There's a dispute about who played on Steve Wonder's I was made to love her, Carol Kaye or John Jamerson.
Who played bass on this track is a matter of dispute. Motown used top Los Angeles studio musicians like
Carol Kaye for some of their recordings at this time, but records of these sessions are either nonexistent or inaccurate, as certain union rules were bypassed to make them happen. Kaye has a clear memory of playing on this track, and she
told Songfacts about it. "The first four bars were written, so that thing was pretty straight," said Kaye. "The first bar was written to give me an indication of what they wanted the rest of the tune. And then another part I can remember was written - that triad lick was written. And I screwed that one up. [laughing] I mean, you always remember when you make a mistake on the hits. I made plenty of mistakes, but the feel of the record was good, and that's the main thing. So the rest, I was on my own. No problem, a lot of chromatics and just aiming for the triads and stuff."
Refuting Carol's claims is Allan Slutsky, author of
Standing In The Shadows of Motown. His research shows that James Jamerson, who was the bass player of the Motown house band The Funk Brothers, played the bass on this track. All Motown associates he contacted, including the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team, said it was Jamerson. Hank Crosby, who co-wrote and did production on this song, signed an affidavit saying that the bass line was performed by Jamerson.
I Was Made To Love Her by Stevie Wonder song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position
www.songfacts.com
IMO its possible they BOTH played on the track at different sessions but for the released recording producers choose to go with Jamerson...
THE INTERVIEW:
Songfacts: You're doing three or four songs in a session, though.
Kaye: Oh, at least. Five sometimes. And then with the Motown cash dates, we would do six to ten tunes. And you're creating lines on that stuff, too. It was kind of hard at times to make each one sound different, but that's what you did.
Songfacts: That's an interesting point you bring up. You're creating these lines, so it's not like you're just in there going through the motions of what somebody tells you.
Kaye: That's right. And the tunes are always very different in nature.
The curator of the Motown Museum tells us that there is no official list of credits as to who played what on their songs. Motown opened an office in Los Angeles in 1964 and did a lot of recording there away from their Detroit base. These recordings were not documented, possibly because they skirted certain union rules, but various accounts, including interviews with Motown engineer Armin Steiner, say they happened. Carol points out that Motown's Funk Brothers - and their bass player James Jamerson in particular - created the classic Motown sound, which the Los Angeles crew would use as a template when they got the call. She kept a record of the 168 dates she recorded with Motown, and while some of these recordings did not make it to the final mix, Motown was a very smart company, and was not likely to record with the best session players in Los Angeles only to use them as demos.
Songfacts: The Stevie Wonder song that you played on, "
I Was Made To Love Her." Can you tell me about coming up with that bass riff and what happened during that session?
Kaye: Well, the first four bars were written, so that thing was pretty straight. The first bar was written to give me an indication of what they wanted for the rest of the tune. And then another part I can remember was written - that triad lick was written. And I screwed that one up. [laughing] I mean, you always remember when you make a mistake on the hits. I made plenty of mistakes, but the feel of the record was good and that's the main thing.
So the rest, I was on my own. No problem, a lot of chromatics and just aiming for the triads and stuff.
Songfacts: Did you ever make a mistake and have the producer like it?
Kaye: Oh, yeah. In fact, a lot of times they'd tell me to add more of that or something. When I recorded "
Elusive Butterfly" [by Bob Lind] it was at Sunset Sound. It was kind of a boring tune. I think it was D-flat or something, and it stays a long time in that chord and then it moves in a funny way to the next chord - it's like a sidebar phrase or something like that. I missed it and I went to go up to the G-flat or whatever and I missed it and I came right back down. I did a slide up and down. And they stopped and I thought, "Uh oh, he caught me." He said, "Do more of those!" [laughing] So the slide was born, then. I'd stick that slide in here and there on the records I cut.
WAIT. SHE WAS THE BASS ON THE BRADY BUNCH THEME???
Songfacts: Do you have a favorite of the TV themes that you've done?
Kaye: Oh yeah. Well, a lot of them. I love "Hikky Burr," which was the Bill Cosby thing that I did. I loved
Mission: Impossible, and I loved
M*A*S*H. Some of the things, like
Wonder Woman and
The Streets of San Francisco, I loved that.
It Takes a Thief, that one I like.
Kojak,
Brady Bunch was fun, except it was a lot of trouble. But I had a chance to play all the 16th notes that I like to play. But they wanted a lot of highs on my bass. I loved them all, because they were all fun to cut.
Songfacts: Are you still getting some residuals when these shows air?
Kaye: Yeah, not much. They're cutting down on the royalties now, so there's not much. What they pay on is the hit records that they re-use in a film. So you get a check once a year. I think I got 5 cents a year for
King of Kings. [laughing] That kind of thing. So yeah, a little bit, but it's less and less and less. And the union really tries, but they don't have enough people to police it. And then to try to get the money out of companies these days is really tough, too.