![]() Whitfield was a master at grabbing the listener from the start, and this one’s a whopper, but the hair standing up on my neck tells me the real heart of "Smiling Faces Sometimes" - the paranoia - is reached at the 52-second mark as horns, strings, and Dennis Coffey’s menacing fuzztone guitar slither in and around each other like the snake in the handshake Billie Rae Calvin, Brenda Joyce and Joe Harris are warning us about. ![]() “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” The Undisputed Truth: Yes, “Cloud Nine” was Motown’s first Grammy winner, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” was proclaimed the greatest pop single of all time by Dave Marsh in The Heart of Rock and Soul, and “War” is still timely as ever and good for absolutely something (namely, ASCAP royalties that must be well into the six-figure range), but for me, this dazzling hit (#3 Pop, #2 R&B) and oldies station staple is the quintessential Norman Whitfield production and a fine example of his "psychedelic soul” style boiled down to 45 rpm length.
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