle the drums on "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" for the Four Tops. Stevie was all of fifteen at the time. What a musical god.

 

And in case some don't know it, he wrote the song also....

 

Stevie apparently is playing on "It's A Shame". He's playing the clavinet, in unison with Dennis Coffey and Joe Messina's lead guitar line in the intro and at the breakdown. At least this is according to G.C. Cameron in the liner notes for the new Spinners box set.

 

I think Bob Olhsson is a member here. Maybe he can give us some more info about the making of this song. Interesting to see this thread now - I've been thinking of this song tonight.

 

Perhaps the clavinet was punched down in the mix?

 

I did the vocals and not the strings. In fact, were there strings? My memory is that Stevie did indeed play everything but the guitars and horns. Harry W. at Universal may have contradictory paperwork but Stevie's drumming seems pretty obvious.

That vocal session was a high point of my career. The lead vocal would have been one take except that Stevie had asked GC to stop before the tag. We punched in the tag and then just sat there dumbfounded wondering what to do next. This, by the way, was Stevie Wonder's very first production. What a beginning!

 

I'll give another listen tonight - the credits I posted were from the new Spinners box, for which Harry and Andrew Skurow provided annotations for Motown era tracks. I will try to get clarification from HW and report back....

 

Those backgrounds were four passes of the same parts taken from different single mike perspectives. Tracks 2 & 3 contain all four passes, track 3 being a mix of track 1 with a live mike and 2 being a mix of track 5 and a live mike. My intention was to wipe tracks 1 & 5 after the session but I must have forgotten in all the excitement of GC's performance. (We had done the backgrounds right before we did GC's lead.)

This was in the early days of 16 track and it was very exciting to even THINK about having more than one track available at Motown for backgrounds, much less two for "sort-of stereo." I did the "live bounces" because I didn't dare leave more than two background tracks (although I apparently did.) I haven't seen the tape since that night.

 

Here's a message from Harry from this morning -

"As Sue Whitall says in the notes, everyone remembers it differently. Stevie Wonder may have played a few instruments during one of the takes. Only the master take exists, and that's the recording I have heard - I've sat and listened to and played around with the original 16-track session master. Definitely Jamerson, definitely those drummers, definitely no keyboards, et al. Maybe Bob recorded both the vocals and the strings, or Sue and I got it mixed up, or he got it mixed up, when we talked with him at different times. The tapes don't notate who did what when.

Besides, it was 33 years ago! I'll check with Bob and see if I can get a better sense of it - at least what the recollection is as of 2003."


No offense intended by my taking responses from another context/forum and posting them here in the manner I am.

 

Hey Ken, thanks for passing that info on. I figured that Harry would have the definitive info on the sessions for that. Absolutely one of my all time favorite Motown tracks.

 

Well, Harry responded in another forum re: top 3 all-time great soul moments. His response (and right you are, Ken, re: It's a Shame):

"I remember these the day I heard them new - shiver me timbers!

1. any Aretha album or single from 1967-1974
2. Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues
3. It's A Shame - Spinners

Serious Honorable Mention:
x. Donny Hathaway - Love Love Love

then there's Stevie Wonder..."