The Motown masterpiece that Dusty Springfield always wanted to sing
Motown Records wasn’t just another record label, it was the place where dreams were made and stars were born, not just for the soul singers of Detroit, but for artists all across the world.
It didn’t take very long for Motown to graduate from being a small, shoestring operation in the heart of Detroit to being a colossal pop empire. Early triumphs like Barrett Strong’s ‘Money’ and The Marvelettes’ ‘Please Mr Postman’ made the label a stalwart of the American pop charts, and an unparalleled roster of talent kept Berry Gordy’s label there for many years. However, Motown wasn’t quite such an instant success story on the other side of the Atlantic.
In the United States, the pop soul being put out by Motown already had a strong foundation in the R&B and gospel sounds, which had been around for decades, rooted in the musical traditions of Black communities. However, the same was not true of the United Kingdom. With a handful of exceptions, old Blighty wasn’t quite as accustomed to the infectious rhythms of R&B, soul, or gospel, which is perhaps one of the reasons why it took Motown so long to break into the UK pop charts.
Eventually, in 1964, Mary Wells’ seminal hit ‘My Guy’ established the Motown sound in the UK charts, becoming a top-five single, but the label owed a lot of that early success to the support provided by UK artists like The Beatles and Dusty Springfield. The Fab Four were disciples of Motown, covering multiple Hitsville tracks on their 1963 record With The Beatles. Meanwhile, Springfield’s soul leanings led her to essentially introduce Motown to British audiences, both through her own soulful recordings and in her support of artists like Martha Reeves.
Springfield’s support of Motown was so great that she facilitated the first Motown tour of the UK, culminating in a special edition of the music programme Ready, Steady, Go centred around Gordy’s label and its various stars. This unending support for Motown created something of a bond between the beloved vocalist and the label. Although Springfield never had any releases on Motown herself, she did play a role in creating one of its most iconic hits.
Back in 1966, songwriters Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson penned their magnum opus track, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’. It was a song which would go on to typify the Motown sound for many listeners, earning Diana Ross a number-one single, and marking the ultimate highpoint of Marvin Gaye’s duets with Tammi Terrell. Before the recording became a cornerstone of soul and R&B excellence, though, Dusty Springfield was the one vying to record it.
Enamoured by the Ashford and Simpson song, Springfield tried to convince the pair to let her record it, but the songwriters refused. Clearly, they were aware of the masterpiece that they had created and saw the song as their way of breaking into the Motown scene. So, they rejected Springfield’s offer to record the song and instead approached Berry Gordy and Motown. Although for us listeners, the idea of a Dusty Springfield version of ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ is a colossal missed opportunity, it is fair to say that the decision paid off for Ashford and Simpson.
Before too long, the Gaye-Terrell duet was rising up the pop charts of 1967, and Diana Ross’ number-one cover of the song eventually became a number-one too, cementing the songwriters’ position at Motown. The pair went on to write multiple other tracks for Gaye along with a host of other artists at Hitsville USA before leaving the label in 1973 to pursue what ended up being an incredibly successful career as songwriters and performers.
