"I Can't Dance to That Music You're Playin'" is a 1968

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

- soul single by

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

girl group

Martha and the Vandellas Martha and the Vandellas (known from 1967 to 1972 as Martha Reeves & The Vandellas) were an American vocal girl group formed in Detroit in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s with Motown. An act founded by friends Annette Beard, Rosalind ...

(credited as Martha Reeves & the Vandellas).

Background

It's notable for featuring background vocals by The Andantes (who had been in a succession of Vandellas singles since " My Baby Loves Me") and Syreeta Wright, who had recently signed to the Motown label and was dating Motown artist

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

, at the time. The song talked about how one woman's musician boyfriend leaving her with questions about how he was running off without giving the woman a hint of what he was exactly doing. Reeves would later say that the reason why the chorus was sung by Wright and not by Reeves was because she and the Vandellas had a touring schedule that did not allowed her to re-record the chorus, which had been changed with different music. The original recording circulates among collectors, but Reeves can be heard singing the new chorus with Wright and the Andantes in the end of the song, on the mix that was finally released.

Credits

*Lead vocals by Martha Reeves *Additional lead vocals by Syreeta Wright (on the chorus) *Background vocals by The Andantes: Marlene Barrow, Jackie Hicks and Louvain Demps *Written by Deke Richards & Debbie Dean *Produced by Deke Richards

Chart performance

The song nearly returned the group to the top 40 on the Billboard singles chart peaking at number 42 and reaching number 24 on the R&B singles chart.

Cover versions

*"I Can't Dance to That Music You're Playin" was covered in a version by Tina Charles in 1976 which failed to make the charts, and another version was later recorded by the

Beatmasters The Beatmasters are an English electronic music group who gained success in the UK in the late 1980s with four top 20 hit singles. They then went on to produce and remix records for many other artists. The group's string of chart hit singles ...

with Betty Boo and reached number 7 in the UK charts in 1989.

References

1968 songs 1969 singles Martha and the Vandellas songs Songs written by Deke Richards Motown singles Songs about dancing {{1960s-single-stub