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The Motown in-house songwriting team of Norman Whitfield and Barret Strong liked to have multiple artists record and release their songs--using different arrangements.
You'd be surprised how many successes--and failures--they chalked up doing that. For example, their classic '60s hit "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" was a hit separately by Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight and the Pips--but NOT by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
Today's "Great Song of 1971" was another case in point: "Smiling Faces (Sometimes)," a song about the kind of people who talk behind your back, was originally recorded as an epic 12-minute album cut by The Temptations. But before they could edit it down for radio airplay, lead singer Eddie Kendricks left the group for a solo career, and idea was dropped.
So Whitfield and Strong handed the song over to a new group called "Undisputed Truth," whose much shorter version promptly climbed to #2 on Billboard's Soul Chart and #3 on The Hot 100!
And here's a twist: Earlier, Undisputed Truth had released the song "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" to radio silence, so in a successful switcheroo, Whitfield and Strong gave it to the Temptations, who took it to #1 on the Hot 100, and won THREE Grammy's!
Just for fun, I've linked both versions of both songs, so you can make comparisons...
But back to Undisputed Truth. Unfortunately, they became a one hit wonder, but thanks to Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong...and yes, The Temptations...their version of "Smiling Faces (Sometimes)" turned out to be a "Great Song of 1971!"
Undisputed Truth:
Temptations:
"Papa Was a Rolling Stone" Temptations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXiQtD5gcHU
Undisputed Truth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s6W4FR39qQ
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