I recently picked up a copy of Stevie Wonder’s 1966 album, Uptight, and was intrigued to discover that Motown chose one of the stronger tracks – “Love a Go Go” – to lead off the album while at the same time electing to hold back the song from single release. Curiously, a total of five songs from this “breakthrough” album for Stevie Wonder were issued on 45s, and none of them included “Love a Go Go”:
Could the song title be a playful riposte to Smokey Robinson’s big hit of the previous year, “Going to a Go Go”?
Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands
The Lime were a band of young rockers from Ohio who apparently were also surprised Stevie Wonder never released this song as a single – so they did it themselves. Their 45, which originally came out on the Westwood label, was later picked up nationally by Chess and made it to #1 in – of all places – Lubbock, Texas and Sharon, Pennsylvania. Click here to learn the rest of the story from The Lime’s Steven Sanders.