flip side

Description

The flip side to "Love's Gone Bad" in a literal and figurative sense. One of Holland-Dozier-Holland's (with the addition of John Thornton) most enduring songs, "Put Yourself In My Place" was recorded by the Elgins, The Isley Brothers and The Supremes. Here, Chris Clark gets to show off a jazzier singing style. Where "Love's Gone Bad" was amped, blues-fed sub-hysteria, "Put Yourself In My Place" is heartbreak filtered through ice-cool lounge stylings. Check out how the Funk Brothers turn in a performance more in line with an incredibly tight jazz combo; with not much more than drums, one guitar, bass and piano (with vibes doubling underneath) and an incredibly swingin' horn section, the Funks and H-D-H create an amazingly bright track that sounds like it would be right at home with the Big Band era. Trading in the hyper-paranoid rant of "Love's Gone Bad," Chris sings with an equally anguished air of loss, but this time, the voice is more jazz-influence and rocks with a maturity beyond her age at the time. Interestingly, Chris, when commenting about the song, related that at Motown, the producers would find your key and then cut the song two keys above it to really stretch the singer. She also remarked that she would maybe have an hour to learn the song and then it was into the studio to record. Given the incredible pace of things at Motown, Chris really nailed the tune and perhaps it was that compacted time frame of recording that lent the necessary air of urgency to the final performance. Whatever the case, it was another classic Chris Clark, Holland-Dozier-Holland-Thorton, Motown gem!