Significant Songs (92)

The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game

The use of a song on a TV advertisement can either introduce you to something you may never have heard, or in this instance, remind you of something you have always loved to hear. A leading perfume brand has used this old Tamla-Motown song on its most recent campaign, and in doing so, sent me back to my youth once more.

1967 was a big year for me. I was fifteen years old, and had my first serious girlfriend. I was doing OK at school, and generally enjoying life in central London. My parents dropped the bombshell, that they were buying a house in Kent, and uprooting me from everything I knew and loved. I had been listening to music very seriously for five years at the time, and I had become a devoted fan of the Tamla-Motown sound, and the groups on that label; The Miracles, The Supremes, The Temptations, and The Four Tops. I also adored the artists and groups who were then less well-known in the UK, like Brenda Holloway, The Marvelettes, and Martha and The Vandellas.

I escaped the unwanted life in the suburbs whenever I could. Evenings and weekends spent at friends’ houses, or nights in my girlfriend’s room, listening to music together, whilst her parents watched TV next door. Earlier that year, The Marvelettes’ release of the Van McCoy song ‘When You’re Young And In Love’, had wowed me with its sentimental lyrics, and big production values. Later that same year, I heard this record, and was knocked out by its unusual construction, and classic Motown feel. It was written by Smokey Robinson, so the pedigree was immaculate. The songs had been released in America in the opposite order, but the less well-known ‘Hunter’ was not a huge hit here. Nonetheless, I thought it was great, and played both songs over and over. I have them on vinyl singles, so they are never played. I must get the CD, and rectify that.