Bernadette (song)

Bernadette is a hit single of the American soul - and R & B group The Four Tops . It was the last single from the group during their time at the record company Motown, the top ten on the pop chart of the United States managed to achieve. It would take five years, in 1972, until a new single of the group, Keeper Of The Castle , the top ten managed to achieve, but this was when the Four Tops signed to ABC Records were. Bernadette was finally stabbing at # 4 on the US pop chart and was thus at Reach Out I'll Be There and I Can not Help Myself after the most successful group of single. In addition, it reached # 3 on the R & B list, the top ten in Canada and the United Kingdom and the top twenty in Flanders .

Bernadette is the third single from a trilogy of top ten singles in the same style of The Four Tops. The two predecessors were Standing in the Shadows of Love and Reach Out I'll Be There, who started the trilogy. The number 7 Rooms of Gloom, the successor of Bernadette, is written in the same style, but knew his # 14 listing does not reach the top ten on the pop chart. All these singles were written by the successful songwriter trio Holland-Dozier-Holland . The subject of Bernadette is that the narrator, lead singer Levi Stubbs in this case, is desperately in love with his beloved, named Bernadette. The narrator is so in love that he almost paranoid is. So jealous of all the attention that Bernadette receives and he thinks that trying to take every man Bernadette him. Like the writer trio was also session band same at all three tracks. The Funk Brothers were the ones who provided the number of the music, with James Jamerson on bass . The bass line from Bernadette played by him is seen as one of his best bass lines for Motown along with those from songs like What's Going On by Marvin Gaye and I Was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder . A running camel was the inspiration for Jamerson for coming up with the bass line.

According to Berry Gordy, founder of Motown and then also the director of the record label, Bernadette was the perfect example of how Holland-Dozier-Holland got hold of the listener and not let go. He liked the vocals of Levi Stubbs great and he felt that only he could sing it so. He liked it so convincingly sung that he would like to meet Bernadette ever.

Bernadette was in 1971 retreaded by Claude François . His version, which incidentally in the French was recorded, was not released as a single, but was one of the songs on his album C'est la même chanson . The title of the album is the French translation of It's the Same Old Song, another song by The Four Tops that Claude François recorded for the same album. The original version of Bernadette was from the album Reach Out. This is in contrast to the B-side of the song because that song, I Got a Feeling, comes from the album ''The Four Tops On Top. I Got a Feeling'' was later covered by another Motown artist, Barbara Randolph .

Occupation [ edit ]

 * Lead: Levi Stubbs
 * Background: Renaldo "Obie" Benson , Abdul "Duke" Fakir , Lawrence Payton and The Andantes
 * Instrumentation: The Funk Brothers, including James Jamerson on bass
 * Writers: Holland-Dozier-Holland
 * Production: Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier