“Smiling Faces Sometimes” by THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH
How producer Norman Whitfield changed Motown for a changing world.
“Can you dig it, can you dig it?”
Norman Whitfield was never shy about reworking a song. His production of “Heard It Through the Grapevine” for Gladys Knight & the Pips was Motown’s biggest-selling single, until it was eclipsed a year later by his radically different version for Marvin Gaye. The Gladys Knight & The Pips track was actually his second try at making the song into a single. Over chugging Muscle Shoals funk, a throaty Knight sings with one foot in gospel and the other up some guy’s ass. The Gaye version was seen as too raw for the label’s romantic leading man and was only released after Knight’s hit. Hectored by nervous strings out of a Bernard Herrman Hitchcock score, Gaye sounds anxious, like a man whose world has turned on him -- “losing you will end my life you see” feels like a legit possibility. Whitfield took that icy, cinematic sound of Gaye’s mega hit into even darker territory with “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” first with The Temptations and then again with a group he assembled to see how far he could push a psychedelic soul sound, The Undisputed Truth.
Whitfield had started at Motown when he was barely 20, working his way up from tambourine player to head of quality control, then songwriter and producer. He wrested The Temptations from Smokey Robinson after his “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” bested the Robinson-produced “Get Ready” on the charts. That’s how it worked as a producer at Motown — you hit or you sit. He then produced a string of hits for the group that, like “Ball of Confusion,” pushed Motown from the choreographed precision of Hitsville USA and out into the streets. “Cloud Nine” earned the group a Grammy, Motown’s first, which somehow took until 1968.1 Whitfield’s ambitions continued apace, layering in guitar distortion, cinematic sound effects and extended psychedelic soul jams. On “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” The Temptations sound trapped on a Hammer House of Horror set; the funky wah-wah guitar jam all but abandons them for the second half of the 12-minute song. Compared to what Whitfield’s does with the Undisputed Truth, it sounds like a lark.
There was only so far Whitfield could push The Temptations, practically a cornerstone of 2648 W. Grand Blvd. Even as the hits kept coming, the group wearied of being merely the producer’s canvas and pined for their old romantic ballads. To further R&D his boundary-pushing sound, Whitfield formed The Undisputed Truth, pairing vocal duo Billie Calvin and Brenda Evans, who backed tracks like Diana Ross’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” with a veteran of the Detroit soul scene, Joe Harris. His palette would include white afro wigs, face paint, and space-wizard outfits. The sound would be whatever he could make it.
The Undisputed Truth’s single-length “Smiling Faces Sometimes” begins with an ominous fanfare of low brass, echoing wah-wah, and stinging strings. Time is kept by a tambourine ticking like a time bomb. The atmosphere hardly lightens as a weary-sounding Harris, otherwise a belter, deliberately intones the opening lines.
Smiling faces sometimes
Pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces
Of the evil that lurks within
(Can you dig it?)
Whitfield’s penchant for redoing songs is a testament to his restless creative spirit, but when you’re collecting songwriters’ royalties, it’s also good business. “Smiling Faces Sometimes” was written with frequent partner Barrett Strong, who handled the lyrics. However paranoid the song’s trappings, the smiling faces aren’t simply the “somebody out to get your lady” of the O’Jay’s “Backstabbers.” These smiling faces are those of the Staple Singers’ supernal “I’ll Take You There,” which describes a promised land where there “ain’t no smiling faces / lyin’ to the races.” Whether or not you see the song reflecting mistrust of friends and neighbors or the realities of covert racism could depend on which side of the code switch you’re on.
By midway, Harris is feeling the song’s fierce midtempo groove, which wells up almost imperceptibly. For all its churning menace, the song is a low-key banger. Psychedelic soul was less a genre than an idea, a response to the times — the free expression of the psychedelic era, the ambition of literal moonshots, and social unrest on streets where that moon landing meant little. For Whitfield, it was a way to future-proof Motown, not just fitting a suit-and-tie label with Sly Stone’s fringe, but seeing how far he could push the music while still keeping it in the pocket.
“Smiling Faces Sometimes” went to #2 on the R&B/Soul charts and #3 Pop, and was #14 in Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 for 1971. Whitfield’s ambitions soon carried him away from Motown; when the label moved to L.A., he didn’t follow. The Undisputed Truth didn’t touch the charts again until their disco hit “You + Me = Love,” their first single for Whitfield Records. Whitfield had a big international hit in 1976 with “Car Wash” by Rose Royce, who had been Edwin Starr’s backing band in the Motown days. He went back to Motown in the ‘80s, producing The Last Dragon film soundtrack and “Sail Away,” one of the last top-40 hits for The Temptations. It’s an old-school romantic ballad, albeit one with cinematic touches.
Psychedelic Soul Playlist
21 songs in two hours and 12 minutes.
Rosé for All Seasons
Masseria Li Veli Salento Negroamaro Primerose has been my favorite rosé of the season, and it’s one that will stand up to fall flavors as well. Negroamaro is a dark-skinned grape that’s been grown in Puglia for 1,500 years. Here, it makes for an expressive, bold rosato (rosé) with a quarry’s worth of minerality. Its fuller body makes it an able partner for Labor Day barbecues and evenings when you feel the first breath of fall.
Thank You and Welcome
Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder for including this project in his list of favorite newsletters in The Magnet. Welcome to those who are here thanks to his kind mention.
A brief list of Motown hits before the label’s first Grammy win in 1968
The Contours, "Do You Love Me" (1962)
The Marvelettes, "Please Mr. Postman" (1961)
Martha and the Vandellas, "Heat Wave" (1963)
The Temptations, "My Girl" (1964)
The Supremes, "Where Did Our Love Go" (1964)
The Supremes, "Baby Love" (1964)
The Four Tops, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" (1965)
Martha and the Vandellas, "Nowhere to Run" (1965)
Martha and the Vandellas, "Dancing in the Street" (1965)
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, "The Tracks of My Tears” (1965)
The Supremes, "Stop! In the Name of Love" (1965)
The Four Tops, "Reach Out I'll Be There" (1966)
The Four Tops, "Reach Out I'll Be There" (1966)
The Supremes, "You Can't Hurry Love" (1966)
The Isley Brothers, "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)" (1966)
The Temptations, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (1966)
The Supremes, "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (1967)
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, "The Tears of a Clown" (1967)