Released: April 1968
Motown was clearly past its Golden Era by early 1968 and the production quality showed the difference. There’s something about late 60s Motown music that is inferior to that 1964-1967 apex. I don’t know the reason, but the songs all start getting this muffled quality that wasn’t present during the mid-60s when everything sounded crystal clear and sharp.
For example, “I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)” (#1 R&B, #13 pop) and “I Wish It Would Rain” (#1 R&B, #4 pop) are both excellent songs. Yet even they don’t sound as crisp as “It’s Growing” or “You’re My Everything” from years gone by.
Those two big hits were both co-written by Rodger Penzabene. He was a beautifully prolific songwriter. In a burst of creativity in 1967 he wrote about a dozen songs for Motown and everyone was at least pretty damn good. But all those songs were based on a tortuous romantic relationship that ended poorly.
At age 23, Penzabene killed himself shortly after “I Wish It Would Rain” was released as a single at the very end of 1967.
It is kind of a bummer listening to those two songs plus his earlier co-writes on With A Lot O’ Soul (“Save My Love For A Rainy Day” and “You're My Everything”) once you learn the backstory. At times his lyrics are filled with joy. Other times desperation. And even outright pain. They all have an intense passion and you can understand why.
In fact knowing that Penzabene was a man with deep emotional and/or mental problems makes these songs seem a bit exploitative in retrospect.
The world was different in 1967 on how it treated those kinds of problems and Motown wasn’t a social service, but no one read those lyrics and thought to get that man some help?
That sad saga aside, this album has other problems. “Please Return Your Love To Me” (#4 R&B, #26 pop) is not one of them. Helmed by Eddie Kendricks, it crystallized what “Two Sides To Love” started on their previous album. Norman Whitfield’s hit ballads of the 1970s would all return to the basic template of those two songs.
“Fan the Flame” and “He Who Picks A Rose” begin exposing the problems on this LP. They are pure filler, but at least they were new songs. “Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got” and “I've Passed This Way Before” are filler songs and covers of recordings by other Motown artists. I’m not opposed to a cover, but these don’t veer much from originals both done by Jimmy Ruffin, which makes marks them as even more obviously filler.
And now we get back to my initial point on this album’s production quality being surprisingly low. “This Is My Beloved” is a good song written by Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. The instrumentation is pleasant, but it sounds like you got cotton balls in your ears as the song plays thanks to its weird muffled quality.
Again, I don’t know what the deal was with that, but that muffledness plagues almost the whole album. If that song had been recorded in 1965 or 1966 it’d be much better.
Lastly, there are legitimately two subpar songs. Not average. Not okay. Stuff you actually would prefer to skip through. That hadn’t happened on a Temptations album since their shaky debut. Thanks “Why Did You Leave Me Darling” and “No Man Can Love Her Like I Do”. You really brought the party down.
ALBUM GRADE: C+
Wish It Would Rain gets by on the strength of the three big hits as the album tracks as a whole are subpar for the Temptations.
And this would be David Ruffin’s last recording as a member of the group. He got seven of the 12 leads on this album, all of which were new songs. The outright number isn’t the issue, but the fact he was getting all new songs to record while Paul Williams was charged with singing lead on the cover tunes was kind of a slap in the face.
For the rest of 1968, the Temptations would record duets with the Supremes before getting a dramatic shakeup in their sound at the end of that year and entering 1969.
Song Scores
I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You): 8.5/10
Cindy: 7/10
I Wish It Would Rain: 8.5/10
Please Return Your Love to Me: 8.5/10
Fan the Flame: 7/10
He Who Picks A Rose: 6/10
Why Did You Leave Me Darling: 4/10
I Truly, Truly Believe: 6/10
This Is My Beloved: 7/10
Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got: 7/10
I've Passed This Way Before: 5/10
No Man Can Love Her Like I Do: 4/10