You Got What It Takes

It certainly came up innocently enough ...
One of our FORGOTTEN HITS Readers sent me an email requesting more information on MARV JOHNSON, the guy who scored a hit with the song YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES back in 1961.

I was going thru my 45's and found a great tune you NEVER hear: Marv Johnson's "You Got What It Takes". Its one of my top 20 of all time records ..... Any history on this tune, Kent? As I always say, when in doubt ask the Master!
Carolyn Mondragon

And, as I typically do, I researched this a little bit and then gave my best answer:

Well, let's see ... FIRST of all, MOST folks are going to best know this song thanks to the FANTASTIC remake done by THE DAVE CLARK FIVE, circa 1967 ... but it was MARV JOHNSON who FIRST took it into The Top Ten back in 1960. (#5 in CASH BOX and #10 in BILLBOARD for JOHNSON; THE DC5 hit #8 and #7 respectively with THEIR version seven years later.) MARV JOHNSON had four OTHER Top 40 Hits that you rarely hear anymore: COME TO ME went to #30 in BILLBOARD back in 1959; I LOVE THE WAY YOU LOVE (#8, CASH BOX, 1960); YOU'VE GOT TO MOVE TWO MOUNTAINS (#20, BILLBOARD, also 1960) and HAPPY DAYS (#39, CASH BOX, 1961). JOHNSON teamed up with MOTOWN Founder BERRY GORDY in the late '50's ... in fact, some music historians credit him as "The Co-Creator of The Motown Sound." Whether that's true or not, he DID record BERRY GORDY's VERY first commercial release ... before UNITED ARTISTS picked up COME TO ME for national distribution, it was FIRST released as TAMLA 101 in the Detroit area, where JOHNSON was born. (The tune was co-written by MARV JOHNSON and BERRY GORDY, who JOHNSON met while working in a Detroit area record store. In fact, despite the fact that they were released on another record label, BERRY GORDY wrote and produced ALL of MARV JOHNSON's Top 40 Hits!) He would eventually go BACK to work for MOTOWN in the mid-'60's, first as a recording artist and then in the sales and promotions department in the early '70's. He died in 1993 after collapsing during a performance in South Carolina.

I featured the song (NOT one you hear all that often on Oldies Radio anymore) ... and, I thought that this was pretty much the end of it.



But a few days later, I received an email from syndicated DeeJay DAVE THE RAVE that told me something that I DIDN'T know!!!

Just for the record .... the song "You've Got What It Takes" by the late Marv Johnson and later by the Dave Clark Five, was originally done by Bobby Parker in 1958 on the VeeJay label #279. I don't do mp3's but perhaps a more tech savvy individual on this list also has the 45 or belongs to one of those collector hubs and can share the original version to those on this list. I can certainly play the tune on my Saturday nite show between 10pm-3am on www.topshelfoldies.com .
Dave The Rave

Naturally, I was intrigued ... I had never heard the BOBBY PARKER song before ... and couldn't figure out why on earth GORDY or JOHNSON would give the song to another artist to record before releasing their OWN version ... this just didn't make sense to me! So I decided to investigate this a little bit further ... first, my reply to DAVE THE RAVE:

I think a number of our readers would probably tune in to hear that!!! (DAVE just confirmed that he'll be playing this tune on his RELICS AND RARITIES Program this Saturday Night!!!) Weird to hear about the BOBBY PARKER version 'tho ... since MARV JOHNSON reportedly cowrote the song with BERRY GORDY, you'd figure they'd want to keep it to record for THEMSELVES before handing it over to another artist!!! Be sure to tune in to DAVE THE RAVE's RELICS AND RARITIES Show this Saturday Night to hear the ORIGINAL version played!!! (Thanks, DAVE!!!)

The story was something like Berry Gordy stole the writing credits on the song or had the credits signed over to him. However, the VeeJay 45 released in late 1957 or early 1958 clearly indicates Bobby Parker as the writer.
Dave the Rave

Whoa ... the plot thickens!!! I'd never heard THIS story before ... now I KNEW that I'd have to look into this further! (Weirder still because GORDY and JOHNSON reportedly cowrote all of MARV JOHNSON's OTHER hit records, too!!!) Now I just HAD to hear the 1958 BOBBY PARKER version ... so I next contacted FORGOTTEN HITS Regular TOM DIEHL to see if HE might have a copy. I also mentioned this unusual songwriting scenario and he researched things a little bit further! What he found is that BOBBY PARKER did, in fact, first copyright the song back in 1958 ... 2 1/2 years before the MARV JOHNSON single was released, crediting JOHNSON and BERRY GORDY as songwriters!!! And, not being all that familiar with BOBBY PARKER, I came across ANOTHER little bit of info while researching this further ... this time indicating that THE BEATLES "borrowed quite heavily" from BOBBY PARKER's WATCH YOUR STEP recording when they came up with the famous guitar riff that runs throughout their #1 Hit I FEEL FINE!!!

First up, here's the copyright information that TOM came up with:

Here's what really makes this interesting .......... first, the listing from BMI:
YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES
BMI Work #1719262
Songwriter / Composer: BOBBY PARKER
Current Affiliation CAE/IPI # 60791968
Publisher: CONRAD MUSIC (BMI)

And then the listing from ASCAP:
YOU'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES
Title Code: 550018836
Writers: ROQUEL DAVIS, GWENDOLYN G. FUQUA, BERRY GORDY, JR.
(Note that MARV JOHNSON's name doesn't even appear here on the copyright!!!)
PERFORMERS: BARRET STRONG, THE DAVE CLARK FIVE, THE FOUR TOPS AND THE SUPREMES, MARVIN GAYE, MARV JOHNSON, B. LINHART, MARVIN GAYE AND TAMMI TERRELL, A. MURRAY, J. ROCK, TAMMI TERRELL, FREDDIE WELLER
Variations: YOU'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES / YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES / BABY YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES
Publishers/Administrators: JOBETE MUSIC CO INC c/o EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING ATTN: VICE PRES., COPYRIGHT ADMIN. 810 SEVENTH AVENUE 36TH FLOOR NEW YORK , NY, 10019Tel. (212) 492-1200

How can the same song be published as belonging to both parties who claimed authorship?
Under two different publishing companies??
Something certainly doesn't add up ..... i'm surprised there hasn't been any lawsuits ....
Tom Diehl

You're right ... something just DOESN'T add up here, does it?!?!?
(See, we learn something new here in FORGOTTEN HITS ALL the time!!! lol)
So next we decided to try to contact BOBBY PARKER himself to see if perhaps HE can shed a little light on this!!!

And, INCREDIBLY, WE FOUND HIM!!!!!

Thanks to FELIX McCLARIEN, President of The DC Blues Society, I've now been in touch with BOBBY PARKER ... and not only did we talk about this song (and BOBBY's early days performing with OTIS WILLIAMS AND THE CHARMS, BO DIDDLEY, THE PAUL HUCKLEBUCK BAND ... who backed him up on his recording of YOU'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES ... and many other legendary names of the day ... MUDDY WATERS, HOWLIN' WOLF, JIMMY REED, LITTLE WALTER, BIG JOE TURNER, T-BONE WALKER, LOWELL FULSOM, LITTLE WILLIE JOHN and countless others) ... but we ALSO got him to agree to appear on DAVE THE RAVE's Program to talk about all of this further!!! (FYI: BOBBY PARKER is still VERY active on the blues scene ... he recently appeared in a live DVD video performing with CARLOS SANTANA and BUDDY GUY!!!)

Yes, he's been ripped off ...

Yes, he's been cheated and mistreated ...

So yes, he's got the RIGHT to sing the blues!!!

And now he's talking ALL about it right here in FORGOTTEN HITS!!!

***

I first mentioned that I had heard from some of our readers that THE BEATLES "borrowed quite heavily" from BOBBY PARKER's WATCH YOUR STEP recording when they came up with the famous guitar riff that runs throughout their #1 Hit I FEEL FINE!!! I wasn't familiar with this track before but, now that I've heard it, I'd have to say it sounds a WHOLE lot more like ONE WAY OUT by THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND than I FEEL FINE by THE BEATLES. But then again, I've probably heard this SAME riff in any number of songs over the years!!! (Of course SOMEBODY had to be the FIRST one to play it ... was that "someone" really BOBBY PARKER?!?!?) I asked BOBBY about this tune:
BOBBY PARKER: I've been in litigation for close to 50 ... maybe even 55 years ... about some of this material that was stolen from me. They had "Watch Your Step" on John Lennon's Jukebox ... and then that went out all over the country on PBS Television and people heard about it ... and John Lennon said how that guitar part ... how he had "borrowed" that guitar part for HIS record ... and pretty soon everybody knew about "Watch Your Step" ... I go over to England now and that's all they wanna hear ... they don't even care about the new stuff I'm doin'... I'm out there playin' with Buddy Guy and Robert Cray ... and they just wanna hear "Watch Your Step" from John Lennon's Jukebox!

KENT KOTAL: What can you tell me about "You've Got What It Takes"? By ALL appearances, you wrote this tune back in 1957 / 1958 and had it copyrighted at that time with BMI Music.
BOBBY PARKER: I wrote "You've Got What It Takes" ... that was MY song ... I did it. Even had The Paul Hucklebuck Band playing on it behind me. I performed with them for seven or eight years ... you remember that song "Do The Hucklebuck"!!! And Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams, he even got the copyright for me 'cause I was only about seventeen or eighteen years old at the time. And then Berry Gordy just stole it out from under me ... just put his name on it. And what could I do? I was just trying to make a living, playing guitar and singing ... how was I going to go out and fight Berry Gordy, big as he was, and Motown Records?

KENT KOTAL: Well this was a hit ... and a BIG hit ... a couple of times! And I'll tell you what, YOUR version sounds like a hit record, too ... like it SHOULDA been a hit!!!
BOBBY PARKER: Well it WAS a hit ... it was all over the place playing on the old Wurlitzer Jukeboxes ... that one and the flipside, "Blues Get Off My Shoulder" ... everywhere we traveled we heard it on the jukeboxes ... it was real popular. You got to remember things were different back then ... you had your black audience and you had your white audience. We used to play in these old Tobacco Warehouses ... they were HUGE buildings and we would fill these places up ... and all the black people would sit on one side of the audience and all the white people would sit on the OTHER side of the audience ... 'cause that's just the way it was then back in the '50's and into the '60's.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: BOBBY PARKER's version of YOU'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES never made ANY of the National Charts ... not even the R&B Chart ... which makes me wonder just how well known it actually was ... ESPECIALLY if BERRY GORDY was able to just TAKE it from him without any conflict or controversy!!! I have to believe that somewhere along the line, he HEARD the song, liked it, figured it could be a hit if done by another artist or marketed by another label ... and just ran with it ... and nobody ever questioned a thing because nobody knew anything about it! I STILL don't see how it could be copyrighted by two different music agencies and by two different songwriters ... unless that was just one more way that this was manipulated so as to be swept under the carpet without drawing too much attention as to what was really going on. I'm no lawyer, but I would have to think that that fact ALONE would warrant at least SOME legal investigation ... and potential payback of past due royalties!!!)

KENT KOTAL: What was that like to know that this record was selling like crazy and that your name had been taken off of it?
BOBBY PARKER: There wasn't really nothing I could do about it ... it was just too big and I didn't have any way to fight them. I once documented something like 600 times they've taken my guitar riff from "Watch Your Step" and used it some place else ... in some other song ... but I wrote that riff ... I played that for the very first time. You wouldn't BELIEVE how many times it's been used again and again in other pieces of music.

KENT KOTAL: Well, let's start back at the beginning here ... one of the things I also read was that you started your career with OTIS WILLIAMS AND THE CHARMS ... is that correct?
BOBBY PARKER: I was born and raised down in Lafayette, Louisiana. My Dad played the Hammond Organ and my Mom was a Gospel Singer ... so we always had music running in our family ... so I like to think that I came by my rhythm naturally. We moved out to Los Angeles, California, when I was about seven or eight years old ... and shortly after that I started to learn to play the guitar. By the time I was a teenager, the situation out there in California was getting real bad ... a lot of the gangs were starting to take over the schools and beating up and threatening a lot of the children ... just all these different cliques and gangs springing up all over the school. And I was maybe about 17 years old and I was doing this show there at the school, playing my guitar for this concert we were giving, sort of a talent show, and I come to find out that Otis Williams and The Charms are out in the audience ... or well, a couple of them ... two or three of them ... were there anyway ... and they heard me play and they asked me if I would like to go out on the road with them. And I told them that they had gotten there JUST in time ... 'cause I had just about had it with school and all the gangs ... and of course my parents didn't want me to go but I just couldn't handle it anymore there at the school ... so one day I told my parents that I was going to school but I really got on this bus with Otis Williams and The Charms and we took off for Cincinnati, Ohio, which is where they were from. And my parents didn't like that ... they thought that they had taken me ... but it was what I wanted to do ... so we did that for about two years ... and I just went out on the road singing and playing guitar with Otis Williams and The Charms. And I would check in with my parents all the time but they didn't like it ... so they sued for custody for me to come back home, saying that I had been taken.

KENT KOTAL: Now YOU'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES was released on the VEE JAY Record Label ... a company right out of here in Chicago.
BOBBY PARKER: That's right. That's back when Ewart Abner was with the label ... and then shortly after I was there, Jerry Butler came in.

KENT KOTAL: Did you record that here in Chicago?
BOBBY PARKER: Yes, well I actually LIVED there in Chicago for a little while ... over there on Cottage Grove. I spent a lot of time in the Grant Park area. And that's where I met Bo Diddley and I spent some time playing with him. Of course, he just passed recently, bless his soul, but he taught me SO much about the music business, when I was playing in Bo Diddley's band. And then I met Phil and Leonard Chess of Chess Records and Checker Records 'cause that's where Bo Diddley did his recording. And it was at Chess Records that I met Muddy Waters for the very first time ... he was actually the Maintenance Man there at Chess Records back then ... and Howlin' Wolf ... Jimmy Reed ... and Little Walter ... all of those early Chicago Blues Greats. And then I got invited to play with The Paul Hucklebuck Band ... and I played with them for seven or eight years. You know them ... "Do The Hucklebuck" ... you know that song ... and they had some REALLY good players in that band ... Noble "Thin Man" Watts ... and through them I got to meet guys like Big Joe Turner and Little Willie John ... T-Bone Walker ... Lowell Fulsom.

BOBBY has played with some of the BIGGEST names on the blues scene over the years and recently has been working with BUDDY GUY, CLARENCE "GATEMOUTH" BROWN and ROBERT CRAY ... and even did a "live" video with CARLOS SANTANA that came out on DVD a couple of years ago. But he's ALWAYS looking for more work ... more places to play.

BOBBY PARKER: I still play all the time ... but I'm not playin' tonight!
KENT KOTAL: Well then that IS the blues!!! (lol)

His work is VERY popular over in England ... and he performs pretty steadily in The U.K. ... where they know ALL of his older material.

BOBBY PARKER: They always want me to play "Watch Your Step" since they saw it on John Lennon's Jukebox ... John Lennon had that song on his jukebox and he said that that guitar riff inspired him with his song. (I FEEL FINE). Once people saw that they had "Watch Your Step" on John Lennon's Jukebox ... and then that went out all over the country on PBS Television and people heard about it ... and John Lennon said how that guitar part ... how he had "borrowed" that guitar part for HIS record ... and pretty soon everybody knew about "Watch Your Step" ... I go over to England now and that's all they wanna hear ... they don't even care about the new stuff I'm doin'... I'm out there playin' with Buddy Guy and Robert Cray ... and they just wanna hear "Watch Your Step" from John Lennon's Jukebox! I once documented something like 600 times they've taken my guitar riff from "Watch Your Step" and used it some place else ... in some other song ... but I wrote that riff ... I played that for the very first time. You wouldn't BELIEVE how many times it's been used again and again in other pieces of music.

KENT KOTAL: Well, I think your version of YOU'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKE is every bit as good as the one that became the hit version ... in fact, it SHOULD have been a hit! They were nearly identical.
BOBBY PARKER: Well it WAS a hit ... it was all over the place playing on the old Wurlitzer Jukeboxes ... with those big ol' acetate records that they used to make at the time. That one and "Blues Get Off My Shoulder" ... everywhere we traveled, we heard it. You got to remember things were different back then ... you had your black audience and you had your white audience. We used to play in these old Tobacco Warehouses ... they were HUGE buildings and we would fill these places up ... and all the black people would sit on one side of the audience and all the white people would sit on the OTHER side of the audience ... 'cause that's just the way it was then back in the '50's and into the '60's.

Thanks to TOM DIEHL, we've got BOBBY PARKER's versions of YOU'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES and WATCH YOUR STEP here for you today. BOBBY told me that he TRIED to go after BERRY GORDY for any monies owed him ... and has been in litigation SEVERAL times over the past 50 years ... in fact, he's STILL trying to track down some of these artists NOW to see if perhaps he isn't owed SOMETHING for the material he first created ...

BOBBY PARKER: But they all just keep runnin' from me. You gotta remember that we were just kids back then ... we didn't really know anything about the business and the copyrights and all that ... I mean, we knew they had all that stuff, but I was just 17-18-19 years old ... I just wanted to play the music and get back out on the road ... we didn't have lawyers back then and we didn't really think all that much about it ... it was that big fish / little fish scenario ... there was nothing that I could really do against somebody like Berry Gordy and Motown ... I mean they were HUGE! So we kept trying to get at them but they just kept duckin' me ... and some of these artists are STILL duckin' me all these years later.

If anybody out there thinks that they may have a way for BOBBY to collect his due, PLEASE get in contact with me ... it costs a LOT of money to pursue this (and I believe that BOBBY has spent his share over the years ... and the money just always seem to run out when going against some of the deeper pockets described above.) Both DAVE THE RAVE and I have pledged our support with this and have done our part to help to get the word out there ... come on, after 50 YEARS this man is due SOMETHING!!!






Kent ...
Amazing, intuitive, footwork regarding You've Got What It Takes! This has got to be beneficial to Parker's 'litigation' in getting the rights to that wonderful tune back in his name. You're a class act guy!
Ron Kolman
Thanks, RON ... on the one hand, I just don't see how this can continue to be overlooked ... on the other, I have to shrug my shoulders and say "How is it that NOBODY knew about this?" and "Why hasn't anything been done up till now?!?!?" "How has this POSSIBLY not come up or to light for all this time?!?!?" It truly is AMAZING to me ... especially since this all came up so INNOCENTLY in FORGOTTEN HITS ... and let's face it ... certainly this is not the ONLY time this kind of crap has gone on in the music business ... but THIS song was a Top Ten Hit TWICE!!! Shouldn't SOMETHING have been said and done on BOBBY PARKER's behalf prior to NOW?!?!?

***

The most LOGICAL thing to do next would be for me to talk to BERRY GORDY about this incident ... but I'm not so sure he'll want to talk to me ... especially after he hears my very first question:

KENT KOTAL: Mr. Gordy ... how is it that BOBBY PARKER recorded the song YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES two and a half years BEFORE you reportedly wrote it and had it copyrighted?

Honestly, I don't know WHO we should notify first: The Authorities ...

or The Psychic Network!!!!!