help motown specialists 'i'll be there' by the four tops

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maybe that's not the name of the song, but it's the catchty chorus that everyone knows


anyway, i was watching tv with my french flatmate the other day (cos i live in france) and we saw some french crooner singing that song that I know as being by the four tops, which goes 'when you feel that you can't go on... blah blah blah... reach out.... i'll be there'

you know the one, even if you don't want to you know it

anyway, in french it's called 'j'attendrai...' (i'll wait)

and flatmate says to me 'that's a really famous french song' and i was like 'no way, that's a motown song, it doesn't even sound french ' (unlike, for example, 'charles trenet's -la mer)

ok, so she says that lots of french songs have been trqnslated into english (like 'la mer' , like jacques brel stuff etc) and so that song that i think is a four tops song translated into french, is actually by a french person and then got translated into english for the four tops to sing


But i don't believe that, partly because she listens to michel sardou and other awful stuff, so I just can't trust her

so who wrote that song? Or where can I find out?

sorry for writing about motown

noname#1 (noname#1), Monday, 16 January 2006 12:59 (twenty years ago)

You're right, it's a Holland/Dozier/Holland track.

StanM (StanM), Monday, 16 January 2006 13:08 (twenty years ago)

I can sorta see your friend's point, because for a Motown song "Reach Out" sounds kinda non-Motownish and a bit European.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 16 January 2006 13:15 (twenty years ago)

it does souond exactly like their two follow-up singles, though ("Standing in the Shadows of Love" and "Bernadette"). Seems unlikely all are based on old French songs.

The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:20 (twenty years ago)

sorry for writing about motown

No need to apologize for this.

JC-L (JC-L), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:14 (twenty years ago)

Seconded. More talk about Motown please.

Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:51 (twenty years ago)


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