Round 1
#483 "I Can't Help Myself" - Four Tops
I don't really have a theme or strategy for this draft, other than "pick songs I love".
This is one of those records that, when it starts, every listener starts tapping their feet or shimmying their shoulders or just smiles (or all three). The intro is like a Ball Of Good Momentum rolling down a mountain. The best Motown records of the '60s started at an incredibly high EQ and ratcheted it up from there.
Then, there's the singer. Out of all of the front-line Motown singers, Levi Stubbs was probably the most limited in vocal ability. I mean, he doesn't even belong in the same stratosphere with someone like Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder or Martha Reeves or David Ruffin. But what he was good at, he was REALLY good at. And that was these kind of mid-tempo (for Motown) pleas for love and being able to stomp on a beat with his voice - only James Brown did that better.
@Pip's Invitation be next, I believe