You Can't Hurry Love
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"You Can't Hurry Love" is a song originally recorded by
the Supremes The Supremes were an American girl group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959 as the Primettes. A premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful Amer ...
on the
Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...
label. It was released on July 25, 1966 as the second
single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
from their
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
''
The Supremes A' Go-Go ''The Supremes A' Go-Go'' is the ninth studio album released by the Motown singing group the Supremes. It was the first album by an all-female group to reach number-one on the ''Billboard'' 200 album charts in the United States. Included are ...
''. Written and produced by Motown production team
Holland–Dozier–Holland Holland–Dozier–Holland, often abbreviated as H-D-H, was a songwriting and production team consisting of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland. The trio wrote, arranged and produced many songs that helped define the ...
, the song topped the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, made the top five in the UK, and top 10 in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It was released and peaked in late summer and early autumn in 1966. Sixteen years later, it became a number-one hit in the UK when
Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...
re-recorded the song for his album '' Hello, I Must Be Going!''. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks beginning in January 1983 and reached number 10 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 a month later. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' named the song number 19 on their list of 100 Greatest
Girl Group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...
Songs of All Time. The
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
ranked "You Can't Hurry Love" at number 16 on ''The Top 100 Digital Motown Chart'', which is based solely on all time UK downloads and streams of Motown releases.


History


Overview

The song "You Can't Hurry Love", a memory of a mother's words ("My mama said 'you can't hurry love/No you just have to wait) telling her daughter that with patience she will find that special someone one day, was inspired by and partially based upon "(You Can't Hurry God) He's Right on Time" ("You can't hurry God/you just have to wait/Trust and give him time/no matter how long it takes"), a 1950s gospel song written by
Dorothy Love Coates Dorothy Love Coates ( McGriff; January 30, 1928 – April 9, 2002) was an American gospel singer, composer and songwritter, and a civil rights activist. Family Dorothy McGriff was born on January 30, 1928 at Birmingham, Alabama, as one of s ...
of the Original Gospel Harmonettes. Written and produced by Motown's main production team,
Holland–Dozier–Holland Holland–Dozier–Holland, often abbreviated as H-D-H, was a songwriting and production team consisting of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland. The trio wrote, arranged and produced many songs that helped define the ...
, "You Can't Hurry Love" is one of the signature Supremes songs, and also one of Motown's signature releases. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' described the single as "the group's most exciting side to date" with "top vocal" and "exceptional instrumental backing." ''
Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' said that it is a "pulsating
pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...
-r&b rhythmic ode which contends that romance is a slow-developing game of give-and-take." ''
Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...
'' called it "a wonderful and happy sounding tune, chirped by the Supremes, with bells and banjos." The single was the Supremes' seventh number-one hit, topping the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks, from September 4 to September 17, 1966, and reaching number one on the soul chart for two weeks. The group performed the song on the
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
variety program Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compèr ...
''
The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the ''CB ...
'' on Sunday, September 25, 1966. "You Can't Hurry Love" was the second single from the Supremes' album ''
The Supremes A' Go-Go ''The Supremes A' Go-Go'' is the ninth studio album released by the Motown singing group the Supremes. It was the first album by an all-female group to reach number-one on the ''Billboard'' 200 album charts in the United States. Included are ...
''. It reached the number one position on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop chart in the United States, and number three in the United Kingdom. The Supremes' version of the song is honored by inclusion in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
's permanent collection of 500 Songs that Shaped
Rock and Roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
. The Supremes also released a version sung in Italian: "L'amore verrà" ("Love Will Come").


Personnel

*Lead vocals by
Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...
*Background vocals by Mary Wilson and Marlene Barrow *Instrumentation by
the Funk Brothers The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...
**
Earl Van Dyke Earl Van Dyke (July 8, 1930 – September 18, 1992) was an American soul musician, most notable as the main keyboardist for Motown Records' in-house Funk Brothers band during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Career Van Dyke, who was born in Det ...
– piano ** Robert White – guitar **
James Jamerson James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases un ...
– bass guitar **
Benny Benjamin William "Benny" Benjamin (July 25, 1925 – April 20, 1969), nicknamed Papa Zita, was an American musician, most notable as the primary drummer for the Motown Records studio band The Funk Brothers. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall o ...
– drums **
Jack Ashford Jack Ashford (born May 18, 1934) is an American musician who was a percussionist for Motown Records' in-house Funk Brothers band during the 1960s and early 1970s. Ashford is most famous for playing the tambourine on hundreds of Motown recordings ...
– tambourine *Written by Holland-Dozier-Holland


Chart performance


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Phil Collins version

Phil Collins' cover of the song was released in October 1982 as a single from his second solo album, '' Hello, I Must Be Going!'' Collins's version reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in January 1983 (becoming his first number-one solo hit on the UK Singles Chart, and peaking two positions higher than the original song did in that country), and reached number 10 in the United States (his first top 10 single in the U.S.). The single was certified gold in the UK. The song spent a week at number 1 in
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
in January 1983. The orchestral strings on this track were recorded in Studio 1 at CBS Recording Studios, London W1 by recording engineer Mike Ross-Trevor (assisted by Richard Hollywood) on the evening of June 24, 1982. Collins said that "The idea of doing 'Can't Hurry Love' was to see if
Hugh Padgham Hugh Charles Padgham (born 15 February 1955) is an English record producer and audio engineer. He has won four Grammy Awards, for Producer of the Year and Album of the Year for 1985, Record of the Year for 1990, and Engineer of the Year for 199 ...
and I could duplicate that Sixties sound. It's very difficult today because most recording facilities are so much more sophisticated than they were back then. It's therefore hard to make the drums sound as rough as they did on the original. That's what we were going after, a remake, not an interpretation, but a remake."Hitmen, 1986 Part Two
''Hitmen'', 1986. reprinted at Collins's website in 2009; archived copy at archive.org.
In 1983, the music video was released on the home video ''Phil Collins'', available on
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
and
LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
, which received a
Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
nomination for Best Video, Short Form at the
27th Annual Grammy Awards The 27th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 26, 1985, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, and were broadcast live in the United States by CBS. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1984. Performers * Huey Lewis & Th ...
. The song itself was also the first track featured on the first release of the ''
Now That's What I Call Music! ''Now That's What I Call Music!'' (often shortened to ''NOW'') is a series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Sony Music and Universal Music ( Universal/Sony Music) which began in 1983. Spinof ...
'' compilation series.


Personnel

*
Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...
 – vocals, drums and tambourine *
Daryl Stuermer Daryl Mark Stuermer (born November 27, 1952) is an American musician, songwriter, singer, and record producer best known for playing the guitar and bass for Genesis during live shows, and lead guitar for Phil Collins during most solo tours and ...
 – guitars *
John Giblin John Giblin (26 February 1952 – 14 May 2023) was a Scottish musician who worked as an acoustic and electric bass player spanning jazz, classical, rock, folk, and avant-garde music. He was a member of Simple Minds from 1985 to 1988, and w ...
 – bass guitar *
J. Peter Robinson John Peter Robinson (born 16 September 1945) is an English composer, musician, and arranger known for his film and television scores. Early years and pop music career Robinson studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music and ...
 –
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
,
glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...
and
vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...
*Strings arranged and conducted by
Martyn Ford Martyn Ford (born 28 April 1944) is an English musician, best known for his orchestral contributions to rock music albums of the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, Ford was originally classically trained; he studied French horn at the ...
* The Mountain Fjord Orchestra – strings


Chart performance


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Other notable cover versions

* The song was covered by the
Dixie Chicks The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. The band consists of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and Emily Stra ...
on the soundtrack to the 1999 film '' Runaway Bride''. Their version peaked at number 60 on the ''Billboard''
Hot Country Singles & Tracks Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...
chart. *
Stray Cats Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in ...
covered the song as a
B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
to their 1981 single "
Rock This Town "Rock This Town" is the second single by American rockabilly band Stray Cats, released January 30, 1981 by Arista Records in the U.K., where it peaked at No. 9 on the Singles Chart. It was taken from the band's 1981 debut album, ''Stray Cats''. ...
".


See also

*
List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1966 (U.S.) These are the ''Billboard magazine'' Billboard Hot 100, Hot 100 number one hits of 1966. That year, 16 acts achieved their first number one song, such as Simon & Garfunkel, Lou Christie, Nancy Sinatra, Barry Sadler, SSgt. Barry Sadler, the Y ...


References


External links

* * {{Authority control 1966 songs 1966 singles 1982 singles The Supremes songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles UK singles chart number-one singles Dutch Top 40 number-one singles Number-one singles in Germany Phil Collins songs The Chicks songs Songs written by Holland–Dozier–Holland Motown singles Virgin Records singles Atlantic Records singles Song recordings produced by Brian Holland Song recordings produced by Lamont Dozier