Sammy Ward - If At First You Don't Succeed

The late Sammy Ward, with his trademark cowboy hat, was one of Tamla/Motown's earliest recording artists. The man was a great bluesy singer who should have done much better. Smokey wrote "You Really Got a Hold on Me" for Sammy, but Berry Gordy insisted that Smokey do it on the Miracles. At Motorcity, twenty six years later, we later recorded Ward on the song and someone posted on the internet that "the rendition is one of Levine's best efforts as a record producer". Sammy Ward was the Bobby Bland of Motown. He was all business and no fluff. Listen to the way he tore into "What Makes You Love Him" (again, two different versions recorded) and "That Child Is Really Wild", a rather funny take on a crude girlfriend. His only chart success (and that was R&B only) was "Who's The Fool". Co-founder of Motown, Raynoma Gordy Singleton, (known as Miss Ray), renamed him Singin' Sammy Ward, and in the early days, Motown treated the blues just as importantly as the burgeoning Motown sound, particularly grooming Sammy Ward, Mable John, Sherri Taylor, Amos Milburn, and Hattie Littles, and it's notable that, by the mid sixties, all five of these notable artists had left the company. Sammy released seven singles in all for Motown, five singles on the Tamla label, and then a further single on Soul, plus a duet on Motown with Sherri Taylor. He also dueted with Mable, but those tapes didn't surface till years later. After leaving Motown, he signed to Don Davis' Groovesville company, and released the monster Northern Soul classic "Sister Lee" on the Groove City label in 1967. He didn't get to sing again till 1989 when I found him, and Raynoma herself came in and supervised the vocal sessions like in the old days. I feel that we only really captured him well on this one song, "If At First You Don't Succeed". We cut seven tracks with him, six solo, and one duet with Sherri Taylor once again. He was almost impossible to record, as he couldn't stick to any melody at all, and merely improvised in a bluesy voice, which made it hard to capture a vocal that would appeal to Motown fans. On the remakes of "Try It Baby", "Crazy Bout My Baby", and "Part Time Love", he seemed unable to grasp any melody at all, but with Raynoma's help, we nailed it on this one song in my opinion, and he came in to England to appear at a Northern Soul allnighter in Morecambe, where they wanted to see him sing "Sister Lee", and he shone on this one track.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Motown
• Northern-Soul
• Detroit
• Motorcity
• Disco
• Male-Vocals

[tlharris]

When did Sammy Ward pass away?

[IanLevine]

Sometime in the late 1990s. I'll find out and get back to you.

[starletdempsy]

I just found that I'm related to him on my mother side. Its my grandmother's brother!!! His first name is James Woodley and he was in Motown. Born in Birmingham, Alabama and Archie Moore the famous boxer is my cousin.

Thank God for black history month in Feb.

[bobrofmad]

i loved it to the bones!

[skeptyky]

YES VERY GOODDDDD!! the best sammy number one

[Discoboy1974]

Hi, I'm Søren from Denmark. I hope that people who like this music will join up to receive "Reaching For The Best - The IAN LEVINE Newsletter". I'm doing a regular e-mail newsletter for people who are fans of Ian Levine's music, just like myself. If you too are a genuine fan of his productions, and you love seeing these videos, then send me a message with your e-mail address and I'll add you to the list. It's all free, it's with Ian's full co-operation, so please join in!

[TheMotownAmbassador]

I can't believe what I'm seeing, SAMMY WARD. He is one of my favorite Motown artists. My favorite song by Sammy is on Soul from 1964 called "You've Got The Change". He sounds the same here, it's amazing!!!