I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)

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"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" is a 1965 hit song recorded by The Four Tops for the Motown label, later re-recorded by American singer La Toya Jackson in 1995.

Contents

[edit] The Four Tops version

“I Can't Help Myself
(Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”
Single by Four Tops
from the album The Four Tops' Second Album
Released April 23, 1965
Format 7" single
Recorded Hitsville USA (Studio A); 1965
Genre Soul/pop
Length 2:46
Label Motown
M 1076
Writer(s) Holland-Dozier-Holland
Producer Brian Holland
Lamont Dozier
Four Tops singles chronology
"Ask the Lonely"
(1965)		 "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)"
(1965)		 "It's the Same Old Song"
(1965)

Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland-Dozier-Holland, the song is one of the most well-known Motown tunes of the 1960s. It was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 for two non-consecutive weeks, from June 12, 1965 to June 19 and from June 26 to July 3. It replaced "Back in My Arms Again" by labelmates The Supremes, was first replaced by "Mr. Tambourine Man" by The Byrds, then regained the top spot before being permanently replaced by "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones.

The song finds lead singer Levi Stubbs, assisted by the other three Tops and The Andantes, pleadingly professing his love to a woman: "Sugar pie, honey bunch/I'm weaker than a man should be!/Can't help myself/I'm a fool in love, you see." Like most of his lead parts, Stubbs' vocals are recorded in a tone that straddles the line between singing and shouting, similar to the tone of a black Baptist preacher. The melodic and chordal progressions are very similar to the Supremes' Where Did Our Love Go.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song #415 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It has been covered extensively since 1965, including versions done for several television commercials.

[edit] Credits

[edit] La Toya Jackson version

“I Can't Help Myself”
Single by La Toya Jackson
from the album Stop in the Name of Love
Released 1995
Format CD Single
Recorded 1995
Genre Soul/Dance
Length 3:30 (Single Version), 4:10 (Album Version)
Label KOCH Records
Writer(s) Holland-Dozier-Holland
La Toya Jackson singles chronology
"Let's Rock the House"
(1992)		 "I Can't Help Myself"
(1995)		 "Don't Break My Heart"
(1998)

La Toya Jackson covered "I Can't Help Myself" on her 1995 album Stop in the Name of Love. The single was only released throughout Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Holland, with the album track "Baby Love" (cover of The Supremes' "Baby Love") as a B-side. The single failed to chart.

[edit] Other uses

During the 1980s the song (using the original Four Tops arrangment) was featured in a popular commerical for Kelloggs Honey Smacks cereal in the United Kingdom; sung by the cereals (then) mascot, Barey Bee. On Madonna's Who's That Girl Tour, she sang a few lines of "I Can't Help Myself" during the song "Like A Virgin"


Preceded by
"Back in My Arms Again" by The Supremes		 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
June 19, 1965 (2 weeks)		 Succeeded by
"Mr. Tambourine Man" by The Byrds
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