By 1981, the Four Tops were a nostalgia act, although few would refer to them as such.
Their remarkable Motown recording career lost focus as the label began eyeing warmer climes, eventually moving west from Detroit to Los Angeles. By that time, Motown had essentially transformed the Four Tops into a covers act, so it probably wasn’t difficult for the group to say goodbye and hitch their wagon to a new label.
Their post-Motown period had a promising start with “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got),” which peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart in 1973. It would be a long eight years, however, before they broke the Top Forty again.
The Four Tops took a break from recording in 1978 after a string of unsuccessful albums with ABC Records, but as the seventies gave way to the eighties, the band signed with Casablanca and scored what would prove to be their last big hit with “When She Was My Girl.”
Thematically and lyrically, “When She Was My Girl” could have been a sequel to “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got”), but it introduced a new sound for the group–infectiously poppy and deceptively carefree. It just missed the Top Ten on the Hot 100, but it reached number one in the Billboard R&B chart and became a multi-national hit. It also made the Four Tops one of the few acts at the time to have Top 40 singles in three consecutive decades.
Riding the success of their hit single, the Four Tops returned to Motown in 1983, but except for a minor-charting team-up with Smokey Robinson on “Indestructible” in 1988, the group never had a Top Forty single again.
With such iconic Holland-Dozier-Holland singles like “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “It’s the Same Old Song,” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There” to their credit, it’s a bit surprising that Bruce Springsteen chose “When She Was My Girl” to represent the Four Tops on his latest album. (The Holland-Dozier-Holland penned “7 Rooms of Gloom” also appears.)
But only a little bit, because “When She Was My Girl” is undeniably fun to sing.
For a few brief moments during the introduction, it seems like Bruce and Ron Aniello might be steering the track in a funkier, more seventies than eighties vein, but alas, it’s only a tease.
Like almost every track on Only the Strong Survive, Bruce hews extremely close to the original arrangement, clocking in at almost the exact runtime and even (thankfully) including the bum ba bum bum bum backing vocals that my dad used to love to sing in the car. (I’d love to know who voices them in Bruce’s studio recording.)
The result is a light-hearted trifle of a track, nowhere near as wrought as Bruce’s anguished performance on “I Forgot to Be Your Lover.” I wouldn’t expect to see it on fan signs or set lists, but if you need a pick-me-up on a dark winter morning, “When She Was My Girl”–in any incarnation–is bound to do the trick.
When She Was My Girl
Recorded: 2021
Released: Only the Strong Survive (2022)
Never performed
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