Come See About Me


"Come See About Me" is a 1964 song recorded by the Supremes for the Motown label. The track opens with a fade-in, marking one of the first times the technique had been used on a studio recording.
The song became third of five consecutively released Supremes songs to top the Billboard pop singles chart in the United States. It topped the chart twice, non-consecutively, being toppled by and later replacing the Beatles' "I Feel Fine" in December 1964 and January 1965. The BBC ranked "Come See About Me" at #94 on The Top 100 Digital Motown Chart, which ranks Motown releases by their all time UK downloads and streams.

History

Overview

"Come See About Me" was written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland. It was recorded during a two-week period in which the Supremes also cut "Baby Love", after "Where Did Our Love Go" became their most successful single to date. It was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two separate weeks: December 13, 1964, to December 18, 1964, and January 10, 1965, to January 16, 1965, and reached #3 on the soul chart.
Billboard said the song has a "pronounced Detroit beat, steady and exacting" and that the "gals weave silky and controlled vocal through beat." Cash Box described it as "a pulsating stomp-a-rhythmic… that the gals carve out in ultra-commercial manner" and in which the group was "in top-of-the-chart form."
The Supremes were the first to record the song, but not the first to issue it as a single. That distinction fell to Nella Dodds: her version climbed to #74 on the Billboard Hot 100, but Motown quickly released the Supremes' version as a single, which killed Dodds' sales. Cash Box described Dodds' version as "an exciting pop-r&b, choral-backed handclap-shuffler about a gal who pleads for her ex-boyfriend to return to her," hailing the singer as "a new talent who promises to be an important wax name in the coming weeks".
The Supremes made their first of 17 appearances live on the CBS variety program The Ed Sullivan Show, performing this single on Sunday, December 27, 1964.
The group also recorded a German version of the song, entitled "Johnny und Joe".
"The words had a real sad weight," observed Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke, "but the music was bouncy. Great!"

Personnel

Other versions