Song of the Day 11/2: Rare Earth, “Get Ready”

Rare Earth earned its footnote in rock history as Motown’s first successful white act, but naturally the band, founded in Detroit in 1961 as the Sunliners, scored its first and biggest hit with a song of impeccable soul pedigree. Written by Smokey Robinson, “Get Ready” was recorded by the Temptations in 1966, when it reached No. 1 on the R&B singles chart but only No. 29 on the Hot 100 (the poor chart performance led Berry Gordy to replace Robinson as the Temps’ producer in favor of Norman Whitfield). Robinson gave the lead vocal to Eddie Kendricks, whose falsetto didn’t quite match the muscularity of the music.

In 1970, Motown released the first album by Rare Earth, signed with an eye on the rock market. The band, led by drummer and lead singer Pete Rivera (born Peter Hoorelbeke), had played it for years in concert, extending it with solos to nearly 22 minutes. In that form it took up all of side two of their debut LP, which later made it popular with FM DJs who wanted a smoke break. And nobody on Earth, rare or otherwise, thinks those crowd noises weren’t dubbed in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykRfgqhqsV8

But the big mahoffs at Motown didn’t see it as a single. They gave in to the band’s insistence only after a first single flopped, and good thing they did — slashed to a tight 2:45, the song hit No. 4 on the Hot 100 and went gold, which in those days meant “sold a million copies.” Rivera’s delivery gives the song the power it needs, and makes me wish Levi Stubbs had gotten a crack at it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Z8NU5ImK0

The song is a standard for R&B acts, but other rock bands occasionally give it a go. The Proclaimers, the Scottish band fronted by twins and most famous for “500 Miles,” contributed a cover to the “Dumb and Dumber” soundtrack in 1994.

Al Kooper gave the song a more interesting treatment on his 2005 LP “Black Coffee.” This won’t embed for some reason, but it’s worth the copy-and-paste to give it a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx3RWngz0FA