Wednesday August 4, 2021 “I Can’t Help Myself” Four Tops vs “I Can’t Turn You Loose” Otis Redding
“I Can’t Turn You Loose” was written and recorded by Otis Redding in 1965 and was actually the “B” side back in those days when songs were on those vinyl discs known as 45s. The “A” side was a ballad “Just One More Day” that the record label felt was the hit.
As we have encountered so many times before, those crazy DJs flipped the record and decided that “I Can’t Turn You Loose” was the hit and sure enough it was. The song was a top twenty hit for Redding and the Chambers Brothers and Aretha Franklin would both record it and have minor hits with it as well.
The extraordinary Motown songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote “I Can’t Help Myself”, perhaps better known as “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch ''. It was also recorded in 1965 by the Four Tops and was one of Motown’s biggest hits, staying at number one on the R&B charts for nine weeks.
In a classic piece of musical chutzpah Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote the Four Tops follow up song, “It’s the Same Old Song” and it was indeed the same ‘old’ song as it was almost identical to the previous “I Can’t Help Myself”. However, they did not take any legal action against themselves for writing the same song.
There is still a remarkable similarity between the Otis Redding song and the Four Tops tune but both were recorded in the same year begging the question who did it first or were the songwriters simply inspired by the same muse.
Stay safe and well...and do let me know if you think these two great songs feel the same.