Motown Soul Music

It’s always nice to hear a happy love song, as so many are about the heartbreak and conflicts. Smokey Robison wrote “My Guy,” and Mary Wells, who was then nicknamed “The Queen of Motown,” recorded it for the Motown label in 1964. It became a signature song for Wells. It was released as a single with “Oh Little Boy (What Did you Do to Me” on the B-Side. It was also a track on her 1964 album Mary Wells Sings My Guy. In 1964, the song went to #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the Cashbox R&B Chart. It went to #5 on the U.K. Singles Chart.

Mary Wells sang the lead vocals. Background vocals were by The Andantes, who were Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps. Instrumentation was provided by the wonderful Motown session musicians called The Funk Brothers. They all helped to create that wonderful Sixties Motown sound.

There have been covers of the song by Petula Clark, Lucia Altieri, Lynda K Lance, Aretha Franklin, and many others. The song received a lot of attention in the 1992 movie Sister Act, where Whoopie Goldberg’s character and the nuns sing a version of the song substituting “My God” for “My Guy.”

Here are the lyrics to “My Guy” by Mary Wells:

“Nothing you could say
Can tear me away from my guy
Nothing you could do
‘Cause I’m stuck like glue to my guy

I’m stickin’ to my guy
Like a stamp to a letter
Like the birds of a feather
We stick together
I’m tellin’ you from the start
I can’t be torn apart from my guy

Nothing you can do
Could make me untrue to my guy
Nothing you could buy
Could make me tell a lie to my guy

I gave my guy my word of honor
To be faithful and I’m gonna
You best be believing
I won’t be deceiving my guy

As a matter of opinion
I think he’s tops
My opinion is he’s the cream of the crop
As a matter of taste to be exact
He’s my ideal as a matter of fact

No muscle bound man
Could take my hand from my guy
No handsome face
Could ever take the place of my guy
He may not be a movie star
But when it comes to being happy we are
There’s not a man today
Who could take me away from my guy

No muscle bound man
Could take my hand from my guy
No handsome face
Could ever take the place of my guy
He may not be a movie star
But when it comes to being happy we are
There’s not a man today
Who could take me away from my guy

There’s not a man today
Who could take me away from my guy
(Tell me more)
There’s not a man today
Who could take me away from my guy”

If you would like to read about and listen to other songs by Mary Wells, please click here for “Two Lovers” and “The One Who Really Loves You.” They are on Pass the Paisley’s sister site The Daily Doo Wop.

Check Out The Groove Pad for More 1960s Music

The Pass the Paisley Groove Pad is a resting stop, a place to chill out and listen to the featured song on the stereo. If the mood strikes you, click on the juke box to access and listen to the 50+ free online songs there. The TV has several channels, with selections updated twice a week. Every now and then, Pass the Paisley hosts an all-request of 1960s and 1970s songs for a Be-In at the juke box in the Groove Pad. Keep on truckin’. Hope you enjoyed “My Guy” by Mary Wells.