It's the Same Old Song
| "It's the Same Old Song" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Four Tops | ||||
| from the album Four Tops' Second Album | ||||
| B-side | "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" (Netherlands); "Your Love Is Amazing" (selected countries, namely in the West German, American and Australian markets); "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" (on one copy in the UK) | |||
| Released | July 9, 1965 | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Recorded | Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A); July 8, 1965 | |||
| Genre | Soul, pop | |||
| Length | 2:46 | |||
| Label | Motown | |||
| Writer(s) | Holland–Dozier–Holland | |||
| Producer(s) |
Brian Holland Lamont Dozier |
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| Four Tops singles chronology | ||||
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"It's the Same Old Song" is a 1965 hit single recorded by the Four Tops for the Motown label. Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song is today one of The Tops' signature songs, and was notably created—from initial concept to commercial release—in 24 hours. It reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. It also reached number 34 in the UK.
After "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" hit #1 in June 1965, The Four Tops' former label, Columbia Records, wanting to cash in on the group's success, re-released the Tops' 1960 Columbia single "Ain't That Love". Berry Gordy ordered that a new Four Tops single had to be released within a day's time.
At 3:00 PM that afternoon, the Holland brothers and Lamont Dozier wrote "It's the Same Old Song". Four Tops tenor Abdul "Duke" Fakir recalled:
The engineering team worked around the clock perfecting the single's mix and making hand-cut vinyl records so that Berry Gordy's sister Esther in the Artist Development department could critique them and select the best ones for single release. By 3 P.M. the next day, 1500 copies of "It's the Same Old Song" had been delivered to radio DJs across the country, and the song eventually made it to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number two on the R&B chart.
"It's the Same Old Song" is very similar in melody and chord progressions to "I Can't Help Myself", which in turn is even more similar in melody and chord progressions to "Where Did Our Love Go" by the Supremes, who covered "It's The Same Old Song" in 1967. Critic Maury Dean disputes that there is much in common with "I Can't Help Myself", saying that it is "a dynamic NEW treatment, with just a hint of Benny Benjamin's thundering drums echoing" "I Can't Help Myself".
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Wikipedia