Ergo, the Ogre

This week our host Jim Adams, has asked us to choose a song from a ‘Best of’ compilation or an anthology. I chose What Does it Take (To Win Your Love) by Junior Walker & the All Stars. It is off the album 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection – Best of Jr. Walker & the All Stars. I have loved this song since I heard for the first time back in 1979. My bf at the time and I went to hear this band called Maxine & Company, and they did this song. I have some bittersweet memories of those times, but that’s the way it goes. IMO, this song is the love song.

The Story

Jr. Walker & The All Stars were a down-home, blues-and-rhythm counterpoint to the upwardly mobile, commercial polish that was Motown’s trademark of the 1960s. Their leader’s gutbucket sax and shout-out vocals framed and defined the group’s place in popular music, and lent credence to the Motown subsidiary label under which their music was released: Soul.

• Autry DeWalt-Mixon is born in Blythesville, Arkansas in 1931. His stepfather, whose surname is Walker, gives him the nickname “Junior,” and the youngster is inspired to take up the saxophone by the jumping jive of alto genius Louis Jordan, whose seductive music he hears while growing up.
• A teenage Junior forms his first instrumental group, the Jumping Jacks, in South Bend, Indiana, with guitarist Willie Woods, organist Victor Thomas and drummer Tony Washington, all of whom start playing professionally together in small clubs.
• Renamed Jr. Walker & The All Stars, the band moves to Michigan after lining up an open-ended residency at the El Grotto, a nightclub in Battle Creek. Here, Junior develops into quite the showman, regularly raising the roof with his distinctive, shrieking sax. “When I got off into the R&B,” Junior tells author Bill Dahl, “I started makin’ a little money then!”
• Shotgun” is a massive hit in 1965, setting up Junior and the band to blow through the Billboard best-sellers for four straight years. The band’s Top 10 R&B singles include “Shake and Fingerpop,” “(I’m A) Road Runner” and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).” And, of course, the All Stars take to the highways and byways. “I guess [Junior] figured being in the studio was a gamble,” says Motown writer/producer kingpin Lamont Dozier, “and he needed to be out there on the road, picking up the money. That was a sure thing, right?”
• Later, the All Stars are handed a new recipe by their Battle Creek buddy Johnny Bristol: “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love).” Walker is hesitant at first. “He’s a real ‘Shotgun’ kinda guy, just yell it out,” recalls Bristol. “I said, ‘No, Junior, a little prettier, a little warmer.’ And I sang harmony with him.” The outcome is the band’s biggest pop crossover since “Shotgun,” paving the way for an equally attractive sequence of hits: “These Eyes,” “Gotta Hold onto This Feeling,” “Do You See My Love (For You Growing)” and “Take Me Girl, I’m Ready.”

Personnel

• Lead vocals and tenor sax solos by Junior Walker
• Harmony vocals by Johnny Bristol
• Backing vocals by The Andantes and The Originals
• Other instrumentation by The All-Stars with members of The Funk Brothers and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

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The Lyrics

What does it take (what does it take)
To win your love for me? (To win your love for me?)
How can I make (how can I make)
This dream come true for me? (Come true for me)

Whoa, I just got to know (have to know)
Ooh, baby, ’cause I love you so
Gonna blow for you

I tried, I tried, I tried, I tried
In every way I could (every way I could)
To make you see how much I love you (to make you see how much I love you)
Ooh, I thought you understood (thought you understood)

So, you gotta make me see (make me see)
What does it take to win your love for me?
Gonna blow again for you

(What does it take to win your love for me?)
(What does it take to win your love for me?)
(What does it take to win your love for me?)
(What does it take to win your love for me?)

The Video