The One Who Really Loves You: Song of the Week

Some other girls are fillin' your head with jive
So now you're acting like you don't know that I'm alive
Love, you better wake up, yeah, before we break up
And you lose me, little me
The one who really loves you

Susie only wants you until the day
That she'll again have her true love who's far, far away
So love, you better wake up, yeah, before we break up
And you lose me, little me
The one who really loves you

Ginny only wants you 'cause she thinks she has to have ev'ryone
Minnie only wants you 'cause she thinks that hurting me would be fun
Oh, oh, oh, silly Lilly, ya know she doesn't really want you with a love that's true

In fact there's no other girl in this whole wide world
who can love you like I do

They get tired of you and they're gonna put you down
Then they ain't gonna want you hangin' around
So love, you better wake up, yeah, before we break up
And you lose me, little me
The one who really loves you

(written by Smokey Robinson)


Motown started hitting its stride in the early 60s before the Supremes became their centerpiece. It was always about the music and it was always about those emotions that sprouted in an urban adolescence. Turns out the music is universal and seems to have the life span of classics. In 1962 all that was important was the sound and its ability to provoke spontaneous movement. Mary Wells with Smokey Robinson writing and producing for her had a great year. There was a dance that for all intents and purposes was a cha-cha in the Delaware Valley. It evolved into something called the "jive cha-cha" with the rhythm based on the Afro-Cuban kernel of pop R'n'B in the 60s. It was a liberating movement that can be felt in songs like "The One Who Really Loves You," and "You Beat Me to the Punch" -- two of Mary's big hits that year.

Rosalinde Block performs the song as part of the Party at Prohibition and is, therefore, once again the catalyst for musical beatitude here in the Column of Life. Thanks, Rozie Jane.