SONG OF THE DAY
“This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak For You)” by The Isley Brothers (This Old Heart Of Mine [single], Tamla/ Motown Records, 1966). Written by Holland–Dozier–Holland, and Sylvia Moy.
MY TAKE
This song was featured on my July 2010 playlist!
This song was playing in the background of an episode of season 4 of HBO’s The Wire, and I was all like “WAIT! PAUSE IT! I KNOW THAT SONG!†I haven’t heard the song in a decade, had no idea it was the Isley Brothers, but of course knew all of the words by heart after all of those years.
BRIEF BIO (a la wikipedia)
– “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)” was a successful hit single for The Isley Brothers in 1966, during their brief tenure on Motown’s Tamla label.
– Written by Motown’s main songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland alongside Sylvia Moy, “This Old Heart of Mine”, produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, was originally intended for The Supremes (who later recorded their own version for their Supremes A’ Go-Go album).
– Featuring Ronald Isley on lead vocal, “This Old Heart of Mine” peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
– The single was the group’s only major hit while on Motown, and then in 1969 the Isleys left Motown to restart their own T-Neck label.
– Tammi Terrell recorded and released the song as a part of her Irresistible album released in January, 1969.
– In 1976, Rod Stewart released a remake of this song that met with some success.
– Twenty-four years after the original recording, Ronald Isley and Rod Stewart released a Top 10 duet version of the song in 1989 that reached #10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and spent five weeks at #1 on the US adult contemporary chart.
– The Dutch girl group Luv’ recorded a dance cover version of “This Old Heart of Mine” in 1992.
Personnel
- Lead vocals by Ronald Isley
- Background vocals by O’Kelly Isley, Jr. and Rudolph Isley
- Additional background vocals by The Andantes: Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow and Louvain Demps
- Written by Holland-Dozier-Holland and Sylvia Moy
- Produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier
- Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers