Working My Way Back to You - The Spinners: Worst song ever?

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Is is just me, but is this the most objectionable piece of music ever recorded? It just makes my skin crawl when I hear it.

You know the one, the chorus goes:

"I’ll keep working my way back to you, babe With a burning love inside"

Don't get me wrong, I like disco, but his song just seems to have nothing going for it, and everything against it.

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

So, do you have any reason why I shouldn't be able to put a permanent restraining order on this awful aberration of pop

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Didn't the Four Seasons also do this song? I've always liked it, actually. What is it about the song you hate?

― nickn, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

This song is not about Disco (because it is in fact Soul). It is about winning someone's love back. But you k now once he gets it, he'll just throw it away again. It is about wanting what you don't have and vice versa. How utterly Soul.

― cuba libre (nathalie), Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

OK, OK, they were a Philly band I believe, but I only ever hear this song on Disco comps (admitedly 3 pound ASDA ones) so the labelling sticks here for this song.

I don't need to tell you why I hate it, I just want a reason not to hate it

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

For a second I thought you were saying the Spinanes. That would be an interesting cover...

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Gamble and Huff could do no wrong. The Brian Wilson and Phil Spector of African-American pop. And still woefully underappreciated IMHO.

Long way of saying, I disagree with this thread's premise.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Rebecca Gates has been known to drop a r&b tune into her live sets.

― J Blount, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Rawk.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Gamble and Huff could do no wrong."

Ah, but I'm not talkin' 'bout the song in every incarnation, just The Spinners version. And I'll tell you the bit I really hate: It's the bar just before the chorus, it just annoys the hell outta me, and I don't think any song, no matter how good the rest of it is , could recover from i

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I like this song in the Frankie Valley incarnation (the only one I'm familiar with) because of the inversion of 'masculine' qualities: something like - 'I thought I was a man for making you cry, but if I'd really been a man you'd still be here by my side.' I like that inversion of manliness as meaning responsibility and caring: it's also found in blues songs, plus eg Carl Perkins in interviews would often explain that he gave up drinking 'because he was a real man,' that he loves his wife 'because he's a real man', etc etc. The latest version is Alicia Keyes song about what a real man knowing a woman's worth; I'm a bit disappointed as I have to admit I'm not that fond of her.

― charles, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

You have nothing to be ashamed of.

― J Blount, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hail Hail indeed Charlie- "Are you woman enough to be my man? One day Ill grow up and stop spouting corny pearl jam lines...Anyway original question , that song is utterly and totally hideous, with no redeeming features makes me feel ill just thinking about it.

― kiwi, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's alright. I remember hating it when it was a big hit in the UK (wasn't it a chart-topper in fact?) but I can't even remember why now - possibly something to do with the silly 'actions' (hand and arm movements) they did while performing the song on TOTP.

BTW, in UK they were known as The Detroit Spinners, coz there was already a big folk group called The Spinners (now they were dreadful).

― Jeff W, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Perhaps, but the Spinners' "I'll Be There" (as distinct from the Four Tops song of the same name), is one of the very best, soup to nuts.

And the Four fucking Seasons are the most accursed group in Christendom. Fie on you for invoking their foul name.

― Lee G, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Lee, surely you mean "I'll Be Around" one of the best songs EVAH!

The Spinners are hereby exempted from any 'worst of' lists simply for having created one of the best albums of all time: Mighty Love, which -though it stands on its own merits- is a likely candidate for the R&B equivalent to Pet Sounds, credit due Thom Bell.

(another lesser -though great- album with shades of Pet Sounds is Norman Whitfield's Jackson 5 monster Get It Together. though you could argue Marvin & Stevie's peak albums in, too.)

anyway, i believe "Working My Way Back To You" (which i find only ok) is from 1979, long after The Spinners' peak & slide.

― Paul, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Paul, yeah, that's the one. An honest mistake, I'd argue.

I just posted something about disco derailing R&B on another thread, but I suppose the Spinners managed to overcome disco, didn't they?

― Lee G, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I prefer the Spinners' self-titled debut. (sorry, Paul)

― M Matos, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Nothing wrong with this. Games People Play was good too, and Ghetto Child.

― Martin Skidmore, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

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